No.565
I recently got a tablet and installed several drawing programs.
I prefer pencil and paper to digital, using the tablet/pad feels uncomfortable I feel like I'm getting discouraged to easily and I should keep trying but I want to go back to using pen and paper.
Should I practice more with it?
No.566
One thing I learned quickly is that digital equipment is a bit unwieldy and takes some getting used to. Personally I feel it's hindered, or perhaps more accurately delayed my advancement in some ways so I primarily use traditional media for now because it's faster and more accurate in my experience. This means you'll get more drawing 'mileage' and spend less time fighting to make your lines right if you set the tablet doẃn for now and pick up a pencil or pen.
No.567
I highly recommend the videos in the 'manual dexterity' portion of the stickied thread if you're just starting out.
No.568
Do you have any examples of your more recent work?
No.571
If you're already pretty good at drawing you should stick with the tablet. If you think you still have a lot of work to do in that regard you should stick with traditional media.
No.572
Did you buy the intuos model on pic?
Tablet is good if you want to paint faster and better watch spitpaints
First you need to calibrate the tablet in the sense of comfort, I personally use mouse mode instead of pen mode and set the mouse to slower/finer which virtually emulates my small tablet area as if it was 12" cintiq. Try various settings and don't forget to backup the settings.
Try practicing clicks from point X to point Y fast. (hand-eye coordination)
What I mean is like clicking the start button on your desktop and pressing some random icon you immediately see and another icon to improve your accuracy or try playing osu! I can also play MOBA using my tablet or you could just use your tablet as a replacement of your mouse.
I drew this pic when I got my tablet 2 years ago, I can say that I improved a lot now
No.574
>drew this pic when I got my tablet 2 years ago, I can say that I improved a lot now
No.575
haha what happnd 8chan?
>>574Heres the pic
No.579
tablets take a lot of getting used to but it's worth it in the end, at least that's what I keep telling myself anyway.
No.606
These days if you want to make art something more than a hobby you have to be fluent with a traditional tablet. You want to get hired in-house to do some commercial illustration like painting coffee cups and flowers and pigeons and shit? The company expects you to have some chops for both traditional and digital. You can not do the tasks fast with a mouse so your best bet is to bare it and train your tablet skills.
Yeah they know drawing with a tablet is a shitty option 90% of the time compared to the feel of traditional pen-paper. They won't give a shit.
No.607
>>606Definitely this.
I'd argue that digital supersedes traditional in today's commercial art market, even.
No.608
Consider getting a larger tablet, too. I wouldn't recommend anything smaller than an intuos medium, personally. Also enable any settings that fit the tablet's active area to your screen size if it's available in your software.
No.628
I taped down a piece of paper over my tablet's drawing surface. My hand slides better that way and it feels much more natural. You could also get one of those gloves artists use (or just stick bandages on your fingers).
No.631
>>628You can usually get a pair of cotton gloves at a gas station for a very low price and just cut cut out the thumb, index and pointer fingers. I've found it works pretty good but I've abandoned using it myself. My intuos medium has a surface cover on it and it feels bretty good.
That paper idea is interesting though I'll have to try it.
No.697
I asked this on /art/, but since most of the art boards are kind of dead, I'll ask here as well.
Does anyone have experience with Monoprice's drawing tablets? I'm more inclined to trust them due to my good experiences with their other products, and it's a hell of a deal (10x6.25" active area for $50 after shipping).
No.698
>>697I don't unfortunately buddy, that does sound like a damn good deal though, I'd say go for it. If it's all that bad you should be able to return it.
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No.703
>>697I found this review in a youtube comment (23 thumbs up);
"here's an honest review. For about 50 bucks you get what amounts to an 800 dollar intuos tablet with great sensitivity and a HUGE workspace. The sensitivity is ADJUSTABLE. The only downside is getting the drivers to work perfectly in windows 7-8 as it was originally created with XP in mind."
So it seems like the drivers are the only thing that could be a problem.
No.787
Which tablet would you recommend to a newbie (such as me)?
No.788
>>787Intuos 4 medium or Intuos 3 medium. I wouldn't do anything less if you're even a little serious about learning to draw on the computer. Smaller tablets are fine for actually painting in an already finished drawing that you've scanned into your computer, but for actual drawing they're very difficult to use given their small size.
