The Digital Gem for January is a tool for developing your personal power through relaxation and rejuvenation.

Unlike most digital resources, there’s absolutely nothing to learn, and no charge whatsoever. All you need is a computer and a six minutes to enjoy this free guided meditation by Sally Canning, who is a catalyst for personal growth.

This is an easy way to snag a few minutes to your self and indulge in some self care. Perfect for beating the winter blues. Ideal for strengthening your personal power and confidence! Give it a go and let me know what you think?!

Extreme Self Care

A guide to owning your personal power. A lovely grounding few minutes of relaxation and recharging time to yourself.

Digital Gems features ideas for enjoying your digital life and brightening your digital landscape. The series showcases suggestions that connect with the energy of the season and focus is on bringing more ease and simplicity to your digital life.

Winter      inner life and restoration
Spring       planning and renewal
Summer   activity and completion
Autumn    harvest and gratitude

Feel free to share your thoughts! What are your biggest challenges in your digital life? Which are your suggestions for a simple, easy digital life?

Wacom’s Inkling is a digital pen that captures your sketch from paper. Recording your strokes and transferring your sketch digitally for further editing on your computer. The Inkling has a pressure sensitive ballpoint tip and can create layered sketches.

It’s exciting to see new technology unfold, bringing tools that bridge the gap between traditional, freehand sketching and digital input with a mouse or tablet. Both the iPad with its finger-painting and the Inkling give artists the tools to interact more directly with their devices, removing the clunky layer between your hand and your canvas.

A special thank you to my friend, artist Jamie Berry, who brought the Inkling to my attention. 

Related Posts:
Top 20 Apps to Turn Your iPad into a Portable Creative Studio
15 Best Photo Apps for iPad and iPhone

My Experience

Touchscreen computing really appeals to me. Finger painting feels very intuitive to me and I prefer to use my fingers to do everything on the iPad, except writing. That’s when I like to use a stylus.

There’s something about the angle you hold a pen that becomes part of your handwriting. The way your writing forms a unit, from one word to another and from one passage to another. It’s different than writing with your fingers when it becomes more about drawing each individual character, like writing in sand, and you don’t get quite the same flow writing with your fingers as you do when you write with a pen.

Choosing a Stylus

Here’s a useful comparison of 12 different styli to help you pick one that suits you. Check out the video and for more depth, the companion article Drawing on the iPad: 12 touchscreen styluses reviewed and see what you think. While I haven’t tried all the styli featured in Macworld’s comparison, I’ll be back with an article on the styli that I find useful for painting and writing.

Related Articles:
Top 20 Apps to Turn Your iPad into a Portable Creative Studio

1. MindNode ($5.99) Beautiful and minimalist mind mapping app. A simple and effective way to brainstorm and easily map out and organize your ideas. Also available for the Mac.

[App store link: MindNode for iPad and iPhone].

2. Evernote (free) Remember everything. Build and organize your own digital scrapbook with notes, photos, links, web clips, audio and auto-synchronize to your Mac, PC, iPhone, iPad and Web. Magically makes text within snapshots searchable and includes geo-location information in notes. For research, to capture design, art, writing and blogging inspiration.

[App store link: Evernote for iPad and iPhone].

3. Moodboard Pro ($4.99) and Moodboard Lite (free) Make a moodboard to visualise your ideas and jump-start your creativity. Capture a mood, feel or ambience with a collage of materials (photos, textures, sketches, text and color palettes). Easily share early design concepts with clients and colleagues to communicate your idea or use as a guide and inspiration for your own creative projects.

[App store links: Moodboard Pro and Moodboard Lite].

4. MaxJournal for iPad ($2.99). A simple and elegant diary or journal. Customize the font and size, add up to three photos per entry and password protect your journal. Features tagging, time stamping and autosave.

[App store link: MaxJournal for iPad].

5. My Writing Nook ($4.99) and $2.99 for the iPhone. Simple and powerful tool for writers. Minimalist and distraction free writing environment with easy-to-use dictionary and thesaurus. Word count and auto save. Work on your manuscript anywhere, on your iPhone, iPad or computer, synchronize and have access to the latest version for reading, writing and editing everywhere.

