Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 61 total)
  • Design/illustration apps for iPad
  • robdob
    Free Member

    My wife is starting back at being an illustrator/fine art designer. I bought her an iPad for christmas as it seems that’s how people show their work off rather than the A1 portfolios she currently has.

    I know there are the Adobe apps – which ones are worth having? Any other ideas of apps/ways to work on the iPad that you can suggest? She really is an IT novice so the easier to use the better. I don’t mind paying for quality apps BTW.

    binners
    Full Member

    Adobe Illustrator has been the benchmark for years on desktops. I’ve not used the iPad version (illustrator Draw) but I suspect that’s the best place to start if you’re taking it seriously. It’s very intuitive.

    What kind of stuff does she do rob. Always like to see good illustrations

    King-ocelot
    Free Member

    Hello I’m an illustrator too, well trained in fine art but working as an illustrator/graphic designer. Adobe illustrator on desktop is a must ( Corel draw is good, better than some give it credit for) the iPad version of illustrator is good but I find it more of a side tool to the desktop version. If she’s an IT novice I recomend getting to grips with illustrator and indesign, all my clients thee days want PDF files rather than hand drawn things. If you want to pick my brain on the industry and agencies please feel free to do so.

    Edit: the most recent illustrator on CC is the easiest version yet to learn.

    GHill
    Full Member

    I quite like Pixelmator, but I’m no pro.

    CountZero
    Full Member

    Inkpad, Paper, and Penultimate.

    binners
    Full Member

    I’d echo what KO says there. iPads are great for showing stuff, but I’d use a decent Mac for producing it. It’s far less hassle. When I’m illustrating, I tend to flit about between illustrator and Photoshop, depending on what I’m doing, then put it all together in indesign, and save the final files down as PDF’s. It’s all pretty much drag and drop between the 3 in the latest CC Version, and very user friendly. You can work your way around how to do pretty much anything with trial and error

    Malvern Rider
    Free Member

    I use

    inkpad (in all honesty requires infinite time and patience, compared to a desktop, not the fault of the app so much as the drawbacks of a big clumpy fingertip – mice like nodes much more than my fingers or stylii)
    Ink
    Procreate
    Artrage
    Ps touch
    Snapseed (great for importing finished work and putting some texture and lighting to it)

    for tonal sketches/relaxing – Zen brush

    robdob
    Free Member

    Thanks for the tips.

    She has no knowledge of Illustrator and Photoshop. She was supposed to be taught them while at Uni (late 90’s) in her surface pattern degree but never was. She finds learning PC stuff incredibly difficult and struggles big time – even online tutorials she struggles with. She needs a classroom course but they are few and far between unfortunately.

    The iPad is to show the work she has done but I thought if she could get to grips with a selection of apps on that then it might help to transfer to PC if she eventually uses one.

    She paints in acrylic, fine art stuff. She gets lots of “wows” everytime she shows her work to people (including design professionals) but is 15 years behind the industry as far as using the technology is concerned. She has already sold some work with the help of another freelancer but is finding it difficult to get started in the business.

    binners
    Full Member

    I’d definitely go the Adobe route rob. It’s industry standard, so it’s the format people will expect stuff to be produced and delivered in.

    The thing with it is that it is genuinely intuitive. And the only way to learn it is to get stuck in and have a play. Once you do, you start to get to grips with it pretty quickly. And you’ll learn as much from happy accidents as tutorials.

    Good luck with it!

    King-ocelot
    Free Member

    It’s a tough industry to get into from my experience. I got my big break when a buyer for Saatchi invidulated my degree show (2005) and bought my exhibition work. I went into part time shop work straight after my degree and started freelancing. About a year after graduating I got a call from the buyer and got my first big job doing some illustrations for the music industry. I propped up my dream by doing drawings/illustrations of pets/people anything while the bigger contracts came in. I was never taught any graphic software at uni so started to self learn. Somehow in the last 10 years I’ve ended up owning a record label, had a few books published and now run a design studio for a multi national. The only advice I have is grind away and no matter how daunting learn the technology. My heart of hearts is in traditional media but there’s so little call for it. Illustrator files are ‘vectors’ meaning they can be reproduced in any size without losing quality or being distorted. This is what clients want. I imagine your wife has a keen eye so I think she should be able to translate her skills. When I’m hiring I can tell those traditionally trained and those portfolios which are graphics based.

