Which Wacom tablet?

BenJonesDesign

Active Member
Hi everyone,

Right I'm in the swing of things now with my illustration work but i've got to the point where ideas are flowing but some are requiring some decent digital painting. I know the best thing to do is to get a tablet and Wacom being the prefered choice by many. What can you recommend and also what size?
 
Here we go....I use a Wacom Bamboo Pen and Touch. Not to pricey.
Most will stick to the Intuos, which is nice but I worked for along time using just a Graphire 4 and it served me well.

It's the artist that makes the illustration not the fancy tablet.
 
Thanks Typo, I was a it stuck between the Graphire and the Intuos. The real reason for wanting the tablet is that I want to get into more detailed digital art and so I need to produce more realistic brush stroked rather than finding flaws in using the mouse / trackpad.
 
You can pick up a decent Wacom tablet off eBay for about 40 quid.
The Graphire is fine. Try it. Further down the road you may feel the need to invest in a 'smarter' tablet but for now muck about.
 
Typo said:
You can pick up a decent Wacom tablet off eBay for about 40 quid.
The Graphire is fine. Try it. Further down the road you may feel the need to invest in a 'smarter' tablet but for now muck about.

But what you really need is a one of these! if you have a handy £1749 lying about. :up:
 
ooo i know, i was recommended one by another illustrator who i've been talking to who has one. I think it will be a while till I try one of those out.
 
Like Typo I too worked for quite a while with the humble Graphire 4. I tried to find one for home but with no success, which is a good sign. People don't often put good stuff that lasts on eBay.

I ended up getting Intuos3 A5 Wide. It's very nice to use!
 
wac said:
But what you really need is a one of these! if you have a handy £1749 lying about. :up:

Dont taunt me, I've used one of them, they are incredible!

I bought this...

Aiptek Media Tablet 14000U: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics

similar price to the entry level wacoms, but is much bigger, having used every kind of wacom, from the bamboo's all the way up to the cintiq and this does the job for me. It is very good, and the extra surface area does make a difference in my opinion.
 
thanks guys, useful stuff. I've looked into the Aiptek and reviews are pretty good, however the wacom still seems to come out on top with a more slick working environment so it seems. I think I'll go with the wacom but should I just go for the Graphire or save for a month or so and get the Intuos? It would probably benefit me in the future I suppose.
 
mrp2049 said:

Coinsidently I bought exactly the same one from Amazon a couple of years ago. It was great at first and the programmable hot'keys' are very handy indeed but after a while when I hovered the pen over the pad the cursor would dance around erratically, only when I actually made contact with the pad did I get accuracy. I changed the batteries but to no avail. I'm considering one of these little Wacoms now since the Aiptek isn't particularly portable either.
 
I found it a hassle with the batteries in the wireless mighty mouse....

...it's gone now....I just use the Wacom tablet.
 
I know a few people who use a tablet in lieu of a mouse, its not my cup of tea but I agree 'no batteries' is the way forward.
 
In my personal experience, I find the Bamboo accurate.
I use it for any illustrative imagery that I usually create in Illustrator.
I have found it very useful for selection in Photoshop with the Photoshop magnectic pen tool.
I think there is an option to change the settings as well, though I have not investigated that fully yet.

I'm not sure if you could, but maybe you could go into a department store (like John Lewis or somewhere?) and see if they have one out on display that you could try and see how it feels?
 
hmmm, blows all the reviews i've seen out the water. Did you by any chance use the bamboo for the chav cartoons you did Typo?
 
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