Finally! After some frustrations in online ordering and credit card blocks I finally have my new Wacom Mobilestudio Pro.
It came in the most ridiculously sized box considering the size of the device.
I was keen to get a personal laptop anyway and I was going to get the surface book or surface pro. Now I’ve heard some good things about the surface pro 4 with some artist choosing this over the Mobilestudio pro due to battery life and portability. However I asked myself what am I mainly going to use this for? Will I be spending more time drawing on this than sending emails etc. ? The truth is sometimes I type up emails on my tablet which I find quite easy using the swipe function on the keyboard.
I decided to go all in on the drawing aspect getting a tablet and after watching many reviews and unboxing videos on YouTube I decided to get one.
I opted for the 13 inch, i7, 16GB RAM, 512 SSD model. It is pricey but what you get is a solid drawing device. I will stipulate there is a place for this device. Is it worth getting if you already have a desktop Cintiq? Probably not. But in my case I considered the following:
- I don’t have a proper personal laptop
- I need a device that I can produced finished artwork on
- I need this device to be portable
- This has to save me time on making comics
Considering all of this the Mobilestudio pro feels like the right fit.
Will this device make me a better artist? No. Only by lots of practice (whether analogue or digital) will help me do that.
Will it allow me to refine my process? Yes. I recently read a traditional comic book artists process for sequential pages. Lots of redrawing and lightboxing in each stage. He himself called it the definition of madness as it takes a lot of time. Don’t get me wrong, I love original art especially when you get to view the originals or at least the full size artist editions. However when you are trying to create a comic all by yourself, you need to be able to produce content quickly and easily. Digital art also makes editing a lot easier.
Using Clip Studio Pro, I can produce the whole comic, from concept to art to lettering. Clip Studio is awesome, in fact here is a great video that shows why this powerful program is the choice for most digital artists.
Could I do this on a Surface Pro? Sure. Does this device have its downsides? Sure. No device is ever perfect. Some are not happy with the battery life or the fact it runs Windows. But I can’t wait for the perfect device to come out. I need to get Catapulted finished asap if I am to make the most of LSCC 2017. In addition the drawing experience on the Mobilestudio Pro is far superior than any of the other “drawing2 tablets on the market.
This device more than fills my artistic and practical needs.
Perhaps I’ll do an update on using the device once I get some more art completed on it.
