The other day, quite recently, I clicked “place your order” on… a toy New York MTA bus. I can’t pretend it was for the youngster of the house, it was for me. No, it is not a mid-life crisis (heh… I’m sure others might differ on this point), and I will happily declare that it is not out of nostalgia for my time in the city, especially back in the 90s.
It’s for the book. I’ve an entire story set on a bus in Manhattan and I neglected to location scout a bus when I was last there. I figured I could work from tourist photos and so forth. Turns out that you don’t get many good tourist photos of MTA bus interiors, and not the angles I want. Then I discovered various online bus-loving subcultures that go through all the details of every model of NYC bus, with endless shots of the buses in different parts of the city… but still not many good interiors and no good overheads and so forth. (See Transittalk, for example – I now know way more about buses in New york than I ever thought I’d want to know.) Then I accidentally had an Amazon link show up in my search results and there was a model of the very bus model I wanted to see more of. So I bought it. The very next morning I was able to hold it up to the light and (with some effort as the windows are tinted) get the shot I want with the little model seats in view, and then my drawing and painting took over to do the rest. (There are several elements missing from the model, although it is rather good overall. Those details can be just added while drawing the scene. I won’t be adding Suicide Squad posters and the like.)
I may still build a version of the parts I need in 3D, but for now, this works rather nicely. Oh, and as a bonus, I can play with it with my son!
-cvj
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Wow! Forgot about that post! Gosh, I was able to find time to be so much more *interesting* back then…. (I hope to be again, once the book is over…)
p.s. and the handbag conversation! that was great too – DOWN with murses and their ilk!!
that is exactly the post, along with the follow up when you are writing on the bus – many thanks, CVJ – I am so used to my fingers now the pencil might feel strange but I’m going to try it anyway, with the ipad pro – I use Notability constantly, almost every day (I started with Notetaker HD as you had mentioned it in your post, but then switched over and I do not remember why, but I love that app) …http://asymptotia.com/wp-images/2010/08/letter_to_readers-2010-08-30-page-1.png
Hi Jennifer! Thanks. The apple pencil is one of the best things they done in a very long time. I waited until the normal sized iPad pro came out and then got one – solely because I wanted to use the pencil as part of my workflow for this project and also for work stuff in general – I was an early adopter of the original pad for taking notes in seminars and so forth (notetaker HD was my go to app for that). For me, the large iPad was a step backwards since a major feature of the iPad for me is that it should be something I can pop into my handbag and bring out and work on it (or sketch on it) without it being a big song and dance. (See my post from 6 years ago on this: http://asymptotia.com/2010/08/27/my-office-in-my-handbag-the-ipad-as-a-serious-work-tool/) As for this book project, the iPad +pencil is great for supplementing my main desktop workflow. I can do rough art, supplementary art, and sometimes even final art, while sitting on the train between home and office and then build it all back into the main work by iTunes transfer once I get to either end.The pencil itself is the best stylus for the iPad that I’ve used, and I’ve used a lot of them. It’s as much a joy to use as a real pen or pencil for writing or sketching. You forget about it within a short while of using it, as you should, and just get on with the task in hand. I’ve never been able to say that about any of the third party stylus before, even ones I’ve (mostly) liked, like the jot pro. Enjoy!
these look great, Clifford – did you upgrade to the giant ipad, or to the latest 9.7″ which looks wonderful? I have used an ipad for years because of a blog post you wrote ages ago on using your finger with the ipad. If you have a recommendation, would love to hear it.
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