So my Huion H610 Pro arrived yesterday. Got to say that I'm very impressed so far, it's years ahead of the old Bamboo that I used to have. Not sure it's got the right feel for sketching directly, but certainly it's good enough for colouring.
I've disabled the buttons on the pen as I couldn't really workout how to hold it comfortably and not accidentally press them. I tend to rotate the pen as I draw, so even starting off in a good position doesn't last long. Also I instinctively want to hold it in a writing position, but for sketching I'd normally hold a pencil in a variety of ways depending on the stroke and control required (NJ), which feels a bit silly with this and not really comfortable or intuitive either.
The feel of the pen on the surface is hard to describe. It lacks the bite that a real pencil has on paper. I think there's less tactile feedback. I experimented with putting a piece of paper over the surface which does improve things, but I suspect the (replaceable) nib would wear out far too quickly with that on.
The disconnect between drawing on a board and seeing the results on a screen is something I think I'll.get used to, though. Going to experiment with a reduced active area tomorrow and see if that improves the feel and drawing position. With the whole area active I find I'm reluctant to move my hand as much as I would on paper and end up drawing in a really uncomfortable position, which also leads to bad results as lines go awry.
Yeah I found tablets, even bigish ones really cramped my drawing style. Way better than mouse, but not really satisfactory in any way that encouraged me try to improve with practice. OTOH I found a tablet, even a 4x5" model excelled for using the pen tool in photoshop, and similar bezier drawing and curves manipulation in 3d animation software.
I want a Huion GT-190 with IPS screen, so I can do photo manipulation stuff, so don't need it like a pencil so long as it's easier than a mouse to mask and clone and stuff, which I expect it should be.
Wish there was a way to try them out, but maybe if any place does offers this week I'll just go for it.