Beginner with a tablet

BenJonesDesign

Active Member
Well I've decided to take a dive into the world of digital painting and bought myself an Intuos4 (after a lot of thought and discussion). I have quite a large background with art and have worked with traditional art for years but have always wanted to get into digital, especially with my illustration work taking off and finding the need of a tablet for the more finer detailed work.

What I would like to know is if anybody has any good sources for beginners with tablets, how did you learn to use your first tablet; books, websites etc?
 
Tablet, pencil, crayon, brush, doesn't matter. All you need is practice. My first experience with a tablet was at the age of 19 during my degree, doing a self-portrait using a mirror. Just treat it like another artist's tool, because it is. Have you got Corel Painter? That program would probably suit you nicely, bases most of it's tool on real life materials.
 
Thanks Jim. Those were my first thoughts, perhaps I've been a little apprehensive of it. I'm in the middle of a run of paintings at the moment (traditional) so will be interesting swapping between the two.
 
When you get confident you should try mixing the two, using the digital to subtly 'enhance' your traditional. Adding extra highlights, shadows, tints and depth etc using the stylus.

This guys work is amazing and he mixes watercolour and oils with potatoshop all the time.
http://quickhidehere.blogspot.com/
 
Good luck Ben...still the best thing to do is draw it out first and the apply the colour and effects.
Remember the use of a tablet does not make you a better artist.
How much did you pay for your new tablet?
 
Ye that's one of the reason's I wanted to get into digital, so much more you can do with an image with enhancements.
 
thanks Typo. Been doing a bit of digital illustration so used to starting off with a scanned sketch or line work. Set me back £295, I went for the medium. I did look around and found a few others at £230 but being the first time those sites seemed a little... well like they might just give you the packaging without the product. Ebay had a few cheeper by about £30 but wanted to play it safe with good ol' Amazon.
 
Seems like a lot of money to pay. I'm happy with my £45 Bamboo.
It does all I realistically need to do.
That and Photoshop brushes and tools.....sorted.
 
I know, to be honest I have a bit of an issue with being a bit of a perfectionist. For weeks I have been speaking to people online and looking at loads of comparison reviews. It comes down to the fact that I want to aim big with progression with digital art in terms of getting to the stage where I'm able to paint something with brilliant detail and practically everyone recommended the intuos4 for this because of it's accuracy and pressure value. That and I got a nice little bonus from my full time job so I just thought hey why not.
 
BenJonesDesign said:
I know, to be honest I have a bit of an issue with being a bit of a perfectionist. For weeks I have been speaking to people online and looking at loads of comparison reviews. It comes down to the fact that I want to aim big with progression with digital art in terms of getting to the stage where I'm able to paint something with brilliant detail and practically everyone recommended the intuos4 for this because of it's accuracy and pressure value. That and I got a nice little bonus from my full time job so I just thought hey why not.

Well once again, good luck to you....don't forget to practice with the 60p HB.
If you can't do with one of those who's to say you can suddenly do it with 300 quids worth of flashy tablet.(nod)
 
I've got the intuos3 A5 Wide (think I got it for about £150) and they are rather nice to use.
 
ha quite right Typo, well I've always got a pencil to hand and well anything else I can get my hands on that draws so I'm certainly not short on practice.
 
I did consider the intuous3 and I know not a lot has really improved in the intuos4 but I suppose what ever you buy it's soon going to be replaced with a new improved (added pen nib probably) version.
 
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