General Discussion

For the past 14 years, I've been using a Genius Mousepen i608 as my drawing tablet. Look it up if you want to see a picture of it, it looks like something you'd dig up from an archaeological site. It does not have a screen display. It was very cheap, served me well and it's amazing that it's still going strong after so long! I think I've only had to change the battery in the pen like once or twice, and it takes normal batteries you can buy from the store.

My main art program is Paint Tool SAI, which is an old software that I made a one off payment for probably around 10 years ago? It still works fine, though it doesn't have many features. I'm intimidated by the idea of learning new software, and also scared of software turning into subscription models... So I haven't looked into anything new.

Recently I've been going through an artblock, and it got so bad and I became so miserable that I started to wonder if I could improve my creative experience. Both of my friends have been using fancy tablets for years now, the kind where you can draw directly on the screen. One of my friends has an iPad Pro, don't know what my other friend has but it's the kind that you can still plug into your PC like a normal tablet, except it has its own brain and screen. In my fit of misery I started to look into iPads for drawing and ended up buying a 12.9 inch iPad Air M2. It hasn't arrived yet but I'm so excited for it, I hope that it will make me excited to draw again. I plan to buy and learn Procreate. Drawing on a screen will be such a different digital art experience than the disjointed method I'm used to, and I'll be able to carry it around the house instead of being anchored to my desk.

TL;DR: I bought a new toy for drawing on and I'm very excited about it, but I have to wait 4 more days for it to arrive!

My question for you is, what tablet and drawing software do you use? What's the pen like, what do you like about it, how much did it cost? How has your creative experience been, are you drawing happily or are you in crippling artblock right now? Whatever you feel like sharing.

@DragonJade I've used GIMP and FireAlpaca too! I was only 13 when I tried GIMP and I think it was too complicated for my tiny brain so I didn't stick with it for long, but I absolutely loved FireAlpaca. Their pencil tool is my favourite digital brush I've ever used. For some reason it became too jittery to draw with though, I'm not sure what happened because all my other art programs still took input from my tablet normally... I could have tried harder to debug it, but it was never my daily driver software as I still preferred SAI for some tasks, so I just ended up giving up on it and using SAI exclusively. :/ RIP

Thank you for the well wishes :)

I am insane and have been drawing exclusively on my phone for 7 years. Ibispaint as my program and no stylus. I’ve gotten really good at it, and I’ve been meaning to learn how to use a tablet eventually, but the learning curve is steep and the phone is comfortable. I had a really bad artblock last year but luckily for the past few months I’ve been back in my usual art flow.

@Chimerii I knew there'd be someone coming forward to say they only drew on a phone, lol. Your art is really good, I never would have been able to guess you drew it with your finger! I used to draw really terrible doodles on my phone with a very simple app around 9 years ago. Apparently ibis Paint existed back then but I guess I never knew about it? It looks like a good app.

Oof, I can’t even remember what my first tablet was, I just know(?) it was a chunky Wacom. My first digital art program was Corel Painter X (My family still has the disc box for some reason). I’ve used Paint Tool SAI for well over a year before moving to Krita and now Procreate. I want to eventually get Clip Studio Paint, but right now I’m satiated with the two I’m currently using.

Art block is a b****, and I can speak from experience. I literally did not draw anything for well over a year at one point of my adult life. Now, my current struggle is actually finishing said art pieces, even if they are just sketches. Which is huge shame, cause my autism would latch onto a special interest and say “Draw this”, but then my ADHD Inattentive would inevitably sneak in and say “Draw what?”

Due to not being 18 and being poor as heck we draw on random free sites on our chromebook or phone and have been for years lol. we can both use our pointer finger and thumb for drawing but prefer to use the latter for . some reason
we used to use ibispaintx a lot but we haven't in a while and we should probably get back to it since we kinda miss it haha , but for a while we've been doodling on chrome canvas and drawing colored and shaded stuff on kleki

I use my phone with my finger lol. that's better then styluses in my opinion

I draw on my computer. with a mouse. it's simultaneously both a point of pride and just as painful as it sounds askdhshssda. I do find it easier than a drawing tablet because I've had like 7 years of practice, however I do want to get a drawing tablet soon because I feel like I just straight up can't draw as well with a mouse as I would be able to with a drawing tablet due to not being able to dynamically adjust pressure + lines being shakier/rougher with a mouse. And I use FireAlpaca for all my art! FireAlpaca my beloved <3 it's got inbuilt animation features which is one of the reasons I enjoy it so much :D

I've been having horrendous art block for the past 6 ish months now, though it's been less art block in general and more just "I am so very very extremely burnt out on drawing cats that every cat I draw looks awful to me now". I've been a predominantly cat artist for about as long as I've been doing digital art, for context, and I drew a lot of cats in 2022 and early 2023 but then I just got. so tired. I had some success drawing some wolf characters of mine from the game WolfQuest for a while but it didn't last super long. BUT these past 2 weeks I've been drawing dragons from Wings of Fire and it's the most artistically inspired I've felt in soooo freaking long, and I've also been working on actually improving my art overall (been trying to get better at foreshortening/rotating characters which is always hard for me, and just since yesterday I've been dabbling in some animation which has been very fun!) So I don't know how long the inspiration will last but I'm definitely feeling better about my art than I have in a while. :]

Moral of the story: if you have art block, simply draw dragons <3 /joking (or am I....)

My first tablet/program was a wacom intuos and Paint Tool SAI. I used that for a few years before switching to an iPad. I found it way more convenient than breaking out my bulky laptop & tablet any time I wanted to draw lol.
I think I used an app called Sketchpad(?) until I got Procreate.
Personally, I really love Procreate! I've used it for years now.
I've also never used a stylus with it. I just find it easier to use my finger for some reason? idk

Anyway, congrats on the ipad! I hope it helps you!! :D Art block really sucks, I've been stuck in one for months. I'm slowly getting through it though!