I just
finally picked up a
Microsoft Surface Pro (the original, not the 2) tablet PC, and here is a (
very) quick sketch I did while watching A Very Sunny Christmas special (
Always Sunny in Philadelphia). It is
loosely based on Charlie, but I wasn't going for accuracy. I just wanted a little inspiration for something to draw, in order to start playing around with the brush and paint tools in the program that I just bought for it,
Manga Studio 5 (which is
incredible, so far). So this is really more of a learning exercise than a proper "sketch" but I thought it turned out OK for what it is. I didn't have a whole lot of time to spend with it, and I am super slow with both the new hardware
and software, but it is
worlds beyond drawing on my iPhone or Nexus 7. This little PC/tablet is pretty much the perfect little drawing tool (/toy), and something I have always dreamed of.
Hopefully, I will get some free time soon to spend exploring the software and new interfaces, and get some more sketches to post. I am so excited! (it's a little ridiculous how happy this little thing has made me so far.)
A few things about the Surface - It doesn't really work very well as a straight-forward
tablet. I didn't have the keyboard for the first day or two, and
man was it frustrating. After picking up the keyboard cover ("touch" cover, really, but I am still batting around maybe trading up for the "type" one), it was night and day. As a tiny laptop, with some touch capabilities, it seems to work
great. Windows 8 (a tiny bit less-so, 8.1, which I upgraded to after a few days) is really a bit schizophrenic. The best way I could describe it is that it
tries really hard to make you interact with it like a tablet, but then still presents everything like a PC would, stuck with vestiges of the "Windows" paradigms, but if you try and use it like older Windows versions, it's incredibly frustrating because everything is hidden behind layers of tiles, or swipe menus, or
somewhere you can't find (although, getting into the habit of "searching" for everything helps alleviate the frustration some). It's sort of stuck
on the way to being a tablet PC, but as a (very) small laptop, it's great. (And did I mention how much I
love the drawing interface??)