No.1144
Necro bump.
One exercise that I found helped with switching from traditional pen & paper and digital tablet, is blind contour.
No.1145
>>1144
Blind contour eh!?
nice dubs
No.1152
No.1153
>>1152
I didn't have much problem going from trad to dig, but I imagine the reverse is pretty tough
No.1154
>>1153
I did that and I kept trying to ctrl+z
No.1155
>>1153
>I didn't have much problem going from trad to dig, but I imagine the reverse is pretty tough.
Me either, I guess it can be different with some people. Going from reverse can be tough I guess, that undo function is handy. Working non destructively is really only possible with digital. I might be the odd one out, but I prefer a slick, almost glass like surface for a tablet.
That being said, traditional still has that 1:1 line speed. If you are into the physical texture of it, there's that too.
No.1156
>>1155
>I might be the odd one out, but I prefer a slick, almost glass like surface for a tablet.
What kind of tablet do you use now?
No.1157
>>1156
>What kind of tablet do you use now?
Wacom Bamboo Medium, I forgot the exact gen# but it's either the last or one gen before the last one, before Bamboo was changed into Intuos and Intuos became Intuos Pro. I was going to use a thin hard acrylic sheet overlay, but that particular model changed the texture back to a smoother surface.
I personally did not like the Bamboo or Intuos gen with the toothy, papery surface texture. It can eat up nibs too fast, even with the lightest of pen strokes. On my small Bamboo that has that texture, I use an iPad plastic protector overlay. Might change it soon to hard acrylic.
Again might just be me, I found tablet size to be much more significant vs pressure sensitivity. Nowadays most standard pressure sensitivity is more than enough for 99% of tasks anyway. Anyone who can't afford an Intuos Pro medium, I'd suggest at least trying out the regular Intuos medium, or a good condition pre-owned Intuos.
Hell, I'm tempted to try out one of those Monoprice tablets.
No.1158
>>1157
Fuckin ell, forgot pic related.
No.1159
>>1157
>Again might just be me, I found tablet size to be much more significant vs pressure sensitivity. Nowadays most standard pressure sensitivity is more than enough for 99% of tasks anyway. Anyone who can't afford an Intuos Pro medium, I'd suggest at least trying out the regular Intuos medium, or a good condition pre-owned Intuos.
I had the Intuos 3 medium and it was awesome; I don't think it has the right aspect ratio for most current monitors which is unfortunate though.
Wacom's new "gritty surface" is nib eating bullshit. Anyone reading this that has a Intuos 4 or above should go on amazon and look up "POSRUS tablet surface cover" and get one, it's a plastic sheet you can put over your shit and it keeps your nibs alive for a long time..
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No.1160
>>1159
>I had the Intuos 3 medium and it was awesome; I don't think it has the right aspect ratio for most current monitors which is unfortunate though.
I only quickly googled that issue, there are potential workarounds with the setting \ driver adjustment, but the easiest solution seems to be getting an Intuos3 wide. Intuos3 seems very good from most accounts I've read, definitely something to look out for in the pre-owned market.
>Wacom's new "gritty surface" is nib eating bullshit. Anyone reading this that has a Intuos 4 or above should go on amazon and look up "POSRUS tablet surface cover" and get one, it's a plastic sheet you can put over your shit and it keeps your nibs alive for a long time..
It's complete bullshit IMO. I mentioned before I have the bamboo small with that gritty surface, and I fucking hate it and when I do use it, I'm using it with a makeshift cover. The Bamboo Medium I have thankfully do not seem to have that shit-grit. Some people may like that papery surface, but I fucking hate how it can eat up a nib. Maybe it was also a bad batch of plastic in the nibs. But after talking to some people who used older gen Wacoms that said it wasn't uncommon to have nibs that can lasts for months if not up to a year, vs the texturized newer gens that can eat up a nib in weeks if not days. That gritty surface texture to me is a negative bug\feature.
One of the biggest advantage in using a digital tablet for me is I don't have to worry about sharpening a pencil, cleaning up brushes etc. As long as there is power, and the nib is not worn down to a nub, it's good to go. I don't want to be doing the equivalent of sharpening pencils, with a digital tablet. I don't miss that part of traditional tools, not one bit.
