I was thinking about getting a tablet for Christmas but I don't know much about tablets at all. Is there a specific one I should get or are they all the same?

They are not all the same.

Make sure its a WACOM.

The WACOM bamboo is a good low cost starter.

I have a bamboo. Lovely thing. Small but does the job well. Good to start with.

Wacom bamboo fun will suit the average webcomicker, it's 80-90$ at bestbuy and other stores.

When you get serious about your artwork Wacom intuos is what you'll need, it's around 300$ and supposedly 3-4x as good as bamboo.

If you work on mspaint or GIMP then you will see minimal or no results with a tablet as they lack pressure sensitively. It alleviates carpel tunnel so that's the main plus.

As another note it will take you several months to learn to use it perfectly so don't fret when it's not working right away

A bamboo and photoshop is perfect.

i got mine for 80 at circuit city. There's bamboo and bamboo fun. Really they are about the same quality but the fun costs more because it comes with some artsy software. i just bought the regular one and it works fine.

I guess I'll get a Wacom Bamboo tablet then,thanks.

Aye, the Wacom Bamboo tablet is ace. Got the Bamboo Fun edition for $160 some time ago, with Photoshop and ArtRage in the box. Works like a charm once you get used to it. :)

Skullbie
If you work on mspaint or GIMP then you will see minimal or no results with a tablet as they lack pressure sensitively. It alleviates carpel tunnel so that's the main plus.

That's odd, pressure sensitivity works perfectly on my graphire 3 with the GIMP. I know that there were issues with getting the bamboo fun to work. They may have been fixed, but I honestly wouldn't know.

Wacom tablets are excellent.

gigatwo

Skullbie
If you work on mspaint or GIMP then you will see minimal or no results with a tablet as they lack pressure sensitively. It alleviates carpel tunnel so that's the main plus.

That's odd, pressure sensitivity works perfectly on my graphire 3 with the GIMP. I know that there were issues with getting the bamboo fun to work. They may have been fixed, but I honestly wouldn't know.

Wacom tablets are excellent.

GIMP on OSX, as far as i know has no pressure support. GIMP in Windows (XP and Vista) in my experience with my graphire4, supports pressure, but is not very well. I'd describe it as chunky. I'd never ink with GIMP. I'll put it that way.

The best free program for pressure sensitivity that I've found is paint.NET.

That's just in my experience though. I more typically use photoshop.

Skullbie
.

As another note it will take you several months to learn to use it perfectly so don't fret when it's not working right away

That's the most important point!

People (myself included) tend to think, when they get a tablet, that it's going to be the most intuitive thing in the world, and they'll be drawing right out of the box. It's not. But as long as you stick with it, and just keep using it, before you know it, you won't want to draw any other way.

IT will be really tempting to get frustrated and give up-- but just know that if you keep at it, it will become 100% natural.

Seriously. I got my first one, was frustrated, and packed it away for about a year. Over time though, it became a necessity, needed to touch up some inks here and there... I just kept using it functionally. Suddenly, like said, I noticed it became the most natural thing in the world to me.

mattchee

Skullbie
.

As another note it will take you several months to learn to use it perfectly so don't fret when it's not working right away

That's the most important point!

People (myself included) tend to think, when they get a tablet, that it's going to be the most intuitive thing in the world, and they'll be drawing right out of the box. It's not. But as long as you stick with it, and just keep using it, before you know it, you won't want to draw any other way.

IT will be really tempting to get frustrated and give up-- but just know that if you keep at it, it will become 100% natural.

Seriously. I got my first one, was frustrated, and packed it away for about a year. Over time though, it became a necessity, needed to touch up some inks here and there... I just kept using it functionally. Suddenly, like said, I noticed it became the most natural thing in the world to me.

Matt, really?!?!?!?! wow.... only took me a few hours to get the hang of the tablet! it has taken a while to find the right style and program to use... so please do not get discouraged... get a few "trial" versions of the programs and find the fell and the look that you want. You will get the hang in no time!

n_y_japlander
Matt, really?!?!?!?! wow.... only took me a few hours to get the hang of the tablet! it has taken a while to find the right style and program to use... so please do not get discouraged... get a few "trial" versions of the programs and find the fell and the look that you want. You will get the hang in no time!

