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Cindy Claveau

I've drawn and painted most of my life. Those skills, however, began to get rusty the day I got a desktop computer -- right along with my penmanship.

I'd love it if a tablet would allow me to sketch and cartoon again. If it does that for me, I'm liable to be hell-on-wheels with this new toy

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Aodhan McDunnough

My config's the same. Tablet-pen wielded by left hand, normal mouse in right.

If you're like me the wacom crosshair mouse is still useful. When used in the absolute positioning mode your left hand can pluck out points more precisely when you're replicating a drawing that's sitting on the tablet.

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Raindrop Drinkwater

Sketching is definitely possible.

I just quickly did this one, with just one brush (the Charcoal pencil, size 5) and one colour (pure black). You could go fancy and use different pencils, brush opacities and the like, for a better result.

Attached Images

sketch_desk.png (42.4 KB, 113 views)

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badkittybeth

I have a Bamboo Tablet


And I haven't had any problems at all.

My friend Fifi, has the same tablet and has had to replace it because it just stopped working. Not sure how that went but nonetheless, for the price, it's a solid piece of tabletry.

Annika Bekkers

They say Ginny Talamasca used nothing but a laptop touchpad for all her work, but I definitely wouldn't recommend that to anybody but a masochist. And unless you're stranded on some island or something, painting with a popsicle stick is just showing off.

Its true that no tool will make you an artist, but some tools are just so helpful they need to be considered essentials, and the Wacom tablet is in that category.

That said, you definitely don't need the biggest or the newest. Buying a used one first isnt a bad idea. I've been using wacoms for about 15 years and one thing I can say for them is theyre durable as all hell. I've sat on them, stepped on them. and thrown them across the room and they still keep working (the pens, on the other hand, are much more delicate)

It does take some getting used to drawing without looking at the pen, but the flipside is that you don't have your hand blocking part of the picture.

One thing I'd strongly recommend is that you set the proportion to the same size as your screen even if it means cutting off part of the drawing area on your tablet. What I mean is if you have a wide-screen monitor and a standard 3x4 tablet, it'll default to a relative proportion which will fit the whole screen onto the whole tablet, and you'll be banging your head on the wall wondering why your perfectly drawn circles are all skewed.

nadir

3 months ago, I bought a Intuos3 6x8 Wacom tablet and I run 64bit vista ... all works well here

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Cindy Claveau

I found a used Wacom Bamboo for $50 online. It's a pretty reputable outfit, 1 year guarantee, and says "refurbished".

My confusion right now is that they offer the "Bamboo" and the "BambooFun", the latter going for about $20 more usually. It looks to me like the Fun model comes with bundled software, which I don't necessarily need. Is that correct?

Walker Moore

They look slightly different, but it appears the BambooFun comes with a mouse *and* additional bundled software.

BAMBOO & BAMBOO FUN

Aki Shichiroji

Also - Bamboo Fun pen has an eraser tip on the opposite end, whereas Bamboo does not.

this may or may not be a big issue. If you prefer more of an intuitive feel to your creative process, flipping the pen over to erase might come more naturally to you.

I've never used the eraser on my tablet pens though... I find hotkeying the eraser tool is much faster.

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Cindy Claveau

Knowing me, I'll flip it over, rub out the offending line and then blow on the tablet while brushing the crumbs away with my hand... thereby creating weird lines across the sketch

Decadent

I can see that in my mind's eye.

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Walker Moore

Blimey! I thought they all had erasers.

I'm gonna be so careful when I have to replace mine because I would be flipping over the pen all the time, having got so accustomed to that feature.

Kesseret

I bought my tablet around 2001ish and it sat collecting dust because I couldn't get the hang of it. (or had no real reason) Then I learned zbrush and started to get really much better at photoshop. Coincidentally within the last 2 years of Second Life.

I've owned the tablet for 7ish years and until the last year or so you could take it with you, but now you can't pry it from my cold dead hands. I love dis tablet. If you had told me 5 years ago I'd be using it regularly I'd have laughed in your face.

I have the Wacom graphire2 slate, usb. I threw out the mouse a few years ago, never used it. I did lose the pen for a while and cried b/c the replacement was 40 bucks. I paid 100 bucks for it and one day I may replace it with a larger one, but considering my hands are kind of tiny, I don't think I need to go bigger. (the person who mentioned hand size had it spot on).

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Walker Moore

7 years eh, and Wacom have 64bit Vista drivers available for it.

Wacom are like the absolute opposite to Creative Labs as far as driver development is concerned, and their attitude makes me more likely to buy their products again.

(CL deliberately remove features from drivers when there's an architecture change to try and force you to upgrade.)

nadir

a 4x6+ size tablet is hard to use as a mouse replacement ... since where you touch is relative to your desktop (you don't get the dragging effect of a mouse w/ a pen), it's too much wrist/hand movement to get from one corner of the screen to the other.

I recommend you get the 1024 pressure points, as opposed to the 512 ... it's night and day difference.

Hypatia Callisto

I use a Wacom Intuos 2 6x8 and it rocks for Zbrush. And it works with the 64 bit Vista drivers, you can get them secondhand for a bit less than a new one, and the suckers last a long time. I've had mine since 2003 or so and I luvs it.

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Tapeton

I have not much experience with different tablets... when I decided to buy one almost a year ago I went directly to an Intuos3 6x8 and I don't regret it.

Tablets are love. Sexy love.

And in my opinion, 6x8 is a good size. I feel 9x12 to be very bulky and I wouldn't use all the surface of them. And 4x6 are more like a portable option, but I'd go with 6x8.

Cindy Claveau

I've gathered the pricing info I need, looked for used items in good condition, and the difference between the Bamboo and the Bamboo "Fun" seems to be that the regular Bamboo only comes in the small size - 3.7 x 5.8. I sketched that size out on a piece of paper and it looks incredibly tiny to me.

I really want the 6x8, but we're talking about a price difference of $55 for the small one vs. about $170 for the 6x8 "Fun" model ($199 new). It's not much cheaper looking at Amazon's Used listings

The Intuis3 runs over $200 used, $300 new :shock: If I'm going to drop $200 on this tablet I may as well go for the Intuis I think.

The small Bamboo I can do within my monthly budget no problems, but if I'm going to justify the larger one I need to know that it will give me a workable workspace instead of a postage stamp.

I'm getting cold feet here. Someone hold my hand?

Ingrid

You can get used ones on ebay etc. Save yourself some $$$

I have this one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/WACOM-Graphire-3...QQcmdZViewItem

Wacom graphire 3. An older model but works very well.

Cindy Claveau

Thanks, Ingrid. Of course, Ebay is another of those websites blocked by my company's firewall. Along with Youtube

These fuckers won't let me have ANY fun

Ingrid

It's currently at 29 bucks. If this is your fist tablet and you just want to try it out, there is really nothing wrong with a wacom graphire 3. (3 being an older model) Mine works poifectly. I just use mine to mess around with mostly. I cant imagine spending 200 bucks for one of these although I guess it's worth it for the pros.