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This winter I bought a Sony Viao laptop, which I set next to my easel and use as reference instead of prints. I still make prints, but as a complement to the laptop. I have black and white and other variations all on file, and so can flip amongst them as needed. Having multiple versions I think helps me break free from just "copying" too literally any one version.
I completely love it. It is much more accurate and flexible than using prints alone. I particularly like being able to zoom in at out as I work through the canvas. I also like that I can just turn the image off altogether, and paint without any references - just concentrate on the painting by itself and work on it as you see in front of you.
Another bonus is that this has dramatically cut down on my printing costs (photo paper is expensive!) and the HOURS of wasted labor getting prints that are satisfactory to use.
I bought the sony viao in particular because of the screen - it has a great contrast ratio.
Since it's a laptop, I can also bring it to the client, and show them the initial layouts for their approval - again circumventing the wasted time of making a print to show them. I still show them prints as well, but the monitor can help the approval process.
my next big purchase eventually will be to get a HUGE flatscreen monitor - so that I can make the image even larger and therefore step back from the canvas better.
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