The Artist's Eyes by Jenn Lee

When I first started a serious interest in art, I was always going through tons and tons of paper, canvas’s, pencils, paints and supplies. I always had boxes of past artwork stored here and stored there. As the years have gone by and multiple hassles with moving around, I have either given away or tossed many art pieces. This is why I love my tablet PC….

In today’s day and age, we are all about technology and gadgets. I had purchased a ThinkPad X41 Tablet PC awhile back, for it’s portability and tablet technology. Much like a Wacom digital tablet, it utilizes a full screen touch point ability for use with a stylus. There are several reasons I believe that this is a great asset to an artist like myself.

One reason I believe it’s a great asset is because I am primarily an ECO friendly artist. I try to keep my imprint on the environment as little as possible with my use of non toxic materials, recycling and reuse of materials. With using a tablet/touch pad PC, I have the ability to draw, paint or sketch out ideas all digitally. With this technology I do not have to use any paper, paint or other materials. It not only reduces my material usage, it but frees up a huge amount of office storage space as well.

Another reason I think it’s a great asset is its portability. As a business woman, I need to have a portable portfolio. Having the convenience of being able to carry my portfolio with me is great. As well, when I am quoting a commission, being able to sketch out ideas on location or digitally sign contracts on the tablet PC, increases productivity.

Recently I decided to add switching my OS (Operating System) as well. Mind you I know Microsoft is popular, and standard on any PC purchase besides a Mac, but we are not limited to it. This laptop came with XP Tablet version installed. Though it was nice to power it up and go, it was not as speedy as I would like, plus XP is a retiring OS, which means I will have to switch it out in the near future. Knowing this, the newer Microsoft OS’s will not run efficiently on this laptops specs. With those things in consideration as well as input from my good friend Jason of Webfoo, and his knowledge and passion for Linux, I decided to try running Linux on it.

Linux is an Open Source operating system. The impressiveness of the Linux community building/creating a completely free OS is amazing of itself, as well the amount of people in the community that donate so much time and energy adding to, fixing issues and developing of their own free will and time spent.

With the successful installation of Ubuntu Lucid 10.04 on my little tablet PC, I immediately noticed a more than significant increase in speed. This alone was a moment of pride and excitement. Pride because I consider myself a complete beginner in working with Linux and excitement that it installed and was configurable without a hitch.

Not only was I able to install the operating system, the free applications available are amazing. I hear a lot of people talk about the amount of applications they can get on their iPhones and iPads with Apple, but at a cost. Again I reiterate, the free resources available in the Linux community is astounding.

If you consider getting a tablet PC, Ubuntu is definitely something to do a little research on. GIMP is like Photoshop. It has many brushes, actions and tools just like Photoshop, but without any of the cost. It has a wonderful application called MyPaint that definitely competes with Adobe Illustrator as well. From my standpoint, MyPaint has the full range of capabilities you have with drawing or painting on a canvas that mimics real life. Did I mention these too are free? Some things to think about…in this artist’s eyes.

I have been tasking my patience dealing with computer issues the past week. I say tasking because I haven’t quite gotten to the point where I have lost my patience and had images of hurling my computer out my window yet, he-he.

I know that it would probably be a lot less stressful to take my PC to a technician and have them trouble shoot it, but the thought of spending that much money on it seems unnecessary to say the least.

After a week of trouble shooting, I found that the video card was the culprit. Back in the early 90’s I was a die hard ATI fan. Then I started having issues with their cards overheating or not being able to last very long. Since then I have been buying Nvidia cards.

Now saying that, is no different than a photographer saying “I prefer Nikon over Canon“. There are good points to both brands but some features are more important to some people vs others. The same goes with video cards. There has always been an argument over ATI vs Nvidia and which is better.

I will say since I started using Nvidia I had been happier with the longevity and reliability for sure…until this card. Up until the Nvidia Geforce 9500 GT, all of my Nvidia graphics cards have had better cooling support. This card seems to heat up more than my past cards and since I also bought one for John’s PC, it has come to the conclusion that this particular card is faulty.

Now you are probably wondering why I am rambling on in this post about my computers video cards aren’t you? Well it’s because as an Freelance Artist and part time Artistic Consultant, I am on my computer or referencing my computer many hours a day. Having a working PC is very important as well as one that can handle a graphical workload. When you are tasking your PC with programs like Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator, Vector graphics programs or any graphically intense programs, take considerable notice in any machine you are thinking about purchasing or upgrades to existing machines you are thinking about and do plenty of research into the user/customer ratings and reviews before buying…a good tip…in this artist’s eyes.