Technically this isn't my first time using a drawing tablet. I think I briefly used on about 10 years ago when my boss upgraded to a Wacom so the previous tablet he used "trickled down" to me. The reasoning at the time was that it would be useful for creating UI mockups and annotating them. I don't think it got used much and went in a drawer.
Anyway, this might as well be my first time using one so that's what I'll say.
Over the last few weeks I've enjoyed drawing on paper but I was a little disappointed with the results after scanning in some of my drawings. Plus my folder was starting to grow ever larger so I figured this would be a good opportunity try my hand at digital art.
I did a bit of research and opted for an XP-Pen Deco 01 (v2). It's not overly expensive and is a decent size.
At this point, I can't really justify spending a lot of money on a pen display or similar device so a simple "drawing tablet" (something without a screen) seemed like a good starting point.
One thing I do like about XP-Pen is their little mascot character 😁
 |
| Mascot |
 |
| My Workstation |
It's definitely taking some getting used to. Looking at the screen while drawing didn't feel natural at first but so far I've found that it just takes a little perseverance. A few things that I've found have helped are:
Writing
Anybody who knows me knows that my handwriting is atrocious. So much so that one of my old teachers described it as being like a drunken spider crawled across the page with the a pen 😂 (not said maliciously - she was actually pretty supportive). In spite of how terrible my writing looks, writing a few words and sentences helped me get used to the disconnect between hand movements and seeing the result on screen by starting with familiar movements. I don't have much experience with art so handwriting made more sense for me.
Practice Website
I came across a nifty little website that you can use to practice drawing over blueprint figures to work on your accuracy.
https://www.tabletpractice.com/
Drawing
Drilling practice routines is useful, but I didn't want this to stop me from actually doing some drawings. Not long after setting up the tablet on my laptop, I fired up Autodesk Sketchbook and had a go at "blocking out" a character. It's safe to say the results were laughable but it's all practice.
 |
| This is difficult! |
I've largely given up on Sketchbook as it seems a bit limited and I think it might have been developed with Wacom tablets in mind. Instead I switched to Clip Studio Paint (Pro). A friend recommended it and it's not too expensive (about £30 or £40ish) and the developers allow it to be used on two machines (not at the same time) so I can use it on my desktop and laptop.
 |
| It won't win any awards, but it's good practice |
It helps that I can create an outline that's rough AF and gradually refine it with additional layers of outlines before finishing it. Having drawn my first character entirely on a tablet, I'm not displeased with the result. Sure it's pretty rough and I've managed to get a load of things wrong on it but a few days ago I'd never used this sort of thing before so I'm pleased that I'm starting to get to grips with using it 😊
I plan to go back to some of the tutorial videos I followed for drawing on paper and try to redo them but using the tablet instead.
Tracing
I'm going to try scanning and tracing some of my earlier drawings for additional practice.
