General Discussion

I never had a drawing tablet, just tablets to draw on y'know?

Like i had a kindle fire, then a bigger smart tablet that I sat on, then I had my phone(s), and then I got to graduate to the family PC (which was a touch screen)! I currently use my own laptop, an Envy 360x which ig counts as a tablet, and my Samsung Galaxy~!

Even with all of that, I have never used Paint Tool, although i always wanted to...now i use FireAlpaca and Medibang exclusively bc legit no other painting program has brushes that dont require pen pressure UGH (I draw w my finger so,,,I mean I had a stylus but I ever since i started digital art I've used my finger so it's just natural atp). Before FA and Medi I used Sketchbook Pro on my kindle fire (when the FULL app was free not what ever it is now).

Not to be a downer but I have not been happily drawing bc I can only seemingly draw half baked art?? Like yeah I can draw a dragon head, but idk how to draw the rest and if i do draw the rest i immediately hate it and trash it
So my creative process is shot rn,,,I have a quick bout of actual wanting to draw and then I open the canvas, see how bad it looks, feel bad about it, and bail

I've traversed the generations of graphics tablets. I remember my first one was a Wacom Sapphire that my dad used to use.. Back then I used Gimp and a mouse to do most of my art. Then I moved on to an Intuous Pro, which was a sort of golden era for my teenage self. Now I'm on an IPad and using Procreate, and I must say that in terms of ease of use and portability, it's never been better. [quote name="FenVyrus" date="2024-05-22 23:08:36" ] So my creative process is shot rn,,,I have a quick bout of actual wanting to draw and then I open the canvas, see how bad it looks, feel bad about it, and bail [/quote] Sorry to call this out directly but I know exactly what you mean! This really struck a chord with me because it's something I've struggled with a lot. It's taken me a long time to come to terms with this, but I've applied it in various areas of my life- work, hobbies etc. [i]Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.[/i] It's better to finish something, than constantly worry about how it looks. If you don't like it, so be it. Make it into a finished state, whatever that might look like, and move on. In time, you'll start to produce things you actually enjoy working on. It's a really long and arduous process, but us creatives are inherently our worst critics. I hope you get there one day!

hello fellow digital artists :] i do art on a hobby level but i would love to create something big someday! i currently don't do much as i'm busy nowadays, but i'm planning to get back to drawing asap when the summer break starts. my history of art is very silly tbh... i did traditional art every now and then, but eventually i switched to scratch's bitmap editor once i got on internet. yeah, [i]scratch[/i]. i also used krita and another not-so-good art program at the time, but my art skills at the age of 12 were questionable LOL i switched to gimp after a year or so, and did fanarts for this one game i won't name for a good while. my breaking point was when i received my own phone, and everything changed when i downloaded ibis paint x a month later. turns out drawing with my finger was way easier than trying to draw with a mouse on a sloppy table, and i've sticked to doing art on my phone ever since! i unfortunately have lost my earliest drawings though :') i love ibis paint, but sometimes it frustrates me. the premium ads are everywhere, it lags and crashes a lot and sometimes it's just... unbearable to do art on a such a small screen, yknow? i would love to do art on tablet or at least draw with a stylus, but it's not really possible in these conditions. i will make sure that my parents will take my hobby seriously once i get to uni:tm: but until then i will have to wait [emoji=tundra tongue size=1]

My first tablet was a Wacom Intuos 3 which would be 16 years old now if I hadn't loaned it to a friend who loses everything, lol. I've ping-ponged between cheap tablets since then, but right now my Yoga C740 is my preferred way to draw. Pen is a Bamboo stylus and works fine despite being battery powered (I think I've only had to change them once a year?) Cost was about $650 for both, which is the most I've spent on anything that wasn't rent. Totally worth it if anyone else is shopping for a digital sketchbook! [quote name="Mangrit" date="2024-05-12 16:38:25" ] 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.[/quote] Are you me? lol I get embarrassed because I feel like everyone moved on from SAI forever ago, but I keep gravitating back to it because it's so comfy. I also like and recommend Clip Studio Paint but still prefer SAI for when all I wanna do is [i]draw[/i].

hello art gang! i'm still using the wacom intuos small i got for christmas in 2016 for the majority of my digital work, although i've been thinking of upgrading because its lowkey giving me wrist problems lmaoo. sometimes switch over to ipad and procreate, but something about a non-screen tablet hits different....it's like projecting my brain onto the screen :D
i also used to do ibis paint phone + finger art before i had an ipad and still do little doodles when im outside and bored

software wise it was the classic SAI v1, but i switched to CSP a couple years ago (my beloved). does anyone with later CSP versions recommend upgrading? the subscription model is soooo bad but the extra features look useful ? and they still have one time purchase licenses ? T_T

i got into fr around the same time i really got into digital art so this site is very special to me. good luck to everyone's future creative endeavours!

For like 3 weeks after receiving my new iPad, my artblock was gone, but I am sad to announce that I am now back in the hole.

for my birthday a week ago, i got a tablet for drawing (it does other things, i just don't use it for other things). it's definitely improved my art a bunch, and it's a lot better and easier than using my finger and phone.

huion kamvas 13, funny thing is I had this one exact tablet that I sold because it was just laying on my shelf, unused. Years later my interest in digital art picked up, I saw an auction for a new huion k. 13 for half the original price (the seller was a businessman that received a donation for his business and basically bought it not from his own money and didn't care). Same story, for the one year I had it I used it for exactly one full art piece. But recently an opportunity and idea happened, wife and I plan on opening our own business, the tablet will help us very much in that.
Years ago, on an old wacom, I used paint tool sai. Now Krita is the way. Still, traditional art hits my alley better and i've been creating a piece by piece slowly but steadily.

I have a Wacom One, one of the fancy screen ones you mentioned!! it was really expensive but it's literally the only expensive present I've ever asked for, so my parents got it for me for my 18th birthday/christmas :D

as for drawing programs, I use Krita, which was free and I HIGHLY recommend!! it's quite intuitive better than any paid art program I've tried :D


misc related stuff:

I've actually been doing digital art since I was like 11, although back then I used a mouse and then a chromebook touchpad. it actually wasn't that bad because I got REALLY used to them, but obviously the drawing tablet is 548634987x better!

also about Krita and those other art programs I've tried - I've actually recently got a free (limited time) Adobe subscription through my school and tried out Photoshop for the first time - and yeah, not a fan, Krita is a thousand times better. although I still have to try out Adobe Illustrator, because that's the one that you're actually supposed to use for drawing haha

I also got a free subscription for I think it's called Corel Paint when I bought my laptop, but it was pretty bad too. like I said, I HIGHLY recommend Krita!! it's more intuitive and way better than both of those. and like I said, it's totally free!!

also the one downside of an art tablet is it provides another hurdle that makes me procrastinate on drawing more (because plugging it in and all that is another Step and my brain does not like that even though it's not that hard at all), but it was still definitely worth it because I've still used it many, many times throughout the years :) and it's nowhere near breaking (although I do have to change out my pen nib for the first time because it's getting kind of scratchy) so I will be able to use it for years and years to come too!!

[font=american gothic][size=4]Hello fellow digital artists. Going from traditional art to digital art feels like a punishment, since the way things blend is extremely different and difficult to adjust to. I use Procreate but I'm considering to go to Krita because its blending is more like traditional blending and I won't have to feel like I have to learn color theory all over again [emoji=undertide scared size=1] Might share some of my practice paintings later