What art directors look for in an ILLUSTRATION PORTFOLIO

Last updated Tuesday, May 7, 2019

29 ways to wow with your portfolio

Got the illustrator blues? Pounding the pavement but not getting replies? If only illustrators could read minds, it would be easy to know what art directors want to see in an illustration portfolio. But not being psychic, many resort to plain guesswork.

Luckily, there are some things that art directors often say in in-person talks, articles, and videos. I’ve compiled a list here of valuable tips they’ve deigned to divulge. Some are things they say over and over, while others are less common but struck a chord.

These tips apply to both print “books” (term for portfolio, in case your a newbie) and online portfolios, and though targeted at be illustration portfolios, most apply to other creative fields as well, including fine art, graphic design and photography.

Here’s the list of illustration portfolio tips:

Ease of use is the most-mentioned recommendation for an illustration portfolio. Keep the focus on your work, not on your site design. Don’t make people click more than once to view a larger image. Instead, have thumbnails they can choose from. Navigation should be clear and simple.
Offer downloads of your tear sheets, preferably high-res. Be sure to put your contact info on each one, keeping the look (fonts, placement) consistent. Don’t make the art director do a “print screen.”
Make sure your site loads fast.
Separate your work into galleries on your site, such as animals, people, business, holiday, etc.
Post the type of work you want to get. If you’re no longer interested in working in a style, don’t include it.
Remember it’s all subjective, what one creative director sees as great art is another one’s nightmare. So don’t get discouraged, and be ready for lots of conflicting opinions.
Keep in touch, but not too much. Send postcards twice a year. Holidays are good time to send. Postcards might be kept up on a wall. Include tear sheets and/or postcards in your analogue portfolio as takeaways.
8 1/2 x 11″ tear sheets are good to have in your portfolio as takeaways or downloads, as these can be kept in a filing cabinet.
Put your art ON things and show them or mail them. Some ADs love little doodads and clever promo pieces. Portfolios don’t have to come in cases.
With a paper portfolio, check each page to be sure it’s clean before you show it. A piece of shmutz or, worse, something scurrying is a sure way to never get a good-news call from an AD.
It’s good to put art in clear plastic pages in your print book.
Don’t drop off original art. Things can get lost or damaged, nothing is 100% guaranteed. Save your fancy handmade portfolio for in-person visits.
Keep images all in one format. That doesn’t mean you have to make all the images vertical, just the way they’re shown. Don’t make people flip the book (or iPad!) around.
They like to see blogs, to get to know you. Keeps them engaged.
They’re watching you. One rep says she keeps tabs on artists she’s interested in. She said be an artist who produces consistently, not one who does things in spurts then fades. So show them you’re still out there, keep your site updated (even if it’s just moving things around), and connect with industry people on social media to subtly help them watch you.
Be a polymath. If you’re open to doing more than one type of work, by casting your net wider, keeping quality and style consistent, variety gives you more chances. Editorial, children’s book, people, animals, lettering, maps, patterns, food, and character turnarounds are all great to include.
Diversity is strength. Show characters of differing backgrounds, ages, and abilities. Also have diversity of format–include a multi-image narrative if you want narrative work. Show a variety of visual angles as well.
Got more than one style? ADs disagree on this. Most say to include a bunch of samples of each style and separate them in a portfolio. But some only want to see one style. Some illustrators actually use different names for their different styles. Their reps may present them that way, being aware that it’s all one multifaceted person. Basically, as long as you show you have mastered each style, it’s probably OK. You shouldn’t limit yourself.
Don’t have published work? Everyone starts somewhere. You can take things such as magazine articles, fairy tales, or stories and create pieces. You’re being evaluated on how you express ideas, so the concept should be clear.
Pick a meaningful point in the text you’re working from to illustrate. It doesn’t always have to be the most dramatic moment–it can be a turning point, a moment before or after an event, or a quiet scene showing the character’s personality–and your interpretive abilities.
Edit, edit, edit–a good print portfolio or online gallery (you can have multiple galleries) should have 12 to 20 pieces. Showing more than that risks viewer fatigue.
Put your best images as the first and last images in a print book or online gallery. That gives a positive impression and last impression.
Have your own site as well as being on larger ones. An art director trying to choose from thousands of creatives on a big site faces choice paralysis, according to these tips on photography portfolios.
Make search easy. Use tags, categories, and hashtags. If an agent wants to see humorous animals dancing on Easter, you should make that possible using tags such as humorous, animals, dancing, and Easter. Sites such as Behance (free with free Adobe account) offer many options such as galleries, projects, and hashtags.
Don’t rely on social media sites to show your portfolio. Those aren’t easy to arrange, according to these tips on arranging your work in a children’s book illustration portfolio.
Make your work shareable online. Add sharing links to individual images and galleries.
Keep updating and removing images that no longer reflect who you are. Pare it down and stay in the present.
Think of turning through pages or clicking through images as dancing to a beat. Be aware of how the viewer will respond to the pacing of the images and page turns.
Having an unusual style of “book” to show in person, such as a handmade one, or an distinctively designed Web site can make you memorable, as long as it creative and matches your brand. If you’re not sure, keep it minimal.

