Table of Contents
Introduction
Are Drawing Tablets Worth It for digital art?
What is a drawing tablet?
A drawing tablet is a computer input device that allows hand drawn images with a pen-like stylus the way a person would use a pencil and paper to draw. This is true, but when it comes to the drawing community, I feel there is a distinct division inside that definition. There are Pen Displays and there are Digitizers.
Digital Art
Digitizers are when you have a flat digital board you draw on that is connected into your computer for drawing. What you draw on that flat board appears on the screen of your computer in real time. But Pen Displays are when the pen stylus directly touches the screen you are drawing on.
I dont see the iPad drawing tablet the same way I see the wacom intious as a tablet. The
“Wacom intious” is a digitizer and has a disconnect when it comes to hand-eye-coordination.
With the iPad, you are drawing on a flat tablet representing the screen you are looking at, which is why it’s so easy for anyone to draw on the ipad.
I found that drawing tablets of any kind are amazingly worth it, even if you consider yourself a more traditional artist. I understand if you’ve been drawing on paper and painting on a canvas your entire art life, a drawing tablet can seem alien and weird. Even though they’ve been around for 25 years at this point, it can be jarring to not feel the texture of the paper under your pencil. The tablet has this slick smooth feeling to it that feels too mechanical. The texture of real paper gives me a sense of groundedness and control I just didnt find with the slick tablet surface feeling. I would literally tape a piece of paper to my tablet sometimes to achieve that paper feeling I was missing.
Control
Also, with the loss of texture, there is a bit of a loss of control. Since the stylus slips on a glass surface, you have to relearn a bit of control you had on normal drawing paper. This is easy to gain though. Eventually, the dexterity comes with time. You simply just use the tablet more and that control appears in a few weeks.
I’ve been using a drawing tablet for several years at this point. Its a great tool to have your art easy to send. Its perfect for commissions. And for me now, traditional art is my training ground, while digital art is my main artform currently. Like anything else, you have to bypass that newbie stage. The stage where its awkward and slower to use a tablet than pencil. I would say most artists never leave this newbie stage. People find something they are comfortable with and tend not to expand outward. If you have an ingrained habit of using pencil, it might be tough to move to using pen, much less digital.
The only way to get over the new stage is to use the tablet consistently and steadily for months. Force yourself to only use digital for several months to really smooth out the rough edges.
Drawing Tablet vs Computer Mouse
First and foremost, I have only known one or two artists that have done art using a mouse. i feel that those days are mostly over. Artists see the value in holding an object that resembles a drawing tool. Doing art with a mouse is not impossible, but you are handicapping yourself in a way that is very unnecessary. The range of motion with a mouse is limited by the wrist motion. There little precision in doing art with only a computer mouse. A tablet pen allows you the same range of motion a regular pen would have. It bridges that connection in your mind much easier.
Drawing Tablet vs Touch Screen on a Laptop
Something else I’ve also towed with was the touch screen computers. As good as this seems, it still doesn’t feel like a normal drawing. Some of these screens are not set up for actual drawing, and rather just selecting icons. There is a bit of delayed drag and its hard to place your hand anywhere on the screen for support. I honestly would never use a device ! don’t think was truly meant for direct drawing.
Drawing Tablet vs IPAD
The more I used the iPad, something started to happen. I started to pick up my iPad more often and I was drawing more. I wasn’t sure why this was, until I realized why I was doing that. On the iPad, I can literally sit back on any chair and draw. I hardly have to lean it anywhere and the pen tool will work enough. It was so light and casual that I could use it in nearly any position I was sitting in.
When I had my drawing tablet connected to my laptop, I had to have an open table top source to put my laptop in, and normally I had to be leaning forward so that I could see the computer screen. This change seems small, but it adds up if you are drawing for hours and hours on end. I just found myself adopting the iPad more and more to the point that i barely used Adobe Photoshop on the computer anymore.
Wacom Companion vs IPAD
We could draw right on the screen surface we were looking at. The problem with the centiqs were that you had to connect them to a computer still. They were amazing screens, but it was hard to take to a cafe to draw with. Carrying it around had a large setup. So then Drawing Software iPad
Ability to push your drawing skills into a new level. A drawing tablet allows you to push your drawing ability in a way I feel normal drawing paper does not. Drawing digitally allows you to endlessely correct your mistakes. You can zoom in on small areas that are usually hard to. The most important feature that I think is hard to live without, is the warp tool.
