The new Pencil is intended to let everyone from amateur artists tocreative professionals draw on their tablets as freely as if they were puttingpencil to paper. I tested it out and discovered that despite its simplepurpose, the Pencil could not be more complex; in its attempt to harness theeffortless beauty of the elementary writing and drawing instrument, Apple hascrafted its own magic wand.

I have to admit, even though I drew illustrations on an iPad, they dolook a lot like real pencil drawings. But it didn’t feel like drawing with apencil. It felt a lot like drawing on an iPad, which is sort of like drawing ona sheet of glass with a piece of plastic while having bright light beamed intoyour eyes. It’s not even the best tool for digital illustration – that’s aWacom tablet, the gold standard used by professional artists and illustrators.But that doesn’t mean the Pencil is useless. For many amateur artists, Wacom isout of reach. It’s too expensive and intricate. Apple’s Pencil, in contrast, isaccessible, intuitive and easy to use.

Apple need not be ashamed in coming second behind Wacom in the drawingtablet market. After all, the Wacom Cintiq Companion (which is its closestproduct to the iPad Pro and Pencil), retails for even more money than the Appleequivalent, and appeals to a much smaller demographic comprised of professionalartists. I use a Wacom for final art, and would very much like to have a CintiqCompanion or something like it to make working digitally more portable, but Iwouldn’t use it for sketching. For that I guess I’d prefer the Apple Pencil …But you know what is really great for sketching? A pencil and a piece of paper.It’s effortlessly portable, boasts a lag-time of 0%, and if you spring for thewhole HB range, the shading possibilities are virtually limitless.

Apple’s Pencil is very impressive and precise, but at the end of theday, it’s a secondary tool designed to work with the newest incarnation of oneof their most profitable products. Which brings me to my biggest problem withthe Apple Pencil, which isn’t the Pencil at all, it’s the gigantic expensiveiPad Pro you need in order to use it.

For me, the iPad Pro is the breaking point in an endless parade ofincrementally sized rectangles I need to resist buying. Looking at my iMac,beside my Macbook, beside my iPad mini, beside my iPhone, I cannot bear thethought of saving up to add one more step to this ridiculous Russian-dollcollection of Apple products. Not until, once again, they magically convince methat it is absolutely necessary.

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