Tablet Question

[Neverforever]

Hi there! I recently found a new talent of mine, which is drawing. I never really knew I had an artistic side until a few weeks ago, and I am seriously and truly loving it.
I was just curious about whether a tablet is a good investment, and how people are really using them. I've seen it work beautifully through paint, but what else can it be used for? Are there any features or models better than others?
I appreciate any and all help in advance.

[The_Chan]

My answer is extremely biased, but I'd stick to traditional art first. Having good base skills in raw media is the key to good art, regardless of whether it is digital or not!

[Nubhorns]

My answer is extremely biased, but I'd stick to traditional art first. Having good base skills in raw media is the key to good art, regardless of whether it is digital or not!

^ I'd agree with this. Work on your base skills and then get a tablet if digital art is something you're interested in. A tablet isn't inherently better than a mouse - I know some very, very talented digital artists who work with a mouse - although maybe it's easier to adapt to...but there are some things that are easily done traditionally that just aren't possible(or exceedingly difficult) to do digitally, so I find myself preferring traditional work usually. Lack of proper supplies is limiting, alas. :P

Speaking of supplies, generally it's going to cost more to buy a tablet and the art program you want(although most tablets come with one, at least) than it is to go out and buy some pencils from the dollar store. I'm not taking into account Prismacolors and paints and the like, though - both can be expensive hobbies, but you generally don't have to go out and replace your copy of SAI every month.

As for my tablet, it's just your basic Wacom, a kinda smallish blue thing that I've had for...close to 6 years now. I used it a ton up until maybe this year, and it's been chewed on by my dog(the pen is actually missing its eraser part because of her - it still works though!) and battered around by my siblings and recently stolenadopted by my sister and it's still going strong.

[Neverforever]

This is something I drew this morning, took me a few hours with a mouse because I have no mousepad and was shaky, hah. I just wanted to see how i'd do on something computer drawn instead of hand drawn.


This was something freehand drawn on just sketch paper with a ballpoint pen.

[starkittens]

wow...goodness all around

[Helsinki]

The tablet I use is a Wacom Bamboo tablet. I'm not sure of its exact dimensions, but it's pretty small, and I got it in 2009 for $99. It works perfectly for the digital art I do (you can have a look at it in the thread called "Swampfox's Art" to see what I do with it). That said, while I really enjoy digital artwork, I don't really feel it has much "soul." I believe that when you paint or draw something by hand, the energy you spend on the artwork is transferred into the paper itself. (For this reason, I often remind myself to never draw angry unless that's the point, haha.) Still, I do really appreciate digital art as well as the time and effort put into it.

Definitely buy a cheap tablet though, no use spending all that money for those bells and whistles. OR get a new Wacom Inkling! THAT thing looks amazing. Best of both worlds imo...

(BTW both your drawings look great! I'm especially fond of the hand drawn sketch )