Thanks for the link for the plastic cover btw. It also made me browse for making your own nibs from trimmer line, do this at your own risk etc, but apparently for some folks getting official Wacom replacement nibs can be a headache. I'm lucky I have an NCIX nearby that has\carries them in stock, but damn. It's just a piece of plastic, I think I'm going to try out that trimmer line nib for my bamboo small at least.
No.1161
No.1162
>>1160
Just to clarify, I completely agree. Grit surface eating nibs = beeeulllshit feature. Wacom IMO took a step backward with that.
No.1163
>>1160
Yeah when I first got my Intuos 4 medium I literally ground down my first nib within 3 days of fairly light drawing. When that happened I just looked off into the distance all misty eyed and thought to myself "there has to be a better way". Those surface covers are pretty great but I have to wonder if there isn't a much cheaper alternative (they're not particularly expensive but $10~ plus shipping seems a bit much for a piece of plastic of some sort with glue on the corners). I haven't had to change a nib since I'd gotten it and it's been I think over a year since I did so, but in all fairness I have been MUCH more focused on traditional drawing versus digital though.
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No.1164
>>1163
>Yeah when I first got my Intuos 4 medium I literally ground down my first nib within 3 days of fairly light drawing.
Yep, IMO it's a bullshit feature thanks to Wacom. I knew a guy who ground down his nib in one day. After adjusting his handling to a lighter touch, he only managed to make some of the nibs last 3 days to a week.
Reading the Wacom forum at the time, I think they first claimed it was a feature, and claimed some people liked it. After more complaints, they said they're looking into it, maybe there's a problem with the plastic formulation etc bla bla wankety wank. Then they came out with the official overlay sheet. https://store.wacom.com/us/en/product/ACK10021/ 25$ approx for a plastic sheet. I much preferred Wacom go back to using smooth surface as a standard for all, and sell the toothy surface as an optional sheet.
While I'm still somewhat ok with Wacom tablets in general, many of the shit they're doing lately seems gimmicky. I don't quite see much benefit for touch functions, I'd rather they put that effort and money into say, ensuring solid build quality.
>When that happened I just looked off into the distance all misty eyed and thought to myself "there has to be a better way". Those surface covers are pretty great but I have to wonder if there isn't a much cheaper alternative (they're not particularly expensive but $10~ plus shipping seems a bit much for a piece of plastic of some sort with glue on the corners). I haven't had to change a nib since I'd gotten it and it's been I think over a year since I did so, but in all fairness I have been MUCH more focused on traditional drawing versus digital though.
Agreed. So far the options are getting some sort of overlay, and \ or finding alternate source of nibs. There is hard perspex\acrylic sheet from hardware store, they sell it for photo frames iirc. I just tried that line trimmer for a nib, it didn't work unfortunately. Perfect diameter 1.65 mm or 0.065 inches, but not the right shape (all I have is the star shaped extruded trimmer line at the moment), I need to get a round trimmer line apparently. And straighten out the plastic line using hot water. But considering the price for plastic trimmer line is 3-5$+ but enough for at least half a lifetime supply, vs 5$+ for a pack of 5 official nibs. I'm definitely going to try out the trimmer line nib for my Bamboo small.
No.1166
>>1164
>I knew a guy who ground down his nib in one day
Jesus
I heard on /ic/ that a toothpick works really good but I can't tell if they're trolling my balls off or what.
No.1168
>>1166
dubs checked.
>I heard on /ic/ that a toothpick works really good but I can't tell if they're trolling my balls off or what.
I never tried toothpick yet, but I did use thin bamboo skewers before. Sanded and burnished to matched the diameter, it did work relatively well at least for me, though I did have a mylar sheet overlay.
So they're probably not completely trolling you.
No.1211
>>565
As a beginner it does seem that (so far) my regular pencil and paper work is better than what I've done with the tablet, but I think for me at least its just working with a smaller space as well as the change in how you apply hand-eye coordination (eyes on the screen as opposed to on the paper with your hands).
No.1215
>>1211
Same
Except the smaller space part.
No.1256
>>1164
Slight update, the nylon round trimmer line worked for my Bamboo small tablet. Haven't tried it with the med size bamboo, but this development is good. Around 5 dollars and I got a near lifetime supply to use as nibs.
