Looking for a Drawing Tablet...

[Thunderhead]

OK, so here's the thing. I want to get back into comic strip creation. But I lack the necessary tools to do it. Drawing the strip on paper, and taking the hours upon hours to ink it and color it in Photoshop is tedious and dreadfully inefficient. Plus, it looks awful when I'm done.

Here's what I need from you:

1) What is the best drawing tablet on the market for the task of drawing lineart and doing basic shading work? I won't be doing masterful paintings here... just comics.

2) What is the best value? I'm a broke college student with few funds. I can't break out $200 for a tablet. Even $100 is a stretch, when I'm spending that much per week on gas and I can't find a job. So taking price into account, what should I get?

[swe 08]

Any tablet made by Wacom. They're the best. I have their cheapest tablet, the Bomboo Pen&Touch (80 dollars), it works pretty well for sketching and such, but it's hard to achieve any outstanding work (or maybe I'm just bad). I recommend getting that one, and then upgrade when you have the money.

[Thunderhead]

I was looking at the Wacom Bamboo Create tablet... but I'm not sure if that's "too much" for my needs. Their descriptions are very deceptive... they have three Bamboo tablets on their website, but they talk about them as though only the most expensive can be used for sketching and painting, while the others are only good for writing notes or something... I would like to think that even the smallest can be used for sketching and drawing, but they don't show it that way.

[Nerdysimmer]

I use a Bamboo Pen and Touch; it's worked fine for myself when I use it to sketch some rough sketches and charts for game development purposes. It's also pretty useful for coloring based on what I've seen from an artist here at the college, who also uses one.

However, its canvas is pretty small, and it doesn't have a lot of pressure sensitivity compared to other tablets on the market like the Intuos4. The Pen and Touch also has fewer buttons, and is lacking a scroll nib, which I see to be very useful in large sketches.

Just think of it as like a cheap investment for one, and once you can afford a better tablet, then go for it. Sometimes you'll need to get a used car if you need to get somewhere, and once you're there and you're comfortable with your budget, you can upgrade.

[Eggboy'13]

I want to know what Draxxx uses. :I

[Nerdysimmer]

I want to know what Draxxx uses. :I

I don't think it really matters what you use, but how you use it. It's not like you'll get a professional's tablet and you'll be able to sketch anatomically correct figures in seconds. It requires the same motor skills used in traditional art, and maybe a little more since one of my friends have stated that the feel between digital art and traditional art are pretty different, like two different animals.

I wouldn't doubt that he is not using the tablet I use.

[Thunderhead]

I don't think it really matters what you use, but how you use it. It's not like you'll get a professional's tablet and you'll be able to sketch anatomically correct figures in seconds. It requires the same motor skills used in traditional art, and maybe a little more since one of my friends have stated that the feel between digital art and traditional art are pretty different, like two different animals.

Exactly. I just want one to cut down on time. It can take me hours, even up to a day or more, to ink and color a drawing I make right now, because I have to first draw by hand, then scan, then use the Pen tool in Gimp to do the lineart, then save the lineart, then open it in Photoshop and color it, which always messes up the lineart. It's a mess. I could be so much more productive if I could just draw directly into my computer.

[Nerdysimmer]

Exactly. I just want one to cut down on time. It can take me hours, even up to a day or more, to ink and color a drawing I make right now, because I have to first draw by hand, then scan, then use the Pen tool in Gimp to do the lineart, then save the lineart, then open it in Photoshop and color it, which always messes up the lineart. It's a mess. I could be so much more productive if I could just draw directly into my computer.

Get a Bamboo Pen and Touch. You'll probably find one less than 100 bucks on amazon.com

Be warned that there will be a slight learning curve when trying to adjust to it, though.

[Crotale]

I'm just going to repeat what Nerdysimmer said.

To top that off, any tablet you use will be better for drawing than a mouse. I use a Bamboo Fun at home and it works great for most of my projects.

[Eggboy'13]

I really want to try one of these things..