Paper by Fifty-Three

An Elegant Drawing Program.

To date, Paper is the only drawing app I’ve used. The reason being Paper’s elegant simplicity. I’m learning how to draw and a complicated drawing program with a bunch of “bells and whistles" would be a hinderance. Paper has just five drawing tools, an eraser and a nifty color mixer. There are no options for any of the tools other than chaining color.

When you combine Paper with a pressure sensitive stylus, like the Pogo Connect, you have an incredibly easy to use drawing tool. While you’re aware that you’re drawing on a pice of glass, the program doesn’t get in the way. This is good not only for the beginner but also for the accomplished artist!

For me, the main difference between drawing on an iPad and traditional media is one of feedback. When drawing on an iPad, you don't get the vibration or sound of the pencil or marker scraping along the paper. Instead, you have a consistent smooth glide. For me, this consistency of feel is an advantage an iPad has over physical media. It’s been been fun to watch what happens when I’ve handed the combination of Paper and a Pogo Connect to an accomplished artist. In short – in short – “they go nuts.” They have to draw something – even the most technology challenged artists master the simple interface in about a minutes.

Pogo Connect

Another advantage is the portability of the iPad. Here’s a drawing toolbox and sketch book in one small, easy to carry package. No multiple boxes, no materials being used up or drying out.

I’ve invested about 12 hours in drawing practice and I can already see a large difference in my ability to draw. Though at this rate, it’ll take me 100 or more hours to work my way though “Drawing Textbook” by Bruce McIntyre. However, at the end of that time I expect to have a solid drawing foundation.

Video Review of Paper by 53

Art Examples Draw on an iPad Using Paper and a Pogo Connect

By Geraldine Kiefer – Associate Professor of Art, Shenandoah University
Drawn in about 20 minutes.

By Nicole Espinola

Graduate of Pennsylvania Academy of Art and Design

Drawn in about 20 minutes

Andrea Poe – Artist
Drawn in about five minutes

Andrea Poe – Artist
Drawn in less than 10 minutes

Where I stared

Where I am

Revisited: the Pogo Connect by Ten One Design

Pogo Connect – Pressure Sensitive Bluetooth Stylus

iPads have a touch-graphical interface and many collaborative programs are a shared whiteboard. These facts point to drawing becoming an important way to use an iPad to communicate.

When it comes to drawing on an iPad, a stylus is much better than your finger. A stylus is more precise, helps preserve the oil resistant coating on your iPad and keeps you from getting your iPad’s screen greasy.

All real-life drawing tools respond to pressure, so a pressure sensitive stylus comes even closer to a lifelike drawing experience. The Pogo Connect along with compatible software does a good job of simulating a real world drawing experience.

Not all programs can make use of this extra information, but more and more do. However, there isn’t a standard for supporting pressure sensitive stylus. So… this means you need to consider the software and the stylus together. Do you pick the stylus first and see what software it supports or do you pick the software and look for a stylus?

The Pogo Connect has it’s quirks. It’s not perfectly reliable, however, the few times it’s gotten funky have been resolved by turning the bluetooth off and on at the iPad. Also my first Pogo Connect had a hardware failure when the magnet inside the stylus broke. To Ten One’s credit they replaced it, no questions asked and I had a new one, with improved firmware, in two days.

The Pogo Connect costs $80 and different tips cost $10 each.

For me, the Pogo Connect has been a worthwhile investment in learning to drawing on the iPad.

Drawing textbook: The teaching and utilization of drawing for educational purposes

In my first post I commented that "Drawing Textbook" would probably not be very important in my efforts to learn how to draw for teaching.

Well… I’m reversing that opinion.

This may be the perfect book for what I’m looking to accomplish, which is developing the ability to use drawing as a teaching tool.

Beginning exercises

The book was written by Bruce McIntyre, who was an artist with the Walt Disney Studios from 1937 to 1949. The also taught drawing in public schools to 1st through 8th graders. McIntyre’s goal in writing this book is communication of visual knowledge. I would also say it also teaches how to communicate using visual information.

