Tekserve's Official Wacom Cintiq 13HD Release Party

Prounounced "Wah-Kum"

New York City’s Apple Specialist store Tekserve hosted the Official Wacom Cintiq 13HD Release Party last night. The bench mark for interactive pen displays, Wacom (pronounced Wah- Kum) Intuos pads and Cintiq interactive pen displays have been the art entertainment industry digital standard for many years now.  Many illustrators, photographers, editors, and designers have embraced the tool for enhanced productivity, flexibility and integration reasons. 

Tekserve hosted the after-hours free presentation for ticket-holders only, including an impressive spread of food and drink that I rarely see at such events. Attendees mingled, munched, networked, and test-drove the Cintiqs and other models on display. Marvel Comics fans were happy to see Marvel CCO and favorite artist Joe Quesada as one of the guests who generously shared his Cintiq workflow with the audience. The standing room presentation was comfortable, as the absence of seats felt informal and flexible. I was close to the stage, but a big screen and other monitors broadcast everything throughout the store, enabling guests to watch and listen from anywhere in the shop.

Wacom Cintiq 13HD 

Lots of food for hungry guests

It was interesting to see Quesada’s workflow. He uses the Cintiq for layout purposes mainly, sometimes sketching concepts directly on the screen, other times working from scanned pencil/pen doodles on paper. He manipulates Google Sketch-Up models of cars, buildings, and other props as desired until he finds the right angle. Then he brings a screen shot into Photoshop to draw over this reference to satisfy his final layout. He often will drop in shading with a big broad brush, and if I understood him correctly, he will sometime ink his work using Photoshop’s pencil tool instead of the brush tool (which he feels is too unpredictable in line quality). Although I was a bit confused with his flow at times, he clarified that he will work the layouts up as pencil on paper drawings for the final art. After that I was unclear if he produced the final black lines in analog or digital form. Quesada mentions that many comic-book artists have not abandoned the pencil and India ink final art pages because of the demand for after-market original art sales they may enjoy. However, since sharing a lot of his finished BW and color art, I gather that Quesada is comfortable using both methods.

Joe Quesada draws a crowd

In my experience Tekserve has been a great resource for my Mac needs.  I bought my tower from them a few years ago, and repaired my laptops’ motherboard at the same time. The wait for the repair counter can be somewhat long and inconvenient depending on the time of day. If you need a repair inquiry and have the luxury of an open schedule, earlier in the day seems best. The staff is knowledgeable and helpful, and has helped me make some great decisions regarding hard drive products and performance.

If you need Apple products, Cintiq’s, upgrades, audio devices, repairs, or want to check out some of their events, visit Tekserve at www.tekserve.com.