By the time my Wacom broke down in 2016, the 2012 iPad was quite underpowered to run the latest iOS, so it was ripe for an upgrade as well.

Faced with a dilemma, whether to buy a new Wacom or invest into an iPad Pro to replace both my graphic tablet and the old iPad, I decided to put all my eggs in one basket.

I didn’t find any articles such as this one, so it was all based on pure hope that the iPad Pro—together with Apple Pencil—could perform as well as a Wacom. You have to understand, Wacom is THE brand professionals use for digital drawing. It gained my complete trust in the 13 years the Intuos 2 served me. Choosing to go with Apple was a big leap of faith, but it paid off in ways I didn’t even imagine.

I had three goals with buying the iPad Pro and Apple Pencil:

Replace my old iPad. Replace my digital drawing tablet. Replace my physical notepads and sketchbooks.

In 2016 I started working full-time on my own business, Retronator. For the first time in my life I wasn’t tied to a specific place, so I decided to travel around the world while developing Pixel Art Academy, my adventure game for learning how to draw.

Living out of a suitcase meant my drawing supplies had to give. No more sketchbooks, no more gazillions of pens and pencils, no more graph paper notepads. iPad would have to replace it all.

Part 2: Life with the iPad Pro and Apple Pencil

As of yesterday, iPad Pro comes in two sizes: 10.5-inch and 12.9-inch. The 10.5 replaced the 9.7, but even with the new lineup, going for the bigger one is a no-brainer for me. This photo sums it up the best:

At almost 13", the big iPad is an exact replacement of big-format print magazines. This brings me to goal number 1: replacing my old iPad.

Let’s break it down.

Goal 1.1: Reading

I use my iPad as a reading device. The Kindle app brings me the whole Amazon library and iBooks does the same for Apple’s offering, as well as anything I have in PDF format.