Print or online, stay consistent.

We don’t have control over everything. What we do have control over is presentation. Image arrangement, easy navigation, and consistent branding are all tweaks that can go a long way. If you do the best at what you can, show it off in the best way you can, and carefully curate, your illustration portfolio can impress even the most jaded AD and help you land your dream assignment!

Huion 610Pro v2 review: low-cost graphics tablet with tilt

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Last updated Saturday, December 29, 2018

Huion H610Pro v2 review: a sequel worth the ticket

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Use coupon code GBHUIONV2 to get it for just $66.99 with this Gearbest link.
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This Huion 610Pro v2 review (also called H610Pro v2) covers the second generation of the popular and affordable Huion 610Pro. There have been several versions in between, each one upping the functionality of the driver while the hardware stays the same.

Could the H610 Pro v2 finally deliver all the features you want at a truly affordable price? Well, this model boasts a battery-free, cordless pen that lets you fully customize the buttons, 8192 levels of pressure sensitivity, 24 express keys, and tilt/angle detection. It doesn’t have touch, but other than that it’s got all the most important features of the Intuos Pro (yes, the Intuos Pro, not the plain old Intuos). Scroll down for a more detailed comparison. I was able to test several art programs on Mac and PC on the Huion. To find out how that went, read on.

Type of tablet

Graphics tablet, non-screen. You will need a Mac or PC (desktop or laptop) to connect it to. Works with Mac and Windows only.

Digitizer: EMR

Needs Windows 7 or later or Mac 10.12 or later.

Features

10″ x 6.25″ active area

8192 pressure levels

Battery-free, cordless pen

Tilt sensitivity +/-60 degrees

8 External hotkeys and 16 softkeys, all customizable

Pen has two buttons, fully customizable

Materials: black plastic exterior, rubber mat feet

Accuracy +/- 0.3mm

Report rate (PPS) 233

Lines per inch (LPI) 5080

Reading Distance: 10mm

Tablet weight: 22.4 oz. (635g)

Pen weight: .49 oz. (14g)

Size including inactive area: 13.9″ x 9.6″ (353 x 245 mm)

The bezel adds about 2″ on each side of the active area.

What’s in the box?

The Huion H610 Pro v2 and accessories. Photo by Tablets for Artists

Tablet

Pen

Pen stand that includes 8 extra nibs inside (total 9 nibs, including the one that comes in the pen)

The pen stand can also be used to remove nibs

mini-USB cable

Quickstart guide

Anti-smudge glove

The tablet, which Gearbest sent me to write this H610Pro v2 review (click to see it there), came well packed in a sturdy and attractive printed box that says Inspiroy, which is the product line the tablet is part of. You don’t see the word Inspiroy a whole lot other than on the box.

It has 8,192 levels of pressure sensitivity, matching Wacom’s maximum levels. Not only that, but the v2 offers tilt/angle sensitivity and a cordless, battery-free pen. The old 610Pro had a corded pen.

Tilt sensitivity means that your drawn line will change according to the angle at which you draw at, making your line more natural-looking.

The tilt range is -60 to +60 degrees, same as the Intuos Pro.

