This image is a sketch I made of the Nelson Monument on Calton Hill in Edinburgh.
I wrote about the Nelson Monument and about the folly on the hill in an article on the Quillcards Blog.
Here I want to talk about how I made the sketch.
I have a Macbook Air for when I am traveling, and the only reason I might be tempted to buy an iPad is for the reduction in weight.
Against that there is the loss of a real keyboard.
For a longish while the only option for connecting between Photoshop on a laptop and some kind of stylus was the Wacom range of touch-sensitive boards and some competitors who made similar boards.
Then a little while ago I saw a review of the Astropad. It is an app that links between the iPad and a laptop.
So, no more need for the Wacom because the iPad takes its place. That sounded very good and gave me reason to want an iPad.
In a nutshell, Astropad enables you to open Photoshop on the laptop and sketch so that the effects appear on the laptop while you draw on the iPad.
The big attraction is that you have the full range of tools that are available in Photoshop. That’s because Astropad is effectively just an extended link between the iPad and the laptop.
Now fast forward to a couple of weeks ago when Astropad for the iPhone came out. Yippee!!!!!!!
I think Astropad can link via Bluetooth or wifi (not sure), but why bother when you can just pop the USB into the port on the Mac? Astropad for Mac is free (here’s the download link for iPhone to Mac) so all you need to buy is the $5.00 iPhone app.
So that is what I have been doing and it is great fun.
Strangely, or perhaps not, it has given me more reason to get an iPad so I can take advantage of a bigger screen area than I get on the iPhone.
Photograph Works 
Wowzer! Good thing I only downloaded the trial of the other one! This sounds awesome.
I might add that the weight of my MacBook is the same as that of my iPad [not AIR]. 😉
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Which iPad? An older version?
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I forget the number, but it is Retina. It came out before the AIR.
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Do you _have to_ have a bluetooth stylus? I tried it with some ordinary, cheap one I have — that didn’t work. Not finger either.
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I have just an ordinary stylus- not Bluetooth.
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Hmm … don’n know what the deal is. Will try some more …
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Have you got it connected via USB?
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No, wifi. Perhaps USB would be better. Will try.
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Did that (USB) work for you?
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It was all a big misunderstanding *sheepish smile* All sorted out … it works with wifi.
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Great – what do you think of it?
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It’s fun now. It will take a bit of practice …
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I have a drawing board that I use occasionally on my stationary, but I think that the iphone screeen is too small for me to draw on..
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It’s a bit cramped, but not impossible – hence my iPad lust..
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I need to download that app asap. I have an ipad and a wacom tablet but I hardly ever use the wacom tablet because it’s so big. I bought it at a time when I did a lot of photo retouching and I had an actual desk to sit it on. Thank you for your informative article. So glad I found your site through the writing201 tag. Have a great day!
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I’m glad you found it useful. Next stop for me is to get an iPad once I have explored Astropad a bit more with the iPhone, and get a better stylus – one with a narrow point.
Did you do photo retouching as a profession?
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I used to but that was two jobs ago. I keep it up as a hobby still because who doesn’t take a photo that could use a little retouching?
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