Where to buy a good graphics tablet

DeadlyByDesign

Getting paid on thurs and need a few good suggestions for a tablet and where to get them. Anyhelp is appreciated guys

DeadlyByDesign

oh and that's meant to be "good"..not food (facepalm)

ztoical

Whats your budget?

Fysh

It all depends on what you can afford and what you've got in mind.

I've bought cheap tablets from the like of Trust or Tevion before, and to be honest I found them pretty poor. Pressure sensitivity wasn't great, driver support wasn't great (admittedly this was several years ago, but supporting Windows XP in 2006 shouldn't have been hard) and they weren't particularly well built.

I'd say I spent about €60 on those.

I've since been bought a Wacom Bamboo tablet (it's an A5-size model that's not on sale any more, but I'm told it cost ~£80) and that's fantastic. Decently made, good pressure sensitivity, replaceable nibs for when they inevitably wear out, and I'm fairly sure that on Windows 7 you don't need drivers for it - it just works natively.

Of course, at the other end of the spectrum you've got the seriously shiny Cintiq stuff where your drawing surface is an actual display, and so on. But they're expensive and you'd want to be pretty sure you'll get a return on the investment before you commit to buying one.

ztoical

Fysh wrote: »

Of course, at the other end of the spectrum you've got the seriously shiny Cintiq stuff where your drawing surface is an actual display, and so on. But they're expensive and you'd want to be pretty sure you'll get a return on the investment before you commit to buying one.

The general rule of thumb with Wacoms is the Bamboo for hobbists, the Intuos series for students/professionals and the Cintiq for professionals/studios who've got the cash to spare.

niall mc cann

Fysh wrote: »

I've since been bought a Wacom Bamboo tablet (it's an A5-size model that's not on sale any more, but I'm told it cost ~£80) and that's fantastic. Decently made, good pressure sensitivity, replaceable nibs for when they inevitably wear out, and I'm fairly sure that on Windows 7 you don't need drivers for it - it just works natively.

Sounds like I'm using the same one, or similar. I'm very happy with it.

Hey, I've just got involved in drawing for a comic with my boyfriend and his friend. I haven't been involved in arty stuff and drawing in a good few years so I'm rusty at best. Currently the comic has 2 artists, myself and another guy, who has a tablet. I currently don't and am drawing by hand on paper. I was just wondering regarding my improvement whether it'd be better for me to continue with pencil & paper for the time being, or to get a tablet as soon as I can so I can get used to the it, as eventually it'd be more convenient to use one. My first comic so far is here, yes I know it's not great but I'm very out of practice :P -> Failure@Large: Secrets and Lies

Fysh

Deleted User wrote: »

Hey, I've just got involved in drawing for a comic with my boyfriend and his friend. I haven't been involved in arty stuff and drawing in a good few years so I'm rusty at best. Currently the comic has 2 artists, myself and another guy, who has a tablet. I currently don't and am drawing by hand on paper. I was just wondering regarding my improvement whether it'd be better for me to continue with pencil & paper for the time being, or to get a tablet as soon as I can so I can get used to the it, as eventually it'd be more convenient to use one. My first comic so far is here, yes I know it's not great but I'm very out of practice :P -> Failure@Large: Secrets and Lies

To be honest, in terms of the mechanics of drawing the sooner you start drawing on the tablet the better - you'll need to get a good bit of practice with the tablet to adapt to how your hand's movements translate into lines on screen, and separately to that the way you draw will change. Drawing with a tablet you can use layers to separate different sets of lines, you can use filters & effects, you can lay down flats using magic-wand selection tools and so on. It takes a while to get to grips with how it all fits together and figure out both a workflow that suits you and a drawing style that you're comfortable with.

What graphics software are you planning on using with the tablet, and what sort of budget do you have?

That's my other question- what are my options regarding software for drawing? I'm not entirely sure of what my budget is at the moment but ideally I wouldn't want to be spending too much at the moment while things are just starting.

Fysh

It depends on your platform but there are a bunch of options you may want to consider as starting points:

• Adobe Photoshop Elements (commercial)
• ArtRage (commercial)
• Manga Studio Debut (commercial)
• Paint.NET (donationware)
• GIMP/Gimpshop (freeware)
• InkScape (freeware)

If you're buying a tablet you'll probably get some free software with it (eg with my Bamboo tablet I got a free copy of ArtRage and Photoshop Elements), but as a complete software package I think Manga Studio Debut is the best of the bunch - you can get it quite cheaply (between €25 and €50 depending on where and when you buy), it does everything from panel layouts through textures & tones to lettering. It takes time to get to grips but it is, in my opinion, time well spent.

ABireland

@piratequeen:
As Fysh said, manga studio is a software dedicated to comics creation. But if you want to favor the art, an editing one like Photshop or Gimp will be better in my opinion. Watch out that the software that you'll choose enable pen pressure! I've came across som problems at first. Most of the time you're expecting smooth and pencil-like lines rather than monotone ones...

By the way, here's another interesting drawing program: PaintToolSai (freeware).
Not very sophisticated and not the neatest one out there but the coloring options and tool are worth a shot.

And you should get a tablet asap, getting the hang of it can be a tad difficult. Synchronizing your eyes and what's going on the screen (and not directly your hands) is quite surprising at first.
Computer-assisted drawing has several benefits: No more paper problems (but maybe some memory space ), an almost infinite color palette, layer management, the all(most)-mighty "undo" function! and many more. It can really ease your drawing experience.

megaten

ABireland wrote: »

@piratequeen:
As Fysh said, manga studio is a software dedicated to comics creation. But if you want to favor the art, an editing one like Photshop or Gimp will be better in my opinion. Watch out that the software that you'll choose enable pen pressure! I've came across som problems at first. Most of the time you're expecting smooth and pencil-like lines rather than monotone ones...

By the way, here's another interesting drawing program: PaintToolSai (freeware).
Not very sophisticated and not the neatest one out there but the coloring options and tool are worth a shot.

Paint Tool Sai is in fact commercial software. It pretty good from what I can remember and treats ink layers as vector shapes so it smooths out shaky lines.

ahally

Wacom Bamboo tablet's are good value

ahally

Wacom Bamboo tablet