Compact.

The Belkin QODE keyboad is nothing if not compact.Today I went out with my iPad, a stylus and this keyboard just to see how much I could do with the stripped down rig. 

Look - the mug of iced coffee was more substantial than the studio gear. 

And flipped, so you can see the keyboard:

Open:

The keyboard works well, although it is a bit stiff and a bit small.  If it is located right at the edge of the table or desk, I can type comfortably. Even an inch further back and its a different story. Likewise when using it on my lap.  

As you can see, it is a lot smaller than a standard keyboard. 

 

As an easel it works fine.  It furnishes slots for two useful viewing angles.

 

And can be easily shifted for landscape or portrait orientation, which makes it very  flexible.

The slots offer a sturdy hold for the iPad which makes drawing on it with a finger or a stylus very effective.  In Portrait orientation I found it was a bit too flexible when drawing near the top of the screen - I had to anchor it with my other hand. In Landscape mode there is ample support for the entire screen.  

I also found that when writing with a stylus in my notetaking apps, it was comfortable and convenient.  

Dust in the Air

So much dust in the air today like a brown shroud over the mountains.  Drove out to Hereford for a Coffee and solitude and found myself driving into the cloud. At home, chaos, unrelated to the dust - mom depressed and self-berating today.  She's in one of her everything's my fault moods - I recognize them - I have my own days like that.  Every day she goes just a little further away.  

Sketch Club app for iPad

Click the image to watch it being made!

For the past year I've been working a lot with digital media, both on my computer and on my iPad - I have a few iPad apps that have been central to that work, including Paper, Autodesk Sketchbook Pro, and Procreate.  This week, I added a new tool to my arsenal.
Its called SketchClub, and its a remarkable little app.
Drawing with an iPad is a very intuitive and simple process.  Paper has allowed me to work with a set of simple and reliable tools.  The tools that SketchClub offers are similar, but there are more tools, they are more customizable, and there is support for working on multi-layered imagery as I do in Photoshop.  This added functionality has been a terrific boost!
SketchClub combines the simplicity of Paper with some of the more sophisticated functions of Procreate and Sketchbook, with the added charm of being equipped with a great online publishing tool and a network of users who share their work, their technique, and their opinions online.  I can even let people watch and comment as I work on an image.
I've been using SketchClub with both finger and stylus - the stylus I've preferred, and the one I used on the above image is the Adonit Jot Pro.  Unlike most of the soft tipped styli on the market, the jot pro has a firm tip, with a clear disk attached that lets you view precisely where you are making your lines.  The tip feels like a pen when it touches the iPad screen too.

Notes on Vision 22

I remember my first oil painting It was an odd little thing. Just a blue canvas, with a tiny brown fish in the center of it. Since becoming an adult artist I have decided that the image would have compared favorably to aKlee-or perhaps even have been mistaken for one. If that had been the case it would not have been a very well regarded Klee. I would not expect it to bring a high price in an art gallery, or to hold a place of prominence in a prestigious museum More likely it would appear as apocrypha in some odd textbook- Something that might be of interest to an art historian perhaps, who would then classify it and remark on it's being of no lasting importance except as a misty, a quick knock off work, one that is of interest only because it was made by him. Oh they would hem and haw and pooh pooh the work and move onto a much more complicated composition, one that had elements of magical thinking, something abstract, a subset of impulses that were more recognizably Klee. I also remember that painting with oil was not easy like painting with water media. I remember getting colors all over my hands and not knowing that I could not wash with water-when Ittied I only managed to spread it

out more. A few spots spread into patches which I also succeeded in transferring paint to my clothes and to the counter top I had been working on-finally my father called a friend who worked at a hardware store who explained that I could use turpentine or salad oil to do the job and it  worked, at least to the extent that I was able to dilute the paint enough that although it stained my skin, It no longer transferred to everything touched. Years later when I actually learned a bit about the chemistry of paint, I remembered that first oil mess with humor, but at the time it had confused me. I'd been an artist in a previous life, at least that's what my aunt said; I had retained some of the physical abilities but none of the necessary tools of chemistry, knowing the how but not the "why" or the "what". 

Like many experiences I still learn from that one if I think about it. I remember how thick and viscous the paint was and also the stain quality after dilution and I still u=e that tech to stain paper or canvases as a men Thal ground. I still use that technique to stain a neutral ground. I also learned that in apinchd could use salad oil both as media and to clean mps. Not a bad lesson for a four year old if you ask me.

IN THE AFTERNOON A PHILOSOPHER CAN LIFT A LOT OF WEIGHT WITH A GOOD IDEA. ON A COOL SUMMER AFTERNOON WE CAN RELAX 1/4 THE REFRESHING BREEZE. Its A GOOD TIME To TAKE YOUR LOVER SOME PLACE QUIET. BUT REMEMBER THAT, in your DREAM, WHEN THE RAINS COME, THE ROOF LEAKS LIKE A SIEVE. Your SEX MAY WINDUP COOLER THAN YOU EXPECT THE SOFA, THE BED, ALL TAKE ON WATER. THE ENTIRE Room THE WHOLE HOUSE LEAKS. THERE IS NO SHELTER WHEN IT RAINS. RELAX INTO THE DREAM. PALE EYES LIKE SAUCERS SHINING OUT OF THE DARKNESS. THEY ARE ALL You CAN SEE OF THE DRIFTING DREAMER. THIS IS A SAD MOMENT A FAINT REMINDER OF THOUGHTS THAT DON'T PASS MUSTER OF INTEGERS THAT DON'T ADD Up. THERE IS A CHARGE IN THE AIR A DARK HOLIDAY ELEMENT THAT SEEMS To DECEIVE EVEN THE SUN. THE RESILIENCE OF THESE OLD AND SICK THOUGHTS. HOW DID THE WIND BECOME SO THICK AND SYRUPY, Too HEAVY TO BREATH, CONDENSED AS IF IN BITTER COLD. THERE IS A POLAR INTENSITY FRAUGHT WITH SECRET PATTERNS AND ODDITIES OF MISUNDERSTANDING. 

IF I HAD A CLEAR SENSE OF THE MOMENT I MIGHT ELICIT SOME KIND OF SURRENDER A PASSIVE LUCIDITY PIECED TOGETHER IN A PISSANT SUGGESTION OF ARTICULATE VERBAGE. THERE WOULD BE A SWIFT AND CREDIBLE ARC. You WHO SEE THE FALSEHOOD. You WHO SEEK THE PAGAN RESOLUTION OF TRUTH AND IT's BANNER TRAIL. IF SKIES TURN AS PINK AS PUSSIES, IF OUR HORMONES LIFT US To A DIFFERENT IF NOT ALWAYS BETTER AWARENESS, LINKS US SOMEHOW To THE OTHER AREAS OF SOLACE, PERHAPS IT WOULD ALSO RESOLVE THE PATTERN AND SHOW THE SECRET. THERE ARE LARGE PAYLOADS AND SEVERE PENALTIES FOR SUCH EXTRAVAGANT PILLORIES. SYLVIA WAS NOT NURTURED. SHE IS NOT STABLE BECAUSE SHE BELIEVES THE EARTH IS UNRELIABLE. IT IS A BOARDWALK OF CONSUMPTION, AN ASSUMPTION, A TRAVESTY OF FILTH GROWN IGNORANCE.