Useful software, a "Sketchbook" review...
I must admit that I can be somewhat of a curmudgeon when trying new things, especially tech. It's hard, at my age, to adjust to new things unless they are undeniably useful. I have my favorites when it comes to the tools of my crafts and I like to keep those on a short list. My favorite will always be pen and paper for my art and my writing, there's something about the tactile sensation of using it that makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. And the smell of aged paper? -Shutter- I need a minute.
If I am honest though, working on a computer has so many more advantages than working with pen and paper. From being able to revise on the fly, select, cut and paste, etc. All the advantages a computer provides are real time savers, especially if you are looking at the craft from a "big picture" point of view (see what I did there?).
I have my favorite software of course. Free is always good, but lets face it, paid can be better, much better. I use "GIMP", "KRITA", and "Inkscape" when I process art. All are free and all are great programs, if you haven't checked them out I highly recommend you do.
I have some paid programs I use on the regular, but they don't pay me to review them, so I don't. In fact I would argue they have taken enough of my cash for the time being. Today is one of the first paid program reviews I will be writing about. Mostly because the app super useful and also very affordable, so much so, that I couldn't keep it too myself. For those of you who already know what "Sketchbook" is, this review is not for you. For those of you who are like me- "ol' curmudgeons, stuck in their ways", this is one to pay attention to.
I have known about Sketchbook for some time now. I didn't think much of it because I have the programs I like on the platforms I like them on. I use a pixel slate to draw on, at least when I am not inking something on paper (which I prefer). I use KRITA for most of my processing work, but for some reason it started acting buggy recently after an update and started dropping my work. I decided to tryout Sketchbook as a replacement. I didn't find a replacement, I found a supplement instead.
This program is actually very flexible and easy to use. It's also lite enough that it doesn't sap the resources that programs like KRITA and GIMP do. This hasn't been an issue for me, the tablet I draw on has enough memory and diskspace to run them with out an issue. But Sketchbook is just so much more snappy. I use the M3 with 8GB of Ram, or I use my I7 with 16 GB of ram, depending on where I want to do my craft. I can even use Sketchbook on my old Galaxy tab without too much lag.
I switched to a tablet with a touch screen because its something I needed to learn. I didn't want to, but I also believe in keeping up with the times. One of the limitations I have always had is that I never really learned to use a stylus. I even had a wacom tablet, a top of line one, I never used it. It was just so much easier for me to draw on paper, scan it, and then modify the image that way. Programs like Sketchbook were never a consideration to me because of how my art is done.
Once I learned how to use the stylus and the tablet, it became very clear to me that they were just another tool I could use to improve on my techniques. If you are new to the world of tablets and styluses- get Sketchbook before you get any other software, it's great to learn on.
So what's so good about it?
Well, for starters, the UI is well thought out. One of the big problems with art programs is that a lot were designed for desktops and have a desktop UI, then they are ported to an IOS or Android interface, which is were they usually lose functionality.
Sketchbook was designed for a tablet, and it works very well as such. I think you can get Sketchbook for desktops, but I haven't used it that way. The UI was designed for tablet work so it does a number of things better than desktop UIs.
As an example, it hides all the extraneous tools well, they are there if you need them, but they will not get in the way of your work. Most can be accessed with a simple touch of the pen. They're also prioritized by how often you might use them- this is a very intelligent way to set up an art program. I use a few tools hundreds of times, and a lot of tools I rarely use, the ones I use all the time should be right out front and center. And in Sketchbook, they are.
The flexibility of the app is startlingly robust. It took me about a half hour to explore the entire program and for the most part all of it fell into place and made since. The tools integrate into the work flow with ease. This created a since of joy when I used the app, it made me feel like an expert when I was moving layers around, creating transparencies, using the color wheels, lassoing, cutting and pasting like a mofo!
In contrast, I find that in most of the desktop programs, I have to set up all my windows and add the tools I use before I can start working. Here, I don't have to do that, they are just there, intuitively at the end of my stylus. I didn't expect that. I also didn't expect to be using the "pinch to zoom and rotate" as much as I do. It makes drawing anything 1000 times easier.
Now, it's not all sunshine and roses, being that this is an app, you will find things missing that just didn't need to be there. Filters for instance, yeah, if you love some filters, you might find this program lacking. There are also some very useful modification tools that I couldn't find, but also didn't need because I vectorize every thing in Inkscape anyway. Exporting images is kind of different too. It took me a second to figure out that they needed to be "shared with device" for them to be "saved as". The exports are pretty clear and don't loose too much of the overall image quality either- like I said I vectorize my stuff anyway.
Okay, mister internet stranger, how much does all of this cost? There's always a cost...
You can use this program for free, and it works pretty okay. However, if you opt to upgrade to the "pro" version, it exponentially increases it's usability. What's that? Pay for a program? This isn't one of those $199.00 packages is it? Or some sort of $30.00 a month subscription? Actually no. It's not. The pro version on android is super affordable. I think I paid $2.99 for the upgrade to pro. It was well worth it. And, full disclosure here, there are some valid 1 and 2 star reviews on this app- with a whole host of issues that need to be resolved. I personally haven't experienced any of the same issues on my Samsung or my Slate, but it has been my experience in the past that each device can have completely separate issues from every other device. So, I can only report on what I experienced, I am not saying there aren't valid concerns from other users, I just didn't see them.
As a demonstration, I went ahead and did a quick sketch with this app and put it at the beginning of the article. This is a demo sketch, but it didn't take me long, a couple of hours, and it was easy to do. This was done completely on the fly- my first sketchbook sketch. This program is capable of so much more.
All in all, I would recommend this program anyone who "mobile arts" or is just getting into the world of tablet art / using a stylus. It's simple, it doesn't use many resources, it's flexible, it's comprehensive, and it's affordable. I would give this 8 and a half brushes out of 10. 85% ladies and gentlemen. And that might go up as I use it more and more.
Cheers!
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