[App store links: My Writing Nook for iPad. Also available for the iPhone].

6. Qvik Sketch Pro ($0.99) Quick, easy, effortless sketching, doodling and drawing tool. Qvik Sketch shades or inks your sketches in real-time, creating beautifully rendered drawings. Fast and fun.

[App store links: Qvik Sketch Pro for iPad. Also available for the iPhone].

7. Adobe Ideas 1.0 (free) A simple, vector-based digital sketchbook. Capture and explore ideas on the go. Use the color scheming tool to create harmonized color palettes extracted from your photos or artwork. Email your sketches as PDF files for further editing in Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop. A handy tool for designers and artists.

[App store links: Adobe Ideas for iPad and Adobe Ideas for the iPhone].

8. Brushes ($7.99) A portable art studio and powerful finger painting tool for creating original artwork featuring an advanced color picker, swatches, high quality brushes, layers, extreme zooming, and a simple yet deep interface. Paintings made with Brushes have been published on the cover of The New Yorker on several occasions. With Brushes Viewer for Mac (free) you can replay your Brushes paintings stroke by stroke, render them at high resolutions for printing, and export them as QuickTime movies.

[App store links: Brushes – iPad Edition and Brushes for iPhone ($4.99)].

9. SketchBook Pro ($7.99) A versatile, elegant digital SketchBook for painting and drawing that features 75 art brushes, a smear brush, geometric shapes and a symmetrical drawing tool. Interact with SketchBook through a gesture-based multi-touch user interface.

[App store link: SketchBook Pro].

10. iMockups ($9.99) This gem of a tool will save designers countless hours by helping you to quickly create mock-ups, layouts and wireframes for your web design, iPhone and iPad app projects. iMockups includes customizable navbars, tab panels, and autofilling Lorem Ipsum text. Intuitive and beautiful interface that takes full advantage of the breakthrough touchscreen device with iPad-optimized gesture controls.

[App store link: iMockups].

11. StudioTrack ($39.99) StudioTrack is a powerful audio recording and songwriting tool for musicians and producers who want to capture musical ideas and record songs on the go. Multitrack recording with up to 8 tracks, and bounce them down to add even more. Easily apply effects such as delay, reverb, EQ, and a compressor.

[App store link: StudioTrack].

12. Korg iElectribe ($9.99) A perfectly faithful replica of the famous Korg Electribe•R analog drum machine that’s easy and intuitive to use. Features 64 preset patterns, 8 supercharged effects and advanced Motion Sequencing that make patterns come alive.

[App store link: Korg iElectribe].

13. Rehearsal ($20) This professional tool for actors helps you learn your lines. Developed and tested by Hollywood actors. Highlight lines, play peekaboo to memorize your script. Record your script and play it back. Add notes and record different takes to explore your character. Updated with the ability to open your scripts directly from the email messages in which they arrive from your agent, casting or production. “Almost every show on TV has at least one actor that uses the app”.

[App store link: Rehearsal].

14. CameraBag ($2.99) Recreate the magic of film by emulating photography’s most beloved and iconic vintage cameras, film, and processing techniques. Easy to use with an intuitive, simple interface. The perfect companion for your iPhone photography.

[App store links: CameraBag for iPad and CameraBag for iPhone ($1.99)].

15. TiltShift Generator ($2.99) Make your photos look like they are shots with miniatures, toy camera images and fake DSLR by adding a radial blur to your photos to change the perception of depth. Move the sweet spot with your fingers and increase or decrease its size.

[App store links: TiltShift Generator – Fake DSLR for iPad and TiltShift Generator – Fake DSLR for iPhone ($0.99)].

16. Fabric Stash ($4.99) Manage, catalogue, match, track quantities and organize your fabrics with Fabric Stash. Perfect for quilters, sewers, interior decorators, fashion designers and fabric designers.

[App store links: Fabric Stash for iPad. Also available for the iPhone].

17. HandiCraft ($4.99) Quilting, knitting, crochet and embroidery on your iPad with more than 150 patterns with full instructions and HD video lessons. Features patterns and step-by-step instructions displayed in a beautiful interface.

[App store link: HandiCraft].

