[Naeem]

Hey guys,

For one of my product design classes, I pitched the idea of designing the perfect plein air painting set. But my teacher pushed me to take the direction of bringing it into the 21st century, and asked if i could consider doing a digital plein air painting set. I think its a great idea, since it's a complete pain in the ass trying to paint with a laptop on your lap and a wacom.
I'll post a list of difficulties i've experienced later, but as part of research, i wanted to come to you guys, as i know some of you have done it. So i wanted first hand opinions, as there may be soemthing i might overlook.

So, this is open. I'll post in my sketches, research, and all that as i go along. Thanks!

[watmough]

Two things,first, a sort of hood that would shield the monitor from ambient light,second,something to place over the keyboard that i could rest my tablet on.

And all of it would have to be black.

[Nag]

[Jabo]

that hood would have to be attached to the flanks of the monitor and keyboard of the laptop. Kind of like a bellow without the front. This way you wouldn't have to attach it to your laptop.

Next thing in my eyes would be a drawer on the bottom of the laptop which stores the wacom. Or a flap that you can rotate so it is above the keyboard.

[Sumaleth]

A digital camera aimed in the direction you're looking? For color picking.
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[sweetums]

With the ability of the captured image to display full size on the monitor, like a wallpaper, as a "capture" layer, similar to the Clone Image function in Corel Painter.
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[neff]

Extra Monitor for Winamp, InstantMessenger etc
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[balistic]

Er, you mean a tablet PC?

All you need is a bit of shade for the screen. Stand it on an easel if you want, or cradle it in your arm.

I'm going to take mine to the art museum and paint some of the classical statues in a week or two.

Not all tablets are equal, but anything with a Wacom behind the screen and decent battery life is fine for impromptu digipainting.
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brian.prince|light.comp.paint

[Affected]

Does it have to be manufacturable right now? Can you get speculative with the components?

If you ask me, an AR headset would be a good way to handle the monitor issue: A set of high-resolution video goggles paired to a good camera, and software to overlay the canvas on top of the view you get in the goggles. This might even be doable right now, although I'm sure it would be expensive as all hell.

[MCMA]

Heya Annisah, a long time no see. I've been AWOL :p
Where did you end up studying?

Off topic
Nick Pugh did a wonderful book called Luminair with design studio press. It's quick and impressionistic digital plein air and absolutly lovely.

To answer your question I've had no luck at all even taking a laptop out in the sun. Painting digitally even less. I always end up grabbing oldschool pen and paper. This time of year we have 23 hours of sun per day for a couple of months. It's lovely. Just hard to sleep properly hehe.
I will follow your progress with interest
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[Naeem]

Hey guys, thanks a bunch for the responses! They were quite helpful.

Affected> that was quite a helpful comment. It really helped me find an explanation for my ideas. My teacher had shot me down, saying that it was too 'sci-fi/entertainment design' .
MCMA> long time no see indeed! I'm studying at art center at night, and pasadena city college, and will soon be transferring to the art center full time day program this january, located in pasadena, california .

I've done a bunch of research, but i'll think twice about posting it, since i feel its put together rather unprofessionally, and is pretty amateur. I'll see if i can put up some sketches as well. pulling an all nighter at the moemnt though, so... i shall post them soon!

[octavian]

Hey annis..... long time no chat. seems macintosh has already made it for you. http://www.axiotron.com/index.php?id=modbook

I second balistic. why would you need to make this? it's all in a tablet pc or in this case the modbook.

hope u r well