Review of the TourBox.
I started with the TourBox in mid 2024. I’ve spent a full year and a half across two separate products form the TourBox line, the NEO, and the Elite Plus. Before then I was more experienced with the keybindings on my XP-Pen tablet, keyboard, and iPad gestures in procreate.
The product itself is not the first of its kind, but it certainly is unique. I’ve seen other creatives using their Logitech QuickKey remotes, Corne Keyboards, Streamer Decks, mice with quick keys on the side, trackball mice, even stuff that was homemade just to make their art process go faster. While each of these have their own attributes, budgets, and customization to help with everyone’s needs, I personally found my TourBox to be a good fit for what I’ve been asking from this series of gadgets.
What I like about the design of this brick blob is how it fits into my small hands and every finger matches up to a certain line of buttons for me to know each command and shortcut.
This is especially helpful for long drawing sessions. I don’t feel like I’m getting slowed down from having to remember any button combo or looking down at the box to realign myself.
Some downsides to the TourBox… whenever I take it places I feel it in my bag. It’s a bit heavy. The learning curve is not steep but I did find myself not using all the features that it offers like the multiple button presses, might be a skill issue on my part. The Elite Plus features for IOS to not include touch replacements for procreate like how it works for Clip Studio, because there is not a simple pan layer tool in Procreate’s program I don’t think, It was something to get used to on my end.
If you like not having to look down to remember a specific button pattern or where a button is itself, customization for every program without needing to pay for the proprietary software, Linux compatibility (not official), vast community and official brand support, playing Minecraft fishing simulator with a knob and a few funny little buttons while eating snacks in your other hand… It’s great.
Image taken from Reddit.
Out of all the people that I knew in high school that were art kids with me, none of them still do art.
There was one person, I remember very vividly, who inspired me to get into art and creating. His name will not be mentioned, but I spent a lot of time with him and following his friends around. I didn't realize it at the time, but I had a crush on him. I thought that if I could make more artwork, get better at making art work, he would notice and love me. Not only that, but I wanted to help him out of his situations that he would tell me. It was a passing thought, though. Shortly after my second attempt of suicide, he didn't want to be around me. Understandable. I wasn't in my best mind at the time. I met B (my now partner) months later, next semester. Then that original person became an acquittance, then to a passerby.
When I think of him now, the events that transpired afterward, how I know of him now as an adult, I think I made the better choice of staying with B lol.
The rest of the art kids I was with... they all went to college before me... then shortly quit... never heard from them again...it's already a hazy time to remember...but I still felt like my work was enjoyed in a more organic and whole way than what I get through the internet some days.... I think back to this meme a lot when thinking about my high school art cohort
There are a lot of things I miss about being into making art during high school. It was the idea that I wasn't going to be alone with "like-minded people" working on projects and progressing careers.
It was called hope. A hope for something different from what I was experiencing at the time, oh to be young and angsty!
Yet, it wasn't hoping for me. I wanted everyone around me to succeed. When I was younger, I felt like I didn't deserve what lay ahead of me. Now crossing over the line from adolescence into young adulthood, I think so much differently.
Where are they now?
Well, some are thankfully still alive, some I see around, some I haven't seen, all together I'm sure they're fine, and that's all I could ever ask despite my gripes.
Where am I now?
I'm still creating, I'm still working, I'm still loving, I'm still living.