Post · bonfire.cafe

Bought a small e-ink tablet a few days ago because I’ve always been curious about how it was to draw on one. Got it from Best Buy with the thought that it would be no better than sketching on an iPad and I’d return it. 5 days in and I’m absolutely in love with it.

It’s so fun to draw on. The limitations and limited color palette lets me draw without trying to be perfect or worrying about colors. I thought the remarkable Paper Pro Move size would be too small but it’s perfect.

#art

Photo of my e-ink sketchbook of a girl with short hair jumping into the air.

Photo from my e-ink sketchbook of a girl with long hair swinging a sword downwards as one knee is lifted into the air.

Daniel Gomes

@dfgomes@mastodon.social replied · 5 days ago

@mark Looks amazing. You are very talented, as we already knew from your apps. The Remarkable is meant to be the best so this battery life is probably better than most other E-ink tablets

Santiago Lema :amiga: - 🚚 migrating

@santi@gone.lema.org replied · 5 days ago

@mark How’s the ecosystem day to day ? I see they have a subscription. Fair enough, but I wonder how locked-in one ends up with file formats etc ?

the_blackwell_ninja [EST]

@the_blackwell_ninja@mastodon.online replied · 5 days ago

@mark These sketches are cool! Thanks for sharing!

Lucien Dupont

@lwdupont@mastodon.social replied · 5 days ago

@mark Those are amazing!!! :)

Jonathan Wight

@schwa@mastodon.social replied · 5 days ago

@mark what the refresh latency on something like that?

Mark Jardine :misc_mtb:

@mark@tapbots.social replied · 5 days ago

@schwa not bad at all while drawing. The preview pixels get drawn pretty instantly. When you lift off of the tablet it refreshes a bit slow and moving between screens refreshes pretty slow like most e-ink displays I’ve seen. You get used to it after awhile.

Jonathan Wight

@schwa@mastodon.social replied · 5 days ago

@mark so it’s able to only refresh under the pen?

Mark Jardine :misc_mtb:

@mark@tapbots.social replied · 5 days ago

@schwa not sure I understand that question. This is my first real experience with e-ink too so I’m honestly not very familiar with how it wall works. 🙂

Jonathan Wight

@schwa@mastodon.social replied · 5 days ago

@mark yeah I’m used to full page refreshes no matter how small the change. So I’m assuming that they’re beyond that now and able to update selective portions of the screen these days

Mark Jardine :misc_mtb:

@mark@tapbots.social replied · 5 days ago

@schwa ah yea I think it just refreshes the section you added while editing.

1 more replies (not shown)

Denis

@denis@mastodon.world replied · 5 days ago

@mark First: Great art! There’s nothing better than being able to scribble and see where it takes you…

Also - question: Does it have pressure sensitivity?

Mark Jardine :misc_mtb:

@mark@tapbots.social replied · 5 days ago

@denis thanks! It does! And does shading when held at an angle. Very similar to the Apple Pencil in those regards.

Michael Gemar

@michaelgemar@mstdn.ca replied · 5 days ago

@mark What device? My spouse just got a Supernote, but primarily for note-taking.

Mark Jardine :misc_mtb:

@mark@tapbots.social replied · 5 days ago

The biggest disappointment for me so far is battery life. I thought they advertised the battery life as 2 weeks or something, but I’m barely getting 2 days if that. I’m guessing sketching and using layers just pushes the device a lot harder than someone using it to jot notes? One drawing and I’m down from 100% to around 60. I’m used to charging my devices so it’s not a big deal, but would have been nice if it was a bit better.

Here’s a few more sketches I’ve done on it:

#art

Photo of my tablet with a girl standing with her arms crossed and looking smug.

Photo of my tablet with a girl looking in melancholy.

Photo of my tablet with a drawing of a girl jumping into the air dynamically with the intention of an attack.

Mark Jardine :misc_mtb:

@mark@tapbots.social replied · 4 days ago

Today’s sketch.

#art

Photo of a drawing on my remarkable paper pro move. The sketch is of a girl with long red hair holding her mean cat away from her with 2 hands.

Mark Jardine :misc_mtb:

@mark@tapbots.social replied · 3 days ago

Was a busy day so stayed up extra late to get this (one sketch a day) done before bed. 😴

#mastoart #art

Photo of my e-ink sketch tablet with a girl with short hair sticking her tongue out towards the camera.

