Art tablets

I've been drawing digitally for over 12 years at this point, so I thought I would share my experiences with different drawing tablets to hopefully help someone else out there that is as confused and overwhelmed as I once was. :)

A drawing tablet is a tablet that (usually) hooks up to your computer and you use it with different programs to create anything you want really. You can use it to create 3d models, edit photos, or draw images from scratch. Bamboo fun, made by wacom a very well known tablet brand, is the first kind I ever used. I was so ecstatic to have something to create digital art with and even now, about 15 years later, it still holds up. (Though I did take pretty good care of it.) It’s got it’s problems, the working area is only 3x5 inches and if that sounds tiny to you it's because it is about the size of an index card. (Which I don't know if you have ever tried to create on an index crad but it's not amazing). However it has great pressure sensitivity, which is the tablet detecting how hard or soft you’re pressing down. Wacom is known for having very sensitive tablets and for a long time they were the only ones, making it a really big deal.

I used my little bamboo for a few years, until I was graciously gifted an Intuos medium, another Wacom brand tablet. This one however had a much larger work area, making bigger drawings much easier and enjoyable to work on. The only complaint I had about this tablet was the port connecting it to the computer was very delicate and after years of use, ultimately was destroyed. I also accidentally dropped my stylus into my coffee one time, which made it useless unfortunately. You’re able to order a new stylus (80$, ouch) but it was still very disappointing.

The next tablet I got was quite different, it was an Ugee, which I had never used or even heard of before, but it boasted the same level of pressure as Wacom. Plus it was a monitor tablet! Which means instead of having to look at your monitor while trusting your hand to go to the right place and make the right gestures, you were working directly on a monitor's surface. There is a slight issue called 'parallax' which means due to the glass and screen being stacked, your pen will be oh so slightly off from where you put the tip, but this is very easy to get used to from the experiences I've had. I used this tablet until it was destroyed, which was about 6 years. The back cord on it was not designed very insightfully, as no matter how i had it set up the cord was pressing against my desk at a very sharp angle and eventually destroyed the port on it as well. Which was again very disappointing.

After this I got a different job and didn't do much digital art for awhile. The next tablet I ended up getting was actually built into a slim Samsung laptop. The stylus included was made with wacoms technology so it supports the many layers of pressure and has a port for it to be hidden in the bottom half of the laptop, safely and conveniently put away. The laptop can be folded completely in half backwards, so you can have a flat surface while drawing on the touch screen, like drawing in a sketchbook. I have issues with this though, since it is a laptop, the screen you draw on is very thin, and I constantly worry about pressing too hard and breaking it. The stylus itself is also very small (think phone stylus from the galaxy note series) and does not fit well into your hand. It does not feel like holding a pencil, and can be quite uncomfortable after time. The sensitivity is excellent though. Due to all those factors I decided to move onto another kind of tablet.

An ipad was my next digital drawing device. It's a 13in one and after so many tablets, it is by far my favorite. It's an ipad, so there is a lot of other functionality to it as well as being a tool for drawing which is great right off the bat. It's a decent size, and the whole thing is touch reactive so you can use a quick double tap to undo/redo/ect. Drawing with the stylus feels nice and natural and the parallax is minimal. The stylus does however cost more than most (Over 100$ last I checked) but it has the same levels of pressure sensitivity as the wacoms. It feels sturdier than most the tablets I have owned so far, I also got it a crazy otterbox case to keep it extra safe. It also has a decent battery life and the very best part?? You can take it anywhere! Most tablets are chained to your computer, and the ones that don't are very expensive. ipads aren't exactly cheap, but they about half the price of the only other kind that. 10/10 worth it in my opinion. Especially if you pick up the stellar 'procreate' app to draw in. Another downside to the ipad is the connectivity to non mac products. I like to stream my artwork but there's no real good easy way to do so.

I will update it in the future if I try out any others. Thanks for reading!