Win XP-Pen Artist Display 24 Pro!

Great News!

In the Summer 2023 Drawing Academy Art Competition, you can win the lifetime Drawing Academy membership and Artist Display 24 Pro

Watch this video to find out more and see this display in action.

In this video, I will review the Artist Display from XP-Pen and also will test it in action by making this portrait from blank canvas to the finished digital artwork. So, the main question is – Is this display any good for professional artists and designers. Let’s find out.

This device was delivered in triple cardboard packaging. There was one very big box; the second brown box was well wrapped. And finally, the high quality white box contains the display. The display was also well packed in multiple foam pieces and plastic bags.

Here is the 24 inch Artist Display Pro. It is rather heavy and looks solid. The screen is protected with a removable film. The screen size is rather nice – not too small, and not too big. I think that every professional designer will find these dimensions suitable for digital drawing. The width of the working area is more than half a meter. There will be plenty of space for drawing as well as for software tools. The color gamut is fine unless you have some very special requirements for color calibration. Let’s have a look at what also is in the box. Every item is placed in a separate plastic bag. This attention to detail gives a good impression about the manufacturer. The package contains all the cables and accessories you would need to use this pen display. I especially like the USB option because my laptop comes with such ports only. One stylus is nicely packed in the pen holder. It has no batteries, so it is always ready for drawing. There is an additional stylus, which is really great to have. There are spare nibs in this pen holder as well. Also, there is one drawing glove that you may find useful for drawing long lines with smooth hand movements. There are also a very handy pen slot, the multilingual Quick Guide, and the cleaning cloth.

I will now attach the pen slot to the display. Because I’m right-handed, it would be better to have it on the right hand side. The screwdriver doesn’t come with the display, buy the way. But, I’m sure, you will find one. The stylus fits perfectly into the slot. On the left hand side, there is also a place to attach the slot if you wish.

I will connect the displays to my laptop via the USB-C cable. The display also needs power. Apart from the power input and the USB-C video port, there are also two additional USB ports as well as the HDMI video connection. The built-in adjustable stand is a really great thing to have. It is made of metal, very robust and has several angles, which are very easy to change. There are two rubber rollers on the stand arm. Also, two rubber pads will grip the desktop nicely. It is very easy to move the display on the rollers, while rubber pads anchor it to the desk.

Let’s switch on the display. The colors look nice, although I can calibrate the color settings. To get the full functionality, I need to download and install the driver from the xp-pen.com website. This website is easy to navigate and all the drivers are available for every product. The installation process is very simple and straight-forward. Just follow the instructions.

The XP-Pen driver screen has all the needed settings. You can save, export and import the settings, which will save time if you plan to use different computers with your display. You can set up the working area for both the computer screen and the display screen. There is also the possibility to rotate the display screen at four different angles, and also to select which monitor to be used with the stylus. There is a separate window for pen settings. Here, you can customize the pen’s buttons and pressure sensitivity. Depending on your personal preferences and drawing style, you can adjust pressure settings as you like. The pen is very sensitive and responsive. Another window is dedicated to the shortcut keys. This is a really powerful feature of the XP-Pen Artist Display 24 Pro. And the last window is for the roller functions. You can set-up different shortcuts and roller behavior for every separate program you use. You can add or remove programs as you wish.

Before making this digital artwork in the program Rebelle 6, I will set up different shortcuts to use this drawing software with ease. The characteristic feature of the Artist 24 Pro display is two red dial wheels and 20 shortcut buttons. If you want to speed up your drawing process, using shortcuts is essential. The challenge with a big display is that there is not enough space on the desktop for the keyboard in front of the pen display. It is good if you have some underdesk keyboard drawer, but otherwise, using the display shortcut keys sounds like a better idea. Another reason why shortcuts are better is because with one hit of a button, you can replace multiple keys combination on the keyboard.

So, I will now show you what shortcuts I created for the Rebelle 6 painting program.

The first key is for Escape. A very useful shortcut if you want to cancel something.

The second key is Deselect. A very fast way of deselecting anything that has been selected on the screen.

The third shortcut is the Color Picker. It is a really useful tool for selecting colors from a picture.

The next shortcut is for the Color Balance dialog box. It is a must-have tool unless you only draw in monochrome.

In the Rebelle program, favorite brushes are collected separately. You need a shortcut to access this tab.

The following key resets all settings of a brush. This is a fast way of restoring the saved setting of a brush, pen or pencil.

The next shortcut is for hitting the Shift keyboard button. It is followed by the Space button.

The lower two keys on the left-hand side are for Redo and Undo shortcuts. I use the Undo function very often; that is why it is located in the bottom left corner.

On the right-hand side, the top key is for the Transform function. It is followed by the Warp transforming tool. Then, there is the Ruler shortcut. And another useful tool – Perspective. Another tool you may use often is the Eraser. The remaining five keys are: Fit to Screen; Actual Size, Wet the Layer, Fast Dry, and finally, the Switch Program key.

I have to say that these keys and their order are down to your personal preferences. There is no one hard rule which shortcuts to set up. I am just showing what works the best for me.

As you remember, there are also two red dial wheels. I programmed the left wheel to change the brush size. And the right-hand side wheel is to zoom in and out.

All shortcuts are easy to set up. Just click the “Show All” link and customize every key one by one.

Do not forget to save your settings. You may also export them, just in case you need the same shortcuts on a different computer. The same way, you can customize functions of two roller wheels.

Now, it’s time to test this 24 inch Artist Pro Display in action by making this portrait artwork. I begin by sketching constructive lines of a head. The main line of the face symmetry goes vertically from the top of the head to the chin. The height of a face is divided into three equal parts – the top-third is the height of the forehead; the middle-third is the height of a nose; and the bottom-third is the distance from the base of the nose to the bottom of the chin. The eye-line divides the height of a head into two equal parts. The height of an ear is the same as the height of a nose. There are about 20 more main proportions and alignments of a human head every skillful artist must know. If you want to learn how to draw portraits the right way, take the Life Drawing Academy course.

With the main head proportions in place, I can draw the girl’s portrait without accidental distortions. I’m using rather bold and dark lines because they won’t be included into the final picture. However, they will serve well as guides for digital painting in color. I have to say that the stylus glides across the display screen nicely and smoothly. It is easy to draw lines with precision.

I have finally completed this artwork consisting of a realistic portrait and very stylized background. It was a good exercise to test how the Artist Pro Display performs for digital painting. I really like this display. It is a great tool for professional artists and designers. Should you get it? Yes! It has all the features you would expect from such a device and costs less than other similar quality displays.

XP-Pen Artist Display 24 Pro