Art pt. 1 - Graphic Tablets and You

Whether you are an aspiring artist or just a casual photo editor, having a graphics tablet really comes in handy. For artists, it certainly feels different from traditional media (paper, paint, pencils, etc.) but the potential knows no bounds. However, having a nice tablet and fancy programs does NOT make a good artist. The skill and practice needs to be there first, and THEN you can utilize the potential of art in digital media. There are some people who are truly loyal to traditional art and view digital art as "cheating" in a way, but I personally don't believe that's true. If you can envision an idea and you want to make it into a work of art, why let traditional means get in the way of that goal? Anyway, that's a completely different argument, so I'll move on to the main point: choosing a graphics tablet.

1. The first thing that any artist will tell you about choosing a graphics tablet is: Wacom brand tablets are the ONLY way to go (www.wacom.com). They are a bit expensive, sure, and there are tablets that are twice as large and half as cheap as some Wacom models, but Wacom technology is vastly superior and they last for many many years in perfect working order.

I've read many comments about non-Wacom tablets from people who just wanted a cheap tablet to do simple photo-editing, and the responses have always been the same. The tablet either simply did not work properly all the time, or the pressure sensitivity was inaccurate, or maybe there wasn't even any pressure sensitivity at all. I don't work for Wacom or whatever, so I'm not trying to sell them out or anything - any artist anywhere will tell you that rule number 1 is to go Wacom.

2. Now that you know to go Wacom, the next consideration would be the size of the tablet. I currently have a Wacom Graphire 4 medium size tablet (6in. x 8in. active area) and it seems to be a safe size to go with for anyone. I thought the small would be too tiny (4in. x 6in. active area) but I tried it out once and it was not bad at all. Of course the smaller tablets are cheaper, so if it's a budget issue, getting a small tablet might be a good consideration. But of course you should try one out if you can to see if the size is comfortable for you.

The Graphire tablet that I have is currently discontinued by Wacom, but you might still be able to find it around online retailers or ebay. It is replaced by the Bamboo tablets, which are better anyway. There's two different tablets in that line: Bamboo and Bamboo fun. As far as I can tell, they are basically exactly the same thing in terms of tech specs. The two tablets just look different and the Bamboo doesn't come with a mouse (which feels really weird and is pretty useless in my opinion). However, the Bamboo only comes in small size, whereas the Bamboo fun has both small and medium.

There is a much larger range of sizes to choose from in the professional Intuos line of tablets, but I personally have not used one before. However, the larger the tablet, the more detail you can achieve in your work, but it also means that you will have to move your hand in larger motions when drawing or editing so it might become a bit tiring.

3. Which leads to the next point - pressure and tilt sensitivity. All of the tablets besides the Intuos have 512 levels of pen pressure sensitivity, which means you can use the pen pressure (pressing harder or softer on the tablet) to control things like brush size and opacity to give your strokes a more natural look. The Intuos is the professional tablet, so it has more than all the others. The Intuos 3 (which is discontinued) has 1024 levels, and the new Intuos 4 has 2048 levels, which just means it has amazing accuracy. I didn't really think having that much more sensitivity levels mattered that much, but I've read that it feels much more natural to have more sensitivity. The Intuos also is the only tablet with pen tilt sensitivity, but I have not used one myself so I can't really say much else about it.


Well, I think that's about all I can say about tablets with my limited experience. There's also the Cintiq line of tablets, which is basically a tablet monitor so you're drawing "on" the screen, but I read that it is not as precise as the other tablets, but really convenient in its own way.

If I missed anything or if something doesn't make any sense, feel free to say so in the comments!