What's up everyone!! I wanted to do something a bit different today, and show you a more behind-the-scenes of my art and where I create it.
I recently moved, so my setup atm isn't anything crazy... but it gets the job done. One day I hope to upgrade, and maybe even have my own sort of office/art-room; but for now I'm super thankful to have the space that I have!
Computer: It's a 27in. iMac with Retina display. The high resolution and color accuracy is super important for me, since I work with color often and want to be confident that my illustrations will read well on other displays- Even while painting on my display tablet, I'll occasionally move my Photoshop window up to the Mac, and adjust hues/saturation there. Also, the Memory, CPU, and GPU are pretty beefy as well, which helps with larger/more complex illustrations; i.e. freelance and client work, where there's typically a certain project size requirement for production. (Big plus is that it can run minecraft with shaders lol).
Tablets: My go-to tablet currently is a Huion Kamvas Pro 16 (display tablet). This is the latest addition to my arsenal and I love it so far! The team at Huion was actually kind enough to send this over to me for review, so expect a full tablet review on this soon. For now, I'll say that the build quality is great, it feels very sturdy at max angle, and color accuracy is OK. The pen is lightweight, but feels solid too. Sometimes I wish the display was a bit brighter, but I think that's my own issue because I'm so used to blindingly bright screens. Anyways, I also have a Wacom intuos large pen tablet(PTH850), which isn't on my table at the moment. I'll typically take it out and swap the display tablet w it when my neck/posture starts to hurt. I've worked with pen tablets for so long, that I can switch between both types easily!
For sketching, I also use an iPad Air 5th gen and the Procreate app. I have a textured screen-protector and the Pencil has a rubber grip i got off of Amazon- I find it way more ergonomic with the grip on... also I am aware that it's on backwards! Since I prefer to keep the finished-works to Photoshop, the smaller sized iPad doesn't bother me, and allows me to easily carry it around and sketch out ideas anywhere! This is pretty much my "digital notebook," where I also brainstorm content ideas and video scripts. And even though it's a few years old, it can still run pretty much all games and apps at 100%.
I also sketch A LOT on my iPhone. For that, I use procreate pocket. My phone is one of my most important tools that I use daily. This model is almost 5 years old now, but still holds up. I actually used it to take these photos!
I am definitely trapped in the Apple ecosystem. It's funny because I grew up as a hardcore PC/android user π where did I go wrong
Table: It's a small height-adjustable (manual) table I got off of facebook marketplace. Very lightweight and portable. Downside is that It's starting to feel a bit cramped! Might be time to upgrade to a lerger one soon. I also have a phone holder behind my keyboard for watching videos and/or doomscrolling while I work! Very epic. I also have this lil model car on my table. I kept it on my work table back at my old job, so I keep it here for tradition. Maybe it's good luck? Bad luck even??? I'm not sure.
Chair: It's literally the cheapest chair they sell at Walmart. Solid 3/10 π
Anyways, thanks for looking! I'm excited to finally reveal a bit more about my life with you all, because at the end of the day I'm really just some dude in a room making drawings π€
Let me know about your setups! I'm curious what you guys are using as well. Drop your gear/pics in the comments here or over in the community chat!
Nick Star
2024-11-11 15:38:23 +0000 UTCColt Kirwan
2024-11-10 07:33:33 +0000 UTCNick Star
2024-11-10 02:35:17 +0000 UTCDigi Draw Dude
2024-11-10 01:06:10 +0000 UTC