Current Events > Drawers on CE: what drawing tablet do you recommend

(+) Yeah! (+)

Gonna make this a new hobby one way or another
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I'm pretty much married to Wacom products at this point. I've used an old Intuos 5 for almost a decade and I use an Intuos Pro at work, and they've both been very reliable. The Intuos line doesn't have the built-in screens though. I'm looking to upgrade to Cintiq Pro 16, which does have a screen, and is supposedly as close as you can get to replicating pen-and-paper drawing in digital form. It's pricey though: $1,500 for the tablet, plus and extra $100 for the scroll wheel addon. A friend is offering to sell me his slightly older Pro 16 (apparently made before Wacom cheaped out and made the scroll wheel a peripheral), but he still needs it until he gets his new computer, whenever that might be.

On a whim I recently tried to go off-brand and ordered an XP Pen Artist Pro 24, and it was not what I was hoping for; too many features missing that I needed, and the mark-making just felt a little too off and unnatural. My fault for not doing enough research, but sometimes you have to experience something firsthand to know how it doesn't work for you.

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Yeah I ain't trying to drop a grand on a tablet rn lol I'm looking into some beginner stuff
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The great @Hambo_the_Hog might know

One_Day_Remains posted...

Yeah I ain't trying to drop a grand on a tablet rn lol I'm looking into some beginner stuff

The XP Pen brand is more affordable. The positives of the Artist Pro 24 I bought is that it's a massive surface area to work on (you don't really realize how big it is until you get it out of the box); it's also quite sturdy and - in the brief time I used it - surprisingly comfortable to work with. It also has two scroll wheels and tons of hotkeys, which is what helped sell it for me to begin with.

The Artist Pro 24 has a starting pricetag of $900, but Amazon had a massive coupon that knocked it down to $630 before tax. If you're looking for something more affordable, I believe they have screen-less tablets in the $100 range and screen tablets in the $300-ish range.

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trappedunderice posted...

The great @Hambo_the_Hog might know

Lol I just draw on my 3ds. If you happen to have a 3ds or Wii U already, there are a few drawing programs for them that'll spare you the expense of actual hardware if you're noncommittal like me. Disney Art Academy gets the job done for me, but iirc there's also a more painting-oriented program called like Paint or Colors or something generic like that.

I do frequently miss having transform tools and more layers and control of layers, having played around with some Adobe art programs way back in high school. And occasionally watching artists on YouTube, I'll see other modern luxuries I'm missing out on.

But again, if you happen to have a 3ds or Wii U and just want to try your hand at drawing recreationally, Disney Art Academy is cheap and will do the job, saving the cost of the tablet, the software, and the PC if yours sucks like mine. Also, don't go for Pokemon Art Academy. From what I've seen, it has some annoying limitations to how you use some tools. I can't speak for the original Art Academy because I've never tried it or seen it used, but the fact that it predates the other two makes me think it's probably even more primitive.

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The Wacom One is a lot cheaper than a Cintiq, and probably more appropriate for hobby use. Its still $400. There are cheaper alternatives, but many of them are screenless, which a lot of people dont like. On that note, you can use the Wacom One as a second screen, even when you arent drawing on it. Still might be too expensive for your tastes.

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I've had a Wacom Bamboo Pen since 2010 but if you're starting out now then you should probably get a Wacom Intuos
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I looked for one with a screen, settled for the GAOMON PD1161. I think it'd be easier for me to use one with a screen than without
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One_Day_Remains posted...

I think it'd be easier for me to use one with a screen than without

I think that's a good move. It took me a really long time to get used to the hand-eye disassociation necessary to draw with a screen-less tablet.

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One_Day_Remains posted...

I looked for one with a screen, settled for the GAOMON PD1161. I think it'd be easier for me to use one with a screen than without

I definitely think screen is the way to go. I dont like the idea personally of learning to draw while looking somewhere else, especially if I want to use a reference, which would make it even harder.

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