26 March 2012

Wacom Intuos5 touch


After getting the iPad so recently, it was a huge surprise when I received a Wacom tablet as gift. I had an old tiny one that bit the dust a few months ago. I never like using it but I know many artists who can't live without one. I figured I just was having a hard time getting a grip on how to use one. One of the reasons for iPad was to use it as a sketchpad so I was not prepared to make such a step up so soon.

The intuos5 I have now has completely changed my attitude on using a tablet. Having a great tool really makes a difference. The first day I produced 6 illustrations for a book in a pen and ink style. I've never even tried to do anything in color or like a real painting on the computer before but I've always wanted to try. So using a photo I took a long while back as reference I did this bee painting (above) in about an hour. It might not be a great work of art, but I am very happy with the results.

I have the medium sized model and I reccomend this size as it makes navigating the pen across the screen much easier than a smaller tablet. The multitude of programmable buttons I have only started to explore the uses of, but I imagine I will find them all very useful.

The tablet works with most software, as a pen or brush, a mouse or as better way to control and construct cgi animations. Sketchbook Express comes as a free download and it is an amazing program for drawing. I do find photoshop, with it's hundreds of options harder to draw with but more useful overall. In the end I am sure I will be using both as you can edit PSD files in both.

2 comments:

T' said...

I still use my old 4x5 Graphirewhenever I need a graphics tablet at all, which is almost never. I just never got a hold on the digital painting thing. The Wacom screen seems really cool and would likely fit the bill, but yah, 1,000 bucks is too many.

Behemoth media said...

I find I have little desire for the Wacom with the screen now. This costs about 359$ as it is, but it is so much easier than my old tablet to use. I'm no expert but I see myself getting better at controlling it pretty fast. I just need to find a decent pen nib photoshop brush.