wacom feeling VS pencil

[Virg]

hey guys,

This is not really a question, more of a discussion i'd like to start.

i know that a lot of people got to switch from pencil to digital for their daily work. With a wacom you dont ''look'' at your pencil, you look at the screen and the movement of your hand/arm is not perfectly proportional to the speed of the cursor compared to a pencil where you got direct control over the strokes and feel a bit more in your sheet. Does it affect your pencil drawing when you spend a lot of time drawing digitally ? Do you have different approach with both of em ? I find it a bit hard to go pack to pencil when i spend all my daw at work on a wacom. I also have a smaller wacom at home compared to the one i use to work.

Please share your thoughts on that ;)

Peace

[Arshes Nei]

Personally I'm used to traditional workings. I find it more difficult to do the transition of drawing digitally for sketching because I tend to turn the paper when I draw, I flip the paper to look at mistakes, etc..

Computer screens will hurt my eyes, no matter how good the monitor is. Mainly because of how I focus on my works traditionally to find mistakes.

Painter is good with brush tracking, and I actually like Open Canvas' simplicity when it comes to sketching, then I port over the sketch to Painter.

One other thing that does bother me about working digitally versus traditionally is that I own an Intuos (two intuos3 actually), and I'm left handed. You might not think it at first but usually people who are left handed do hold pencils differently than a right handed person. It DOES affect you when it comes to tilt sensitivity. Yes, one can go into Wacom's preferences, but I thought it's something to note, because it's not something you think about immediately ...it's something more subtle.

[Jason Ross]

What i find interesting is that i dont look at my pencil when i draw either. I dont think that many people do. So its relatively the same in that aspect. Tho it did take time to get used drawing down and looking up it now feels natural. i have no trouble going back to my sketchbook after using a wacom...in actuality i go back and forth scanning in hand drawn stuff sometimes and even printing out wacom created art then freehand drawing over that then scanning that in sometimes. in fact, working digitally has only improved my tradional skill. I guess overall its like comparing a watercolor painting to an oil painting. you hand creates both but your forced to change your process and adapt to acommodate the medium.

[Twitchmonkey]

I think in some ways the Wacom is better than a traditional pen or pencil, and in some ways it's worse (in terms of feeling, I don't think I need to get into the increased versatility of digital over traditional). I like how the brush size can change so fluidly over the course of a line, giving me much better access to volume and detail. However, I find the disconnect between were the cursor moves and where your hand moves to be jarring. I also don't like the lack of friction and how it feels more like you're working on wax paper than traditional artist paper.

Still, all the advantages of working in digital cause me to prefer a tablet even over my favorite traditional medium, the micron pen.

[Eurayo]

I have considerably more precision and control with a pencil. It probably has to do with the fact that I'm able to "aim" the point. I also have more freedom of movement not only with the pencil, but also with the drawing surface. I can rotate the page on the fly, and examine details and the entire piece almost simultaneously. I don't like the lag time that comes with zooming in and out in Photoshop. Traditional media, when I make a mark, I can assess it's visibility relative to the whole more easily. Digital painting lets me make marks that may or may not have significance because of monitor and print resolution issues.

I also like that pencils give me what I call "dynamic tip conditions". As I draw, the tip is constantly changing from a cone, to a circle, to an ellipse, and back to a cone. All I have to do is change my grip to take advantage of sharp or flat edges that develop at the tip while I work. This lets me create controlled marks more character, even with a loose sketch. This cannot be simulated on the computer because the stylus has a hard nib that wears down slowly, and the computer can't sense the shape of the nib. This would be a cool feature for them to engineer into the grip pen. I do like that there are alternate nibs with different frictions, but I haven't really experimented with them.

I've also noticed that I've had to develop my finger gripping strength in order to use my stylus with more control. The Intuos 2 grip pen isn't nearly as light as a traditional pencil. There's also a problem with a lack of friction between the tablet and the outer edge of my drawing hand. Somtimes I use that part of the hand for leverage and added control by letting it glide on the drawing surface. I want it to glide the way it does on paper, but it doesn't. I've tried putting a sheet of paper over it, but that doesn't work well with the stylus tip.

For me it might just be a matter of practice and experience to get my tablet skills to be comparable to my pencil skills.

[drd]

I've found that putting a piece of bristol over my tablet (taped down) I can give my tablet a more sketchy feel. Might want to try it out.

[FLenG]

So far I don't feel any different working with both wacom tablets and pencil, it's just that i usually sketch thumbnails or different variations on paper (when im not near the computer) scan it in and finish it with the tablet since it's so easy to edit and stuff. Both feels the same. Drawing wise.

[FLenG]

sorry double post.