A countdown to a countdown. Wow, Dave, you really have the knack for keeping your threads alive.

Dude, this countdown was fake. It's soul purpose was to trick you to come here.

Got ya

Sorry, been going out a lot so didn't get to see any of these posts. Anyway, I can't use this scanner pen because it doesn't have the textures and blending techniques that I'm gonna need to create hyper-realistic drawings. See, art tools don't only depend on the colors, but on the texture they give, as well. And i bet it's gonna be one hellova pricey pen..

Textures would be an issue with the pen...
thankfully that isn't the case with the stylus and applying textures in program.
But a Blending prob with 16 million shades hues and colours?
I used to use prismacolors as a kid...and looking back then to now...I personally have no prob with either oils, pastels nor penabled convertible tablet pc programs getting fine detail or blending...and concerning penabled illustration work with comp...the level of extraordinary depth and fine work is frankly miraculous in my humble estimation.
expensive?
hmm...well...right now 69 bucks as an early adopter with extras ...for the stylus. Over $100 for 2...
It's less than that for early adopter for the pen...it was just over $35 I think....I glanced at the price briefly...It could be more...but it wasn't over $50.
Affordability is purely subjective to what's in a wallet...and the "need" for that particular thing.
Anyway...
I do understand getting into "the zone"... with particular methods and tools...and feeling more comfy ...it takes me some time for my hands to get comfortable with new styli ...or brushes...or carving tools... for that matter.....especially freshly purchased tools with new or radically different physical design modifications.

I used to be a classical purist back in the day when it came to drawing painting and sculpture....I was a techno-artistic Luddite ...
which extended into the rest of my life with tech...I learned coding back in the grand age of the 1st comps. ...the vic 20...the comm 64...
but I pretty much abandoned tech...for about 15 years...just wanted to make stuff...not sit at a comp. ...until the late 1990's and I saw the writing on the wall...the fact that every aspect of personal, social, and business life was becoming tied to comps. ....My enforced anti-tech solitude would not be sustainable in our civilization....and knowledge meaning power and freedom...what option but to learn ...eh? ....so I had a hell of a sharp learning curve to deal with.

And of course...slow and sure... the artistic techno-innovation "goodies-bag" ...just kept getting better and better...to the point it had me drooling with wanting to play with the tech.
Tell ya it was a trick getting used to using haptic gloves and virtual (glasses) environments to play with 2 and 3d design, drawing, painting and sculpture....it was only once I started using resistance feedback haptics (where when you touch or handle objects in a virtual environment that you can sorta "feel" resistances...weights and pressures ...in a very weird kinda way. Its like nothing else ...it's hard to explain how it "feels"...anyway...) that I found the artificial environment more comfortable....so to speak.
So now ..for myself ...where I used to have a revulsion response especially to tech and art combined....now I have no prob enjoying it. A tool is a tool ...I enjoy my carving, instrument making, brushes, paints and box of sketching charcoal and my graphites as much as my stylus, haptics, virt. glasses and environs. Just a matter of what I feel like that day or days and what the project is. I'm simply happy for all the options at our disposal nowadays.

1) You type in VERY big paragraphs :P - fix that.
2) Dude! Your Prismacolors are SURELY the verithin or the SCHOLAR ones! Prismacolor Premier is a TOTALLY different thing!

Hahaha...
Ah ...AMD..
Love ya man...

So you are saying that the quality of tools makes the artists? That must be why my drawings sucks since 1991

Love ya too

No, you need to know how to use them, too. I can do realistic drawings with a mere bic pen, too
But sometimes artist-quality tools make the job easier

Ha
Naw Dave....quality is a very subjective thing.
example in illustrative art materials and view : I started out as a child to my late 20's early 30's before I figured it out...
started with crayons, oil/ chalk pastels and fingerpaints...
I went to pencils,
then pencil crayons,
then markers and pens,
then insanely fine point 000 drafting pens for madly wrought execution,
then acrylic painting,
then watercolour,
then oil painting,
Alllll the while thinking the better material and more refined technique the ultimate.
Refinement is great ...
Technical ability is great...
Both should be honed...
But in the end it is the raw exuberance of emotion applied and perfection of natural line ...A few other artisans concur ...
It's the perfection of what a kid does...
So in the end for me I found (at times) the random unpredictability of watercolours fabulous ...and when I rediscovered oil pastels as more exacting than oils and more fun to boot...I got my hands back into them.
Hehe full circle.

I really enjoy technical ability ...drawing as perfect a circle as possible by hand is a good start.
having someone who can model for you...or many people is great too...drawing the human body ...hands, faces, eyes, mouths,
real good practice.

But there also comes a point in my opinion where the purpose becomes trying to execute a picture which can fool the eye...
hyper-realism so to speak. (in Canada we have scads of artists that do wildlife painting and illustration...they are perfect at what they do...but innately the viewer can tell the artist was not present to paint the scene....something seriously missing...so to speak) but at that point a camera does it better.

Personally I think exploring the emotion in the line, brush stroke, whatever....in such illustrative work... trumps the technical...surpasses it and elevates the work.

I think it a diff matter when approaching the field of sculpture and carving..there...it is a different set of principals at work.

In the end with 2d its about intent... with illustrative work...

You'll have more fun and find it far more fulfilling if you skip the middle and just head back to the crayons Dave