Best analogy I can think of for the graphire is an eraser on a big chalkboard, whereas a mouse is more like a cement block on an ice rink.  I've only used the pressure sensitivity effectively on really big, soft-edge brushes (100-300 px), to selectively burn/dodge, where edge precision is (obviously) unnecessary, but you want to control the intensity depending on area. Otherwise I keep it turned off.

> Dodged a bullet there

Sounds more like you walked away from a trundling ball.

Like the boulder thing in Indiana Jones? I would say that would be significantly worse than a bullet. I'd much rather be shot and have it all over in one go rather than be running away in terror, just delaying the inevitable crush.

Surely you're not adverse to a little hyperbole?

I found the application specific menu last night, so can change sensitivity, pen 'feeling' (hard or soft touch) depending on whether I'm in Photoshop or not.

Drawing and shading isn't quite intuitive yet, but it's a fairly shallow learning curve.

Can you stump teh with a tablet turing test? Post two drawings, one tablet and one scanned from pencil.

That's a nice idea, though at the moment I think it'd be fairly obvious which was which.

I've not actually tried the pencil tool in Photoshop with the tablet yet.  :-$

I've been doing more cartoony stuff in a Jim'll Paint It style.

Cocking hell, the thread even has the same name. I'm a buffoon LOL

You muffin.

I drew the picture in my wife's wedding anniversary card (which is tomorrow, so don't tell her that I'm showing you now) with it.

The wording goes something along the lines of:

You're so awesome, I'd totally get the Pope to beatify the remains of Mr. Motivator in your honour.



 

Lovely.

What's your thoughts on it now you've had a chance to play (No, john)?

I really like it, for drawing. I'm not going to use it as a mouse replacement any time soon.

The pressure sensitivity is good and works well in Photoshop. It's not really analogous to using a pen or pencil, even though it's as immediate as those, it obviously doesn't have the tactile feedback of working on paper. I've changed my mind, it's not great for shading (at least for my style, which is quite linear with crosshatching etc.), but for creating the simple comic art type stuff, it's really nice. :)

 

I've heard you can put paper on the tablet for a more tactile feel, but I reckon it would wear out the tip pretty fast.

I'll try that and see what it's like. The tablet's surface feels too slippery for my style of drawing. I'm sure it's possible though, I've just not used it enough to get the technique.

I've got better results using a large (A2 or A3) canvas at a high res with really small brushes.

Hmm. I tried courting in a scan with my mouse yesterday. Results weren't great, was wondering if a tablet would be better. I see some of the wacom tablets have a tilt sensor too, so you can vary brush /pencil angle...

Then I saw the Cintiq (?) tablet and screen things - wow! Want!

What's 'courting in a scan' ? If you mean retouching yeah, even a cheap wacom is way better than a mouse.

TBH I don't think tablets hold any real advantage over real media for creating original pencil/pen/brush artwork, even factoring in all the layering, erasing, undo etc. shit. Principle drawback is that you aren't looking at your drawing implement, lack of tactile feedback etc. Plus maybe it's too easy to get caught up in the layering, erasing, undo etc. shit and wind up with really overworked, but conceptually undisciplined results. Maybe the best of both worlds is to use real media, scan it, then digitally manipulate it in various ways.

Aye, the Cintiq range looks ace.

Again, I think it'd be hard to get used to something like a tilt sensitivity without the tactile feedback. If they could shoehorn a series of shifting weights in the pen for some mega-haptic shenanigans, I'd be all for it.

Uhhh, colouring. I really should check to see what SwiftKey has changed my world to before I hit post.

I'm trying to learn a bit more about drawing at the moment, and I'm quite happy with my progress with pencil and paper, but It'd be nice to have a quick and clean (and cheaper than Copic pens) way to add colour and depth. I like working on real paper, but I do keep trying to control-z when I do something stupid though >.<

I watched some YouTube videos of an ex-disney guy (animator and director, forget his name) creating a sketch and then painting entirely with a wacom and corel paint essentials. Stunning results, if very Disney-esque.

Which tablet did you get in the end? The medium size intuous 5 seems to go on ebay for reasonable amounts. Might write to santa...

I got one of these. It's the smaller version, but works well for me.

At time of buying they were going for between £35 and £45. I didn't want to spend any more if the tech hadn't improved all that much since I first tried a Wacom way back when. Turns out it has, and I'm pleasantly surprised.

Ah yeah saw those as well. Want to get the biggest I can, as I found the small bamboo thing I had years ago to be far too small to be any real use.

Are you using it as a mouse replacement too, or just for art faggery?

I don't think it's accurate enough for a mouse replacement. Nope, it's probably too accurate. When moving the cursor's a bit erratic, due to it being too sensitive (and there may well be a setting to reduce this) and it's picking up every bit of wobble from my hand. I'm pretty steady handed and it amplifies every shake.

I'm working across two monitors and like Smiffy alluded to before, they're different resolutions and the absolute positioning given the tablet's ratio makes scrolling between them a little odd.