Perhaps no tool will make an artist feel more at home on the iPad than the $20 Hand Glider, a lightweight sleeve for your wrist and pinky that prevents your skin from triggering multitouch gestures or wayward marks while using a stylus. By outward appearance alone, the glove looks a little silly, but its function far outweighs its design quirks. (I tested the One Finger Hand Glider Tablet Glove; the company also sells a $25 Two Finger Hand Glider Tablet Glove, which, as its name implies, covers two of your fingers.)

Perhaps no tool will make an artist feel more at home on the iPad than the $20 Hand Glider, a lightweight sleeve for your wrist and pinky that prevents your skin from triggering multitouch gestures or wayward marks while using a stylus. By outward appearance alone, the glove looks a little silly, but its function far outweighs its design quirks. (I tested the One Finger Hand Glider Tablet Glove; the company also sells a $25 Two Finger Hand Glider Tablet Glove, which, as its name implies, covers two of your fingers.)
Though the Hand Glider website specifies both left and right-handed models, the two are anatomically identicalthe only difference is which side of the glove hosts the company logo. I found that the one-finger version provided me with the right number of free fingers to still perform the iPads multitasking gestures, though I expect your mileage may vary.
Learning to trust the glove may be the biggest hurdle to using it: I wore it for nearly 30 minutes before I realized I was still drawing in my stilted iPad way, fingers and palm curled around the stylus so as not to accidentally brush the digital canvas.
After forcing myself to relax and draw like I would on paper, the positive aspects of this glove were immediately apparent: You can focus on minuscule details you might otherwise have to zoom in to work on. Your hand becomes much steadier. Your fingers dont cramp around the stylus. In general, I found my sketches when using the Hand Glider were much looser and more enjoyable than their pre-Glider counterparts, especially when using a program like Paper.
The glove is surprisingly lightweight and gives off very little extra warmthyou should have no worry about overheating your body while you draw.
No, the Hand Glider isnt an engineering marvel; instead, its simply the right tool for the right gadget. And if you love to draw on your iPad, its a no-brainer.
Serenity Caldwell is a Macworld associate editor who knows a thing or two about drawing on the iPad.
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