After having been waiting for Wacom Inkling for quite a long time, I was very much excited to finally get my hands on this coveted device. So, now when I have purchased it, I can write a short review and share my first impression of Wacom Inkling. I must say that I am a big fan of Wacom products as I’ve got accustomed to the quality and performance of their graphic tablets (I am currently using a Wacom Intuos 4 drawing tablet and I am satisfied with what it can offer for facilitating my life as an artist).

The Wacom Inkling ad which has grabbed my attention and nudged to buy the device

From the first grasp on the Inkling pen, I felt the outstanding quality and style peculiar to Wacom. I’ve got accustomed to this quality over the years of working with traditional drawing tablets from Wacom.

But it came the time to proceed with the test of my newly purchased Wacom Inkling. Having made a few simple line drawings, I felt that the pen grip is rather comfortable to use, though somewhat thick in comparison with a conventional ballpoint pen. However, working with the Wacom Intuos 4 pen which looks similar to Inkling’s, I did not feel much discomfort. The case material is pleasant to touch and the pen is easy to hold and control in the hand. I should mention a high quality of the pen tip which does not stain the paper and allows controlling the line thickness at a certain level of drawing skills. What is unpleasant is that the pen tip is somewhat loose and each time I touch the paper with the pen I feel this freaking looseness and a clicking sound. But may be it’s the case only with my device.

However, after I had checked the results of my first drawings rendered by my Wacom Inkling, I was somewhat disappointed. What I saw on the computer was very different from what I had drawn on paper. Lines positions were shifted a few millimeters relative to each other which was enough for the drawing to look inaccurate; some lines were missing at all. After more thorough reviewing of the recommendations on setting up and proper operation of the pen, I found no improvements.

As a test, I made a more complicated drawing on an A4 sheet of paper with a lot of strokes using my favorite drawing style. The result was not reassuring for me.

As can be seen from images below a lot of lines rendered by Wacom Inkling are off and the final drawing is far from being accurate. Here are images showing how the drawing looks like when exported into Adobe Illustrator.

Maybe I’m doing something wrong and someone could suggest me how I can remedy the situation with Wacom Inkling being so inaccurate.

All that being said, I can summarize by warning people who want to use Wacom Inkling for something more that creating quick and rough sketches to be edited and processed on the computer. The tool is not suitable for completed artworks or drawings which style requires accurate lines. Nothing but sketches for now… A great advantage of the device is its portability and small size. Also it should be mentioned that Wacom Inkling allows creating vector images directly from hand drawings “on the fly”. The ability to draw in layers helps avoid mistakes or at least allows making easier corrections with graphic editing software.

Sure, Wacom Inkling will find many fans among digital artists, graphic designers etc. However this device proved to be a disappointment for me as it seemed to be useless for my drawing style. I remain committed to my traditional Wacom tablet (which is great) and a scanner. I want to thank you the Wacom company though for their hard work in making my dreams come true, albeit this time they did not meet my expectations I still believe that Wacom will improve the Inkling technology soon to make the digital pen more precise and suitable for more complicated drawings rather than raw sketches.

Having wasted $ 300 for a Wacom Inkling and being absolutely disappointed with its performance I am still a big fan of what Wacom is doing in the domain of digital arts tools as I do not know if there is a brand which can offer something better than Wacom can.

This post is about my recent portrait featuring a woman and a Chevrolet Bel Air. This portrait was drawn from old photographs assumingly taken in early 50’s. The person featured in the portrait is the grandmother of the woman named Jen who commissioned me to create this artwork as an original gift for her mother for the upcoming Mother’s Day.

The younger generation is luckier than our parents and older ancestors when it comes to preserving time and memory of their loved ones. Today almost anyone can make and share hundreds of photos and videos of decent quality without having to visit specialized studios and even enable real-time remote communication with his or her mother using free Internet tools when she is far away. Our parents had not all those technological benefits we enjoy today living in the digital age. Very often our parents have to content themselves with a few poor quality photos of their fathers and mothers. It’s pity those photos oftentimes do not look good enough to be hung on a wall or be displayed in a conspicuous place.

That’s the reason why Jen has chosen a portrait of her grandma as a surprise gift for her mom who apparently had only a few old and faded b&w photos of her mother.

I personally think this portrait is a good, creative and touching idea for the Mother’s Day gift. Jen wanted the portrait to have a vintage vibe and reflect the spirit of 1950s when her grandmother was enjoying her young years. She suggested introducing a vintage Chevrolet car to the portrait to support this retro portrait idea. To my surprise when I asked her to choose between two drawing styles for the portrait – drawing with color pencils and pen brushes (a kind of imitation of the traditional vintage drawing style) and black and white drawing with brushes and pen & ink using the hatching technique – she chose the latter option as she believed that the black and white hatching would give the portrait a very peculiar retro look. Well, I tried my best to impart the vintage vibe to the drawing and to adapt my hatching technique to the desired result. I also created a few color versions of the digital image of the portrait to add more retro appearance to the artwork. I hope that Jen’s mother will appreciate the gift, and a large and good-looking portrait of the beloved mother and grandmother will find its place of honor in a conspicuous place of the happy family’s house to always remind them the person whose loving care can never be forgotten and underappreciated.

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