The reason I bring this up, and there’s a reason I promise, is that digital artists haven’t had many tools where portability and capability overlap near-perfectly in a Venn diagram. No normal monitor arm dare try to hoist its heft, so it sits on an imposing metal limb that looks like an assembly line robot in an automotive plant. The 27QHD is roughly the size of a late eighties Buick with the price tag to match. My main workstation boasts a Cintiq 27QHD.

The other devices I live with are even more studio and desk bound.

But, as dependable and capable as it was, it was never as portable as I’d hoped. I used it for three or four years - daily - from launch until now. Much like it’s current kin, the MobileStudio Pro, it felt like a device that wanted to be plugged in to a power source, set on a desk, and worked at in a tethered, stationary way.ĭon’t get me wrong. The compromises asked by the Companion were those of true portability. Clip Studio on the Cintiq Companion offered me desktop-grade art software with no compromises. Was the Pencil’s feel a result of the hardware’s low fidelity or was it representative of the early, rough handful of art apps? I couldn’t tell you. Some folks swore by Procreate, but the floaty, distant feel of making marks and the shallow, odd brush engine left me wanting. I was in a long term relationship with my Cintiq Companion, the precursor to the MobileStudio Pro, and a Surface Pro, and the slate of apps available on the iPad Pro seemed more suitable for sketching and ideation than finished works. When last I’d checked in with the iPad Pro, it was a nascent device with little apps more than Procreate to justify its expense. An hour after hearing the news I rushed out and purchased a new 12.9” iPad Pro and Apple Pencil. Suffice to say, the release of my preferred art tool on the iPad Pro intrigued me. It’s successor, Clip Studio, has been my go-to application for illustration since I beta tested the English localization for Smith Micro. I’ve used some form of Celsys’ art software since about 2004 back when it was called Comic Studio in Japan. Clip Studio Paint, the iPad Pro, Art Studio House Arrest, and YouĬelsys recently released a feature complete, no concessions made, portable version of its desktop illustration software, Clip Studio Paint, for iOS and the iPad Pro.

Clip studio twitter