18. iZen Garden 2 – portable zen garden ($5.99) Tranquil, Japanese rock garden, where you can find peace and create beauty. Arrange and resize objects like stones, seashells, fossils and butterflies, rake the sand into patterns and listen to soothing, ambient soundtracks.

[App store links: iZen Garden for iPad and iZen Garden for iPhone ($3.99)].

19. Soundrop (free) Wonderfully fun and simple sound game. Tap the screen to draw lines and watch as a ball bounces off them and Soundrop creates music out of the pattern you create.

[App store links: Soundrop for iPad and Soundrop for iPhone].

20. Zen Bound 2 ($7.99) Beautiful puzzle game with gorgeous graphics and sounds. Tilt and touch to wrap and twist the shapes to solve puzzles.

[App store links: Zen Bound 2 for iPad and Zen Bound 2 for iPhone ($2.99)].

More writings about the iPad: First impressions of the iPad.

Do you have a great tips for creating a digital studio? Have you tried any iPad or iPhone apps that you found inspiring and that boosted your creativity?

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I expected the iPad to be a revolutionary device and holding it in your hands, interacting with it, really is a revolutionary experience. It’s the computer of the future.

• It’s fast!
• It’s powerful!
• It’s intuitive, responsive, easy and inviting to use
• The iPad with its multi-touch screen and single tasking is the first computer that adapts to how humans work, while other computers expect us humans to adapt to how they work
• The iPad apps I’ve tested embrace the idea of simplicity, beauty, fun and ease. Just like the iPad itself
• The iPad is the first computer I’ve used where reading really feels inviting and user friendly
• This tablet computer is wonderful for a new kind of story telling! The iPad can blur the line between reading, watching films, gaming and I can see how people could invent new ways of telling stories where images, film, audio, text and interactive experiences all blend together into a new kind of multimedia story telling
• The digital environment on an iPad feels peaceful and focused
• The touch screen is crisp and sharp and the book-size feels user friendly
• The iPad lives up to its promise of long battery life
• You need a bag and/or a slip to protect your iPad
• You need a soft, lint-free cloth to remove marks left by your fingers

The iPad and iPhone are innovative devices that bring to mind Think Different, Apple’s advertising campaign from 1997

“Here’s to the crazy ones. The rebels. The troublemakers. The ones who see things differently. While some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

Now, what I’m really interested in, is how I can use this revolutionary tablet computer as a digital, portable, creative art studio! I’ll be back on Tuesday with my findings and hope to present a list of 20 outstanding creativity apps for the iPad.

Magnolia

I’m reinventing my digital life. Again. It always seems to creep up on me, the increasing time I spend in my digital environment. The number of web sites on my RSS-feed and the jumble of e-mail in my inbox. Time with social media.

Today I saw a hedgehog outside the studio and took this photo of magnolia with my iPhone. And as I write this blog post, the evening breeze touches me with the scents of spring. This elusive time of year when each day the leaves on the trees open more. Shades of green, from lime to deep green. Blossoms…

It’s time to do some pruning and tiding up. Both in my balcony garden and in my digital life. The stream of information has become a flood. I need to take a step back to find some peace and quiet and to enjoy the summer. It’s time to spend more time out of doors than in my digital life.

This summer you’ll see less of me on Twitter and Facebook. I won’t be spending so much time visiting and commenting on blogs.

However, I’ll still be blogging regularly and Marmalade Moon will be updated each Tuesday, with an additional post later in the week if I have any extra news. I’ll soon be sending out the Spring Edition of Club Marmalade Moon and I’m putting the finishing touches to some desktop art soon to be released. So there’ll be lots going on. But I’ll also be making space for having some magnolia moments.

What are your plans for your digital life this summer? Will you be taking a vacation from your desktop environment or will it be a time when you perhaps enjoy spending a little more time on your computer projects?

Concentrate

Concentrate

Concentrate is a simple and intuitive application that helps you eliminate distractions so that you can focus.

Concentrate lets you create Activities, which are groups of actions that help you focus on a task. For example, you may want to create an Art activity that quits social networks, launches your favourite software for creating art and changes your desktop to an image that makes you feel creative. If you like you can set a time for the activity.

