Drawing with the iPad & iPhone

My final opinion came to fruition on this just last night, after weeks of experimenting.  The iPad and iPhones are great for what they were designed to do, as tools.  I own both and love them both, for what they do.  Drawing however, is not something they're good for, in my opinion, unless you've got a ton of patience and a whole lot of time.  I don't have an abundance of either, but I decided to give it a fair trial before placing judgement.  


My first obstacle was using finding a decent stylus pen that would work on my iPad.  Before I began the hunt for that, I made a drawing with it, using just my finger.  Mind you, this is just using the Penultimate app...nothing more.  (I'm aware that there's a lot of others out there.)  

It was just the first thing that popped in my head.  Nothing too extravagant.  It is after all,  a finger painting.  


After buying a stylus pen that was somewhat reasonable, I tried yet another drawing.  This time more detailed.  

The black lines and some color were all done with the iPad.  But here's the kicker, I got so frustrated with trying to complete it with the iPad, that I gave up, and finished the drawing's colors in Photoshop.  I spent all of about 10 minutes on the color in PS.  The app wasn't the problem.  The stylus pen was not the problem.  The problem was with the screen on the iPad itself.  Like the iPhone, it senses everything you touch.  Whether it's with your finger, or even your palm.  Most people I know rest their palm on what ever it is they're writing or drawing on, right?  (And yes, I did tweak the wrist protection settings.)  That becomes especially hard to control with lines and color you don't want in certain places.  You find yourself constantly erasing your 'palm marks.'  I'm not Rita Skeeter, and I can't write with my stylus pen by just waving my hand.  But I would like to be able to apparate.  Now, that would be sweet.  And a dragon.  I want a dragon.  A big scary one.  Anyway.  

Not willing to give up too easy, I decided to try it instead for just writing and taking notes.  I watched a 2 hour webinar last night on photography.  When the show got into some issues I wanted to write down as notes, I grabbed the iPad and started writing.  The same thing happened.  I had half a page of notes that were messy and had unwanted garbage all over the page that I had to keep erasing.  That lasted about 10 minutes before I literally just grabbed a real paper and pen, and continued on.  

At the end of the day, the iPad is a great tool and has its uses.  For me, drawing is not one of them.  I'll stick with my Wacom.  And my dragon.  While apparating.