Will a cheaper tablet work? Don't wanna spend more than $200 if I can help it. Or are the ones that come close to (or surpass) $1000 actually worth it?
Which apps work best? Specifically for comic art. Again, should I spend the big bucks or are their free apps that do the job just as well?
Anything else I need? Any tools outside of a common stylus?
Thank you for your help.
Oct '19
Oct '19
If you're just looking into getting your first tablet, I don't think it's necessary to splurge and buy a really expensive one if you don't want to; I would only recommend a cintiq to someone who's used to traditional art, and even my digital art friends said it didn't make that huge of a difference. Back when I did some digital art, I never got anything over a few hundred dollars.
I've never tried one myself, but if you want a less expensive tablet, you could perhaps look into getting a Huion instead of a Wacom? They're significantly less expensive for, I hear, similar quality.
For comic-making programs, there's always Clip Studio Paint. It has a trial that you can test out to see if you like it, and you can wait for one of their 50% off sales if you like the program (they happen relatively often).
For about 10+ years I was using a 70$ tablet, before I graduated college and got a graphire. (and that graphire lasted freaking forever, until the windows 10 update)
I don't recall the name of that 70$ tablet, and it probably isn't sold anymore, but I was a perfectly happy camper all the way from high school till college even though I only had 4-5 inches of surface area. And honestly, since most of my art was traditional, and I was still learning digital, I don't think I would have appreciated an 1000$ tablet at all (and honestly it wouldn't have fit on my desk at the time). So it also depends on where you feel like you are on your digital journey.
The good thing about this generation is you can get a lot of quality tablets for cheap.
My first tablet was a bamboo wacom. It lasted me TEN years before it broke down. And yes, Wacom feels premium. The materials feel nice and their pens have weight so your wrist won't hurt as much when drawing for long hours. Wacom is great. The Best. But the downside is the price. There are regular wacom tablets under $200 but they are usually small / outdated.
I can't give you much advice on the others except Veikk, because it's my current tablet. I got an 11 inches one for like $40? or $50. It's great. But, it's cheap and feels cheap. The pen is cheap plastic and I honestly have wrist pains after a long while. I'm thinking of replacing it.
Xp-pen get the Deco 01v2. ($99 i think) My friend has it and it works amazing. Their pen is also pretty nice.
Things you need to care about (regular tablets)
1. the pen pressure levels. It's pretty common to have 8k now.
2. Some tablets have battery powered pen, some have battery free.
3. I say, the best brands you can get are Huion and Xp-pen because support and community matters. When you have tablet driver issues, it can help a lot when other people are talking about it. Xp-pen is pretty open to their users and replies to DMs and stuff.
that's really all I can think about.
Display tablets under $200... uh that's gonna be really low end for that price.
best Comics app
these two are made especially for comics.
I was using a wacom bamboo which i got second hand (i think around 80EUR) since 2009. I worked professionally as a 2D game artist and made lineart commissions on the side with it.
You can achieve the exact same quality with a tablet as a screen tablet, the only difference is it will take you a little longer.
Liann gave the best apps already. I second them.
If you get a screen tablet, dont buy the hand glove, make your own with an old sock. Same effect and you save 80 bucks.
I would actually not recommend getting an expensive screen tablet; haven't really used them myself but I hear the angle you work at tends to increase risk of neck and wrist pain.
I use a monoprice (huion rebrand) 10594 drawing tablet. Bought it around four years ago and it's served me pretty well. It's $55 compared to a $400 intuos of similar size, there's only a few areas it's really lacking:
As for drawing programs, Krita is a solid free photoshop-type drawing software; Clip Studio is designed for making comics and goes on sale for $25 several times a year.
THIS. I have a Wacom Intuos(medium) that cost me UNDER 300 bucks(back in 2015) and I'm still using it- I'm in no rush to get a expensive screened tablet right now. If this IS your first tablet, do not go out spending on a large screened tablet- suppose you never get used to working digitally; it's gonna hurt even worse knowing that you spent out on an expensive tablet and you're never going to use it.
If you're getting tablets this side of a Wacom, Huion, or Veikk- most of these tablets come with a stylus; no need to spend extra.
If you can hold out til Black Friday(around the Thanksgiving holiday), Clip Studio usually has a 50% off sale- you can get the basic(Pro) version of CSP for $25.
@rajillustration I still have my old Graphire tablet- and the drivers for it. Was planning to use it as a backup should my current tablet die out.
If you're going to be inking comics I recommend a display tablet over a non screen tablet. It will save you so much more time imo. Especially if you are adjusting to digital.
I've used non display tablets for about 10 years and even when I got used to them I avoided doing anything close to lineart on them with a passion. My style changed to painting style digitally because I hated tracing on a screen that didn't connect to the tip of my pen. If I did any inking it was mostly traditional.
This past year I switched up my gear to a display tablet and I don't regret the buy at all. I have xp-pen artist 12 and I think they still run around $250. I know you said your budget is $200 but that is an amazing price for a display tablet.