For Lefties

In the driver you can easily set up left-handed use.

Portability

At a lightweight 22 oz., it’s very portable and would fit into a largish backpack or briefcase. On a plane, it’s OK to bring it on board or place it in checked luggage. Leave the battery in the device.

Build quality

The Huion is lightweight and made of black plastic, with a thickness of roughly over a half inch at the highest part. It has a curved design. It’s sturdy, nothing loose or rattling. It has 6 round hotkeys on the outside as well as a dial that has two hotkeys (the dial is not a touch ring). The dial has two curved buttons that also press easily. The bottom has four soft rubber feet that add very little height.

The softkeys are along the top of the active area (or the bottom, depending how you have the tablet set up). You can see the softkeys faintly on the tablet; they don’t light up when used. The press keys and softkeys both function the same as ways to use shortcuts such as backspace, option click etc. They are totally optional to use.

The buttons and dial are shiny and the rest of the tablet is matte. Fingerprints don’t stick to the active area too much.

The drawing surface is smooth but not slippery. It doesn’t have a toothed texture.

While it’s plastic, it’s still sturdy, so I won’t take any points off for that in this Huion 610Pro v2 review.

Driver

The 610Pro v2 driver’s About page

Installing the driver on both Mac and PC was easy as long as you follow the instructions and are ready with the Mac Mojave issue if you have Mojave.

You have to download the driver from the Huion site; there’s no included CD. There are two Huion sites, huion.com and huiontablet.com; either is fine.

You will need to remove all other tablet drivers including Huion ones. You don’t need to remove native Windows ones. If you have a tablet PC, this will work with it. Don’t remove the tablet drivers that come installed on the tablet PC.

You may or may not need to install the Huion driver under Administrator depending on your computer settings.

There’s no on or off switch. Once the tablet is connected via the mini-USB, the driver will show the words Device Connected. A green indicator light will go on when the pen touches the surface.

Mac Mojave and Huion 610Pro v2

If you can’t install the driver on your Mac that has Mojave, you need to take some simple steps which are described on the Huion site here:

https://www.huiontablet.com/mojave.html

Other potential Mac issue:

If you still have problems, sometimes with Macs you need to reset the USB ports. Here’s how:

http://osxdaily.com/2015/08/09/mac-usb-ports-not-working-fix/

Customizing the driver

Driver panel to customize shortcut keys on the v2

You can configure the pressure curve, test pressure, and map the screen you want to use; change to a left-handed setup, and set up multi-monitor use in the driver.

The driver has preprogrammed functions for popular shortcuts but you can also customize them to whatever you want. You get a total of 24 customizable buttons, including 16 softkeys which are visible along the top (or bottom, depending how you have the tablet set up).

To customize the buttons and softkeys, click on the buttons in the driver, then click on the bar in the center of the image.

Unfortunately, the softkeys do not light up and are hard to see. They are there to speed up workflow and are completely optional to use. But if you rely on them, the low visibility could be annoying. You could do something like write them down on a piece of white tape and tape that to the surface if you’re up for a DIY solution.

Unlike with Wacom drivers, you can’t save different shortcuts to specific art programs.

In the driver you can also customize the pen buttons to do much more than just erase and undo, which is not common at all with affordable tablets. The pen has one button, which toggles.

Pen

The Huion 610 Pro v2 stylus pen needs no charging.

The pen is very lightweight at around a half ounce (14 grams) and feels hollow. Some may find it too light; you don’t get that feeling of balance and heft with a light pen. But it doesn’t add strain when drawing for hours. The pen has a tapered barrel. It does not take a battery nor need to be charged (the old Huion had a pen that had to be charged).

The pen stand is cleverly designed to hold 8 included extra nibs and the little hole is a nib remover. The stand is small and vertical and doesn’t take up much space.

The pen buttons are also fully customizable, which is unusual in a Wacom alternative tablet. Using the pen buttons as an eraser to to undo is convenient, or you can use them for other shortcuts as well. The pen buttons are placed in a way that’s easy to reach.

Art Program testing

To make this HuionH610 Pro v2 review complete, I tested it with several popular art programs on Mac and PC.

