A Larger Perspective (iPad Pro 12.9)
April 1, 2016Today I’m switching things up and having my fellow iPad Artist, Jean-Paul Germain guest blog. He uses an iPad Pro 12.9 inch model and I knew it would be a great way to compare and contrast my series of reviews on the new 9.7 inch model.
I’ve been using Tablet PC’s since early 2002 mostly all were Microsoft based. In the last 14 years I’ve had 10 PC tablet devices. I’m a bit of a technophile.
Truth be told the iPad Pro is the best of all those devices & two of those previous devices were iPad minis which were too small for my large hands or didn’t quite get the kinks out of the “Palm rejection” on the previous products!
However, they got it right on the new 12.9” brilliant screen display of the iPad Pro with its 2732 x 2038 pixels that allows spilt screen multitasking capabilities, 4 super loud speaker integration & the Apple Pencil makes this current tablet the best I’ve ever owned to date & currently the best on the market if you asked me.
I’ve been always more of a PC guy but that’s because Microsoft got the Palm rejection thing right years ago & Apple didn’t have tablets that utilized Stylus & even when I attempted to paint on prior versions of the iPad the lack of true palm rejection made my prior iPads all but unusable for digital art.
This new iPad Pro changed all of that for me; it kills almost every other computer, tablet or hybrid devices currently out used for artwork & I currently own a WACOM Cintiq Companion 2 which is supposed to be the art industry’s standard, “the best portable drawing studio”, until now.
It’s very good but it’s no iPad Pro either.
The iPad Pro has: Superior Battery life; even with the WiFi on, the battery life lasts almost 3x’s longer than my Cintiq Companion 2 (4.5 hour max),
-Near Zero % Parallax when drawing on the screen, (again it’s closest thing to drawing on paper than any current WACOM device currently out especially with my screen protector it feels like paper.
WACOM Cintiq’s Companion 2 has some “visible parallax”- room between pen tip & the digital screen ink).
-The most expensive version of the iPad Pro still cost half as much as a WACOM Cintiq Companion 2 with a similar sized hard drive.
The sound quality is much louder & clearer then the Cintiq Companion 2 & it weighs a fraction of what the Companion does, which means it’s a breeze for a guy like me to carry to my car, onto a train or pullout in a Dr’s office while waiting.
Not to mention there are a tons of iPad Pro accessories & the WACOM has very limited accessories in comparison, trust me. Last but not least is the cost of the iPad apps. Most apps from the legendary Apple Store are very reasonably priced for the cost of 1 PC/Mac program, one could easily purchase several art applications on the iPad Pro & so many of those apps are absolutely free, most are under $3 bucks.
The Apple Pencil is everything your use to using it looks & feels like a pen. It has a nice balanced weight in your hands, it charges ridiculously fast & feels good to the touch. It also annotates, draws & takes notes as accurately as a WACOM Pro Pen & or Art Pen just without the programable buttons that some may wish it had for mapping ones favorite brushes or Hotkeys.
I do wish I could use the back end of the Apple Pencil as an eraser & if it were able to be secured magnetically to the iPad Pro it would make storing the Apple Pencil much easier & user friendly. My favorite iPad Pro 2D drawing program is Procreate 3, at under $6 bucks it is equal to & or in some cases surpassed most desktop 2D Art Softwares which is kinda hard to believe but true & there is almost no learning curve.
You’ll really want to try it.
I’m pretty new to Procreate 3 it has all basics I need as a digital painter /comic book cover artist. It has a wide range of brushes, layers, color blends & a minimal interface that doesn’t distract me with a wide assortment of buttons & dropdown menus which I can really appreciate.
It makes Procreate less intimidating.
This allows me to
set up my character design with the clients existing theme in mind without distractions.
A dynamic character position is paramount for a good comic cover &
the iPad Pro allows me to utilize all 12.9”inches of screen real estate.
I effortlessly split the screen in 2 allowing me to illustrate on one screen & reference my material on the next.
The Apple Pencil works seamlessly with Procreate & has a plethora of customizable & downloadable brush sets from Procreate’s website as well as a “how to” digital format book that takes the sting out of learning something new this all-in-one-drawing app.
On a scale of 1-to-10 I’m giving iPad Pro a solid 9!
Jean-Paul Germain is a mobile digital artist based in New York. Check out more of his art here.
