Nick's Rage Against the Machine Spot

[Arjen Vriezekolk]

Hi Nick,

Eagerly awaiting the delivery of the Hanvon Tablet!!
Been a week since I ordered and paid, but still no postman at the door with a big box......
Wil let you know as soon as it's connected to the pc...

Does anyone have a suggestion as to how I can get a substitute for the Streamline program from Adobe?
Can't transfer my scans to vectors anymore.....

Yours

Arjen

[Arjen Vriezekolk]

Hi Nick,

Just got the tablet in!

And after an hour or so I found out that the tablet only works if you install the latest drivers from the Hanvon website.....
The first impression (compared to my old wacom tablet..) is that it works very smoothly....Like an greased ironing board!
The sensitivity of the pentip is very sensitive indeed...probably it just needs fine tuning,but I only fiddling around with it for an hour or so.

The artmaster 3 is the wide tablet: this means that you need a lot more space on your desk, and a lot of cable getting in the way (so far) It's like having a flatscreen tv flat in front of you.

The box comes with 2 different pens! One with a triangular grip, the other is round and a bit on the big site...like little children's crayons, but I do like the rubber grip!

The only thing I have to discover yet is why in heavens name the connection is on the left site of the tablet? there is a connection on the left upper side and one down left, a tiny connection also.
If I flip the tablet (and the text "Hanvon" indicates the possibility, you can only get the thing going like working in the mirror...If I go right..the pen moves to the left....wich is a very stupid thing.
But again.....I must be doing something wrong.

Compared to my old wacom I now have to work with much more sensitivity, wich is not a bad thing, I experienced that you can handle the pen very subtle...
Will have to work on a real illustration to be able to give you a definite thumbs up....but sofar I'm very pleased with the accuratesse and performance....

One thing....the tablet doesn't come with a plastic sheet on top wich the wacom tablets did....and you have to like the shiny black plastic edge......

Thx again for the tip......in the next week I will try to update you on my verdict!

yours,

Arjen

[Juz]

Hi Arjen... OMG I used to love Streamline, unfortunately the only program I know of that will convert bitmap to vector this days is the very expensive Adobe Illustrator using its auto trace feature.

Personally I find it quicker to just pen trace off my drawings. It gives me exact accuracy and the minimal vector nodes which results in the cleanest file and smallest filesize.

[Nickillus]

Caesar - Gulp! No pressure then . . . Many thanks for the extremely kind words. I'll attempt to live up to them as much as I can, despite my own massive shortcomings.

Arjen - Many thanks for sharing your Hanvon experience so far. Hope you sort out the left/reight handedness thing on it. The blurb did make it sound like you could arrange it to be either way round. Sensitivity sounds great and havinga choice of pens right off the bat is a boon. Enjoy - and do feed back any other feelings you have about it please. Maybe start a new thread in the technical section?

Talking conversion of drawings to vector - is the DrawPlus autotrace option any good to you? (I have X4 and it's in the toolbar - also X5 is due out August 1st in case word hadn't got to you yet). I know it's in there but have never tried it. It offers a number of controls, so maybe if you got the settings right for your style . . . . . ? - See attached image

Meanwhile here are a few more bits and pieces on the go at the moment. No progress on the Puns project while I chase deadline though. I see the same fate of no where near finishing in time befalling this competition entry as usually befalls all my others - ah well.

[Caesar]

Other delightful images, dear Nick. Thank you for sharing!

[Arjen Vriezekolk]

Dear Nick,

Thx again for the drawplus link.
As soon as I finished moving house, and have set up my workspace again,I will give it a try.
Meanwhile coping with personal circumstances......

Lovely drawings as usual: Didn't we see the "wind in the willows"sometimes earlier?

yours,

Arjen

[Boxy]

Brilliant wips as ever Nick.

[Weeks]

Great work man.

Best,

Weeks

[Nickillus]

Thanks for the positive vibes you always manage to offer up chaps. Twist and Thumbelina are both done and dusted now, and I'm awaiting full info about when they'll be out.

Meanwhile it's gone a bit quiet so I've diverted my attention back to the Tall, Thin Queen project, with a view to eventually starting the self publishing thing in earnest. And maybe making an app version of it as well.

ArtRage, PagePlus and DrawPlus - thinking along the lines of a portrait format now, but we'll see. Here's Wip on an initial layout but I have a ton of stuff in mind to add that I've not even started drawing.

And now today another job has cropped up that will delay progress again - but it's of necessity a Sketchbook Pro based one and not necessarily something I should talk about here.

[Steve B]

Hi,
I've been following your work for a few months. It's just wonderful. Great lighting, very dynamic poses, a really interesting use of color etc. And your tutorials on SKP and Artrage have really been instrumental to my getting a grip on how to use them. I had a question or two-

To get the kind of detail you're producing in some of these works, what kind of dpi and res are you working at? Lots and lots of layers?

Also, it looks like a lot of what you do emulates pencil work. Is that true? I see, to my eye, a lot of tasty sketchy stuff going on. I've been viewing enough of your stuff that it's hard to remember if it was for SKP or Artrage though.

Also, it would be very interesting to hear your thoughts on the two programs. What each does very well, comparative to the other, etc. Do you switch between the programs in the midst of a single project? Or sort of stick to one?

Finally, I know you've had that thing up on your website about an Artrage art/tutorial book coming out for a long time, but I really hope it happens. That would be very very cool. The truth is that I wish there was something similar for SKP. Most tuts are really about mechanical mockups and whatnot. I don't see as much use for it with finished artwork, though I really love working with it.

Thanks for sharing. It's very cool to see you back on the boards after a few months away.