Testing on PC

Photoshop, Sketchbook Pro, Clip Studio, and Krita worked beautifully. Krita is especially sensitive with little pressure needed to get a thick to thin line (that is using the default pressure setting). Fresh Paint, which is a Windows app, works fine.

Gimp and Sai worked great as long as Windows Ink is unchecked. I had trouble installing the latest Gimp on my PC and had to use an earlier version.

Remember that these programs have various settings that need to be enabled for tablets and pressure to work.

Testing on Mac

Photoshop, Sketchbook Pro, and Clip Studio Paint work great. Pressure sensitivity worked fine in vector layers in Clip Studio Paint (haven’t tried on Windows). The tablet works fine with Inkscape as well.

Note that you won’t be able to get pressure in Adobe Illustrator’s pressure-sensitive brushes; only Wacom offers that for now, so if you want pressure in vector, use Clip Studio, though file types that can be exported are limited.

Not as good: Krita and Gimp in their latest versions really don’t work that well on the latest on Mac Mojave. While the tablet worked with them, these programs are difficult to install and generally have issues on Mac. In Krita, I’d sometimes get a reading height issue where the pen would make lines without touching the tablet. Earlier versions may work better.

The H610 Pro v2 should work with other programs as well, including Corel Paint, Medibang, and ZBrush; I didn’t test those, but others have.

There were some hiccups at times, such as loss of connectivity, but simply quickly disconnecting then reconnecting the USB (either side of it) fixed this. At times the pen would take a moment to start producing a line. These seemed to happen more on the PC.

Drawing on the Huion H610Pro v2

Compared to Wacom there is a slight difference in feel; the Wacom feels more fluid, the Huion more springy.

Photoshop and Sketchbook are my go-to programs, so I was very pleased with the performance of the pen and tablet. There’s a smooth, blob-free widening of lines with pressure, no skips or jitter.

Support

Huion offers a one-year guarantee. They respond to emails (on the Chinese time zone, so it’s at night if you’re in the U.S.) and also can be contacted on Skype and phone; the info is on their sites. They also answer questions in several places online. There are also discussions and forums around the Web to seek answers, and I’ve posted some hopefully helpful tips in this v2 review.

User reviews and reactions

Huion 610Pro v2 reviews by users are mostly positive from what I’ve seen. The chargeless pen is a big improvement over the 610Pro, and the drivers seem easier to install. Many are lauding the tablet’s affordability and comparable functions to the Wacom Intuos Pro.

Huion 610Pro v2 vs. Wacom Intuos Pro

With the Huion, you get the same 8192 levels and you get tilt sensitivity of +/- 60 degrees, same as the Intuos. You get customizable keys including fully customizable pen buttons. The drawing area of 10” x 6.25” comes to 62.5 sq in., a little larger in square inches than the current Wacom Intuos Pro Medium, which is 8.7 x 5.8” ,or 50.46 sq. in.

The Huion has no multitouch so you can’t use touch functions or finger paint. You don’t get bundled art programs, nor are there different types of pen nibs or pens. The Huion pen doesn’t have an eraser end. There’s no wireless option.

There are also no accessories that Wacom offers that are sold separately, such as texture sheets and the Paper Clip, which lets you attach paper (though you can go ahead and put paper on top of the Huion). The Huion doesn’t have a touch ring; the dial on the Huion is more part of the design, housing two Express Keys.

There’s no on-screen radial menu (instead, there are the softkeys). You also can’t save customized driver settings to specific art programs.

The Huion exterior is all plastic with no metal parts. and the Intuos Pro uses some anodized aluminum.

The Intuos, which is the entry level non-Pro Wacom drawing tablet, has 4096 levels and no touch or tilt. So the 610Pro v2 has more in common with the Intuos Pro, though has the lack of touch in common with the non-pro Intuos. The drawing surface on the Huion is smoother than either kind of Intuos.

Pros

Affordability

Battery-free, cordless pen

Ease of use–intuitive

8192 pressure levels

Tilt sensitivity

24 fully customizable Express Keys

Fully customizable pen buttons

Nice packaging

Lightweight, portable

Cons

Some people report driver glitches

Difficult to see the softkeys

No touch function

No Wacom type of accessories such as different types of nibs, texture sheets, or Paper Clip

Lacks a wireless option

Not a lot of documentation

Driver compatibility: what’s with all those Huion 610s?

