Digital Drawing Tablets like Wacom and Hurion?

C

Comixbooks

Fully [H]
Joined
Jun 7, 2008
Messages
21,069
I was going to buy a on Screen Tablet but then people on Youtube recommend one you just connect to PC.
I owned one before like 18 years ago it was a cheap Wacom I hated it because the surface was slippery then after a few Windows upgrades it didn't work. Was wondering if anyone owns a Digital Tablet what I'm looking for is one with a good surface drag that feels natural with a good pen. I don't need a big one just for coloring stuff in Photoshop and maybe drawing with it.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DPC98DT/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A30BRCK3LE6SB5&psc=1
This is the one I been eyeing because of the changeable nibs and pen holder plus it looks ergo.
 
I have an old wacom that I still plug in now and again when needed. Granted it want' a fancy lcd screen one, but had enough pressure and size to make it useful.

Huion's a good alternative to Wacom as is XP-Pen

Be aware Wacom does have 'overlay sheets' for more texture or smoother as well as different nibs.
 
I didn't know about the texture sheets but it's just for the Intudos which I'm not buying for 300.00
 
Last edited:
Like all things it depends on what you want to spend and how serious all of this is for you. Obviously if you're a professional artist, buying a Cintiq for $1500 is reasonable. I take it from your response that $300 seems high to you - although that is roughly the level that I think it's really worth it to long term get a pad for.

I bought an Intuos 5 Touch Medium, used on eBay after the first gen Intuos Pro's (effectively the same tablet with a different name) and I was able to get a fairly reasonable deal. I got it with the battery and Wi-fi kit (which now just comes with newer models, but didn't back then) everything in box in basically perfect condition for less than $200. Still going strong to this day, but I'll say that the limiting factor to me with it is probably it's poor Mini-USB connector and proprietary cable that I imagine overtime will likely be the point of failure rather than any other part of the device.

The Intuos line also generally gets updates for a long time as well. I've had mine for at least 4 years and it's not even the latest gen. If I could get a new Intuos Pro Small with it's new smaller widths and flip what I currently have, I probably would. I don't need the size and I basically only use it for skin retouching - a work type that doesn't require long strokes. I actually have the digitizer space paired down to about a quarter of the entire size of the tablet. Anyway, that's all side notes, and blah blah blah.

But just to say I feel like you get what you pay for. Shop used. And don't be afraid to buy previous gens. I know some artists are still using their Intuos 4's and there isn't really a need for them to upgrade as basically the only benefits is smaller size, sleeker hardware, and better buttons. After 1024 levels of pen sensitivity there is a massive drop off in return. Having 2048 pressure levels as an example isn't a spec I'd even bother to look at as an upgrade.

----------

The other route to go entirely would be to buy an iPad, basically anything that's compatible with Apple Pencil 2. Then you'd have a mobile drawing tablet with a battery that lasts eons. If you're in the Apple ecosystem, you can also use Sidecar, allowing it to be used as a second monitor (as well as drawing tablet) on your machine.
If speed isn't a primary cocern, but size is, first gen iPad Pro 12.9" can be had for a song (Apple Pencil 1 support only though). And gen 2's for not too much more than that (also only Apple Pencil 1 support only, gen 3 and beyond supports Apple Pencil 2). Then you'd have the utility of a tablet device along with the utility of being able to use it as a drawing tablet. So you'd be paying a bit more, but you'd be able to use the device for more things than just drawing.

The iPad has full blown Photoshop and you can seamlessly share projects from the tablet to a PC or vice versa using Creative Cloud.
 
Last edited:
I was given one of these Wacom tablets with a built in screen. I can't draw, but it was fun to play with.
Is this what you meant by screen tablet?
IMG_5005.JPG IMG_5006.JPG IMG_5007.JPG
 
There are better e-ink solutions now than normal wacom, because you can see what you are actually drawing. They are also more portable and cheaper.
 
N4CR said:
There are better e-ink solutions now than normal wacom, because you can see what you are actually drawing. They are also more portable and cheaper.
Click to expand...
You're forgetting wacom's cintiq line :rolleyes:.

Not everyone needs a display tablet either.
 
