I just bought the new 12.9" iPad Pro, paid for entirely w/ STEEM rewards!

Good evening, Steemians! This is a big one! I’ve been here for just shy of a year. I’m coming up on 800 followers, so most of you already have an idea how important my 12.9” iPad Pro has become. This post will satisfy those who’ve seen the dozens of drawings and comic book pages I’ve posted to Steemit […and the tech geek purists that just love a good technology review]. It will ALSO be for those new to Steemit just coming across my blog now. Even if you’ve never seen my illustration, you undoubtedly had the frequently asked “Can this money be used in the real world?” questions. This will put a big fat exclamation point on the answer.

I’ve been drawing and sketching since I was old enough to hold a pencil. I grew up just knowing I was going to be a comic book illustrator. During the early 2000’s I began working for an animation studio in Northeastern, Pennsylvania. I became familiar with Flash and Photoshop and experimenting with digital art. Eventually, I decided that’s where the future was going in the field, and I doubled down on digital as my preferred medium. After a nice tax return, I bought a Wacom Cintiq and promptly returned it. I hated it. I have many friends in the field that love their Cintiq’s; wouldn’t trade them for the world. For me, though, the latency was laughable. The air gap between the glass and my pen was a deal breaker. It was just a terrible experience. I daydreamed about a day when Apple […I’m an unapologetic Apple fanboy] would come out with the perfect digital illustration tool. 

That day came November 11th, 2015. The iPad Pro had been rumored for years and I fervently followed ever tech blog awaited it’s announcement […announcement, I’m not even talking release, and @vermillionfox can testify to my neurotic web scrolling, hanging on every Mark Gurman blog post I could find]. It was announced and I lost my mind. Only a short few weeks until it’s release! 

November 11th, I had flown in to LA for a ten day photo tour. I went straight from the airport to get my rental car and straight from there to the Manhattan Beach Apple Store to pick up my beautiful new iPad Pro before meeting with my very first client! Ultimately, it was a tragic affair. My iPad was waiting for me, but every single store in California was out of stock on the Apple Pencil. Literally the only thing I wanted to for was to draw. I checked stores on the west coast daily, but the yields were so low for the Apple Pencil in those first few months, I didn’t get mine until three weeks later back in Minnesota. They had Pencils on display, though, and within the first few strokes, I knew this was it. It was the digital art tool I’d always dreamt of.

It’s been 18 months now and the iPad Pro has become an integral part of my career. Independent software companies such as Savage Interactive, makers of Procreate, have stepped up to fill the gaps from traditional desktop class applications. Procreate has matured SO much in the last year a half, it is the ONLY drawing app I use on the iPad Pro. Apple has also moved the mobile platform forward opening API’s and allowing 300dpi file exports and RAW photo editing to apps willing to support either.

As mentioned in my previous Steemit blog, “WWDC through the lens of a professional photographer fed up with Adobe!”, you’ll read about my excitement for the announcement of the next iteration of the iPad Pro […and for the sake of this post, I’ll only be talking about the 12.9” model, although I did get to hold the 10.5” display and it’ll be perfect for most people not looking to work on professional art]. It was released yesterday, and I was waiting at the Apple Store at 10:29a.m. for those giant glass doors to open.

Here is the tie in for new Steemit users […and I’m seeing you all by the hundreds each day]. It was not long ago that this all seemed unbelievable to me. I would call my friend and crpyto-metor @mada daily asking him to, once again, explain how this could ever become “actual money”. Writing, drawing, and sharing my photography is an outlet for artistic expression and that is the core draw for me to post on Steemit. The community is like none I’ve ever seen on the internet, and even when STEEM was low, I was posting often. Well, STEEM recently surged over $2 and those silly little tokens worth $0.13 last fall had now valued my account at over $27,000.

Seeing what was a “potential” during the winter months, something we’ve all said; “…when STEEM goes back up, I’m going to do this.”, was now a reality. In anticipation of WWDC, I began moving my SBD rewards to my Shift Card, and finally, Tuesday morning, I sent a final 250.000 STEEM through @blocktrades, to Coinbase before heading to the Apple Store. By the time I was there, the funds had arrived, available on my card, and with that, a new 12.9” iPad Pro paid for entirely with Steemit rewards!

I can’t understate the significance of this purchase because as a freelance artist, this is NOT something I’d typically be able to buy without considerable planning, saving and luck. I am forever grateful to every single vote that’s come across my blogs this last 10 months, minnows, dolphins and whales a like. I don’t make much money, but I’ve got a really fucking cool job. Just a few days ago, I sketched out a spinning STEEM coin animation on on my iPad Pro and, again, it’s Steemit that’s given me some breathing room […financially] to find a day here and there to just work on “fun” things. That post made $237! I can justify the time if there’s a chance of earning even half that!

I’m going to save my actual iPad Pro review for next week. I need to stay with it a while and measure it against the previous model. I’d like to give a really comprehensive comparisons, especially for artists that may be considering one. I have a few days before the older model goes on CraigsList so I’ll have time to do some side my side demos of the latency, True Tone and ProMotion technology, and overall performance with Procreate and the new Affinity Photo apps. One last time, though, thank you all for making Steemit a thriving, prosperous community and giving regular folks like me a platform to further pursue our lives and careers.

I post daily. For more art, illustration, photography and thoughts on life […and tech], follow me @kommienezuspadt!