This one got away from me a little bit. I was still really tired form not getting much rest and felt like I was working in slow motion. Anyway, I’m nearing being an hour and a half late, so I guess talking a little bit won’t matter much one way or the other.

In spite of the many, many, monetary problems I’m dealing with I’m making it a priority to upgrade my work computer. The 20th anniversary of the comic is in March and I kind of feel like I owe it a present. The problem is figuring out what to do about upgrading things. I’ve been making all my art on a Surface tablet of some type since… Shit, I’m not even sure how long. The Surface screen is superior to anything else I’ve tried and the touch features are crucial to my process now. When it comes to drawscreens the touch part is what makes them expensive. That’s neither here nor there really. I’ll pay whatever it takes to have a really big touchscreen.
Microsoft made a large desktop Surface, but have since discontinued it. That was what I was hoping to get when I was hit with the financial disaster that stopped me from upgrading earlier. I think it was called the surface Studio 2+. The reviews where mostly positive, especially concerning the screen itself. Unfortunately it wasn’t made to be upgraded further. You pretty much got what you got, which I understand on one level, but still find irritating. My art very rarely stresses my surface, so it’s not like I need a lot of power, but if I’m paying a premium price I want a premium product. That’s why I held off on trading up to a new Surface until they added USBC to one. It really didn’t end up being all that important, but I do have the port when I need it, so it’s good.
All I really want is a huge Microsoft screen. I could hook it up to any old tower that way and improve as I go if it became an issue. At the moment I don’t think Microsoft offers any stand alone touch screens. As far as I know the largest one they made was the 28 inch one that was permanently attached to the Studio 2+. There are rumors of a Studio 3, but that doesn’t really help me. I’m at an age where I can’t wait ten more years for things to improve. I might be willing to wait a year or so if there was an official announcement. Maybe longer. Depends on how I feel on the day I make a choice really.
Really this is a terrible time to be trying to upgrade my setup since there are shortages and all the changes going on with the economy. The uncertainty is making people cagey when it comes to pricing. Ultimately though you have to spend money to make money sometimes. My eyes aren’t going to start improving suddenly. I’ve got to take steps to get ahead of the ravages of time.
I don’t know if any of you are artists. As far as I know there are few in my audience if any. If you have any insight or advice I would certainly appreciate your perspective. Even if it only applies to building a PC that could run Clip Studio at a high level.
If things don’t work out I’ll be fine just using my Surface until it quits. I’ve never regretted moving over to them as a platform and if I ever get a decent pair of glasses that may be all I end up needing for a while.
Anyway, that’s one of the things I’ve been thinking about recently. Not super interesting but it is my blog after all. I hope the new page finds you well and you have a nice weekend. I’ll return on Monday with more of my shenanigans. Until then, stay true, citizen.

21 Comments

She’s got Green Eyes, he’s got blue eyes, she may just get lucky.

Regardless of eye color they’ll both get lucky.

And now I am earwormed with Daft Punk for the day :P
Not a bad thing!

Except they won’t stay up all night TO get lucky, they’ll stay up all night BECAUSE they got lucky

cause and effect can be cyclical at times

By what is being toted as the best for 2025 we have:

Microsoft Surface Pro 11th Edition Snapdragon X, great performance, long battery, Copilot+ PC

LG Gram Pro 16 2-in-1 Ultra-light, powerful, vibrant display for creatives

…but starting $2000 so yeah maybe a gofundme or such?

Something like a computer is a business expense. I’ll save the go fund me for a true emergency.

Just marry them already. I want to see them living a happy married life with kids

How much time has actually passed since the comic’s start?

I don’t think it’s even been a year yet. I just did a binge read, I think Thomas and Carol have been dating like 6-8 months

She looks SO good in that second panel! The half-lidded eyes really do it for me. It just speaks of a great love. *swoon*

Well, I wondered when Carol would divulge how attractive his eyes are.

And if the internet is correct, the likelihood of blue eyes are 50%, and green eyes are 50% (standard probabilty applies).

It’d be cool if their kid had one green eye and one blue one. I mean, Brooksie has heterochromia, but hers is the result of an accident, not genetic.

What’s with Carol’s hair color? I mean, the hair in the lower back of her head are darker than the rest.
Is she dying them like that, or is it shading, or something else?

A ginger in the sun?
Going for a Violent Femmes earworm, after the Daft Punk.

I think that is her dying her hair and cutting the bottom shorter, so the dyed bits are gone and you see the natural colour that has been growing out.

The hair is a darker shade of the same red. That’s just how god made her.

Hi there Jackie,

I remember suggesting the Surface to you as something to look into many years ago on Twitter, when you were first looking for a drawing tablet, and I’m glad that seems to have worked out for you as well as it has.

In terms of a tethered solution that you hook up to a PC, the Wacom tablets / slates seem to be the gold standard, but they’re also hideously expensive. One far more affordable option that caught my eye is the XP Pen Artist tablets, which look to have some very attractive models for hundreds of dollars rather than thousands (https://www.amazon.com/Artist-Pro-22-Pressure-Laminated/dp/B0DP6VPHQW). The cheaper models have 1080p screens which may be a bit low, but the more expensive models have 1440p / qhd screens which are probably a lot better. They also have a 24″ 4k product (https://www.amazon.com/Drawing-Pressure-Wireless-Keydial-Laminated/dp/B0DB8H324C), but now you’re looking at $1k, though that’s still a LOT cheaper than a Wacom.

Then you need a PC, and unfortunately you’ve chosen a pretty rough time to want to buy one, at least if you want to buy new, given RAM and GPU prices are going up fast. The system specs for Clip Studio Paint 4 look to be really modest though, so if that’s all the software you need, you don’t need to spend much. Second hand / last generation is definitely an option, but looking at MicroCenter prices, you can put together something quite decent for around $1k-1.5k new with current parts. If you go for one of the mid-range QHD tablets, even the 24″, and maybe a mid-range gaming laptop from Amazon, you can get both for around $1k-1.3k, and that should be good for at least a few years of use.

Hopefully this is useful, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who’d be more than happy to contribute towards a fundraiser to help get the funds together :)

My father has blue eyes, my mother brown. Four kids in a row got blue eyes. Genetics are weird, man.

My wife and I have the same thing going on. She has blue eyes, mine are brown, 3 of our 4 kids are blue-eyed.

Here’s the thing, I was not surprised. Given that blue-eyed-ness is a recessive trait, the only way for our kids to have blue eyes was for me to have the recessive trait for blue eyes outright (as green eyes are dominant over blue), so before we had the first, it was a slim chance (as I could have been brown-brown, brown-green, or brown-blue for my eye traits), after our first had blue eyes, I knew that any further would be high-probability of having blue eyes (the simplified Punnet square equating it out to a 75% chance for my kids.)

Merry Christmas or whatever variant is your pleasure, Jackie. Thanks for what you do.

I’ve been especially enjoying seeing Carol and Thomas develop as a couple because they remind me very much of me and my wife back when we were first dating, both in appearance and personality. It’s really neat to see.

2923 Creating Beauty.

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