N4CR said:
There are better e-ink solutions now than normal wacom, because you can see what you are actually drawing.
Click to expand...
I'll take it you've never used a drawing tablet if you're making that statement. Whether you're touching the tablet or not, your cursor is on the screen - your hand can travel above the tablet and the cursor follows even when the pen is not making contact with the surface. The idea is that you look at your screen while you draw. The 'precision' level is exactly the same. The difficulty is detaching the looking from the drawing, whereas a screen with a digitizer is more natural in terms of 'analog' drawing.
However, since most people have used a mouse on a computer before, it takes a pretty limited amount of time to get used to it. The most difficult part is generally the 'absolute' nature of pen devices vs the 'relative' nature of a mouse. That's probably the most confusing aspect for novices, but also makes perfect sense when considering any analog art format.

N4CR said:
They are also more portable and cheaper.
Click to expand...
This is definitely a: 'you get what you pay for' sort of situation. There is always cheaper than the halo product. But 'better' is a totally different thing. When referring to art products, how tactile and intuitive something is matters a lot (and when discussing anything computer related, also how mature things like drivers and software integration is). Wacom owns this (or all of these), which is why they are basically the de-facto tablet with everything else a very distant second.

If this thread is simply: "what can I get that's cheap" then just spend 15 seconds on Amazon and buy the cheapest thing that comes up that has your 'specs'. But if you want something 'good', and perhaps relatively 'inexpensive' vs the top tier products, that's a whole other ball game.

I would definitely buy an Intuos Pro Small, that doesn't have a display over some cheap brand that does have a display even if the two costed the same amount ($250). And what's more, I can use that 'small' pad on my 32" inch display DCI-4k. So my 'big hand' isn't getting in the way of the very small screen, an inexpensive tablet is sure to have. Which is another advantage of using a non-display tablet device.
 
Last edited:
I bought the H610 PRO just tried it out I really like it alot I'm going to look into getting a stand to prop it up a bit because that is what I'm used to.
It's alot better than the Wacom I bought 15 years ago. I still would rather just draw by hand I mean I own about 500 different mechanical pencils and a ton of Art Supplies along with about 18 Airbrushes lol. Just started to seriously get into Art because I just got good recently but this digital stuff brings it to another level. Been following people on Facebook and kinda envy what they can do digitally which I know I have inside I can do the same if not better.
 
The problem I saw with on screen tablets I mean you need to have it connected to a computer and the surface might be too slick for prolonged use.
I mean that is what people use for Videogames but I was draw to a simple table rather than a screen with touch and it's a IPS screen to boot which I can't stand IPS screens give me eye problems. I figured I can manipulate it faster with a regular tablet what I like about Digital you can rework it untill your desired image is achieved erase without problems and switch colors. One of my favorite Comic Book Colorist just uses a simple tablet Ula Mos
just uses a Intudos Tablet.
 
Most if my stuff was hand drawn I'm just starting to get good. I drew a few Comics back in the early 2000s with some guys from The Comics Journal.20220111_112614.jpg
 
I wish I had artistic talent. would love to be able to draw stuff like this,

this is the artists' imagining of the Hololive VTubers Holiday Party.
FGewGw0UcAIKP0O.jpg
 
Watching a guy on Youtube nammed Ergo Josh who has all the latest digital on screen pen displays you would think that having like a 13" screen or even a 16" screen you would be looking down on the tablet. Where if you have a digital tablet without the screen you can look straight ahead. I think the on screen displays might be good for someone who is just starting out but if you don't have the hand eye coordination it might be easier for some people but I think your neck and head would always be looking down plus the screen is close to your face which might cause eyestrain being an IPS panel and everything. The tools are smaller on the screen tablets I'm using a 21.5" monitor which is plenty big for digital Art. But if you have a onscreen display the tools in the program will be really small I just don't see the advantage of using a on screen display except for coordination early on. I think people who use on screen tablets have a different style too slick of a style because of the glide of the pen.

I talked to this guy on Steam who has like 4K hours in Blender he told me to to give it a shot not sure if it's my type of thing. I think it's way too time consuming the Software is from 1994 but recently been updated to 3.0 in Dec. of 2021 he said it's alot easier than 3-D Studio Max the interface is without the 4K cost every year. He said people migrated to Z-Brush after 3-D studio Max which was the last 3-D modeling program I attempted to use or it could of been an old version of Z-Brush. He sent me a few tutorial videos on Youtube to get started.
 
