Drawing Tablets

[Blunt]

So I got a little extra money sitting around doing fuck all and decided that now would be a good time to invest in a drawing tablet for my PC before I blow the cash on hookers and clean spoons.

I really have no idea or previous experience with tablets but I had to make a choice between continuing to pencil draw and buy a scanner or drawing and editing directly into something like photoshop, and I think the tablet is the better choice. So if anyone can give me some info on them, point me in the direction of where to check them out and that sort of thing, I'd appriciate it greatly.


Does this mean my highly original and very creative MS Paint days are over? Fucken oath I hope so.

[hazza]

hay mang you better become a sellout, krusty style.


ITS THE PERCIDAN

[Gruff Nutz]

A tablet won't substitute a pencil, but if you're serious about digital art you need one. I think you'll find you'll still be scanning pencil lines but just inking and painting with the tablet.

Wacom's are expensive but good. I never bothered with the cheaper brands because they didn't have the features I was after. You can check it out for yourself though, I bought mine 2 years ago and there may well be another good brand on the market now.

Mr Nutz' Tip:
I was about 10 seconds away from buying the A3 wacom when a co-worker of mine said "here's an A3 piece of paper, here's a pen now move the pointer from one side of the screen to the other." I realised then I was moving my whole arm instead of just my wrist and fore-arm. I bought the A4 instead, about 200 bucks cheaper and saved me alot of shoulder-strain. Try it yourself with an A3 and A4 piece of paper and see what you prefer.

[straightchaos]

I've had a few tablets and am using the wacom intuos 2. I had a cheaper one, but thats what it was - cheap.

I got the 9x12 and bought the after market airbrush for $100. Personally, I don't think it gets any better then this.

As far as the pencil sketching goes, you can sketch with the tablet. I do it sometimes, but prefer to sketch with pencil and paper then scan it an put it on Illustrator cs2. They have the live trace feature that takes hours off the sketch clean up process.

Good luck.

[Sanura]

Wacom all the way... mine is an Intuos 3 and I could not wish for better. Mine is the 9x12, and I will definately go with what Gruff recommended - keep with a size suited for moving across the screen happily for you. I like my bigger working area, and generally use my mouse for any menu selections anyway (left hand for tablet, right hand for mouse).

Some things to look out for, when deciding to get a tablet, amongst other things - can you buy other pen attachments/replacements? pressure sensitivity - if you do fine tonal sketching or colour in your drawings etc the higher the better. The tilt range (especially important for airbrush effects), for your own comfort as I know no-one who actually holds a pen at 90 degrees from the tablet, and of course for line thickness with calligraphic effects, etc. Also resolution etc - there are many things to look out for. On top of all that, even if you are going to buy it online or something I would reccommend going and trying out the pen at a store - I think it would completely suck if you bought a 500 dollar tablet then found out that you don't like the grip or something ;)

A tablet will probably not completely take the place of drawing with other media for you - I know it didn't with me. But I do sketch on mine as well as complete actual finished pieces, and you probably will with yours too. It takes a bit of getting used to though - I still wish I could turn the tablet sometimes and have the screen turn with it too, like I would with a piece of paper.

All in all - get the best you can for your budget and enjoy yer new tablet :D

[a|A]

If you're a brisbanite, head to hardly normals
they've got wacom graphire 3's for about $130. Which is a good deal cheaper than normal.

They're a reasonable size, and quite good quality for a first tablet. Mine has served me well!

[druid]

Don't get a cheap one, they are often clones of other cheap brands and you may find the driver support is less than ideal.

[Blunt]

Just picked up a Wacom Graphire 3 for cheap at Harvey Norman. They had the new Graphire 4's too but they were pretty much the same as the 3's but cost $150 more so I don't think I did too badly. Have to wait for Xmas to use it though. SO basically the cunt cost me fuck all.

WINNAR WINNAR CHICKEN DINNAR

:jackson:

[Up_All_Night]

So im in melb and say i got 200 bucks to spend and wanted one of these, harvey norman, Wacom Graphire 3? would that be any good for me?
yay? nay?

[EvilMuppet]

Check the smaller computer shops in the city too, theres 7 I can think of in a 2 block radius around lonsdale/elizabeth and they all compete with each other.

[Up_All_Night]

i picked up a graphire 3 from teds for 130. seems fairly good, got to get the hang of it though, im really liking the pressure sensative