Yeah. Really.

I originally got it because I wanted to color some of my traditional work. I'm not much for practicing, by the way, either I'm doing work or I'm not... so... that might have been part of the problem. I was trying to use it functionally right out of the box, and i found it very awkward, much more so than I expected... so I didn't really give it a fair shake, to be honest.

About a year later, I was doing some inking jobs here an there, and I needed to do some touch ups and finishes once I had scanned them, so I thought-- Y'know what? Lets get that thing out and give it a whirl. It felt a little better. It didn't take long after that for me to get up to speed, though.

Skullbie said "months" it didn't take me that long... I'd say more like "weeks" or a couple weeks... to feel totally natural about it anyway.

Now, of course, I'm a big tablet advocate!

I just like to let folks know that when they get that first tablet, it might not be 100% what they're expecting, but not to give up because very shortly they will become one with the tablet. As I have.

Wow, you guys are fast! It took me a month and a half to be able to draw perfectly freeform with my tablet :( I had to scan pencils and ink over with tablet til' i got used to it. Ah well to each his/her own :)

Skullbie
Wow, you guys are fast! It took me a month and a half to be able to draw perfectly freeform with my tablet :( I had to scan pencils and ink over with tablet til' i got used to it. Ah well to each his/her own :)

Perfectly.... I never said I'm perfect?!?!?! LOL!!! I don't think my art will ever be perfect in my eyes! but yes, I was comfortable with my tablet in a few hours, I was able to get the feel of it and the form. I too scanned pencils and "inked" with the tablet at first, now I use blue and red pencils on lower layers, and ink on top of them... So when Raw Fish comes out of hibernation, expect it to be close to my version of perfection, as I will get the PaintTool SAI down pat! and produce the work that I've been after for a long time!!

eh, Id rather just get a tablet PC....I cant find one cheap enough for me though

Just got an Intuos3 today and I have to say it's totally great! I think I got the hang of it now. I guess it just really depends on your hand and eye coordination.

Just as they've said bamboo is fine for beginners. But if you really want to make the best out of your creations, intuos3 would be of great help to you and your works.

Best wishes and Merry Christmas!

Using a tablet is all about zoom and strokes~

of course, maybe that's why it takes me forever to do anything but lineart. (Make all your lines strokes. Stroke! Stroke! Not dragging your pen along! Or else things will look awful. Unless you draw at a huuuge size.)

Took me a few hours to get the hang of it when I first got a tablet but I was shitty at drawing back then anyway, lol. It's all about how you expect one to operate. Expect this: "incredibly smoothly."

mattchee

Skullbie
If you work on mspaint or GIMP then you will see minimal or no results with a tablet as they lack pressure sensitively. It alleviates carpel tunnel so that's the main plus.

GIMP on OSX, as far as i know has no pressure support. GIMP in Windows (XP and Vista) in my experience with my graphire4, supports pressure, but is not very well. I'd describe it as chunky. I'd never ink with GIMP. I'll put it that way.

I've got a wacom graphire3 with pressure sensitivity to work on the gimp, on windows (2000 & vista) and linux (sidux & ubuntu). I don't have a mac, so no way of checking there.

Raccoo
I've got a wacom graphire3 with pressure sensitivity to work on the gimp, on windows (2000 & vista) and linux (sidux & ubuntu). I don't have a mac, so no way of checking there.

I should be more specific. I use the pressure sensitivity for line weight variance. In my experience, with GIMP in windows, it seems like instead of smooth line weight variance with the pressure, I get more chunky "steps" as the line goes from thick to thin or vice versa.

I'm thinking now, though, perhaps there's something to adjust in the brush settings to fix this. I never made it that far admittedly. Though I would kind of expected that the defaults would be set up to work properly-- even paint.NET works beautifully on default.

But how do you get used to drawwing and looking at the screen. I'm always hovering over the paper when I'm drawwing. Also the size you get to draw on. The cheapest is like 3.8inch x 4.7inchs or something.

I have a fairly tiny Volito2 (which I think is discontinued at this point and replaced by Bamboo) and I do have some minor issues with it but size is not that much of a problem. That's actually a benefit for me, since I never drew with my entire arm, rather just moving the wrist or from the elbow.

