A6 Wacom Tablet too harsh for a newbie ?!

[hard_pillow]

I have seen a similar thread a little below ... well i am not that good in drawing, i just do some scribbles with pencils during the weekends, i wanted to move with digital but i realized how difficult it is to shade with a mouse. I got this deal for a Wacom Volito Tablet for 62 Euros ( mouse included, good becuase i had to change mine ) but it is an a6, portable enough but small ! Do you think it could be good as a start to practice and make my first steps in digital drawing and drawing in general ... or it will be a total waste of money even for a newbie ?

I hope to receive some feedback on this, any advice and hint will be apprecciated.

[Nagel]

In my opinion, use it! The reason I like it is because I don't have to get out my pencils, erasers, and get messy (and pencil is not that messy). But, painting tends to get crazy unless you devote like 5 hours to it at least: prep time, painting, and clean up.

These new art tools that are digital are perfect for quickly doing fantastic imagery.

The only problem i'm finding is that when I do create something on paper, how do I transfer it to digital through a Wacom Tablet. I know about scanning, but scanning takes everything (smudges, color of paper, etc). I want to trace through my Wacom Tablet and can't figure it out! haha...

But i'm having fun with it. I'm always looking for a better way to be an artist in my busy life as a software sales guy. So I would say you should keep it and have fun with it as another medium, but don't give up the traditional art skills.

Nagel

[hard_pillow]

I thank you for your reply.

Well your doubt in first ... it was exactly what i wanted to do with a tablet, i tried to scan one of my scribbles, clean it a little and then coloring over it, but with the mouse i got very poor and ugly results ... well i am not doing that professionally and i really lack a lot in term or art skills and rules ... but i can't invest much on that now. As far as the tablet is concerned ... do you know the model i am talking about, maybe you are using a bigger tablet ... the one i asked about is just a little A6 format .... a little bigger comparing to a mousepad, i wouldn't want that it is suitable only for hand-writing and signatures.

Ciao and thanks again for your feedback.

[Jin]

Hi,

I think both of you would benefit by reading my last response to Nagel's other thread.

I use an Intuos 2 6 x 8 inch tablet. The working area is just about the same size as a mouse pad, maybe a little smaller. It's the most popular size, used by many artists, including professionals, and you can do just fine with that size.

Doesn't your Wacom tablet come with a stylus (pen)? If not, I'm surprised and you might contact Wacom to see if you can purchase a stylus to use with it. I'm not familiar with the model you mention, so it could be that a stylus wouldn't work with it. It's worth finding out, though, because working with a mouse is often described as....

Like drawing or painting with a brick.

Not a good thing, and way too difficult to make using Painter and a Wacom tablet as comfortable and easy as it can be.

[hard_pillow]

Your feedback to Nagel is really interesting and useful indeed, thanks also for the answer in my thread. However i am not sure if you get the idea of the tablet i was talking about, Wacom USA website reports different stuffs from the Europe one. Your Intous 6x8 is the one called Intous A5 here, with an active area (WxD): 203 x 152 mm. But the Volito, which is different from the Intous serie, has an equivalent working area to the Intous A6 ( 4x5 ) around 127.6 x 92.8 mm.

[Jin]

Hi hard_pillow,

As I said, I'm not familiar with the tablet you mentioned.

One thing you might try, that'll avoid the problem of inking with a mouse, is to trace your drawing with ink, then scan it into Painter.

Then you can lift the ink drawing to a Layer, change the Composite Method to Gel, and do your coloring on Layers.

It might be easier to do coloring with a mouse than inking with a mouse.

That's all I can suggest, other than buying a refurbished Wacom tablet with a stylus, or buying a stylus from Wacom if it's possible to use it with your current tablet.

Good luck,

[hard_pillow]

I wanted to say thanks for your feedback on my matter again, and for the tips for Painter too ! Actually i am not much fond on Painter, probably becuas ei am not good at all in drawing ... i was thinking that i will end using this tablet mainly with AfterEffect and with Maya for compositing and 3d stuffs ... however i will definitively will give a try to that technique you wrote, using the mouse. As about your last statement, i don't know, i haven't any tablet at the moment, i was just insecure about spending some money on this Volito at 62.50 Euros or a Graphire3 Classic ( same little size of the Volito ) at 91.99 Euros.

[OLSEN]

Hey,

the volito works.. it was my first tablet, and it has everything you need to get started. However, i would definitly recomend the graphire3 instead, it's a much better tablet, and has a feeling of quality you don't get with the volito, and it's not that much more expensive.

[Nikos]

I have a graphire 2 A6 size...worked fine for me so far.

But there was a reason why I shelled out the extra 40 euro's to buy the graphire instead of the volito..can't remember for sure tho, but the size of the tablet as served me well considering I usually work on a laptop and the tablet is small enough to easily fit in my bag. I have worked on some huge ass a4+ intuos tablet that they use in animation classes at my academy...

You dont have the zoom as much as with a smaller tablet but you do have to move your arm around a whole lot more.

Hope that helped,

[hard_pillow]

Thanks to Olsen ( sorry for my delay, it thought to have sent my greetings by private message to you already ) and Nikos for your feedback. Interesting the portable couple laptop+tablet, i was thinking about it ...

Thanks.