Wacom just made my day...if not my year!

Recently I acquired my very first digital tablet and have gotten so much good use out of it!
However, in the back of my mind I kept thinking how cool it would be for me to sketch directly onto paper and somehow record it digitally.

In the past the closest you can come to capturing your artwork which is sketched onto actual paper is with a good old fashion scanner. The problem with this is that you still have the mission of getting the scan just right, importing it properly and then recreating the lines.
This can be a bit of a pain in the bum!

Well boys and girls, it’s time for the next generation in digital drawing technology.
Enter the new Wacom Inkling.

The Wacom Inkling basically makes the dream that I mentioned above, possible.
Simply attach the Inkling to any piece of paper, whether it be a single sheet, or your sketchbook, and let loose with some creativity. The pen itself is ballpoint, so the experience and ‘feeling’ is totally authentic.

This amazing device records your every stroke and movement, whilst translating 1024 levels of pressure. Seriously, that is freaking off the scale brilliant!

Another amazing feature of the Wacom Inkling is the ability to tap a button and instantly create a new layer. This is helpful on so many levels...it just depends on what exactly you are sketching. For example you may be sketching a little surfer character. Once you have given him his basic shape you can then hit the ‘new layer’ button and then work on the wave, then hit it again and work on shadows, and so on and so forth. This makes separating your various elements in Illustrator, or Photoshop that much more hassle free.

Perhaps one of the most important aspects of this Inkling is the fact that it breaches the gap between traditional and digital artists. This device is going to open up the world of digital to a whole new legion of artists that are schooled in more traditional methods. This is what Guido Möller, product manager professional brands at Wacom Europe, had to say about the Inkling, “inspiration comes from a desire to give artistic people the freedom to draw on paper and to provide an easy way to transition the drawings to digital media”.

These bad boys are selling for £149.99
This means the price in South Africa should be around R1500, however I envisage this product being double that price by the time it gets down to this neck of the woods.
I am seriously considering getting my hands on one of these little gems. Sketching is one of my favourite things to do and I always get annoyed when I have to now start recreating in my program of choice. PROBLEM SOLVED!

Christmas is just around the corner, so maybe I can start throwing some not so subtle hints out there to my loved ones....bring forth the Wacom Inkling, it must be MINE!

For those of you who are wondering just how the Wacom Inkling works with your sketchbook I have embedded the ‘set-up’ video below.

So what do you think everyone? Is this some next gen technology or what?
Maybe you think it’s just another fad which will be usurped into a complete Wacom device next year....kind of a Wacom tablet Inkling hybrid thingamajiggy!

Regardless this is some highly impressive work from Wacom. Well done on keeping it hush-hush for so long!

Happiness is the new Wacom Inkling!

GO GET ONE!

D