Nice!
@robinhartleywillows Which e-ink tablet are you using? (I’ve been a big proponent of e-ink and stylus usage for a long while — currently using a Kindle Scribe, but am considering a new device in the new year)
Hey @WillAdams, yeah I got a reMarkable a few years ago - it’s quite expensive but I use it both for work and at home so that’s how I’m justifying myself 
I like the drawing experience, they’ve really nailed it, though their recent development has focussed a lot on digital text conversion which doesn’t interest me so much.
Anyway, I’ve been tempted for a while to do some simple line art to cut out on my Shapeoko. I like the idea of capturing a character or creature with some minimal but well-placed pen strokes. I’m not very good at art but with liberal use of the undo button, you can get something pretty respectable!
As for work flow, I exported the drawing as a simple image (emailed it to myself as a PDF) and then used Inkscape to convert it to an SVG, as well as tinker with the line widths. Then it’s a matter of importing into fusion 360, programming the toolpath and away we go 
I can’t advocate for/against the Kindle Scribe but tbh I think this workflow would be possible on any kind of iPad or e-ink tablet. It’s probably just the drawing experience itself which influences the decision.
Hope that ramble helps - would be interested to see other people who have tinkered in a similar fashion!
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The hoops necessary to jump through to get files off of my Kindle Scribe deter me from it.
It doesn’t help that my standard for drawing environments is unreasonably high — dating back to the just about perfect combination of:
- Go Corp.'s PenPoint running on an NCR-3125
- FutureWave SmartSketch — an application designed from the outset for vector drawing (it eventually became Macromedia Flash by way of an animation-oriented version)
- exporting an EPS
- loading that vector file into Adobe Illustrator 3.2 on a NeXT Cube
- copy-pasting into Altsys Virtuoso 2.0
The closest thing to the Futurewave drawing experience would be:
https://www.wickeditor.com/editor/
and I’d really like to see that or something similar running on an e-ink device (I’ve been looking at Onyx, Supernote, Kobo, and Daylight Computer)
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Hmm yes that is a tough act to follow, maybe you should just hunt down the same kit and live out your retro sketching dream
I dare say doing native SVG creation with a physical pen is not something I’ve seen done well (maybe others have). The reMarkable has the ability to export as an SVG, layers and different colours etc. but I don’t think it’s as practical as you’d need.
For me, I think just embracing a non-svg drawing experience is the best way to go and then converting it in Inkscape once you’re done. I dare say with black and white sketches, you could just take a well-lit picture of the e-ink screen on your phone, and you’d still get good results after some work in photoshop, inkscape etc. using some filtering and background removal.
Penpoint was a victim of not having been programmed Y2K safe (my NCR-3125 was donated to the Smithsonian) while my NeXT Cube unfortunately stopped booting — I’ve considered emulation since I got NeXTstep 3.3 and OpenSTEP 4.2 Y2K patches from Apple, but that’s just another bother.
When I do need to draw I just fold back the display on my Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 and draw in either Macromedia Freehand or Carbide Create or Affinity Designer or Inkscape.
what pen are you using on the galaxy book? my partner has one and its a damn nice computer, thinking of one for myself
I use a quite wide variety:
- Staedtler Noris Digital Stylus (this is probably my favourite)
- Jumbo edition of above
- Wacom One stylus (this has a harder tip in it, so works well w/ a screen protector)
- Kindle Scribe Premium Pen (need to get the new one with the improved eraser) — this is probably the best value
- Lamy Wacom EMR Al-Star (this one stays in my bag in case I forget to bring another stylus)
- siloed stylus from my Samsung Galaxy Note 10+
- various bundled styluses from my Galaxy Book 12 and Book 3s
- the stylus from an HP ZBook X2 was esp. nice (side switch and eraser) until it was dropped and broke, but haven’t replaced it since the Kindle Scribe Premium Pen is more readily available
There are a few others I still want to try, but not able to justify what would essentially be collecting…
The big thing I’d recommend is adding a pen loop:
https://www.leuchtturm1917.us/writing-instruments-storage/pen-loops/pen-loops-classic/
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For what it’s worth, I just picked up an XPPen Artist Pro 16, which is absolutely brilliant.
I’m slowly learning how to sculpt in blender, and can’t imagine any other way to do it effectively besides a pressure sensitive pen display.
Haven’t tried using it for vector work yet, which I mostly do in Inkscape, but I have used it for touching things up in Gimp and it’s incredible with the airbursh or paint brush.
When I get more time I’m going to further explore Krita, which now has amazing AI plugins.
I should add, I wanted to get a Surface Studio 2+, but the hardware is out of date, and I think it’s now been discontinued.
For me, it’s Wacom EMR or bust (I could barely tolerate the first-gen Wacom AES on my Toshiba Encore 2 Write 10, and the Trig digitizer on my son’s Surface Book 2 made me want to throw the thing at a wall).
Bought a first gen. Wacom One, and it’s been quite nice.