I just landed a project to illustrate some builder site plan maps. This will require that I draw roads, waterways, forests, and other typical map elements.
I plan on doing this in Adobe Illustrator, but the thought of using a mouse to trace out some of these elements would likely frustrate the heck out of me.
I considered purchasing a Wacom tablet, but at $200 that eats into a good portion of the profit I have in this particular job. I happened to glance over at my iPad and thought, why can’t I use that as a drawing tablet. A little research yielded an iOS app called Air Stylus.
Has anyone used the Air Stylus app with their iPad and is it a reasonable replacement for a Wacom tablet? I’m assuming I’d also need to purchase Air Display to make this work. Any help or advice is appreciated.
On Oct 1, 2014, at 11:16 PM, RavenManiac email@hidden wrote:
I just landed a project to illustrate some builder site plan maps. This will require that I draw roads, waterways, forests, and other typical map elements.
I plan on doing this in Adobe Illustrator, but the thought of using a mouse to trace out some of these elements would likely frustrate the heck out of me.
I considered purchasing a Wacom tablet, but at $200 that eats into a good portion of the profit I have in this particular job. I happened to glance over at my iPad and thought, why can’t I use that as a drawing tablet. A little research yielded an iOS app called Air Stylus.
Has anyone used the Air Stylus app with their iPad and is it a reasonable replacement for a Wacom tablet? I’m assuming I’d also need to purchase Air Display to make this work. Any help or advice is appreciated.
On Oct 1, 2014, at 11:16 PM, RavenManiac email@hidden wrote:
I just landed a project to illustrate some builder site plan maps. This will require that I draw roads, waterways, forests, and other typical map elements.
I plan on doing this in Adobe Illustrator, but the thought of using a mouse to trace out some of these elements would likely frustrate the heck out of me.
I considered purchasing a Wacom tablet, but at $200 that eats into a good portion of the profit I have in this particular job. I happened to glance over at my iPad and thought, why can’t I use that as a drawing tablet. A little research yielded an iOS app called Air Stylus.
Has anyone used the Air Stylus app with their iPad and is it a reasonable replacement for a Wacom tablet? I’m assuming I’d also need to purchase Air Display to make this work. Any help or advice is appreciated.
I researched Wacom several years ago but have never owned one, though I would like to. Im sure a lot has changed since I looked at them.
Todd
The amazon reviews look really good for an inexpensive tablet. The last time I looked into Wacom Tablets a few years ago they were much more expensive. I’ve also read that bluetooth lag is can be a problem with Air Stylus/Air Play.
The large… but I’ve used smaller ones too. Size depends on your comfort
level. I bought several for my graphic team on a project a few years ago,
this one is left-over.
I have two of them – bought one, and won the other as a door prize at a conference. Both are the 7" Intuos, and I use one roughly every other year. (! gave one to my art-school daughter, who loathes the combo of art + technology, and probably uses it to level her desk or something.)
My personal drawing style is very small, so the little pad suits me very well. But I mostly use the mouse in Illustrator and Photoshop, or I draw on paper and scan that. Haven’t really had enough practice to make the screen/tablet connection in my brain/hand, so the whole thing is usually more frustrating than I’d like, and back in the drawer it goes.
Especially in Illustrator, but also in Photoshop, I find that I think and work in Bezier curves, not drawn strokes (a hangover from starting using Illustrator at version ’88). It’s quite maddening to try to manipulate Bezier curves with a tablet and pen.
Hey Walter, I’m old school too, but for tracing maps I think the Wacom will work pretty well. Plus, Adobe has made some HUGE improvements in tools like the pencil, which offers a really cool live do-over feature.
Ernie, as far as the Intuos4, it’s been replaced with the Intuos Pro. The costs is a little more than $300 for a medium, which would probably be wasted on my limited illustrative abilities.
At this point, I’m leaning towards the Intuos Pen and Touch for around $200, but I think I’ll compare the two just to make sure.
Same here. Bought a small Wacom Tablet for those times I need finer shading in Photoshop or free hand lines in Illustrator (although now testing Affinity Designer as it’s looking a good contender for kicking Illustrator into touch.)
Maybe my brain has been trained to think in graphic lines over the years. The only time I really draw is using the iPad + Wacom Bamboo pen and the great Paper app to prototype design and ideas.
Regarding drawing maps. Using a vector drawing app would be much faster than hand drawing. I’ve done loads of maps over the years. Think carefully… for example the roads are done with just a single stroke width using background stroke layers for the road edge.