    What I mean by talking about myself is a bit of luck, Skill & grafting.

    There is work out there as a traditional illustrator but it’s not common place. I would find a style that sells/works and stick to it. If you wish to share some of her work on here or via email I am happy to look at it and maybe suggest courses/agencies/direction. When I was freelance agencies were everything and they all look for a strong online portfolio. Surface pattern jobs now are mainly vector based to, it’s really not that daunting once you have the basics.

    King-ocelot
    Free Member

    The thing with it is that it is genuinely intuitive. And the only way to learn it is to get stuck in and have a play. Once you do, you start to get to grips with it pretty quickly. And you’ll learn as much from happy accidents as tutorials.

    This +1

    The most recent pen tool in illustrator is a joy to use.

    muppetWrangler
    Free Member

    Theres a few good apps for displaying portfolios. My two favourites are:
    Minimal folio which is as simple a delivery platform as your likely to get but which also ties into dropbox so is easy to update or tailor to specific meetings.

    The other isn’t an app as such but is adobe’s online portfolio tool, Behance. It allows you to upload your work and displays it as a html portfolio. In its most basic form its very easy to use but you can customise it heavily to suit your needs if you want to invest a bit of time into it. The nice thing about this route is you’ve got a html link to send to prospective clients before you meet them.

    CountZero
    Full Member

    inkpad (in all honesty requires infinite time and patience, compared to a desktop, not the fault of the app so much as the drawbacks of a big clumpy fingertip – mice like nodes much more than my fingers or stylii)
    Ink

    There are some fine-tip styli that work on iPad screens, the Wacom one will, for example.
    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LZW7RS0/ref=pe_354400_130140860_em_1p_0_ti
    There’s the Adonit Pixelpoint too, but it’s more expensive:
    http://www.amazon.com/Adonit-Pixelpoint-pressure-sensitive-stylus/dp/B00KFAG64O/ref=pd_sim_pc_5?ie=UTF8&refRID=18AYN343EP2CEPPFFF8D

    robdob
    Free Member

    It is also a problem that we can’t really afford to buy Photoshop and Illustrator either. I have an old copy of Photoshop that was downloaded for free from Adobe but my computer struggles to run it – old laptop.

    I have looked at that CC thing (I have no idea about cloud stuff to be honest so don’t know if that is useful or helpful) and it’s still £47 a month to get both applications which we can’t really afford.

    robdob
    Free Member

    My wife has no interest in doing the actual artwork on the computer, she would rather go and do another job than that – is there no use for painting/drawing stuff traditionally and then scanning/manipulating afterwards? That’s what I was hoping she could do.

    When you have been away from a field for so long it seems impossible to find out anything about what you should be doing. It’s very disheartening.

    King-ocelot
    Free Member

    My wife has no interest in doing the actual artwork on the computer, she would rather go and do another job than that – is there no use for painting/drawing stuff traditionally and then scanning/manipulating afterwards? That’s what I was hoping she could do.

    Yes of course, but less call for it than there used to be. Look at children’s books for example. A friend was in a similar position and started a mural painting business. What is your wife’s work like?

    I may well have a copy of photoshop and illustrator cs3 with a licence I can look on Monday. But again your laptop may struggle.

    gofasterstripes
    Free Member

    Just to put a spanner, somewhat, in the works, the other issue with CC is if you aren’t subscribed, you can no-longer open your own work!

    Perhaps look at buying an older machine with a legit copy of Illustrator and Photoshop already installed? If you get the DVDs as well, you should be fairly safe.

    Or, you might be able to springboard yourself using CS2, which is available legitimately for free [near enough]. If you can create some new work using that and export as PDF or another format the commissioning person requests which is compatible with the CS2 [old!] version you’re using you might be able to get enough money together to start renting CC etc. Be careful though, you don’t want to get stuck with work done that no-one can open. However, if the work is fairly simple, CS2 should hack it, and if you check the client is happy opening those files it might be the answer? Sending the work as PDF should avoid a compatibility/rendering issue.

