You can use your tablet for figure drawing and painting and it works great. Some artists are pretty old school but if you give digital media a chance you will probably really like it and find that it has a lot of advantages.

iPad REVIEW

The iPad backs up to the cloud if you set it up in the settings, so you don’t have to worry about losing your work if something happens. The iPad battery life is pretty good and the iPad recharges quickly. There are always outlets around the studio to use during the break. The iPad charger is also light and very portable. I have been able to draw most of the day (4 or more hours) on one charge. How long it lasts depends on the screen brightness setting you pick. The iPad costs some up front but over time the art supply savings on things like brushes, canvas, paints, mediums, thinner, paper towels and soap more than makes up for it. The iPad can hook up to WiFi at the coffee shop or art studio so you are always connected to the web even if you don’t have cellular service.

iOS 12 on the iPad is a real plus, it really improved the drawing experience when they put through the update, including reduced latency, to the point that now latency is undetectable. iOS 12 also improved the over all functionality of the iPad with drag and drop, so I recommend getting an iOS 12 compatible model both for the drawing experience and overall functionality. I am not sure what amount of storage to recommend (64, 256 or 512) but I got the biggest memory and have not had a problem with storage space but you might be able to have less. Drag and drop makes exporting your art from a drawing app to drop box or another cloud storage solution easy. You can also then move it over to your website blog from the cloud with drag and drop all while you are using the WiFi and having a beer at the local wine bar after the open studio.

iPad Pro model comparison: The iPad comes in 3 sizes 9.7, 10.5 and 12.9 inches. I recommend getting the biggest screen size as you willl want the extra space so you can work a little bigger. There are two versions of the largest screen size, one with a smaller bezel and then one with a larger bezel. There is a little more space with the smaller bezel but the most important factor is the overall size of 12.9 inches. The iPad screen resolution is good and the color is great. Probably the only weakness is in the reds which do not quite match some of the pigments in terms of value and saturation. The newest iPad they released has the P3 color standard which is supposed to be better but I have not bought it yet so can’t comment. You can also see the screen when it is dark which is handy in the studio when the lights are low and other people are struggling to see thier drawings or paintings. It is also great if you want to use dramatic lighting on the model and keep the lights off in the rest of the room. Lastly it lets you draw in non-traditional settings like at night or in a jazz bar. There are many drawing apps, and other related gear which I review in the other sections of the reviews tab.

If you have ipad questions please reach out to me through the contact page.

Surface REVIEW

This surface pro review is for the surface book 2 15 inch. They released a pen with the new model that has tilt sensitivity like the apple pencil which is what convinced me to get one of these in addition to my iPad Pro. First off one thing to understand about the surface book 2 is that it runs a full operating system and not a slimmed down tablet type of interface. This has advantages and disadvantages. One major advantage of the surface pro is that it runs windows 10 and has a full function file menu, which is a big plus. You can do all the things you would on a lap top or desk top with it. It is also a 2 in one, so it is a legitimate laptop that has a screen that you can use with out the keyboard attached. This is one weakness of the iPad Pro in that it has this really primitive file system and basically not a "desktop" so to speak. Even with the newest iOS and the files application the iPad Pro is still not a real computer whereas the surface book 2 is. A good example of this includes doing things like more in depth editing of this website which is much easier with the surface than the iPad pro for a number of reasons. While putting up a simple blog post or minor design changes is easy to do on the iPad pro , it starts to run in trouble if you want to use more full function website editor options.

Another big plus is the surface keyboard is a lot better than the iPad pro keyboard. I noticed a really big difference in the that keys respond to you by depressing slightly. This makes it a lot easier to type on. I am sure you could get a keyboard for the iPad Pro that works better but the standard out of the box one from Microsoft for the surface is really great. I am sorta of surprised apple did not do a better job on this point as it is so easy and makes such a difference. In terms of ports the surface has a USB, USB-C, SD, headphones jack, power inlet. Being able to use external drives and SD cards is really a big plus over the iPad. The screen when used as a slate also has a power jack.

The screen size on the surface book 2 15 inch is a good bit bigger than the largest iPad pro and clearly has better resolution. Aspect ratio on the surface pro 4 is 3:2 where as the largest iPad pro is 4:3. Like the iPad pro the battery life was not a limitation with all day drawing if you have the base (keyboard) attached tot he screen. With out the base the surface book lasts a for a few hours of drawing. The surface charger is super light but is a little strangely shaped in terms of the plug in to the tablet. The surface is really light and in slate mode was not noticeably heavier than the large iPad pro.

The surface for drawing is really the focus of this review. So I tried a few apps and it looks like you need a minimum of 2 GHz to run adobe photoshop without a delay. The memory and hard drive space are not a problem but you do need a fast processor. I really like the surface pen stylus as the tip is a little soft and has some give and feels more like analog media. That being said I did feel that the tilt sensitivity was as close to a natural analog feel as with the Apple Pencil and maybe even better when used with the pencil in sketch pad which is the built in drawing app for windows ink.  The really standout feature is that high resolution big screen you get with the 15 inch model, I really like having the extra space to draw.

Summary

In summary I think the surface book 2 15 inch is better for full function computer tasks and art but it is a little more money. You could use either for art but some of the apps are better optimized for the iPad pro. You might want to go with the surface with a good processor if it was going to be your only computer but want a drawing tool. The 15 inch surface book is great.