(Image shamelessly ripped from Wacom’s site)

So I am on the road to saving for a tablet, because I want to be able to color with nice, solid colors and also experiment with SAI . This guide is a rehash of what one can easily find on teh internets, because I am a complete noob to tablets and have near zero experience using one (I do sketch and color on my NDS, but I guess that doesn’t count).

To many an artist, being able to color with a tablet is like taking another step to reach their ideal style (though there are a notable few who stick with traditional mediums, and are still able to produce works with flair equal to that of a photoshop-colored piece). When I decided on getting a tablet, I was rather lost as to what to get, but I did hear from 2ch/friends/1337 sauces that Wacom was a good choice for doujin CG artists.

Of course, owning an expensive tablet does not mean that your art will magically improve, though it would mean that you will have a better time lining and shading (YES PRESSURE SENSITIVITY) with a better (read: more expensive ;_;) tablet.

There are other fears like not being able to get used to drawing on a tablet, discovering that you actually have zero skill with picking colors, and that photoshop does not automatically give your fanart the touch of God (Yes, I made that one up). While this guide will not assuage your (my? your? our? meh.) worries, it will give you a rough idea what tablet suits you best.

The Wacom Asia-Pacific/Singapore site used to have a rather interesting questionnaire that picked out a tablet best suited to your needs, but it seems to have disappeared from the site at the moment. Still, going by their product line, the features of note are as follows.

Intuos3: To all doujin and fan artists, this is apparently your best choice. It has the best stylus -> pencil feel, so you will have a lot of a better time getting the feel of drawing on a tablet. Also, it has great precision and according to Wikipedia, tilt sensitivity and 1024 levels of pressure. This means very good news if you are aiming for smudgy watercolor effects, like Kei-san’s art (The guy who brought you the great utahime Hatsune Miku).

Bamboo: Has the nicest overall design. Simplicity wins. However this is targeted towards general home and office use, which I gather to mean that it is either a very decorative alternative for a mouse (wtf, a tablet for a mouse? You’ve got to be kidding. Get a Razer or something, if you have that kind of money) or something for your little cousins/nieces/nephews/siblings to express their Picasso-level stick figure drawing on MS paint (ZOMG, SAVE THAT ONE, WE COULD PASS IT OFF AS ABSTRACT ART AND SELL PRINTS!). There is also a Fun version of this tablet, and seems to be geared towards photo retouching and drawing in MS Paint.

A word about Cintiq, don’t get it unless you want to go blind at the age of 30. Moving on…

(Yes, its a monitor + tablet. Seriously, staring at a screen even on the lowest brightness setting for prolonged periods of time can kill your eyesight. Though its good for emulating the pen to paper feel.)

I guess thats it. Hell yea, Intuos is teh way to go. I suppose this is becoming quite the biased review.

Tablet Sizes

Generally, the larger the tablet, the more expensive it is. Also, the larger the tablet, the more ease you will have drawing. Its a conspiracy.

I will address a smaller issue first: The square or the rectangle?

If you have visited the Wacom product page , you would have spotted 16:9 rectanglar tablets and 4:3 relatively squarish tablets.

Now, look at your screen (Wait, you aren’t already?). Is it 4:3 or WS (16:9)? I guess that would have answered your question. It will be easier to work when your stylus’s area of roaming matches relatively the same point on your monitor, so it is advisable to get a tablet to match your screen’s aspect ratio. However, this isn’t much of a concern, and I’ll conclude this boring section with just a suggestion: Get 6×8. Have a look at the local pricing list, be shocked at the price and notice that this size sits nicely in the middle range, with a menacing (but not overtly scary) price, and an average (just right :3) size.

Note: You don’t really need a huge tablet unless you are some experienced artist who is used to drawing/painting with huge sweeping arm motions. T_T)

Next up, the accessories.

Accessories can enhance your drawing experience. These can come in the form of overlays, pens, mouses and nibs.

Overlays: You can tuck a sketch/photo under these and trace over it. Wacom tablets work by electromagnetic induction, so a bit of paper between the drawing surface and the pen wont hurt.

Overlays can also protect your tablet, especially if you are prone to violent fits with a stylus in hand.

Nibs: Wacom carries 2 interesting nibs, the Felt nib and the Stroke Nib. The felt nib increases friction between the stylus and the tablet surface, replicating a pen-to-paper feel. The stroke nib has some sort of spring built into the nib, which i suppose gives some light rebound for brush like strokes.

Pens: There are pens with ‘erasers’ on the opposite end, pens with high pressure sensitivity, and pens with balance for less strain, and also an airbrush stylus. These are self explanatory, and I leave you to decide which pen suits you best. Or your budget.

Having covered most of the What-you-need-to-know-before-getting-a-shiny-Wacom-tablet, I will end off here and go to sleep (Oshi-, test tomorrow, orz. Otsukare, Oyasumi, etc., and as usual, enjoy the editorial )