Could I do this with a graphics tablet?

[Tarquin]

Hi all, first post so go easy one me

I work in Corel draw producing fairly basic text based logo's but am not formally trained in graphic design and am pretty much self taught.

I produced the attached portrait a few years ago by photocopying a picture from a book, laying it over a piece of carbon paper, drawing round the main feature lines onto watercolour paper below. Using a set of water soluble pencils to add the shading and detail.

Technology has moved on and i'm thinking about buying a graphics tablet in the hope that I can take some family portraits, upload them to my PC and using a similar tracing process produce more artistic versions.

I'm guessing this is possible and some practice will be needed but I have two question. First, are the differences between both methods that far apart that i'll need months of practice to produce anything worthwhile?
Second, which tablet to get and particularly does size matter?

 

[Wardy]

If you can do that by hand, you can do it with a graphics tablet, but it won't necessarily look any better. What you can do is scan in your images and develop them in something like Photoshop or Paint (not sure about Corel) and do things like place lettering over the top in different layers, add layer styles and textures etc.
And yes, having a tablet will make things a lot easier to do. You can then go on and learn to paint digitally in various styles. See what's out there - Google 'digital portraits' or 'Photoshop portraits' etc and see what's possible.

A lot of portraits are still done traditionally these days because it's difficult to get those very subtle tonal effects with digital. With regard to tablets, basically choose the best Wacom you can afford, but I hear the Bamboo is great for starters.

 

[Tarquin]

Cheers Wardy.... I know it wouldn't look any better.......how could it lol

I'd not thought of developing the images electronically. That's outside of what I want to achieve style wise for now.........a hand drawn one that I can develop and work on at home or work.

I'll try the bamboo and report back!