New Art Tool Review from Crabfu

Craft & Design
New Art Tool Review from Crabfu
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It’s the holiday break and that usually means that Crabfu, aka I-Wei Huang (chief character designer for Toys for Bob/Skylanders and MAKE contributor), is monkeying around with some new art tools (and making cool review and demo videos). This year, I-Wei tries his hand at the new Wacom Creative Stylus for iPad Air. He likes it (a lot), but had trouble getting much response from the lightest pen pressure, so he retrofitted the stylus with a Teflon tip from Hex3. In the review video, he shows you several ways to make this conversion. He ends his thoughtful review with a bunch of awesome speed drawing videos showing him using the Creative Stylus and Hex3 nib.

iWei_4

iWei_3

iWei_2

iWei_1

I love watching I-Wei (and other artists) work. As with any form of making these days, there are so many powerful and affordable tools and great how-to/demo videos available. It all just seems so… doable. I’d love to see more makers trying their hand at art. I don’t take New Year’s Resolutions all that seriously, but I think, in 2014, I’m going to get a good drawing app on my tablet and a stylus and get back to sketching. I did a lot of it in my teens and sometimes miss it a lot. Today’s digital art tools couldn’t be more forgiving, so why not?

8 thoughts on “New Art Tool Review from Crabfu

  1. Eric Weinhoffer says:

    I completely agree, Gar. I also used to do a lot of sketching, and think this stylus (and I-Wei’s positive review/tips) are perfect for a “one sketch every day” 2014 resolution attempt. Thanks for sharing!

    1. Gareth Branwyn says:

      When Blake was little, I showed him my sketchbook I had done for a bunch of RPG characters and an orc tribe I created. YOU DREW THAT!? He couldn’t get over the fact that you could dream up a reality and draw it so vividly into existence. I remember that moment and the day that he and I made an animated cartoon by him doing cell drawings and us scanning them into the computer and animating them in Hypercard (this was like 91). These were magical moments for him and I think planted some early seeds that led to his career in art and gaming. And then it was the game Creatures that really flipped his noodle and made him decide he was going to become a game designer.

  2. Nico Gan says:

    Wow, this is a super art tool. Perfect gift for my talented bf

  3. fatih says:

    l think he has verh strong imagination and pencil, it is wonderful. Thank you for sharing this topic

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Gareth Branwyn is a freelance writer and the former Editorial Director of Maker Media. He is the author or editor of over a dozen books on technology, DIY, and geek culture. He is currently a contributor to Boing Boing, Wink Books, and Wink Fun. His free weekly-ish maker tips newsletter can be found at garstipsandtools.com.

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