Some Huion drivers are cross-compatible. If you’ve got the Huion610Pro (8192) that’s not the v2, you can use this v2 driver on that one but not on the earlier ones. Here’s some info:

There are 4 different models of the 610 series. Those are:

H610(2048), H610PRO(2048), H610 PRO(8192), H610PRO V2(8192)

H610(2048) and H610PRO(2048) can both use the same driver (note: meaning the driver for

those, not the v2).

H610PRO (8192) and H610PRO V2(8192) can both use the same driver.

H610(2048) and H610PRO(2048) are not compatible with the V2 driver.

Huion 610Pro v2 review VERDICT

This really is a bargain and a BIG step forward in the affordable drawing tablet category, so this Huion610 Pro v2 review is a thumb’s up. I had fewer driver problems than I’ve had with some of the others, and the battery-free, cordless pen is a major improvement.

There were a few minor glitches, but for the price, this gives you the creative power of the Wacom Intuos Pro. The generous size is great for drawing, not too small or too big. It’s easy to fit in a medium-sized backpack or bag and is lightweight. Ideal for artists, photographers, students, and OSU players, the v2 could be a starter graphics tablet, an extra, or your sole drawing tablet.

See it on Gearbest

Use coupon code GBHUIONV2 to get the Huion H610Pro v2 for just $66.99 at Gearbest. Coupon expires 2019-02-05 00:00:00. (Feb. 5th, 2019)

end of Huion610 Pro v2 review

2018 Digital Artist Gift Guide: Inspiring Ideas for Creative Cheer

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Last updated Wednesday, December 12, 2018

Yes, it’s already that time again, the time to find that perfect gift for the stylus-wielding artist in your life. Whether want to really spur their creativity, help them learn, or just make their life a little easier, you can find something in this guide (well, I hope). Or maybe you’re the artist in need of a gift. So, without further ado…

This little stocking stuffer lets you grip that slick Apple Pencil. Probably one of the least costly but most useful things you can get a digital artist.

Veikk A30 Graphics Tablet

Sleek and thin, this graphics tablets give you all the power without breaking the bank.

Tryone Gooseneck Tablet Stand

When you’re tired of drawing you can lay back and watch stuff on your tablet. Holds phones and tablets up to 10/5/”

Pantone Watch

This unisex Pantone watch gives a colorful burst of sleek design to your wrist. It even tells time.

Ergonomic Grip for Apple Pencil

Note: this fits the both the first- and second-generation Apple Pencil. It comes in black, white, and orange. It offers greater drawing accuracy.

Aeropress Coffee and Espresso Maker

A perennial fave around here. Help your artist stick to deadlines with this fast way of making coffee. Don’t forget a pinch of cinnamon!

2018 Lenovo ThinkPad x1 Yoga

A whole art studio in a laptop–the 14″ size gives you all you need while staying portable. Wacom pen included, Windows 10, up to 16GB RAM, i7 processor.

Blank Comic Book: Variety of Templates, 2-9 panel layouts, Draw Your Own Comics

A fun, inexpensive gift for kids and up to draw comics. A blank page or screen can be intimidating. There’s nothing like boxes to help you visualize, and paper still feels good.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S4

This Galaxy Tab S4 with the accurate, pressure-sensitive, lightweight S Pen will bring a grin to the face of any artist who likes a Wacom pen. Android OS. Try some Android art apps.

Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made

Fascinating, behind-the-scenes takes a look at how video games are made. Paperback and Kindle books.

Schminke watercolors

This high-quality set makes art that will last. Also perfect for creating textures to digitize.

Art Socks

These socks were made for arting. Everyone needs a pair! Inspiration from, well, toe to toe.

Customize Surface Pen with Tablet Pro tool

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Last updated Tuesday, November 27, 2018

https://youtu.be/HesybKLxT7s

If you’re looking for ways to customize your Surface Pen and even the Wacom Bamboo stylus, you’re in luck. Tablet Pro has found a way.

