New tech toys always leads to having to learn new things and new ways of thinking about things. It’s always sort of a fun stage to go through, but it can also be a little frustrating.

I’m still loving my iPad. There hasn’t been a single moment of buyer’s remorse. Slowly but surely, it’s wiggling its way deep into my life, and it’s really starting to be useful. Right now, I don’t have a lot of projects or deadlines going on, but when I do, I can see that project management … from the point of inception to the end of the gig … is going to be dramatically different, now that I have a pretty new personal assistant reminding me of things that need to be done and keeping my thoughts collected and in order. My brain has been expanded and upgraded! Just in time too. I swear I get foggier every year. Thank goodness technology keeps providing new devices to help me keep my life on track!

This weekend I spent time deciding which art apps I thought I had to have. So far, I’ve installed Inspire Pro and Sketchbook Express (I’ll be buying Sketchbook Pro sometime today). I haven’t worked with either of them enough to have a truly informed opinion yet, but let me tell you about my first impressions.

Inspire Pro is a powerful paint program, and it mimics wet paint rather well. Too well, perhaps. S far all I have learned how to do with it is smear paint around in interesting ways. Have to start somewhere, right? The are so many settings and ways to apply said digital paint, that I’m sure to be at it a while before I can confidently say I know what I am doing. But exploration is part of the fun of it all!

One interesting thing I noticed while doodling in Inspire was that I wasn’t worrying about making mistakes, because there is, after all, an undo button. Yet even when I made mistakes (or things that could be called mistakes, anyway), I didn’t use said undo button. I just pressed on and worked with what happened. One of the reasons I wanted to go back to doing digital work was that paint on canvas doesn’t have an undo button, and my lack of confidence in the next stroke of paint often lead to there not being a next stroke of paint. I think once I am comfortable working out my painting ideas in pixels and seeing that mistakes aren’t really the end of the world and can lead to better things that will translate into my natural media work. It’s just funny though that now I have paint with an undo button, and I’m still not using the undo button.

There are a couple of things I think would make Inspire even better … layers or the ability to “dry” the paint already applied so subsequent additions of paint don’t blend or smear with what’s already been laid down. A simple pencil or pen tool would be nice as well. It’s always possible they will add a feature like this at a later date. If they did, it would make an already fantastic program even more awesome. For now, I’ll just have to work around the things I’d like it to have that it doesn’t.

As awesome as Inspire Pro is at paint, it’s not so great at sketching and drawing due to the “wet paint” situation and the lack of a pen/pencil tool. It could also be a lack of skills and me not knowing how to fully use the app yet, but I think another program will be required to do some of the base work and maybe the finishing. Enter Sketchbook.

I installed the free and limited version (Sketchbook Express), and even though it has a really small set of the full version’s tools, it’s a sweet little program. I can see that I will love the full version, and that it will work well with Inspire, as well as on its own. I’m quite excited about getting the full version later today and playing with it.

But before I allow myself to get all involved in playing with new apps, I need to upgrade the OS on my mom’s Mac so on Thanksgiving, I can get her all set up with her iPad. I don’t really feel like working on that today, but I probably should. Mom is sure to call again today to ask if I’ve gotten that done, because you know, she’s not nearly as patient about things as I am. She also completely lacks confidence in my ability to do just about anything, so naturally, she’s terrified her computer is going to get screwed up somehow. Yup, better get that done today. It’s either that or not answering my phone until it’s done, which actually … doesn’t sound like a bad idea anyway. I could do with a day of no phone calls, especially from family members.

I also need to find time to wipe out the old blog and reinstall WordPress. I meant to do it this weekend, but time got away from me, and I wasn’t feeling much like sitting at my desk. M wiser back has been on fire with pain since I drove over to Johnson City last week. No idea why, but it hurts like hell. Sitting at my desk makes it really hurt like hell, so I’m really thankful for having the ability to get some online stuff done away from said desk. Viva my iPad and the freedom of wifi!

In other news, there isn’t any other news, therefore, I shall leave you with one of my doodles done with Inspire last night.