No.1377
I'm looking into getting myself a tablet because drawing with a mouse is obviously not working out. The MTE-450 seems a likely candidate.
Is 512 levels of pressure sensitivty enough? Tablets with more sensitivity are more expensive, but I'm not sure if it's more of a gimmick with them throwing out higher and higher numbers or if it's genuinely an improvement.
No.1379
>>1377
It's mostly a gimmick. I'd be more worried about the general size of the drawing surface. I think you should get a Huion H610PRO, I have personal experience with it and can attest to the fact that it's a solid investment at less than $100
No.1380
>>1379
I looked at just about every single model of tablet I could purchase, including all models of Huion, Ugee, XP-pen, gaomon(which is probably just huion), monoprice, genius, wacom, a few others. The only tablets besides wacom which offer battery free pens are xp-pen, but their site is all fucked up.
I figure if you can subsitute wacom tips for trimmer line or toothpicks as has been discussed in this very thread, tips are a non issue. Which leaves only batteries, and fair enough I've heard people quote them as lasting 2 years in the pens but i call bullshit on that. Every battery powered device I have ever owned, has always ended up with battery related problems. running out of charge, leaking, being a general bitch and they need replacing all the time. So when using a huion, instead of tips, you have to keep buying batteries.
got a cheap old bamboo off ebay and left it at that.
No.1381
>>1380
I don't know buddy, that shit is really, really small. Just a few centimeters of movement on the tablet ends up being several inches on the screen. It'll take some getting used to but I wish you luck in that regard. In the mean time I definitely think it's wise to practice with traditional medias most of the time, even after you get your tablet.
No.1382
>>1381
For the record I have an Intuos large and it's really nice but in hindsight I don't think it's much superior to the medium-size. There's just a ton of mostly unused surface area, but I can get a really nice long stroke if I need it. I sent a Huion as a gift to a friend and it seemed pretty legit. I understand if you want to avoid having to replace the pen or charge a battery though.
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No.1390
>>1381
All the ``art'' I've been doing has been with a mouse on a regular sized mousepad, so I think my hand is pre-calibrated towards small areas. I'll give an update when the tablet shows up in the mail. Chances are I should have gone with the Huion but the battery shit just puts me way off
No.1391
>>1390
It's all good, if worse comes to worse you should be able to sell the thing for 80% or so of what you bought it for anyway.
No.1397
>>1391
It's here. And it works.. except, the pressure sensor in the stylus is fucked up. Turns out this is a common issue with the pen that is shipped with this model of tablet, which must be why they are all selling so cheaply online. It's still usable but now and then it gets annoying when it starts drawing random lines.
However, I found this (pic related). If it's not bullshit, it's a big help because a whole bunch of older pens are interchangeable with this one, and I managed to pick one of them up for very little, compared to the full price of an exact replacement. Maybe this will help out some others in the thread too.
No.1398
>>1397
Don't feel too bad about getting a baddie, at least it was the cheap model. I bought a Cintiq 12WX for over $1,000 and not only are the colors absolutely abysmal (which was a "feature" of the device itself), but the pen pressure sensitivity spikes every 5-10 strokes, completely throwing everything off.
No.1399
>>1398
This pen will work well for an arbitrary length of time, after which it decides that I am still making contact with the board when I am not, creating lines across the screen as i go to select another tool, for example. Other times, it will not register anything at all. But then it will begin to function normally out of nowhere. 99% sure replacing the pen will fix this behaviour.
If I payed 1k for this thing and not 20$ i would be way more pissed. but then its not a cintiq
No.1423
>>1399
just wanna add i got a graphire 2 pen for $10 and it works perfect ith the mte 450 and the plastic is much better quality than the bamboo pen, even the shape is nicer.
No.1663
>>565
I was in the same boat as you, I could never coordinate well with the tablet and monitor, so instead, I went to ebay and got an x220 Tablet for $240. It's a solid laptop with a wacom digitizer built into the screen, so it can be used as sort of a poor man's Cintiq. Also, pens only cost about $30 since it's compatible with surface pro 1/2 styluses and samung "s-pens". Or a replacement lenovo pen is $42.