All of us show bias when it comes to what information we take in.
We typically focus on anything that agrees with the outcome we want.
[Noreena Hertz]

[Note: This post is likely of little interest to anyone who doesn’t use design software, but I did want to share my experience with the few who do. I’ve had trouble finding information about real experiences with this hard and software.]

I select art supplies, computers, hardware and software based upon how each assists me to achieve what I want to achieve. I’ve used Adobe Illustrator since version 1.0 (over twenty years) but am crashing into the brick wall of my bias.

Several years ago, Adobe Systems switched their software distribution to a creative cloud plan. Instead of charging for software and shipping a disc for installation, they offer a subscription plan where the customer pays a monthly fee to use cloud computing that ties the user to Adobe servers through an internet connection. They tout this as being a less expensive and more efficient method of keeping up with the upgrades and taking advantage of a variety of publishing services. That may be true for some customers, but that does not suit my needs nor the way I work, plus I don’t want to be tethered to Adobe’s cloud. Therefore, I happily use Adobe CS6 (the last non-cloud version).

I treated myself to an Apple iPad Pro and Apple pencil for my birthday. It is my new best friend. I use it in place of a TV, and I draw on it. I looked for two types of drawing programs (pixel-based and vector) and settled on Procreate for the pixel-based software, and Autodesk Graphic for the vector-based software. My first challenge was compatibility so I could open the illustrations on my computer as well. Compatibility has been a challenge for me in one form or another since I started using a personal computer in 1982 so I knew I could figure something out.

• Both of those iPad apps let me transfer documents to my computer by way of iTunes file sharing. My Adobe Illustrator won’t open them.
• Then I installed Adobe Illustrator Draw on my iPad, found it usable but could only move the drawing to the creative cloud Illustrator for desktop work (unless there is something about it I don’t understand). It won’t transfer via iTunes. So I uninstalled it from my iPad.
• I ended up purchasing Affinity Designer and the computer version of Autodesk Graphic on my Mac. Wow! I could spend the rest of my life exploring these pieces of software. Also, they open the iPad illustrations.

Now I am on a roll. I love drawing with the Apple Pencil and only need practice getting used to drawing on such a smooth surface to produce images that look like they were drawn in a sketchbook.