tablet? + first digital art experience

[Alfred123]

tablet? + first digital art experience

I've always been old school about art(using only traditional paint/pen). However watching the new witcher E3 video inspired me to attempt to get with the 20th century and so I finally bit the bullet and purchased Corel painter 12 and I love it. This drawing is not very good but it is my very first attempt at digital art and is just me messing around trying to figure out the program. I have to say I can't believe how great and natural painter 12 feels. I'm definitely going to do more digital now as it seems way easier/faster than traditional. However I do think that I may need to get a bigger drawing tablet though. My current one is old(I've had it for years, but only now just used it) it is the Bamboo wacom model MTE-450A
Does anyone have any recommendations on something a little better/bigger but easy on the wallet?
thanks,
my art website My link

 

[engelszorn]

Welcome to the forum! I can't see your attached file, please use an external hoster - seems the forum can't handle files very well and it takes ages for attached graphics to load .

As for your question: The Bamboo is fine if you're just starting out. I've used a tiny old Graphire A5 for years until I switched to a larger Intuos model and now I'm using a Cintiq. The small size restricts your movements, but that's about it. If you're really thinking about getting serious, then I recommend a new Intuos A4, but there are a lot of different brands available and graphics tablet-screen hybrids are getting cheaper and better. I prefer Wacom because their pens don't require a battery which makes the pen lighter - but as you probably know Wacom isn't exactly cheap. A good altenative to Wacom is Yiynova. I haven't tested those tablets yet, but reviews are generally positive.

 

[Alfred123]

thank you, I appreciate all the info, it looks like I may need to start saving my pennies as I do want to seriously get into this. I've ignored my calling for far to long. Here's the a link to the above drawing.. My link

 

[CrazyBaron]

Your tablet is ok for start and the only tablet that is probably better and not expensive is Intuos3 but all of them are old and used (not sure if new Bamboo models are better then yours)
For professional work Intuos4, Intuos5 and Cintiq but they are expensive

 

[Alfred123]

Your tablet is ok for start and the only tablet that is probably better and not expensive is Intuos3 but all of them are old and used (not sure if new Bamboo models are better then yours)
For professional work Intuos4, Intuos5 and Cintiq but they are expensive

thank you, The cintiq looks amazing. That will be my reward if I get an illustration job somewhere. Time to get busy.

 

[Alfred123]

have not had as much time to do digital as I would have liked but here are two new quick sketches. One is inspired by the upcoming wasteland 2 My link and one by fallout NV(although I did this mostly as an excuse to draw a beautiful girl My link

 

[cherrydub]

Amazing sketches @ Monteron. I have been wanting to get a tablet for a while and think you've just persuaded me. Are they difficult to get used to? I like the visceral feeling of normal materials, but there's something brilliant about the apparent ease of creating something digitally, without the problems that come with scanning and as much as I've tried, I haven't managed to create a thing from scratch with the mouse.

Anyone else got anything to add about the Bamboo before I make a purchase?

 

[Alfred123]

Amazing sketches @ Monteron. I have been wanting to get a tablet for a while and think you've just persuaded me. Are they difficult to get used to? I like the visceral feeling of normal materials, but there's something brilliant about the apparent ease of creating something digitally, without the problems that come with scanning and as much as I've tried, I haven't managed to create a thing from scratch with the mouse.

Anyone else got anything to add about the Bamboo before I make a purchase?

thank you Lola_rennt,

getting used to the tablet doesn't take much time at all. It's figuring out all the stuff that digital art software can do that takes more time, but is well worth it.

One of the things I was most worried about in using a tablet was that it would not feel as natural. However after trying it out I have to say the bamboo tablets feel very very similar to the real thing, especially because the bamboo tablets are pressure sensitive, giving thicker/thinner lines with more/less pressure(there's just no comparison to a mouse). I feel like my art options have just opened up in a way they never have before. I still have tons to learn on how to use software properly but I'm already finding that it's way faster/easier and just all around more convenient then traditional media. For instance when it comes to colors I'm really impatient when I use traditional media. I don't always mix interesting colors together(as that takes time) and so my bad habit of not mixing colors leads me use color straight from the tube, which is limited by the numbers of colors I have, and as I'm a cheap bastard it's not that many) but now that I have corel painter it's like I have every possible item in the art store and access to every color imaginable. I don't have Photoshop but I'm sure it would be the same thing as painter. I actually went back and forth on what to get(Photoshop or Painter 12) and I decided to go with painter because painting is my main interest, I don't really care about making things look super realistic, I like the sketchy/painterly quality to keep the work fresh/energetic looking, having said that it's totally possible to make things look super realistic with painter 12 too

You can even chose palettes from whatever image(take any great painting) and corel painter12 can import immediately that artists palette for you to use(which is unbelievably awesome, and I haven't even tried this yet!). Anyway as I said this all makes things way faster. And I feel like I can spend more time drawing/painting the art work and less gathering my supplies/mixing colors etc. And the more I use corel the more comfortable I become with it, to where I'm even starting to forget that I'm making art digitally but just making art.

Here is another new work I did today of the Namelessone from Planescape Torment My link

 

[cherrydub]

I love the colours in that last one! And thanks very much for giving a good description of the programmes you've been using. I have Photoshop (I also still use an old version of Paint Shop Pro for some things ... heh), but I'll definitely take a gander at Painter 12.

 

[Alfred123]

Thank you, and you are very welcome

 

[RSIK_4]

Nice....looks great

 

[Alfred123]

Nice....looks great

thank you