Took me a bit to get used to it... bought it on an online auction (on an "ebay clone" site called Allegro that we have here), tested it... and also packed it for couple of months :D

Couldn't dras a straight line, had problems hitting the right spots on the screen (it's sometimes difficult enough on the paper as I have some problems judging distance between lines/letters while drawing/writing) and since I was holding the pen at a too low angle (between the pen and the tablet that is) it was messing around with pressure sensitivity.

Pulled it out again, then again and yet again and finally got used to it. A breakthrough happened when I made some custom brushes in Photoshop and managed to do an entire image in it, but overall I prefer to pencil on paper anyway (and it'll remain so until I can afford a Cintiq or some Tablet PC screen, whatever). I use it mostly for coloring and editing.

Also, the size isn't really a problem (unless you need to wave your arm around like a possessed painter, splashing ink all over gigantic canvas or something like that). You just do a quick sketch, then zoom in and focus on a part of the image. It might be difficult in the sense that the distance on the tablet doesn't transfer directly into the distance on the screen (especially if you have a huge screen, which I don't) but after a while you'll get used to it.

I'd note not to zoom in too close to details when doing lineart, or else the different parts of your picture might start looking a bit disconnected and shaky.

Looking at the screen while drawing was never weird to me. After all, the cursor always moves with my hand relative to the screen. It's pretty nice. (Ah, for the record, I use a Graphire4 4x5)

I am in the process of doing up a regular Wacom Tablet newsletter of Training and Tips. If anyone would like to go on the mailing list, toss an email to me at cartoonprofessor@cartoonartclub.com

There are some really simple excercises you can do that speed up the time it takes to get used to the 'disconnection' between your pen and your eyes.

Below is a copy of the first newsletter. (Sorry guys, it's quite long)



This is the first 'newsletter' for Graphics Tablet users.

I have had quite a few requests from people asking me to put together some tutorials. While I am getting those together I plan on sending everybody updates, links and info on using the different types of Wacom Tablets available.

If you would like to be removed from my email list please send an email to me, cartoonprofessor@cartoonartclub.com requesting your removal.

Whether you use a Bamboo, an Intuos or even a Cintiq, hopefully you find this information useful.

Using a Tablet for the First Time.

Using a tablet for the first time can be frustrating (unless you're using a Cintiq). You have been trained from a very early age to communicate from the tip of a pencil. We tend to take for granted the fine motor control necessary to write and draw.

When you pick up your tablet pen and try to draw or write for the first time suddenly you feel like you are learning to use a pencil all over again (Cintiq users will not relate to this because they are drawing directly on screen).

That's because you are no longer communicating directly through the pencil tip in front of your eyes. Now you have to watch the computer screen while your pencil scrawls erratically away, feeling like your hand exists in some other plane of existence!

It's a bit like trying to draw with your eyes closed! In fact you will probably find drawing with your eyes closed even easier because when you close your eyes your concentration is entirely focussed on the pencil.

I have been drawing professionally for many many years and because I have been teaching cartoon art at schools for over 16 years I have drawn on a wide variety of surfaces, from whiteboards to chalkboards. Yet when I first attempted to draw with a tablet I felt like I had never drawn a circle in my life.

I can still remember the experience... I was doing demonstration lessons at a private school on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. The day was going great, I was going from classroom to classroom doing elephants and Tweety Birds over and over on whiteboards and chalkboards.
Then suddenly I entered a room with a 'Smartboard', for which the input device was a small hand-held tablet.
The teacher handed me the tablet and very proudly showed off this new technology (this was some years ago and his room was the 'trial' room for these devices).

Always keen to try new technology I thought, "Great... I'll give this a go."

Now I don't mean to boast, but when you draw circles over and over you get pretty good... my freehand circles are almost always near perfect, often looking just like they have been drawn with a compass.

So I began my lesson, asked the children to copy what I did on the board and quickly drew a circle... HAH! My usually perfect circle looked like something that had been spat onto the footpath! I deleted it and tried again... WORSE! and again... GEEZE! and again... each circle looked like it was drawn by a mentally retarded 2 yr-old!

No matter how much I tried, I simply could not draw a circle! I tried doing it really fast, I tried really slow, I tried not looking at the board, I tried looking at the tablet... finally by forcing myself to focus on the point on the tablet I wanted the circle to finish on I got something vaguely resembling a squashed, fossilized egg!