McIntyre makes a useful distinction between drawing and art. A good analogy is that drawing is to art as writing is to poetry (or other forms of creative writing). Almost everyone knows how to read and write, however, only a small percentage would call themselves writers poets, novelists or playwrights.

It’s my contention that being able to communicate using visual information is as an important a skill as being able to communicate through symbols, i.e. writing. An example used in the book is describing the basic form and function of an airplane. It would take many pages of writing and even then, it would be difficult for the reader to draw an airplane from that description. However, if you drew the airplane and gave a brief description of the each part, the learner would gain a much clearer picture (pun intended) in much less time.

If you agree with this argument, then when it comes to communicating visually, most people are illiterate.

McIntyre's seven principles of drawing

“Drawing textbook” teaches McIntyre’s seven principals of drawing: surface, size, surface lines, overlapping, shading, density and foreshortening; through a series of 40 lessons, consisting of six exercise each. None of the early exercises are particularly difficult, though as you work though the book, they become increasingly complicated.

My only criticism of this book is that it doesn’t teach the mechanics of drawing. For instance, one of the first lessons makes use of foreshortened circles, i.e. ovals. When I attempted to draw these, they all came out looking like mutant flapjacks. It wash’t until I talked to an artist teaching the ART-101 class that I realized that I should be drawing from my shoulder, whereas I had been moving the stylus only with my wrist. Making this change solve the problem almost immediately.

In future posts, assuming my drawing improves, I’ll demonstrate the kind of communication I have in mind – assuming I can learn to draw a bit better.

 

Mr. iPad @ SU - looking to learn and teach!

The Double-Edged Sword of “Undo”

Don't press that button! (Too many times).

Ok - that may be a bit of dramatic title but I’ve been struggling with drawing and the ability to undo…

I’m using a Pogo Connect stylus for drawing. A wonderful tool that is supported by a large number of programs. A feature of the Pogo Connect, is that its single button can be used undo the last stroke. Repeated presses, will continue to undo other strokes as you go back in time letting you erase any number of brush strokes.

This ability to undo is influencing my drawing. Like the aforementioned double-edged sword, it cuts both ways. The ability to undo, lets me be fearless with my drawing. I’m able to relax while drawing, as there’s no drama in making the brush stroke or pencil line. If it’s not good, I can undo it! The ability to undo is a very liberating feeling.

Where this ability to undo hurts me, says more about me than the technology. With the ability to undo, there’s a temptation to keep trying until it’s perfect. There is, of course, no such thing as the perfect line or stroke. In response to this I've developed a “good enough” philosophy.

In a classroom situation, this ability to undo and redo lines could also be used to demonstrate before/after relationships in a graphical manner.

 

Mr. iPad @ SU - looking to learn and teach!

Pogo Connect

The Pogo Connect is one of several pressure sensitive stylus. These devices are more precise than your finger and transmit, via bluetooth, the pressure you apply to the iPad with the stylus. Not all apps support this feature, though most graphics programs do. The ability to use pressure while drawing adds a third dimension to controling the iPad.

Pogo Connect - pressure sensitive stylus

The Pogo Connect is produced by Ten One Designs and costs around $80. It’s easy to use and setup and there are many programs that support this stylus. My favorite one is Paper by Fifty Three (what is it with this numeric names for companies?). Paper is both elegant and simple. I'm using the combination of the Pogo Conned, Paper and an iPad to learn how to draw.

Different brush tips

SInce I purchased the Pogo Connect, Ten One design has added four more "brush" tips for the Connect. I haven’t purchased any of the other tips, so I can’t comment on their usefulness. But I look forward to trying them out once I gain a little more skill at drawing.

Here is a review of the Pogo Connect by a digital artist. Not sure why she complains about the single AAA battery the device uses. I seems you could get 30 to 40 hours of continual usage and the Pogo Connect is very good at going to sleep when not in use.