With the Tablet Pro Pen Tool, you can work smarter on your Surface by mapping the pen buttons to keyboard shortcuts such as undo. Or enable hover right, left, or middle click. You can remap the Bluetooth eraser as well.

To use the Pen Tool, you’ll need Windows 10 Home or Pro and a Surface Device and pen.

The Surface Pen is fully supported, and the tool also works on other two-button pens including the Wacom Bamboo Ink. Use the tool with your favorite 2D and 3D art programs. It can truly save you time.

You can also stand across the room and use Bluetooth to control a PowerPoint slideshow, or play and pause a video or switch on Cortana. Yup, remote control has come to your pen.

You do not need to use the Tablet Pro app along with the pen; it works on its own.

It will only set you back a few bucks and you can find it here in the Windows Store.

The folks at Tablet Pro have dedicated themselves to make life easier for digital artists. See more about Tablet Pro here.

Veikk VK1560 review: lightweight, inexpensive draw-on-screen tablet

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Last updated Thursday, November 8, 2018

Veikk VK1560 review: slim, lightweight pen display

Veikk VK1560 review: The VK1560 is PNBoo’s first pen display tablet. I recently did a review of their Veikk S640 graphics tablet, and received this one for testing.

Type of tablet

Display tablet, draw on screen
You need to connect this tablet to a computer.

Digitizer:

EMR (electromagnetic resonance) with 8,192 levels of pressure sensitivity

What’s in the Box

Veikk accessories (pen and cloth are in other photo). Photo by Tablets for Artists

Tablet, pen, pen case with extra nibs, power cord and brick, anti-smudge glove, cleaning cloth, mini display port to HDMI adapter (for Mac), USB, HDMI adapter

Features

15.6″ display, HD 1920 x 1080 resolution, IPS
94% Adobe RGB
7 customizable hot keys, external
Scroll dial, external
batteryless pen
pen tray on display’s right side

OS: Windows: XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1,10
Mac OS latest version

Works with: Photoshop,Illustrator, Clip Studio Paint, Krita, Gimp, and more. Was updated to work with SAI.

Unboxing the Veikk VK1560

Veikk VK1650 unboxing. Photo by Tablets for Artists

The tablet came safely and neatly packaged with an outer box inside the Amazon box, as well as an inner box with a handle, and foam protection inside that box. The goods inside came in plastic bags, and the tablet itself had some extra foam protection.

The first thing I noticed was how slim and light the tablet is for something that sits on a desk.The 15.6″ display is of course not the biggest drawing tablet surface there is, but it’s a good size, larger than most computer screens and than the largest iPad Pro.

The Veikk 1560 isn’t completely flat like a Cintiq Pro is; it’s like a traditional Cintiq. It has a nondetachable stand. The aspect ratio is long horizontally; it’s much more rectangular than it is square.

There were no scratches, dust, dead pixels, or damage. The tablet comes with a protective film over the screen that’s meant to be removed. After removing that, there’s still a built-in screen protector.

There’s also a quickstart guide. You should download the latest driver from Veikk.com. As of this writing, there is not a lot of info about this tablet on Veikk.com, but there’s more info and photos on the Veikk Amazon listing.

The clamshell pen case with a nib holder inside and 9 extra nibs (total of 10) is a nice touch. There’s also a nib remover that sits in its own little recessed area in the pen case.Half the nibs are gray and half are white, with the gray ones being harder and the white ones slightly more rubbery. The pen did not come with a nib already in it. Putting the nib in was easy.

The pen holder on the right side of the tablet is a super-convenient way of putting down the pen without worrying about it rolling away.

Build quality

The build quality is good. It’s mostly plastic, which explains its light weight. The design is pleasing; though plastic, it doesn’t look cheap. The buttons and scrolldial make it resemble a Cintiq.

The stand is metal with rubber sleeves on the legs. It goes from an almost upright to a low angle and holds the tablet sturdily. It’s easy to adjust the stand.

The pen is thin, curved, and comfortable to hold. I really like the pen, and prefer it to the thick, round ones, since this one is more like a ballpoint pen.