    I have heard that the full, pre-cloud apps can be found on the internet for downloading, too, but by golly, I’d be careful doing that as:

    1: You’re breaking the law and it’s very easy to trace/prove [ISP logs n’ all]
    2: Most torrents/downloads are virus hell. [No you can’t be sure your antivirus will protect you!]

    There are various free/opensource/trial programs you might be able to use – Inkscape for example.

    Last option – do you live anywhere near Bradford and have a PC in the house? I might be able to help further.

    robdob
    Free Member

    Just to put a spanner, somewhat, in the works, the other issue with CC is if you aren’t subscribed, you can no-longer open your own work!

    YOWSERS – that’s not good is it?

    We live in Huddersfield BTW.

    robdob
    Free Member

    The PS I have on the laptop was downloaded for free from Adobe, it was a link posted up on here a while back.

    robdob
    Free Member

    I was considering buying a new PC if it helps. As we are going towards having all Apple devices (and this would help my wife as they work together so well and I don’t have the crashes and problems with PC stuff I was thinking about getting a Mac Mini. One should go on her design desk unobtrusively with a wall mounted monitor and wireless keyboard but I am concerned they aren’t very powerful. Better than our 4yo laptop though….

    gofasterstripes
    Free Member

    Sorry, I didn’t notice your username was the guy who said you already had d/l’d a copy.

    You can email me at sam{d0t}firth{?t}gmail{d0t}com, if you drop in to my place, you may be glad you did 😉

    binners
    Full Member

    Rob – if it was my money I’d go for a 27″ iMac. The bigger screen is worth its weight in gold when producing any kind of artwork. I use that and a 17″ MacBook Pro.

    I know your better half doesn’t want to produce work on a Mac, but you can’t view it as ‘technology’. It isn’t. It’s just a tool. The same as a pencil, or a palette of acrylics. It’s no different. You’re producing artwork just the same, just using a different tool. I will illustrate by hand as ink outlines, scan it in then colour it up on the Mac In Photoshop and illustrator. This ensures it’ll print well commercially, amongst other considerations.

    I really don’t want to sound brutal, but if you go into this industry with that attitude, then you’re on a hiding to nothing right from the off. It’s ultra-competitive, and there’s a lot of talent out there. And I’d say all are using macs to produce work in the formats industry demands. I have been doing for 20 years.

    Rob – My address is in my profile. Drop me a mail. I’m not far from you, and would be happy to help out. It really isn’t that daunting once you get started, but I can’t stress enough how much harder things will be if you’re resistant to using industry standard technology. Sorry if This all sounds harsh, and it’s not what you want to hear, but it’s just the way things are.

    robdob
    Free Member

    It’s not an attitude that she won’t use the tech, it’s just learning how to is very difficult, especially when you are not computer savvy at all. I personally can’t get to grips with PS and I have been quite techy in my past.

    The cost of the equipment and software is a huge stumbling block – buying a 27″ iMac and/or a MacBook Pro is simply not affordable for us – took me a while to save up for the tablet from my wages/selling bike stuff.

    binners
    Full Member

    Don’t get me started on the cost of it all! It’s what happens when you have an industry where one player has a total monopoly on hardware, and another has a complete monopoly on software. And both price according to that. It’s an ongoing scandal that it’s been allowed to get to this point really. Adobe forcing everyone onto their subscription model being the latest example. But what choice do we have? None! It’s take or leave it ( and then lose your job/business)

    Rob – drop me a mail fella.

    robdob
    Free Member

    Email sent to binners/gofasterstripes – thanks.

    gofasterstripes
    Free Member

    What you could do, is work on improving F/OSS equivalents – through coding. testing or just making a small financial contribution to the orgaisations that make the software.

    But yeah, it’s a PITA.

    I produced quite an impassioned presentation in uni about this subject 😀

    Ransoming gits, the lot of them.

