Graphics tablets - I find drawing difficult!

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Pretzel

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I bought a wacom graphire 4 tablet recently and was so excited about the possibilities for drawing that it would open up. However i find it hard to draw smooth lines with it - certainly not the same as on paper. It's so smooth, and because you cant turn the screen round as you do with paper to draw curves and so on, i cant get very pleasing results. I have tweaked the setting in case it was too sensitive but no improvement. So at the end of the day i am still often drawing on paper and scanning it into the computer.
Does anyone else find this? Or have any tips on drawing with a wacom?
 
I use a big old Intuos 2.

I can use it for drawing directly into Photoshop or Painter but only for sketching and that took some practice to get used to.
Working in layers from a rough to a more polished drawing helps as does knocking back the transparency.

I convert my sketches into vectors so I only need a sketch and nothing too tight and I still tend to use paper and pencil as I never really liked that slippy feel.

One way around this is to tape or spraymount some paper on to the surface of the tablet and this gives some more friction and feels more like a pencil although I'd imagine it wears the nibs out quicker.
Tracing paper works quite well for this.

Regarding tilting the page, I think you can do this in Painter where you can spin the art board same as you would a pad to get more flowing curves.
 
In photoshop cs4 there is an option to swivel the canvas without rotating the document. I think that was borrowed from manga studio, which there is a free version of, which is pretty good.

There is a fair amount of personal preference in this, it depends what programme you are using, what the setting of the tablet are like...
 
I tend to do my linework by hand and use the tablet for further digital work (ie cleaning and colouring), I very rarely draw directly with the tablet. You just don't get the same results, even with no control issues at all, the drawing isn't the same.
 
Wow thanks all - really helpful. I'm going to try paper over the tablet - see if that creates more friction. I'm just kind of glad its not just me!
 
wacom!!! awesome piece of kit!! I have an intuos 4 (lucky boy i know) and fell in love with it the first time I used it. I still like to draw on papers, as nothing can replace the feel of a HB pencil and pad. But its brilliant for fine details, and gives you so much more control than a mouse. (The amount of times I used to want to create a shape of line etc and my mouse would job out or I just could not control it in such great detail.)

But its mega practice, dont expect to have a tablet and be able to draw like a god its like anything you have to practice till you cant no more, stop and then practice again!! :)
 
i have an ancient wacom from about 7 years ago & use it for every AP no mouse.

I use Manga Studio EX 4 & it give me great lines...WIP...

ram-2-1.jpg
 
ToruOkada > I had the same problem on the beginning. And i got the same tablet model than yours.
Anyway, it's getting better and better with time. It's just difficult discovering a new way to draw.

But i don't often use the tablet for drawing, just for colors the most of time.
 
That's right I mainly draw with fineliner or pencil, scan and colour with Photoshop and the tablet.
Of course if you are producing vector art I sketch out scan and produce the line/colour work with the tablet.

Well worth getting the hang of.
 
I had the same problem at the start, it took me at least year to get comfortable with being able to draw freehand in illustrator or photoshop with it. These days though, I use it for everything. I don't even use my mouse or touch pad to surf the net, I use my tablet. For everything. Goodluck :)
 
Tinyhunter said:
I had the same problem at the start, it took me at least year to get comfortable with being able to draw freehand in illustrator or photoshop with it. These days though, I use it for everything. I don't even use my mouse or touch pad to surf the net, I use my tablet. For everything. Goodluck :)

which tablet are you working on :)
 
I've got the wacom volito 2. I think ive had it about 3 or 4 years now. the nib is a bit worn down now, though haha.
 
I'm quite surprised the nib on my Volito 1 has lasted so well considering the hammering it's had since... long time ago. I'm still after a new one though, as there aren't any proper Mac drivers available for it, even on the CD!
 
Back to the rotating the page thing.
Apparently there is a "Rotate Canvas Feature" in Photoshop CS4 similar to Painter.
I still use CS so I wouldn't know;p
 
Well there's Rotate Canvas in cs1/2/3, renamed as Image Rotation in cs4 - they literally rotate the image by 90 or 180 degrees. The hand rotate tool in cs4 just freely rotates your view, leaving the documents actual orientation unaffected. It's pretty handy sometimes.
 
Just use paper dude. Its traditional, more enjoyeble and better. Don't give up the pencil just because some blood sucking company wants you to.
 
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