This guy has his screen tablet almost upright when he draws on it. It's a huge one too,


I was into 3D animation back in the mid 90's, bought a Video Toaster 4000 card for my Amiga 3000 in 1993 so I could get Lightwave 3D.
That was a really expensive upgrade, $2500 for the card and $600+ for a 345MB SCSI HDD and 8MB more ram. I had a $7000 Amiga and didn't even own a car, lol.
Animated an opening and closing scene for a video I was selling for awhile in Lightwave 3D when it was released on a PC.

Used a DPS PAR card to capture the video, the PAR card video files where in accessible as individual jpegs and I think targa files in folders which made it easy to texture map video onto 3D opbjects.
I then rendered the animations to the PAR card and then used Speed Razer Mach 3 to sync the audio back to the clips on the animation.
Then used a Video Toaster Flyer to do the titles on the opening and closing animations.
these clips are low res versions that I had on my website back in the day. I have the higher quality ones on a full size BetaCam SP tape but don't have deck to use to re-capture it.



 
Last edited:
Comixbooks said:
I wanted a Amiga bad back then settled on a Dell PC in 1996 as my 1st PC 233mhz.
Click to expand...
The Pentium 200MMX was the most expensive processor I had ever bought till I got my 5900X.
I paid $525 for the 200MMX when it came out.
I did buy a Warp Engine 040 processor card with a Motorola 68040 for my Amiga 3000 in 1994 for $1300 but had to return it since it was for the Amiga 4000 which does share processor cards with the A3000,
but this model was a few mm's too long and blocked the daughter card slot on my 3000. When the A3000 model Warp Engine came out I had already traded my Toaster Card and Amiga for a pair of PC's.
 
What I'm going to do is do a mockup in Painter or PS the print it out on the Epson the blow it up with a projector. I think the Fluid Digital pens should translate well and people will never figure out how the Art was done. I want to draw a Hubbercraft but doing it the Traditional way would make it look too flat unless I use Soft Big pencils. Then paint it with a airbrush make going to lay down acrylic washes with a brush so it doesn't look static Airbrush isn't perfect plus its time consuming.
 
Just picked up Rebelle 5.0 standard edition really a cool program and doesn't cost a arm and a leg plus you get the Intaller.
Now I own Photoshop old version
and Painter 2022
 
Last edited:
I got a Wacom One Medium. It's a good starter, I'd rather be able to draw on an active screen though
 
https://www.paintstormstudio.com/index.html

This program is really nice Paint Storm Studio 2.0 also tired Krita which is ok for being a Free program..
I wish you could change the UI in Rebelle though it's light black by default I posted a message on their site their software is always bein updated just updated in Dec. Rebelle is really resource heavy it makes my Fans throttle I guess it wasn't always like that.
 
If you are poking around programs, I used ArtRage for a while and had good times with it.
 
Yeah I don't think digital Art is for me the eyestrain I get when I go back to work is too much. I suppose I can use my tablet for touch ups on stuff but doing full blow artwork is out of the question.
 
Picked up Corel Painter a real copy was 10% the retail off but at least it's not on the Cloud like Photoshop. I mean if you want to use their program there has got be some ownership of it unlike Photoshop I'm using a older copy that doesn't require the Cloud. Why anyone would want to subscribe to that is beyond me I mean it's like HEY KIDS LETS RENT a PAINT SHOP and it disappears. is plus it's a really nice program now if not the best 2-D paint program. It used to be a real sluggish program but in the past few years it's really been updated. Plus the brushes it comes with are really nice I mean they have like 6 packs of Brushes I just tried them nothing but fantastic.
 
Last edited:
Really interested in this Huion 2.5k tablet which isn't out comes out March 2022 but has a Qled screen and uses felt nibs for more restance the VA monitor would be better for extended drawing sessions compared to a ips. I haven't tried a on screen tablet just yet. I tried ibspaint on my phone but you use your finger as the stylus. Not a fan of the program.
 
I'm giving it another shot I don't think I was zooming in close enough with the zoom in order to render color. I figured out how to b l end better in Painter using the 1000 of brushes Cirel painter is alot better than Photoshop fir brush selection. I va on screen tablet yet but dont t want to pay 599.00 for the Huion. A few things I don't like about onscreen tablets your hand is in the way icons are small and the glass might be too slippery.

There us a guy on Youtube named Websng who does Amazing stuff with tablets I'm learning from him.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top