Tablet interface difficult for creating artwork but good for sketching

Tablets are great aren't they? Portable, shiny and lovely. But are they any good at content creation? This BBCnews article (Creating art on tablets remains a work in progress) outlines the pitfalls of creating art on an ipad or tablet and reflects my frustration at illustrating directly onto the tablet screen.

I found that sketching wasn't a problem and indeed some apps enhance the dynamic feel by but trying to get anything close to what you intend takes some working out. Then again most media aren't that immediate; it takes time to learn how to manipulate images, textures and colours be it a new type of painting process or an illustration software. I suppose this is the crux of the painting on a tablet is difficult problem: we expect it to be easy because of the interface. But the friction on the tablet and the absence of any pressure sensitivity means you have to work at it to get results. Having said that plenty of people have! Including, of course, the most famous exponent of tablet art, Mr. Hockney.

David Hockney pushes boundaries of art creation

It's wonderful to see an established artist tinkering at the edges of technology to create their art. David Hockney's ipad exhibition shows off his ipad created 'paintings' and talks intelligently about how he feels that throughout art history embracing new media has always been the case.

The following video shows a different exhibition in Canada, still by Hockney, but this time using screens to display the artwork which calls for a different appreciation. The gallery is dark and the artwork is lit and as Hockney says offers a different "luminosity" to the work.



Here's the ROM's Hockney exhibition link: http://www.rom.on.ca/hockney/

After seeing this series of videos I wondered what the technology was like and what level of detail it could actually achieve. Here is a painting by a different artist showing a high level of detail using the 'Brushes' app…




In addition there's a whole suite of brushes and stylus pens to use with this sort of program:
http://thenextweb.com/apple/2011/02/26/5-stylus-pens-and-brushes-perfect-for-ipad-artists/

I need to get painting again. Now, though, with light!