iteles
commented
6 years ago This is great. I feel (and have had a lot of feedback) that the dwyl tutorials could really benefit from a visual component and this is likely to set us apart as well.
The tablet could also be used in a variety of ways across workshops or for remote whiteboarding during planning sessions, bringing developers not in the room with us closer to what is going on.
If anyone else has ideas or experience with tablets for drawing, please let us know as Cleo finishes her research!
Cleop
nelsonic
rub1e
Why?
Since reading Elle Luna's book 'The Crossroads of Should and Must' (based on this original blog post: https://medium.com/@elleluna/the-crossroads-of-should-and-must-90c75eb7c5b0) I was inspired to think about the multi-dimensional sides of my personality, passions and skills and how I could combine them.
This coincided with my learning about Diane Ackerman's notion of 'deep play'.
def. deep play. A deeper form of play, akin to rapture and ecstasy, that humans relish, even require to feel whole. For more see:
In reading about deep play I learnt that adults often find solace in activities they enjoyed as a child but most people abandon in adulthood. I could relate to there being something liberating and joyful in revisiting things I used to do simply 'for fun', things that I wouldn't consider 'productive' as an adult.
These two trains of thought brought my love of drawing to the surface. When I was younger I would draw everyday, doodling my way through boring lessons and on one cherished occasion actually receiving praise from my physics teacher when he caught me drawing but liked what I'd drawn! However I didn't pursue art at GCSE as I wasn't so interested in the formal or technical components of it, it was more a feeling than a theory to me. That began the end of my relationship with drawing save for the occasional notebook on a plane or napkin in a restaurant. Until now...
Elle Luna encourages the reader to think about ways in which you can combine interests, remembering those that perhaps you cast aside as they didn't fit into your adult job. Wanting to incorporate aspects of deep play more into my life inspired me to try to find a way to draw again.
Enter stage left, my love of teaching others and my ongoing voyage into learning more as a developer. I feel that learning to code doesn't have to be difficult. However, often learning resources left me feeling like I wasn't clever or good enough to understand the concepts within them. Once I understood the concepts in the resources I always felt, that wasn't so hard after all, surely there must be a better way to teach this?
Then an idea struck me, why not combine this pain point in my coding journey with my love of drawing and teaching? I decided I wanted to use my drawings to make coding resources easier to understand and more enjoyable.
What?
Since these ideas collided I've had a couple of opportunities to test them out on dwyl repos. I began by sketching my ideas with a biro, taking a photo on my phone, sending it to myself on my computer and then editing it in google docs and using paintbrush.
This approach has felt slow and frustrating. I've spent far more time trying to take a photo without a shadow, uploading my image, transferring between editors and grappling with the editing tools than it took me to draw the images themselves. As my existing editing tools are basic I've been restricted in this process to make the images as I would like them. However I felt that this stage was vital for understanding how I work and my needs.
I've also done a couple of examples and learnt more by user testing with others. I've learnt about some of the benefits and strengths of my current experiments and what things may actually confuse or slow down a reader as opposed to help them. My main learnings have been:
I've also learnt that despite my best intentions, fitting in time to draw has been more difficult than I'd hoped and I think that in order to integrate this into my routine I need to find a convenient way of doing so. One recommended approach for habit forming is to attach a new habit to an existing habit so that it's easily incorporated into your routine. I thought it might be a good idea to try to draw on my commute.
Taking all of this into consideration (and following talking to @nelsonic and @iteles about these ideas) I wanted to see whether dwyl may be able to help me kick start this habit by getting me a tablet that I can draw on on my commute 🚆 ✏️ ❤️
How?
So next comes the question of which is most appropriate technology to use for this. I'm still in the research stage of this but I thought posting this issue now wouldn't hurt as other people may have recommendations they can share.
Tablets:
To be continued... A nice article summarising advice for someone doing what I'm doing - learning to draw digitally:
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/askjack/2016/jul/14/what-sort-of-tablet-should-i-buy-for-drawing
Wacom: cheapest standalone (doesn't have to plug into a computer) Cintiq Companion 2 running Windows 8.1 on an Intel Core i5 processor costs £1,269 or more. A full spec comp that is reflected in the price and I don't need this.
Microsoft: Surafce Pro (over £1000) is a full spec computer with Microsoft Office etc. so the price reflects extra functionality that I don't need.
Apple: 'the most recent candidate is Apple’s iPad Pro, for which you can buy a powered stylus. This works extremely well. It’s at least the equivalent of Wacom’s Cintiq Companion and Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3 and 4 in being smooth and responsive, and probably better.'
Samsung: 10.1in Samsung Galaxy Note/Tab
If you really want to draw on a tablet screen, the cheapest options are probably the 10.1in Samsung Galaxy Note and the 9.7in Apple iPad Pro (£499 plus £79 for the Pencil). An alternative would be a second-hand or refurbished Microsoft Surface Pro 2. You can find them for around £235 to £300, depending on specification and condition. However, if they go wrong, they may be expensive to repair.
Which is better the Apple iPad Pro or the Samsung Galaxy Tab?
Apple: 'better support for drawing apps on iOS vs Android' source: https://www.stuff.tv/features/samsung-galaxy-tab-s3-vs-apple-ipad-pro-97-which-best#Bz3YIbCpMp1SXOO8.99
Apple https://www.parkablogs.com/content/samsung-galaxy-tab-s3-vs-ipad-pro-artist-comparison-review
'The drawing experience on the iPad Pro is excellent. The only worthy competitor would probably be the Wacom MobileStudio Pro which is much more expensive.' https://www.parkablogs.com/content/artist-review-ipad-pro-129-2017