My opinion is that anyone looking to draw on an iPad on a regular basis, should own a pressure sensitive stylus and that the Pogo Connect seems to be a good one.

 

Mr. iPad @ SU - looking to learn and teach!

The iPad as Sketch Pad (sPad?)

So… Here I am in ART-101, learning field sketching. The Syllabus lists all sorts of supplies for this class, which I’ve all totaled cost $200 at Michaels.

I purchase two books. The book for the class is “The Art of Field Sketching” by Clare Walker Leslie and “Drawing textbook: The teaching and utilization of drawing for educational purposes” by Bruce McIntyre. This book consists of a series of exercises that teach basic drawing techniques.

At this point, I’ve spent a total of four hours drawing with paper and pencil and the iPad with a pressure sensitive stylus. As part of my class, I was required to sketch a small part of various plant. Part of the exercise was to sketch the plant using three different techniques:

Memory: Look at the subject for as long as you’d like - then make the sketch from memory.

Contour: Only look at the subject as you draw using one continuous line, i.e. not lifting pencil from the paper (or stylus from glass).

Gesture: Sketch the object as quickly as possible using a minimal amount of lines.

Differences between paper/pencil and iPad/stylus:

Touch: Pencil on paper gives quite a bit of feedback from the vibrations going through the pencil as it grinds along the paper. The stylus, on the other hand, gives a consistent, smooth drag. The lack of feedback from the stylus makes it harder to accurately draw using contour (continuous line).

Sound: You can hear the pencil on the paper. This feedback also helps when contour drawing.

Consistency: One advantage for the iPad is consistency. The pencil doesn’t change shape with use and the paper doesn’t change feel with humidity.

Price: If you don’t include the price of the iPad, it’s much cheaper to learn how to draw using an iPad than with paper and pencils. The price for all the art supplies was around $200. The price for the pressure sensitive stylus is $80. I also purchased several different drawing apps for around $40. Unlike the pencils and paper, the iPad’s “pencils” won’t wear out.

Size: An iPad drawing is limited to the size of the iPad – sort of. While you can’t make the iPad’s screen bigger, you can magnify the area you’re drawing in, giving you a “virtually” larger area. However, you can’t see the entire page the way you can with an 11” x 17” sheet of paper.

Conclusion

While there are differences between the iPad

 

Mr. iPad @ SU - looking to learn and teach!

Drawing to Teach

Drawing is Engaging

For a student to learn, they must be engaged by the teacher. I find that watching someone draw is an engaging experience. A wonderful example of this are the RSA animations. Here's one featuring Sir Ken Robinson.

 

 

I think you'll find, that while Sir Ken is a masterful orator, the drawing animation makes his message even more engaging and memorable. Drawing can also transmit a lot of information quickly. Humans are largely visual creatures – descended from arboreal primates, it's rather important to be able to gauge distance, speed and to quickly analyze what you're about to grab to keep from falling.

 

So, if drawing is an excellent way to engage students, how can it be brought into the classroom? You could use a chalkboard, or an overhead projector, but they are single user devices, and usually mono-color. The new technology of the tablet computer is an would be an excellent extension of those devices. A tablet with its graphical-touch interface, makes a nifty sketch pad. A sketch pad that can be transmitted to other tablets, that can be shared by may people simultaneously and that can record what's being sketched.

 

So, given that drawing is an effective way to engage students and quickly transmit large amounts of information, that tablets provide a collaborative drawing platform, it reasonable to predict that being to communicate graphically will become an important teaching skill.

 

To this end, I've enrolled in ART-101. It's my goal to learn (hopefully) basic drawing techniques. Given that I haven't drawn much since I was a small child, this will likely prove very challenging. I will then take my drawing skills and try to apply them using tablet technology to different teaching scenarios.

 

This blog will chronicle my efforts.

 

Mr. iPad @ SU - looking to learn and teach!