Building your own stylus for the iPad, painter style
Many mobile artists prefer using a stylus over the finger when painting, and there are ready-made options like the Pogo Stylus or the mi-stylus.
They do work fine, still they don’t feel very much like a painting tool in your hand.
Wouldn’t it be cooler to have a tool shaped like, let’s say, a real brush? Easy! All you need is sponge like this one:
You simply use the softer part (not the dark scratchy stuff). In this case, I cut off a part of it, rolled it tightly and put it into a Koh-I-Noor lead holder. That’s it, works great, you just need to keep in mind: in order to register the touch, the tip needs to have a minimum size, approx. 0.5cm in a square.
Here are some more great painting tools built that way (by courtesy of Linda Van Thiel):
June 2nd, 2010 at 21:25
I’ve made some for myself using some long charcoal holders, so I can hold the brush way back getting that “real painting” feel. I also use an adjustable copy stand so the iPad is almost upright. I love my new digital canvas!
June 2nd, 2010 at 22:23
If your drawing / painting device has a non-conductive handle (plastic and some wood) wrap conductive wire up it like I did in the far right brush in the photo Benjamin posted.
June 3rd, 2010 at 15:41
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June 4th, 2010 at 18:08
Do the tips need to be dipped into salty water to work? I’ve tried this but to no avail. I couldn’t find the exact same sponge brand, but it is a natural sponge and looks very similar.
June 4th, 2010 at 20:36
Sweet! I’m gonna make one this weekend!
June 7th, 2010 at 00:20
iLKke – the only household sponges I have found to work are those made by 3M, specifically the Scotch Brite brand. Both the yellow multipurpose and the blue heavy duty work. It needs to be a conductive sponge or foam. The foam that computer chips come in work too. This material is not the same as the packing sponge/foam that computer parts come in.
June 7th, 2010 at 05:24
Wow this works better than my pogo! Now I feel like goose for buying one.
ILKke, is your sponge soft? When I first used the kitchen sponge it was soft out of the pack, but I rinsed off the stuff that was coating it in tap water, wrung it out in paper towels, and used it and it was amazing. But eventually it dried all the way out, hard, and didn’t work anymore. Moistening it in tap water made it soft and working again. I then remade it using sponge right out if the pack without rinsing it and it worked from the start (but not quite as soft as the damp one). So if your sponge is hard (all natural sponge I have found in shops is) then moistening with regular tap water (and then removing as much water as possible) could help? But you may need to keep doing it to keep it working.
June 7th, 2010 at 19:30
Tor: I have not allowed my sponge tips to get wet. They have been used for nearly two weeks now and are all still soft, pliable and work on my iPad.
Sponges that I use for cleaning do get hard and do not work on the iPad, so apparently the coating is a good thing and you do not want to wash it off. Over long periods of disuse (unuse?) it’s probably a good idea to put your homemade styli in plastic bags. The original sponges come in them, probably to keep them fresher.
June 8th, 2010 at 11:43
Yeah, I tried moistening the sponge and sometimes it registers, but it’s far from usable. I just realized that this advice is for iPad, and all along I’ve been trying to make it work on my iPhone! Perhaps this is the problem
June 8th, 2010 at 14:02
Nope, works fine on the iPhone and iPod Touch. All three have the same kind of screen technology. Do not do anything to the sponge other than cutting. Don’t let it get wet. And the only brand of common kitchen sponge I have found to work is the 3M Scotch Brite from the USA. That or conductive foam like this:
http://www.altex.com/12-x-12-Conductive-Foam-W2752B-P143180.aspx
June 8th, 2010 at 22:31
Yeah I washed it that first time cos sponges right out of the pack kinda creep me out. Weird I know LOL but the one I am using now us unwashed and lovely. If it does end up faking over time I’ll just pop in a new bit of sponge into the lead holder, and keep a bunch of sponge-bits in a plastic bag rather than the stylus itself. The sponge is cheaper and easier to find than the Koh-I-Nor.
I’m not in the US but I used the cheapest no-name sponge in the supermarket, because that’s what I had on hand. No fancy brand names. No scouring pad to cut off. Worked great. I find with my Pogo I have to press hard for it to register but the regular kitchen sponge is much more responsive and just gorgeous to use, on iPad or iPhone.
June 15th, 2010 at 11:22
Finally made it work with conductive foam! \o/ Still experimenting to see what method producec the most pleasant tip.
Haven’t given up on sponges yet, as the foam seems to flake with use.
Btw, when you want to zoom in/out, and are using the pen, just tap the thumb of the other hand on the screen and swipe with the pen!
August 12th, 2010 at 22:33
Thanks for the tip! I just happened to have a new scotch brite sponge under the sink and it works great!
August 17th, 2010 at 03:28
It worked!!! Yay! I have a blue scotch brite pad which Ihacked up and voila!! Thank you!!!
October 24th, 2010 at 11:20
Wow! That really hit the mark, and this comment is to say thanks!
May 1st, 2011 at 23:21
Just used 3M scotchbrite spongecloth! great success!
May 1st, 2011 at 23:22
annd it works on the macbook trackpad!
July 1st, 2011 at 09:28
works great. thanks