Mark Jardine :misc_mtb:

@mark@tapbots.social replied · 2 days ago

A bit behind schedule again. Started to draft this sketch, but it will have to wait until tomorrow to be finished.

#mastoart #art

Rough sketch of a girl with her hair tied in a pony tail holding a hand gun at her left side with both hands as she sneaks to the right.

Mark Jardine :misc_mtb:

@mark@tapbots.social replied · yesterday

Done. Could use a bit more, but these are supposed to be quick daily sketches. 😅

#mastoart #art

Finished sketch of the drawing from the previous post of the girl with a piny tail holding a hand gun. This is zoomed up closer to show details.

Finished sketch of the drawing from the previous post of the girl with a piny tail holding a hand gun.

Mark Jardine :misc_mtb:

@mark@tapbots.social replied · 23 hours ago

Okay I guess I wasn’t really done. Initially intended to have her leaning against a wall.

As a bonus, the second image is what the artwork looks like from the remarkable app. I honestly prefer the muted look on device, but still cool to see it in full color even though the colors can look pretty weird. #mastoart #art

Same sketch, only instead of a photo of my sketch on my tablet, this one is what is shown in the remarkable app.

Same sketch as the previous post but added a background. The girl has her back to a wall next to a doorway entrance with light coming from the other room.

1 more replies (not shown)

Simon Harper

@simonharper@mastodon.social replied · yesterday

@mark they’re very cool Mark.

Joe Welch

@JoeWelch@mastodon.gamedev.place replied · 2 days ago

@mark these are so cool. Keep sharing them. It’s making me want to pick up drawing again. Haven’t drawn since I was a kid and now I SUCK at it.

Mark Jardine :misc_mtb:

@mark@tapbots.social replied · 2 days ago

@JoeWelch Just do it! I started drawing daily to prove to my kids that if you want to get good at something, you just have to practice often.

Ollie Boermans

@ollicle@mastodon.social replied · 3 days ago

@mark I have the first edition remarkable (love it). Where colours are only apparent in the export.

How do those colours look in the exported images?

Mark Jardine :misc_mtb:

@mark@tapbots.social replied · 3 days ago

@ollicle definitely vibrant and a bit weird. 😅 but not bad! Main issue is there isn’t really a good skin tone so it always looks very orange. Would work well if I was forced to draw some unnamed loser in the white house.

Ollie Boermans

@ollicle@mastodon.social replied · 3 days ago

@mark 🤣

I hope it doesn’t come to that!

Alex MacK

@alexmack@mastodon.social replied · 4 days ago

@mark your turn @stroughtonsmith

Muro deGrizeco

@murodegrizeco@toad.social replied · 4 days ago

@mark

The vet examining our cat today said,

"I came here from Spain. The cats there bite! (American) cats here don't as much! I don't know why!"

Me, my spouse, and my tiny tortie cat said "what?"

Miguel Arroz

@arroz@mastodon.social replied · 5 days ago

@mark Amazing drawings! Regarding battery life, keep in mind those screens only draw power when the image changes (and they draw quite a bit since they need to physically move tiny ink bubbles around). Drawing requires the image to be updated every frame while you’re moving the stylus on the screen, so it’s a lot more screen updates than just reading or browsing the web. But two days ain’t bad, you can recharge during sleep and never run out of battery during usage.

Dustin

@digitalkrampus@mastodon.social replied · 5 days ago

@mark these look fantastic! The colors from the eink is very pleasant.

David Haydl

@DavidHaydl@mastodon.social replied · 5 days ago

@mark my paper pro is also just three days. they say it‘s normal, but I don‘t fully buy it. for me, its just a notebook, so display does not refresh that often

Mark Jardine :misc_mtb:

@mark@tapbots.social replied · 5 days ago

@DavidHaydl from what I read, the backlight, WiFi, and using colors can shorten the battery life faster. I’ll probably do some unscientific tests turning those off and only drawing in black and white with no layers to see if it’s any better. But I’m not in a situation where I can’t charge it often so it’s not a dealbreaker for me.

Julio 🏳️‍🌈 🇨🇺 🇪🇸 🇺🇸

@Blanco@c.im replied · 5 days ago

@mark Batteries will not improve with current technology.

Targrus

@targrus@masto.cigar-orc.us replied · 5 days ago

@mark Remarkable put a LOT of time into the pencil of paper like experience of their products and it really shows.

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