If you still decide to go with a no screen tablet, huion products are a good non-expensive buy!
my favorite low budget graphics tablet was a non visual Huion. the drawing surface was about the size of a piece of standard paper. it cost me 70 USD. it works well with paint tool SAI, and has great pen pressure and the pen is rechargeable and weighted about like a normal pen. I LOVE IT. its still one of my all time favorites. I still use it when I'm at my desktop, and I've had it for about six years.
I also have a travel size cintiq that I use when on the go, and it's okay, but the pressure is in the actual tablet, not the pen, which means the pen is almost too lightweight but doesn't need charging, and it works for traveling. (my hand covers the drawing surface, plus some on that one)
I'm still using a Monoprice tablet that costed about $50. I used it for about 5 years before the circuitry broke, and then I bought a replacement from Monoproce again.
Honestly if you already have solid drawing skills, the level of tablet should not affect you too much.
My current tablet has been on and off, and the outdated drivers piss me off enough to want a newer tablet, or at least one with fairly recent driver support.
You'll probably mostly hear to not buy a too expensive tablet, and it's a good advice for many people.
But because I struggled a lot with tablets, I'll give you also my point of view.
I bought a very cheap tablet, before screen tablet even existed (or at least before they were easily available, I'm not sure). It was terrible. I thought digital drawing was not for me.
Then, because I needed it for my job (not art-related drawings) I decided to try again with a better one years later. I struggled for months, trying everyday. It almost disgusted me of drawing, even traditionally.
Last year I bought a relatively unexpensive screen tablet (still way more expensive than these without screen though), and FINALLY could draw digitally.
For a good while I was really furious against everyone who persistently advised me against buying a screen tablet. Now I realized they only meant good, but I thought I would share my experience, not so much to tell you that you need a screen tablet, but rather to tell you that if that does not work for you, there is still hope!
Questions about display tablets...
What's the difference between one of these and (for example) just a regular Ipad with a stylus and an art app?
Do I still need to hook those up to computers or could I travel around with one and use it while I'm out and about?
- Depending on the answer to this question, how does saving your work? What would be the process of drawing a comic page and uploading it to Tapas for example?
Thanks
If you want to start out with a less expensive tablet then see if you can maybe get a older iPad Second hand. I swear by iPads sorry, I tried two different Wacom products and felt there was to much of a distance between me and my creation.
I use an iPad with an iPen, and a special screen protector that mimics paper. I feel like I am drawing on a paper pad and it was a much smoother transition then when I used Wacom no screen tablets.
As for apps I use the app version of Clip studio which has a yearly fee. I also use Procreate which has a one time expense of 7.99. It’s really up to you how much you want to invest, my set up wasn’t cheap but I really love it and I use my iPad for everything, I don’t even own a personal computer. So you spend the money on the iPad you get more than just a drawing tool.
This honestly sounds like the best course of action to me, but I'm speaking from a place of pure ignorance...
Where can one find this paper-like screen protector?
Are you talking tablets with a screen or graphics tablets that you plug into a computer's USB port? Because as far as screen tablets go I'm faithful to the Samsung Note line, paired with Autodesk's art program. The only major downside is that Audodesk's programs are pretty good at crashing. Though I have heard of many people having great success with apple iPads and have seen some great digital work done on them.
As far as screenless graphics tablets go, I adore my cheap Wacom Intous. I was skeptical of getting another Wacom tablet after having a brand new Wacom Bamboo break on me 3 times when it first came out. I was so frustrated with the tablet that I literally threw it away. Years later and I was looking into getting another tablet specifically to use for Clip Studio Paint (easily one of the best comic making tools on the market). But after seeing my brother buy a cheap tablet (either XPen or Huion) for playing Osu and watching it go from brand new to completely dead in a month, I was reluctant to buy one of the cheaper tablets. Unfortunately I found that most tablet reviews online are sponsored and biased towards the cheaper tablets. I decided to just chance it and bought a $70 (now cheaper on Amazon) Wacom Intous and I love it. I've never had any technical difficulties with it. And as a bonus it actually came with Clip Studio Paint, the program I was gonna buy anyway. It has made illustrating comics 10Ă— easier.
I have experience with most popular art applications, I was even was trained in PhotoShop in my animation program, and recommend Clip Studio over them all 100%. Even if you don't get the Intuos that comes with it, it is definitely worth the $49 or so. Illustration wise it can do almost everything if not everything PhotoShop can do, plus a whole lot more. The program also comes with pre-installed 3D figures, rooms, and objects for you to pose so you can get an idea of where you want things before committing to drawing. This is also an incredibly handy tool for new artists who are still struggling with anatomy.
I also use an ipad and it works great for me (the regular 2018 ipad, not an ipad pro). I tried using the paper-like protector but I didn't really like it because it kinda changed the quality of the image on the screen, idk how to explain it 
and drawing on a glass surface doesn't bother me at all. But I know that a lot of people prefer drawing with the screen protector and don't even notice the difference in the quality of the image like I did, so it's worth buying a cheap one to try.
The only downside I have with using an ipad for making comics is that I can't add or edit text on Procreate, so I have to export the files to my pc and add the text on Clip Studio Paint. But maybe you can do it on the Clip Studio app for ipad, I only have it on my pc so idk