Needless to say, that lesson was a disaster.

My next experience was little better. I had been developing my graphic Novel, 'Min n Fin' for some years and in 2006 was finally ready to get down to some serious art by colouring it all on my Mac. Scanning my roughs was painstakingly slow. I tried scanning in my roughs and spent hours trying to ink with my mouse, no luck. I tried hand-inking then scanning and spent hours tidying up the smudge marks from the eraser, selecting the blacks, cutting and pasting, then erasing all of the extra bits that would still come through. Although this method had some success it was still painfully time-consuming.

I had to try a Tablet. I picked up a Wacom Graphire from Officeworks, took it home and spent many hours trying to bridge the broken communication between my pen and my eyes. After some weeks of this I 'Bit the bullet' and purchase one of the then-new Cintiqs. I never looked back.

Retraining Your Fine Motor Control Muscles

Many artists use a tablet with great success, but it does take time. You have to 'retrain' your fine motor muscles... in particular the communication from your eyes to these muscles.

To be able to draw 'naturally' a Wacom Cintiq is a must-have item. But for those who cannot afford or cannot justify one of these fantastic devices, there are a number of exercises that will build this fine motor control. If you practice these for at least 20 minutes every day, in a week or two your skills, while they will never match your drawing on paper skills like a Cintiq can, will develop to the point where you can operate your tablet with a fair competency.

Drawing Position

Firstly, posture is very important.

Sit straight with your computer screen at eye level, or just below. A high screen will give you a kink in your neck and effectively force your body into a slouch.

Angle your keyboard so your left hand (if you're right-handed) can easily access all your shortcuts without having to move or twist your wrist. Make sure you have lots of space on your desk to accomodate easily both your tablet and keyboard. Of course with Wacom tablets you can set your most-used shortcuts to your express keys on the tablet (I will go into this further in another newsletter).

Experiment with the actual tablet. At first you may find it easier to match the angle to the monitor. Personally I prefer a slight twist out to the right of about 5 degrees.

Some Basic Exercises

Firstly, practice drawing straight lines. Try and draw as straight as possible right across your tablet. Keep your lines parallel while going in the same direction, then try going in the opposite direction. After you have done this a few dozen times try to draw crosses, keeping each 'leg' of the cross the same length. Remember to change direction frequently.

Again do this a number of times but remember not to get too bored with these exercises... don't expect to get good at it right away.

Now try to draw an asterisk, again keeping the 'legs' consistent in length. After drawing several, change the direction of your strokes and do several more.

Go back to the straight lines again, but this time before you begin draw a series of 'dots' down both sides of your page. We are going to attempt to connect opposing dots.
If you are using photoshop or a similiar drawing program, select a fairly thick brush, 40-60 pixels.
Now connect the dots but try to vary the thickness of the line by varying the pressure on the pen. Start by holding your pen very softly (which will give you a thin line), then as you go across your tablet increase the pressure, then reduce it again as you reach the opposing 'dot'.
Remember to try and keep your lines as straight as possible.

Once you have done this a dozen times, repeat the action with your 'crosses' and 'asterisks'.

Spend no more than twenty or thirty minutes each day practicing these exercises. You will get much better by practicing regularly over a period of time than trying to master it all at once.

Remember; BE PATIENT!
You are retraining your fine motor control muscles, in effect re-programing the way your brain communicates with your eyes and hand.
If frustration sets in, put it away for another day.

In the next newsletter I will give you some more great exercises to work with.

Until then, Keep Drawing and Have Fun.

Feel free to email me with any questions or suggestions.

Kind Regards,
CP

P.S. If you have not yet taken advantage of my offer for Free membership into the Cartoon Art Club, please send me an email requesting it and I will forward instructions.
http://www.cartoonartclub.com

First let me say that this thread was very helpful in my decision on whether to buy a tablet. I went with the cheapest Wacom Bamboo and I must say, I am really impressed. Yes, it takes some getting used to but after researching on how to adjust the brushes in photoshop, I was able to practice my technique with the tablet. In fact, my first full comic with the tablet will be up on Monday. I think it's really going to help with the quality of the comic.