    Adobe and Autodesk are probably the worst.

    muppetWrangler
    Free Member

    The cost of the equipment and software is a huge stumbling block – buying a 27″ iMac and/or a MacBook Pro is simply not affordable for us

    Adobe software works just as well on a PC as a mac, if money is tight then you may be able to cobble a fairly high spec PC together for quite a bit less cash than the equivalent mac. If you keep it purely for work, only install work related software on it and maybe even continue to use the laptop for browsing/email then you shouldn’t have too much trouble with it.

    Alternatively apple do a lease purchase scheme on macs. It could be that you tuck away the first 6 months of the 24 month lease period to give your wife a bit of a buffer in order to learn some stuff and make some inroads into paid work.

    In it’s higher specs the mac mini would be (just about) ok as a basic work machine but by the time you get to that end of the range the difference in cost between the mac mini, keyboard and mouse (assuming you already have a screen) isn’t so far from the cost of the iMac. Certainly don’t look at the bottom end mac mini and think that it will do, that version appears to be targeted as not much more than a media centre.

    One of the major problems is that it’s very difficult to learn anything unless it has a purpose, as soon as your wife has live projects to work on she’ll have little choice but to work out how to achieve the result she wants. Without the focus that comes with a client and a deadline its hard to even know exactly what skills you need let alone be motivated to actually learn them. I’ve been using photoshop since version 2 and probably use less than 40% of the tools. It’s such a broad piece of software that I only need to use a small part of it to do everything that i need for my work. Illustrator i use a lot more but even that I maybe use 60% of the functions. Your wife really doesn’t need complete mastery of photoshop, once you start to use the software commercially you soon learn the bits that are important to your work and the bits that you’ll probably never touch.

    robdob
    Free Member

    Cheapest iMac with 27″ display is £1500…. 🙁

    the-muffin-man
    Full Member

    Don’t get me started on the cost of it all!

    Is it really that expensive?

    Full Adobe sub £38 / month
    New Mac every 3 years or so – £1500 ish

    If you can’t clear that amount of money you really need to get a new trade. It’s professional software and not aimed at home/casual users.

    King-ocelot
    Free Member

    When you have been away from a field for so long it seems impossible to find out anything about what you should be doing. It’s very disheartening.

    Learn the software needed for the job. Before shelling out on a new mac /PC anyone close who can give you a bit of tuition?

    King-ocelot
    Free Member

    Don’t get me started on the cost of it all!
    Is it really that expensive?
    Full Adobe sub £38 / month
    New Mac every 3 years or so – £1500 ish
    If you can’t clear that amount of money you really need to get a new trade. It’s professional software and not aimed at home/casual users.

    My Dad, retired builder, was talking about my macbook I added the cost of the software on it and it was somewere near £7k. He didn’t get how it cost so much. I compared it to his van loaded with tools etc, you can’t do the job without them.

    binners
    Full Member

    Adobe is £38 per month FOR NOW! Once everyone is on the subscription, see how long it stays at that price.

    They did this when they initially bundled illustrator and Photoshop as Creative Suite. It looked like a no brainer. And Quark was finished! Then when everyone switched, they ratcheted the prices. They’ll do the same again now. Absolutely Guaranteed!!

    And for a Mac capable of doing high end design work, with software, you’re looking at a minimum of 4k

    robdob
    Free Member

    If you can’t clear that amount of money you really need to get a new trade. It’s professional software and not aimed at home/casual users.

    But if you can’t afford the kit then you can’t make the money in the first place to buy it……

    It’s a lot of money to outlay when you don’t know if you’ll be able to make a go of the business and you work part-time in a shop.

    robdob
    Free Member

    And for a Mac capable of doing high end design work, with software, you’re looking at a minimum of 4k

    Gulp. 🙁

    robdob
    Free Member

    Learn the software needed for the job. Before shelling out on a new mac /PC anyone close who can give you a bit of tuition?

    I have looked into this. We don’t know anyone who has the time to tutor her – I know 2 people who are amazing with the software she needs to use but don’t have the time to tutor someone else.