Activities in Concentrate

Here you can see the different activities I’ve created with Concentrate.

There are activities for blogging, writing, art, economy, general focus, but also an activity that turns on social networks and my RSS-feed.

For a visually oriented person it’s wonderful to automatically switch desktop wallpaper to indicate that you’re moving into a different space. I love how it makes me feel like there are several spaces in the same digital environment, and as though I’m moving from one space to another when I switch between activities.

Below you can see my desktop dressed up with its regular wallpaper as well as the solid black I like to use when I focus on art and design.

This is software for the Mac. There’s a free demo of Concentrate and the application sells for $29 with a money-back guarantee if you’re not satisfied.

Desktop for play and desktop for focus.

ColorSchemer Studio 2

ColorSchemer Studio 2

When you create art using digital tools, you use the colour wheel with its endless possibilities for selecting colours. I like to limit my palette when I start working on a piece and pick a group of colours as a starting-point. This is where ColorSchemer Studio 2 enters the scene.

ColorSchemer Studio 2 is a professional colour-matching application that helps you build beautiful colour schemes with speed and ease. It can help you identify colour harmonies, create unique palettes based on photos or images, find related colours, mix colours to create a gradient blend and work with RGB and CMYK colours in a colour-managed environment. But it doesn’t stop there.

With ColorSchemer Studio 2 you can preview colours on a variety of layouts, view colours through colourblind eyes and analyze contrast, readability, and accessibility!

This is an incredible tool for handling colour, again this is software for the Mac there is both a version for the Mac and for Windows and although the price-tag might be steep for a hobby I think it’s well worth it for professional art and design work. ColorSchemer Studio 2 costs $49.99 and there’s a free trial available.

One Small Change

Lastly, in February I’ll be making One Small Change to make my digital life more sustainable. I’ve already got my laptop set to be optimised for high energy savings, but I tend to leave it on and charging over night, so I can just flip the lid open in the morning and read my e-mail over my morning coffee. Of course it’s ridiculous to leave it on charging at night! So, no more of that.

Seashell, stones and a plug

For me, it was wonderful to not have to have Excel installed at home. Or Windows. Or Solitaire. Oh and WordPerfect!

My computer was a place where I learned new things. A playground. A digital canvas. A wonderful world of writing and painting and connecting with people.

A few years on I began freelancing and soon I started my own company, Marmalade Moon. All of a sudden both my work and many of my hobbies were on the same computer. In the same environment.

And gradually, my once so creative and peaceful digital canvas became a stressful environment flooded with e-mail, instant messaging, social media, the distractions of the internet and unread RSS feed items… Who thought of that idea anyway? “Unread items”? As though reading articles you’re interested in, is a list of obligations and not a pleasure? And yes of course it spills over into how you feel about it!

So here I was, in a wonderfully convenient and portable digital space that blended work with leisure, but finding myself feeling overwhelmed, unenthusiastic and stressed out.

And I knew that it wasn’t the tool itself, my computer, it was how I was using it.

There is a reason why we travel during our holidays! A change of scenery and having new experiences induces new perspectives and stirs the creative spirits. And here I was stuck in a stressful routine, spending too much time in the same digital environment. I needed to reinvent my digital life.

So I decided to create some new habits for my digital life. To make changes to how and when I browse the web, to clean up my RSS-feeds, my mail and to turn things on and off. To reduce the stream of information. To log off to find the time, inspiration and attention for the things I value most. To focus on being creative and connecting. To find my flow. And to return to my laptop to express myself.

The next thing I did was to get an iPhone. This Christmas I found the time to explore it and to create a delightful, personal digital space on my iPhone. This really got me excited and renewed my interest in my laptop too! It turned out to be a really fabulous move for me, to have a digital space that had absolutely no work on it!

Sometimes, it’s good to take a step back from everything. To get some perspective and re-focus. If you spend a lot of time in a digital environment, I think it’s important to now and then take a look at how it’s working for you. Reinventing my digital life has been so refreshing for me, that it’ll be one of the topics for my blog. With writings about creating a personal digital space, I hope to bring some inspiration to your digital life.