Buying Wacom Tablet, Advice Please!

[Banangroda]

Hello everyone,

I'm just getting into concept art, and I'm finding it very frustrating to draw stuff with the mouse, so I'm going to buy a tablet. I could fork out the money for an Intuos 3 6x8 or the likes, but I'm wondering if my (noobish) skills would make the purchase worth it. Should I just buy a cheap one (which one, if so) to become better with and then buy a more expensive, feature-full tablet when I'm getting good at concept art or should I just pay 450$ for an Intuos 3 and learn with the best?

Thanks in advance,
Banangroda :)

[zeitgeist]

It's really up to you... and how committed you think you'll be.

myself... i started off with the smallest size in the Graphire4 series and it was wonderful. only costs around 90 to 100 usd (and maybe cheaper if you shop around). after i had that for little over a year i purchased an intous 3.
you might want to do that... that way when you're ready to upgrade... wacom may have an intous12 or some shit out.

bottom line... you should be happy with a graphire4.

hope that helped

[Banangroda]

Thanks for answering.

I think that would probably be enough at the moment, but should I then pick a Graphire4 or one of those "Bamboo" tablets? It seems that they're mostly made for "documents" (who would want to use them for MS office anyway?), but I don't know. Any advice here?

Thanks in advance.

[Uziel]

http://www.scorpiontutorials.org/index.php?id=2

I've a volito for a couple of years now it was the cheapest solution at the time (i wasn't sure i was going to use it that often), it's so much better than a mouse and you can do some great stuff with it but it still feels limited in use - so you have to use some tricks in the art programs more often to get the same level as a better quality tablet.

I don't complain about it, it's great to learn to work with a tablet and art programs but now i feel ready for an upgrade probably an intuos3 A4.

So my suggestion is the same as zeitgeist buy a mid range tablet like a Graphire4 and when you feel ready ->upgrade.

[M.C.Barrett]

If you're just getting into concept art, I'd suggest you avoid the tablet altogether for now and invest in some traditional materials. The digital medium is useless unless you've developed the confidence to lay down color and value here in the world of consequences. Concept art has nothing to do with the medium; the industry just happens to rely primarily on digital work for economy and speed (it is an industry, after all). Any digital artist worth their salt will be as active in traditional media as in digital. Pick up a pack of grayscale prismacolor markers, or some watercolors and microns, or ballpoint and colored pencils, and don't worry right now about having all the right toys. Concept art is about the concept you're drawing, not what you're drawing it with.

As an aside, where are you shopping that a 6x8 intuos3 costs $450? I got my 6x11 intuos3 for under US$400, so you're either in Canada or you're looking at getting seriously ripped off.

[Uziel]

There's is some truth in your words MC barrett and I do encourage everyone to keep doing traditional mediums as well.
But working digital doesn't need prep.,hand mixing colors,you don't need to go after supplies every time you run out,it takes less time to correct big mistakes,...
It's the eternal battle digital vs traditional they both have their charms. :)
Ask yourself - Can you learn lighting, anatomy,perspective,color use,layout/composition,...digitally?:thinking:
I really enjoy painting traditional a lot and if I had the patience and time i wouldn't do anything else. There are some things about traditional media you can't get with the digital.
Like a touchable final piece, smell of fresh paint,dirty hands,...:painting:
But when i need to do something fast or I want to work out different interpretations of something I'll prefer working digital.
As you said - medium doesn't matter as long as you enjoy it and willing to take it to the next level every time.
He asks advice about a tablet so we provide it.
And really you have to admit using a tablet is much more fun compared to using a mouse it could be a good motivation to keep going improving yourself.
It's a valuable companion that helped me along my way to become a better artist and it still will surprise me from time to time.

As for the tablet if you have a solid budget i would take something with a larger active surface -> Graphire4 XL
Also before jumping to conclusions use the search tool there are some other threads about the same topic and where you can buy them cheaper.

http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=101926&highlight=tablet
http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=105152&highlight=tablet
...

Cheers

[Stark]

Uziel and MC Barret took what I was going to say. >:O But their advice is probably the same you're going to get from anyone else on here...traditional vs digital is an on-going debate and I doubt it will end soon. If you feel that working digitally will optimize your time and ideas better, then you should go for that if that is what you think is really what you want. I started in traditional around 2 years ago (been a long time since I drew) and then I found this site about a year ago and I bought a Intuos3 6x8 for 285$ on eBay. I still work very heavily in traditional (mainly pencils) but I dip into digital to learn more about lighting and color theory when it comes to digital work...

So you decide

[Jack Frost]

I agree with many of the people above, if you are just starting out focusing on traditional mediums and work on getting your techniques, color accuracy and academics down would be more important, but it is nice to have the ability to work digitally

so perhaps a inexpensive graphire would work well, remember you don't have to buy directly from wacom

[timpaatkins]

WHat the FUCK are all you assohoels saying abo *bitchslap*

Heheh, just a little dig at myself there for Uziel and Stark, there, I hope we are all cool and stuff now.

I posted a thread a while ago about the Intuos Bamboo (http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=103497), maybe thats something for you?

[Icelandic Norm]

Agreed. Get the basic down first and then step up to digital later.

I have the 6x8 Intuos- nice size. It fits on my desk and can also go into my backpack. The larger Wacom is just too horsey for me.

Ideally I'd love a Cintique but that's later.

[Banangroda]

Thanks for the advice people.

I don't think it would be a very practical solution for me to do "physical" painting right now, at least not with colours - sketching works fine though, which is why I'm going to get a graphire (you can slip a paper under the tablet's drawing area and refine it digitally quite easy). Plus, the graphire has a pressure sensitive eraser - as opposed to the Bamboo. And as a Uziel and M.C.Barrett pointed out, the medium doesn't really matter.

However, I do agree that I need to sort out the basics first so I'm going to buy a few books on the subjects of Anatomy, Lighting/shading and whatever I can find. Any recommendations here?

Oh and by the way, it's Sweden actually (25% tax on stuff you buy here).

[zeitgeist]

constructive anatomy (http://www.amazon.com/Constructive-Anatomy-Dover-Books-Instruction/dp/0486211045/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-0064867-5191026?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1188570491&sr=8-1)

bridgman's life drawing (http://www.amazon.com/Bridgmans-Life-Drawing-George-Bridgman/dp/0486227103/ref=pd_sim_b_2_img/103-0064867-5191026?ie=UTF8&qid=1188570491&sr=8-1)

and

anatomy for the artist (http://www.amazon.com/Anatomy-Artist-Sarah-Simblet/dp/078948045X/ref=pd_sim_b_3_img/103-0064867-5191026?ie=UTF8&qid=1188570647&sr=1-5) are some good books to start off with (for human anatomy).