    So I looked into courses. There seems to be 2 different kinds – first ones are corporate ones which cost many hundreds, if not thousands, of pounds for a couple of days or maybe up to a week. The other sort are local Uni/Tech courses but there isn’t any round us, the closest IIRC was Bradford but that started in September I think and next one I assume will be Sept 2015. They looked quite useful and weren’t expensive too.

    There are free courses if you are unemployed, which may be a good start, but she isn’t unemployed.

    If anyone knows of any other ideas in the West Yorks area I will look into them!

    muppetWrangler
    Free Member

    If you can’t get anything else then get the CS2 version of photoshop and illustrator linked to above, that’s free. Legacy files are not a problem everyone in the industry will be able to open your files, might be a bit tricky if people are sending you stuff but if you ask nicely most people can sort you out with something compatible.

    The software from that version to the current version really isn’t massively different, some shortcuts, a few easier to use/better implemented tools and better integration between packages but basically it’s the same and perfectly good enough to learn with. if you learnt on CS2 and jumped straight to CC you’d only take about a day before it all felt like second nature.

    Then you just need something to run it on. The beauty of older software is that it’s designed to be functional on older computers so a lower spec machine will be passable.

    This won’t be a system that’s a pleasure to work on but I reckon you could be up and running for £500-600. Then once your wife gets some paid work you can upgrade.

    In the meantime your wife need to carry on producing her work by hand, get it scanned/photographed, put together a portfolio (which I think was the original question) and get it online and start talking to people that commission illustrations. Theres nothing to say that she won’t walk in the right door at the right time and be offered a commission that allows her to go out and buy what she needs.

    gofasterstripes
    Free Member

    New Mac every 3 years or so – £1500 ish

    My mother is an archaeological illustrator working exclusively with Apple [since the LC II].

    She’s just about to replace her machine. It’s 7 years old. This is fairly normal for her. If you don’t overload it, and make sure there’s loads of RAM you’ll go a long long way with even a fairly basic one.

    NB – I haven’t bought a Mac in a while, there may be a stinker in the range of which I haven’t heard.

    robdob – Another tip: If your Mrs can do some work for a University or other large organization, they may well pay for her to buy a machine and put some software on it. That’s what my mother does, anyway.

    O/T:

    Regarding my mother,

    Any tips for my Mum RE which machine to buy guys, bearing in mind her use of Photoshop/Illustrator/Cinema4D [occasionally]?

    She’s after a 27″ iMac with basic-ish spec. Should she buy a Retina model? Where is the sweet-spot for the CPU? Where can she buy one with extra RAM fitted for less than Apple charges?

    Is it possible to buy a secondhand one with a legit NON_SUBSCRIPTION version of CS6? on it? Any sources you are aware of?

    Cheers!

    gofasterstripes
    Free Member

    And for a Mac capable of doing high end design work, with software, you’re looking at a minimum of 4k

    Gulp.

    Really?! Our experience says otherwise. Maybe you’re talking about a top-end machine, probably waaaay overkill for a bit of Illustrator and Photoshop.

    Are you buying RAM from Apple or something 😉

    Another option could be a Hackintosh build. My PC would run OSX and it’s 12GB RAM 6Core Xeon and SSD would make light work of anything realistic. Cost, about £900 if you built a similar one now.

    Hell, think of the movie “Monsters” – he made that on a Macbook.

    RAM – you need a lot of RAM. Other than that, machines haven’t got much faster in the last 4 years. Less power, yes. Faster – not much.

    the-muffin-man
    Full Member

    But if you can’t afford the kit then you can’t make the money in the first place to buy it……

    Same with any business.

    If you want cheap – try this (it gets very good reveiws)…
    https://affinity.serif.com/
    …you still need a recent Mac to run it on though.

    Or get Corel Draw on the PC.

    the-muffin-man
    Full Member

    And for a Mac capable of doing high end design work, with software, you’re looking at a minimum of 4k

    No you don’t – most designers I know use iMacs or even MacBook Pros. For high-end colour critical work using 100s of Photoshop layers then may-be you need 4k’s worth of kit, but not for run-of the mill design work.

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 61 total)

The topic ‘Design/illustration apps for iPad’ is closed to new replies.