Ports

veikk vk 1560 drawing screen pen display tablet review

Back of Veikk VK1560 shows stand. Photo by Tablets for Artists

The ports are in the back on the side. The cables stayed in them securely. To reach the power button you have to access the back of the device, so be sure you leave room to do that. I prefer the buttons on the side like this to hanging out the bottom.

The buttons on the side protrude a little and press easily enough. The buttons and dial make the Veikk resemble a Cintiq.

All the cables it came with worked fine.

Portability

This is a relatively portable pen display, considering it has an attached stand. While it’s not something you’d bring to a coffee shop or client meeting, I could see taking it in car to work when away from home, or if you’re a student who moves a lot, it could be a real convenience to have a screen drawing tablet that’s not big and heavy. The relatively compact size makes it not too big of a burden.

Setting up the tablet

The calibration worked out of the box. I didn’t have to adjust the color, but you can, using the controls on the back. All you need to do is attach the power cord, adapter, and, after installing the driver, attach the USB cord.

All buttons other than the express keys and dial are on the back, including the power button, so you will have to reach back to turn it on. Buttons on the back bring up an on-screen menu where you can adjust colors and brightness.

Driver

The driver allows quite a bit of customization due to the express keys and dial. You can use these to program your favorite commands in various art programs. There’s some customization for the pen, limited to the usual (for low-cost tablets) erase and right-click. You can also adjust the pressure curve in the driver, as well as map the tablet and rotate the image.

To calibrate the driver, you have to put it on Extend in the monitor settings, then go through a 5-point process. It was calibrated out of the box for me.

On Mac, I couldn’t get the driver to show up in the system tray, only in System Preferences. You have to keep the USB unplugged while installing the driver. I experienced some minor glitches along the way, but the art programs work well.

Art program testing

The tablet worked well with most programs with both line and pressure sensitivity.

On Mac, I tried it with Photoshop CC, Photoshop Elements, Krita, Sketchbook Pro, Gimp.

The tablet works with vector such as Illustrator and Inkscape, but as expected, you don’t get pressure sensitivity in those.

As I had some issues with my Windows computer, I will update this post with more Windows testing soon. In my short tests, I found that pressure worked in Sketchbook with no driver installed, but this was not the case with the Mac.

Drawing on the Veikk VK1560

Screen

The display is bright, and the colors, with 94% of Adobe RGB, are vivid. The built-in display is matte, and adds a very small bit of a tooth, making it so the pen doesn’t slip around. The matte screen protector has a slight cloudiness if you look at it close up, but the picture is still sharp. You can adjust the colors and brightness via using the on-screen menus in conjunction with the buttons on the back. There is some new-screen squeak that I’m working on via rubbing my gloveless hands on the screen. There is an included anti-smudge glove.

Pen

The pen is nice and light, its buttons easy to reach–you may end up pressing them by accident. Putting my index finger on the opposite side solves that problem. The nib moves around a little while drawing, and makes a slight noise.

Overall I prefer a squarer shape, as it makes it easier to move the arm up and down, but I soon adjusted to the horizontal format. You’re getting a bit less drawing space than with a 21″ screen, but freeing up your life in many ways. If you have limited space, this is a convenient size. Drawing on it is smooth. I keep it at a low, roughly 30-degree angle.

The accuracy was very good, as was the pressure sensitivity. I didn’t get any blobs or skips. Worst things was when sometimes I’d get the wrong tool. I have had that happen with Wacom drivers too, but it seemed to happen a bit more with this one.

Pros

affordable
relatively lightweight, slim, compact
good build quality
external Express Keys and Scroll dial, like Cintiq
batteryless pen
ergonomic pen
pen case and on-tablet pen holder

Cons

no touch function
driver finicky at times

Veikk VK1560 review verdict

This Veikk VK1560 review is a thumb’s up for the value and compactness, as well as the Express Keys and ScrollDial. If you want a practical pen display that has a smaller footprint and lighter weight than other Cintiq, this is a great choice. For those who already have a large screen, this could be a good second tablet for another room or location. It’s good for students and beginners as well. The one drawback is the driver may take some fiddling around with.

See it on Amazon

end of Veikk VK1560 review