This is my setup for drawing / vector graphics / etc.
Surface 2 Pro by itself is great - full blown OS, small and light yet as powerful as my Desktop PC. Stylus support is amazing so naturally I was very excited to draw on it rather than a Wacom tablet - Finally I get to look at where I'm drawing rather than my hand drawing somewhere on the side and my eyes being glued to the screen in front of me.
But for using Illustrator or Photoshop the screen is to small. What do to do? Get a docking station. And not just any docking station - Microsoft docking station specifically for Surface. you just slide the sides in - and immediately everything connected to the station is working - no hassle.
At first I just set it up on my desk normally - but the tilt wasn't enough for me so I came up with this idea of setting it flat on the table - just like my Wacom was. It turned out to be surprisingly sturdy and convenient to use.
And when I'm doing web-development or don't need to draw with a stylus in general I just set it up normally to my left. with Type cover attached - docking station doesn't get in the way so especially when I'm not mirroring the display it's actually kind of nice to have to keyboards :)
And when I need to leave I just slide the sides out ...
And I'm good to go!
My poor PC doesn't get any action any more. It just sits there sadly with a Scorpion tattoo on its side. And the only time it gets turned on is when I'm moving more files from its hard drive to my sky drive (it's a long process - I have a lot of photos :) and want to filter out the baddies before I put it on SkyDrive.) Oh yeah and with the purchase of Surface Pro you get 200 GB SkyDrive space for 2 years.
Ah, and for people extremely loyal to the Wacom tablets - be happy - you can install the Wacom drivers on your Surface. I personally haven't done that because I just don't feel like it's something I need to do. Surface Stylus support hasn't let me down - pressure, tilt everything is perfect (for me anyway).
This is not part of my normal set up but 'it' keeps flying onto my desk and pushing keys. He is very drawn to the clacking of mechanical keyboard keys, and anything shiny...
I've got one more thing to write about which arguably isn't very related to this post. On the other hand it was the last piece of the puzzle and essential gear for having a very convenient set of tools for drawing. A light tracing pad.
I looked at a couple options and this one seemed perfect for me - it's very thin and light, has a brightness setting and is LED. It was $80 on Amazon for 8' x 12' size (it's actually slightly bigger so is perfect for both A4 and Letter which is pretty much what I draw on). There were cheaper options - Autograph had a 40$ one but it was more like a box that seemed inconvenient to use over longer periods of time and used a white light bulb - don't know how evenly it would be lit up so I figured if I am to buy such a thing I'd rather get the one I want. Really you can just build it yourself - take a picture frame and put a lamp under it :)
This makes my life a lot easier - I make a rough sketch than trace it and make necessary adjustments then scan it in - which takes out the guesswork when rebuilding in vector (guesswork as in hmmm which one of these 10 lines in the sketch is the on I'm supposed to build).
Surface 2 Pro by itself is great - full blown OS, small and light yet as powerful as my Desktop PC. Stylus support is amazing so naturally I was very excited to draw on it rather than a Wacom tablet - Finally I get to look at where I'm drawing rather than my hand drawing somewhere on the side and my eyes being glued to the screen in front of me.
But for using Illustrator or Photoshop the screen is to small. What do to do? Get a docking station. And not just any docking station - Microsoft docking station specifically for Surface. you just slide the sides in - and immediately everything connected to the station is working - no hassle.
At first I just set it up on my desk normally - but the tilt wasn't enough for me so I came up with this idea of setting it flat on the table - just like my Wacom was. It turned out to be surprisingly sturdy and convenient to use.
And when I'm doing web-development or don't need to draw with a stylus in general I just set it up normally to my left. with Type cover attached - docking station doesn't get in the way so especially when I'm not mirroring the display it's actually kind of nice to have to keyboards :)
And when I need to leave I just slide the sides out ...
And I'm good to go!
My poor PC doesn't get any action any more. It just sits there sadly with a Scorpion tattoo on its side. And the only time it gets turned on is when I'm moving more files from its hard drive to my sky drive (it's a long process - I have a lot of photos :) and want to filter out the baddies before I put it on SkyDrive.) Oh yeah and with the purchase of Surface Pro you get 200 GB SkyDrive space for 2 years.
Ah, and for people extremely loyal to the Wacom tablets - be happy - you can install the Wacom drivers on your Surface. I personally haven't done that because I just don't feel like it's something I need to do. Surface Stylus support hasn't let me down - pressure, tilt everything is perfect (for me anyway).
This is not part of my normal set up but 'it' keeps flying onto my desk and pushing keys. He is very drawn to the clacking of mechanical keyboard keys, and anything shiny...
I've got one more thing to write about which arguably isn't very related to this post. On the other hand it was the last piece of the puzzle and essential gear for having a very convenient set of tools for drawing. A light tracing pad.
I looked at a couple options and this one seemed perfect for me - it's very thin and light, has a brightness setting and is LED. It was $80 on Amazon for 8' x 12' size (it's actually slightly bigger so is perfect for both A4 and Letter which is pretty much what I draw on). There were cheaper options - Autograph had a 40$ one but it was more like a box that seemed inconvenient to use over longer periods of time and used a white light bulb - don't know how evenly it would be lit up so I figured if I am to buy such a thing I'd rather get the one I want. Really you can just build it yourself - take a picture frame and put a lamp under it :)
This makes my life a lot easier - I make a rough sketch than trace it and make necessary adjustments then scan it in - which takes out the guesswork when rebuilding in vector (guesswork as in hmmm which one of these 10 lines in the sketch is the on I'm supposed to build).
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