✍️ The newsletter: Feedback for Conservators #2
A FREE digital tool for art conservators: Concepts®
This newsletter project comes from the mentorship service Feedback for Conservators: a place to bring a little bit of professional feedback to help on subjects that I wish I knew more about, especially (but not only) at the start of my art conservator career. Topics discussed here are recurrent ones that I see over Zoom sessions! so I thought would be useful to address them in a short and more informal video format. In between, shorter posts with a digital free tool will be discussed. New publications will be out twice a month, for a year.
And just as a reminder: this is not a perfect newsletter and doesn’t intend to, but rather a space to offer some help. Read here past newsletters. And as aaaalways, some disclamers1
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This is the first edition of this other section dedicated to “digital tools discoveries” for art conservators. Today: Concepts®.
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😎 Concepts® in a nutshell
Concepts® is a drawing program app (vectors). I first heard about it through the senior historic interior conservator Angelique Friedrichs (follow her if you do not already!). It has been used for companies like Disney or Google, but do not get intimidated. Also, It is not the only drawing program I will showcase, so stay tuned for more.
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Why It is cool for art conservators
It is a really good option for quick sketches of damage diagnosis when you visit on-site on top of a photo you made, to discuss possible outcomes of a treatment, to figure out how something can work without X or with X element and basically to stretch quickly anything that you need, also measures.
Offers the possibility to work in layers. It is not Illustrator but is a quick tool that can give you a lot (who anyway uses ALL the tools of Illustrator? Not me at least).
The colour weal is so cool 😍 even if has a limited colour palette, it is inside the weal tool. Little tip: the colours have an internal reference (a little number) so if you’re sharing with somebody else the same drawing work, thanks to the colour reference you can still make sure that both are working (and seeing) the same colour, regardless of your screen colour and light set up.
It is free. It has a paid version too if you are very motivated.
Yes to Apple and Windows, fantastic for tablets.
You can quickly share the drawing by email, text, archives, or even your Social Media (but in limited quantity in the free version). It seems that can be presented with AirPlay (I have not tried this one).
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Some thoughts
Not worth in my opinion using it on the phone, yes with a tablet with a tactile pen.
Compatibility problems may occur when sharing with Windows/Mac. It is more a one-person tool, rather than a team tool.
I will not mention all, but not all the basic features are available on the free version. For example, you can export only on JPG in the free version.
My advice is always the same, dedicate 1 hour to explore, check videos and play with it and then just stick to what you need. Most times we only need to focus on 3-4 things to make it work for you, so let’s not overcomplicate trying to understand aaaall the program. It is not a free app meant to do everything, but a quick tool to have it ready to use.
Enjoy!
P.S. If you have used it, you can always add your comments below. It is always interesting to hear other colleagues’ opinions about it.
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That’s a warp for today. More in two weeks, see you then?
This is my personal opinion, which means also that I could be wrong! You do you✨. Also, let’s be cool and not share extracts without my consent.
This is NOT a sponsored post, just my personal opinion of this app 😙
Dear Marta,
What an interesting article! As a conservation student with an IPad I wasn’t willing to pay up 10€ for Procreate. I ended up downloading an app called IArtBook which looks and feels a lot like procreate. It has (few) paying options and a very large free version with layers, multiple download options including with transparency, and a large array of brushes.
I’ve used it for condition reports and reintegration proposals : it’s oil paint brush and colour select feature made that endeavour extremely easy. It’s only lack in my opinion is with the colour adjacent features : you can pick on a colour wheel or out of arbitrary and frankly strange pre-made palettes. Being free though it does the job tremendously well.
I do recommend it but would be very interested to see if, and how it compares to both Procreate and Concepts.
Best,
Clara Nabet
Dear Marta,
What an interesting digital tool! I would love to compare it with the one I'm using right now. I'm currently using Procreate® as digital tool for making damage views. It's a one-time payment of 10 euros and then you have the application for ever. It's actually made for graphic designers, but I believe it's perfect for making damage views or mapping as well.
I'm a really big fan because it's so versatile and you also have the layering like in Adobe Photoshop and apparently Concepts®. Plus, you can save your damage view in JPG, PDF, PSD (PhotoShop Document) and of course a Procreate-file (and the last two save all the layers you made). The biggest advantage is that you can re-use the same damage view and add, delete or adapt the damage marks you've previously made without having to start all over.
I'm curious what you'd think of it. If you want to try it, let me know. I have a manual made for it and everything! I can e-mail it to you if you like.
All my best,
Anke Van Achter