Nicholas Orr is an illustrator and comics artist based in Portland, OR, who is just as talented with traditional painting as with digital comics creation. We love his work – it’s suffused with depth of emotion, deep and brilliant color, and keen sensuality. In both his illustrations and his comics, he tends to focus on the lives and experiences of LGBTQ+ people of color. He’s currently working on a new comic called BKHR, to be released soon!
Nick is often on the go, whether to the park to get some fresh air, to a coffee shop for a change of pace, or into the community to connect with other comics folks. So we figured the new MovinkPad Pro 14 would be a perfect fit for him – and we were right! It’s like bringing your studio anywhere you go. It has the famous Wacom Premium Textured Glass for a lovely pen-on-paper feel, perfect for someone who’s used to traditional materials. Pro Pen 3 is included, for the ultimate precision and flow. And it has Clip Studio Paint built-in, many comic artists’ software of choice.
As a traditional artist, Nick wasn’t sure about using digital tools. He’d tried out an iPad Pro with Apple Pencil, but it didn’t exactly cut it. “The MovinkPad Pro provides a seamless transition from paper to a digital surface,” he says. “It’s beyond what I expected it would be. It’s something I’ve been looking for, for ages and I could never find it … Being someone that comes from the world of traditional art, one of the biggest things that I need is to still have the thread of being able to create art digitally – but from with a traditional mindset.”
The feel of the Pro Pen 3 on the MovinkPad Pro’s screen felt like what he was used to from pencil, paint, and paper. “One reason I’ve been really interested in Wacom is because I feel like the products are focused for people who have a traditional mindset … It feels like paper. It feels more like paper than any other. I’m really grateful that I have the opportunity to work with this product because it literally does everything I needed to do – and it’s portable!”
Speaking of portability, that’s one of the most important features of the MovinkPad Pro 14 – it’s an Android-based all-in-one portable pad. There’s no computer needed; everything is built in – and the Pro Pen 3 is included! You can use it at the park, at a café, anywhere. “Having a mobile device is important to me, because ideas come to me very randomly. If I’m out and about and if something hits me, if I don’t get it written or drawn, I can’t get the full scope of the idea that I want to get out. I could be getting tea, or I could be on my break at work, or out with some friends, or at the park to get some fresh air or something … I don’t have to go all the way home to get in front of my computer to get it out.”
And getting out and about is typically part of Nick’s process. “Whenever I’m having a moment of artist’s block, it usually helps for me to go to a park or to a café that has a lot of action and movement around because it gets my imagination flowing … and Portland’s a cool place because there’s a lot of artists here, a lot of comic book creators. And we all get together now and then to create together. And it does help to have the mobile device; I can show them what I’ve been working on and get some creativity from them. … And you don’t have a community in your studio. It really gets your creativity flowing better when you’re amongst people that have like-minded views about art.”
The design and included software of the MovinkPad also help with his workflow. “It makes my workflow a lot easier. It feels like I have all the tools I need on this machine. Like, Clip Studio Paint works really well for me because I do comic work, and it’s designed for that. And whenever I’m out, it’s easy access to start drawing with Wacom Canvas, and you can just double tap on it and start sketching. And then I can easily move from a sketch in Wacom Canvas to Clip Studio Paint; it’s easy to go from one to the other.”
One thing he appreciates about the device is that it’s purpose-built for drawing. Because it’s an Android device, it can get most apps from the Google Play store – but that’s not what it was made for. “If I’m out and I just want to draw and focus on drawing,” he says, “I can just take the pen to the screen. It’s an easier way to get my thoughts and ideas out without any distractions, which is the point of going out into a park or a café, just to get time with my thoughts and put them down.”
He would recommend the device widely. “I would recommend the MovinkPad Pro 14 to anyone who loves to create comics digitally. It’s very fluid, it’s very fast, and if you know how to use Clip Studio Paint, then it’s a game changer in general compared to any other device or program. It has everything you need it in without having to piece things together from other places. Once you go Wacom, you don’t go back.”
About the artist
Nicholas Orr is an illustrator and comics artist based in Portland, OR, who is just as talented with traditional painting as with digital comics creation. We love his work – it’s suffused with depth of emotion, deep and brilliant color, and keen sensuality. In both his illustrations and his comics, he tends to focus on the lives and experiences of LGBTQ+ people of color. He’s currently working on a new comic called BKHR, to be released soon!
Follow his work on his website or on Instagram.
