iPad Air with the Wacom Creative Stylus...a marriage of compromise and convenience!

I don't like tethered things...and thank goodness being attached to a corded device is becoming a thing of the past.  Not fast enough for me, though!  And, on my limited budget, I have to be creative!

I have owned a Cintiq for over 3 years and, along with my 27" iMac, it is one of the best investments for my illustrating business that I have ever made.  But, I'm tethered...leashed to a bunch of cumbersom cords...sigh.  I have been waiting for a Wacom product that is portable...one with all of the bells and whistles my 21UX has.  And Wacom finally delivered the Companion this year.  It's a fantastic piece of work with a price tag to go with it.

So...I set my budget and got creative.

I needed a laptop, a tablet, and a portable Cintiq-like experience.

I told my 2 year old Nook Tablet that our relationship was over.  After much research, listing pros and cons...more research, I decided to buy an iPad Air (64GB), a wireless Apple Keyboard and a Wacom Creative Stylus.

If you already own an iPad, then your cost will be less (and that makes me wish I had bought one years ago!)

So far I really like it! I have been experimenting with different painting and sketching apps.  The Wacom Creative Stylus web page lists several apps that it works with.  The Bamboo Paper App is my favorite sketch app combination so far. I purchased the additional brushes with the app ($3.99). I like the "sketchbooks" and notebooks that it has. Nice and simple application. There is a learning curve with apps like ProCreate. I will be working with them next. Since all of this is relatively new, more and more apps will become available to work with the pressure sensitive Wacom stylus.

Note...the sponge rubber tip takes a little getting used to.

 

The original plan of getting a laptop/portable sketch pad/tablet for a fraction of the Cintiq Companion has been obtained. Although I know it is not exactly the same as the Cintiq Companion, I am happy with the versatility of the iPad Air and Stylus combination...

 

...and most important...I am not tethered to anything!