Tag: Sidecar

Sidecar, Screen Mirroring

sidecar screen mirroring
Screen mirroring in Photoshop: iMac Retina, iPad Pro, Apple Pencil and Sketchboard Pro.

I’ve been struggling to use the mouse as a brush or an eraser in Photoshop on my iMac Retina with any accuracy but I’d forgotten how to set up Sidecar – the facility that enables you to use an iPad as a second screen for your Mac.

For screen mirroring, this is how it works:

  • In Systems Preferences on the iMac go to ‘Displays’
  • Click ‘Add Display’
  • Select ‘iPad’ and ‘Mirror and extend’

At this stage the screen on my iMac transforms itself to fit the narrower proportions of the iPad and the whole set up works as I’d expect it to: I can use the Mac’s mouse pretty much as normal and I can use the Apple Pencil on the iPad for the brush or eraser in Photoshop.

Note: Mac and iPad are connected to the same wifi network. In the settings the iPad ‘Handoff’ is enabled.

Unfortunately working in Sidecar doesn’t improve my drawing skills!

Drawing in Sidecar Mode

Sidecar

This is my first attempt to use Apple’s Sidecar mode which is a feature introduced with the latest operating system, Catalina, that enables me to use my iPad Pro as a second screen for my iMac. Here I’ve dragged just the central workspace window from the iMac version of Clip Studio Paint onto the iPad, leaving the Layers Palette, Toolbar etc on the iMac. Rather disconcerting, but it works.

I’m trying out the 3D posable figures in Clip Studio, using them to get the proportions and drawing on a layer above them.

Fresco

My first drawing in Fresco. I like the cross hatching that I can get from one of the ‘Comic’ pens. There’s also a blotty pen and a ‘Blake’ pen, which I’m afraid doesn’t suddenly enable me to draw like Quentin Blake.
The ‘Belgian Comics’ brush in Fresco has yet to succeed in enabling me to draw like Herge, but it produces a stroke very like the ‘ligne claire’, clear line, of the Tintin stories.

So far, it doesn’t feel as direct as drawing in a program such as Procreate or Adobe’s new Fresco on the iPad itself, but I’ll keep using it so that I get familiar with it, because I’m sure it’s going to be useful as a way of using an Apple Pencil on an iMac only program.

Links

Using your iPad as a second display for your Mac with Sidecar

Adobe Fresco, drawing program at the App Store