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DokiWear Art Glove: Review

We review DokiWear's art glove for use with Cintiqs and other clean surfaces. Find out whether the CG art glove is a helpful tool for serious digital artists and designers!

We review DokiWear's art glove for use with Cintiqs and other clean surfaces. Find out whether the CG art glove is a helpful tool for serious digital artists and designers!

Product: DokiWear CG Art Glove

Company: DokiWear

Website: www.dokiwear.com

I was asked by 3dtotal to review a prototype for a glove made by DokiWear, developed for artists to use on clean working surfaces and with screen-based input devices - I have tested it using my Wacom Cintiq.

I use my Cintiq at work a lot, and had heard about the gloves some people use with them - typically not a full glove, but one with the little finger gloved, and the rest of the fingers free. These gloves act as a barrier between the side of your hand and the screen, so I was very interested to try it out and see if it would make any difference to my experience while wearing it.

You can see how the material fits snuggly to your hand

I do find that my Cintiq requires a good wipe every morning to get rid of any scuffs and smudges made by my hands, so that was one thing I was interested in seeing potentially change using the glove. The other is that there is sometimes some unwanted friction between your hand and the Cintiq - especially when the weather is warm (and your palms get sweaty!), so that was the other thing I thought the glove might mitigate against.

Gripping the pen is no problem with the material and your free fingers

The gloves have been developed for surfaces an artist might want to keep clean, such as paper, or glass, but I'll be looking at it specifically in relation to using my Cintiq.

Before I go into functionality, I'll talk about the look - not the most important aspect, but if you're going to be using them every day you'll be looking at them quite a lot. They remind me a little of cycling gloves and the version I'm testing is mainly grey/silver with a black section where you would get contact with the screen (other colors are now available). Though not the most stylish gloves I've ever seen, I do quite like the design; they're fairly simple, with a few design elements dotted around which break up the different sections of the material. There is also some nice red stitching through the black material that I like.

Having no skin contact with the screen significantly reduces the marks and residue your hand leaves on the surface

"The material on the main glove is quite thin and stretchy, and made with breathable material, which is good as you don't want to be sweating away in super-thick gloves"

The glove that I'm reviewing is a prototype, but the quality still feels good; the stitching feels professional, and apart from one or two loose threads here and there, the finish and stitching are both great! The material on the main glove is quite thin and stretchy, and made with breathable material, which is good as you don't want to be sweating away in super-thick gloves - and, though it's hard to tell from an initial test, I can imagine it could take some good wear and usage.

The point at which the holes come in the glove for your free fingers and thumb are designed in such a way as to allow free movement, without irritating the skin

The part of the glove that comes into contact with the work surface has a microfiber padding, with the kind of material you might find with a glasses' cleaning cloth, or mirror buffer. So it's kind of like you're polishing your screen as you work! I think this is a great feature - and I like that thought has been given to the best materials to use for both functionality and comfort.

The back of the glove has some design elements on it, but is still kept fairly simple and clean

"The material feels great, and I can imagine you would easily forget that they were there after using them for a while

One thing I should say before I move onto the topic of comfort is that I have pretty large hands, and there were only Small and Medium prototypes available at the time of testing (Large and Extra Large versions are now available), so I can't give a perfect assessment of how well they fit. However, even with a slightly snug fit (with the Medium size) the material feels great, and I can imagine you would easily forget that they were even there after using them for a while. I only found a slight annoyance with the pulling on my fingers, which I'm sure is something I'm only experiencing with my large hands - the rest of the glove feels light, comfortable and, more importantly, fairly unnoticeable.

They've chosen to enclose the bottom two fingers, which I think makes sense, and prevents any skin contacting the work surface. Also the glove isn't too long, so it doesn't ride up the arm too far.

Good quality stitching makes the gloves feel professional and durable

Using the glove while drawing does eliminate most the scuffs you get when drawing without it, which I'd guess would be the main appeal for using it. Your hand moves smoothly and gripping my pen is no problem at all. I was mostly testing it during cool months so can't say if this would eliminate sweaty-palm scuffs in the heat of the summer, but I can guess it might help if not eliminate that too with the breathable material used. So if I were to say whether the glove does what I want it to, I would have to say: Yes, it does.

One other thing to mention is that they have been testing it with capacitive inputs like tablet readers, and there is an 80% palm rejection on the latest iPads - although they don't advertise that the glove can eliminate it completely. But if you draw on your iPad maybe this will help with some of the annoying cursor jumps? And, who knows, perhaps later models will have this feature built-in!

In closing, I think this is a great product for those of you out there who want less friction between your hand and screen, especially for Cintiq users (and I'm sure it would be great for traditional artists, too). The quality feels good, and it is very comfortable, with great choices of materials. You're not going to be wearing it out as a fashion accessory, but it still looks good, and you could happily wear it in a studio without getting any funny looks. But, most importantly, it works! So if you've been looking for a glove to use with your Cintiq I would highly recommend checking it out.

I mainly use my Cintiq for inking, it was great to test it out on this piece
©Dave Neale

Key features:

4-way stretch compression
Moisture wick
Breathable material tech
Microfiber cleaning
Key contact smooth flow

Price: $19.99

Release date: Available now

Star Rating: 4 / 5

DISCOUNT CODE:

Save 10% on your DokiWear gloves before 31 March 2015 with discount code doki95605!
Due to limited stock of some sizes, be sure to act fast.

Related links

Find out more about DokiWear
Purchase DokiWear gloves in a range of colors
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To see more by David Neale, check out Beginner's Guide to Digital Painting in Photoshop

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