[chaplin]

Hi,

I am an artists who has stuck to paper and pencil all these years. I now wish to go ahead and purchase a table pad. Can anyone recomend good tablets/pens -- review sites, personal experiences?

Most importantly, what size do most ppl use -- 6x8, 9x12, 12x12, 12x18?

Thanks in advance,
OS
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Chaplin

[vanishing]

i'd say wacom intuos (www.wacom.com) is what most artist prefer. but i say this without having knowledge of how other tablet feels..

[Tomasis]

wacom wacom wacom

if you have enough large space so take a4

otherwise A5 is very good.. which Im using now.. no too large or small =)
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out

[Impaler]

Size doesn't matter.

I use a 4x5 intuos2, because I naturally draw with more concentrated strokes.

You have to realize that every tablet is drawing on the same sized screen, so it takes a bigger physical stroke to make the same mark on a bigger tablet. Basically, you get tired more quickly with a bigger tablet than you would with a smaller one. The trade-off is accuracy. You'll know what I mean when you try to make a very fine lasso selection with a smaller tablet.

So, for a tidy conclusion, buy 6x8 or 4x5. Larger than that and it's venturing into overkill for sketching, etc.
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QED, sort of.

[Max]

Of course Wacom.
I used to paint with a wacom graphire 6x9 - that's enough for the start
If you have more money take a intous 9x12 - expensive but it's worth buying it.
I wouldn't go larger. Larger is not always better!
If you are a guy who paint only with his hand take a little one.
But if you paint with your whole arm and alot of speed a big one is the way to go.

Good Luck!

[ceenda]

Wacom, definately.

I have a Trust tablet at work. It's crap. I mean, really crap. There's a problem with the borders of the documents in Photoshop where it approaches the edge and just goes BLAAAAARGH!!! Also, if you do lots of little details, the sensitivity just disappears. I don't mean pressure sensitivity, I mean THE WHOLE STYLUS JUST CEASES TO EXIST. That is, until you move it 10,000,000 miles away from the tablet and bring it back again. If it was mine, I'd have used it as an insulative dinner mat a long time ago.

[Yuri]

[Pongo]

I have a 12x12, a 6x9, and a 4x5

I personally prefer the 6x9 size,... the 4x5 feels very cramped and the 12x12 requires too much hand/arm movement,... besides that it requires a huge portion of my desk as well. Right now I use my 6x9 for everything, and I carry a 4x5 with my laptop (thinking about getting another 6x9 for that though)

[Loki]

6x8, the Intuos kind.

Amen.
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http://baustaedter.com/

[-HoodZ-]

hey its Loki! nice to see ya back here

i have a graphire im still happy with it,,,,,plus it didnt hit me that hard on the pockets but if your willing to spend id go for the 6x8 intous

[ceenda]

LOKIIIIIIIII!!!1

[cue embarrassing Jar-Jar style leg hugging]

[Tinusch]

In my years here at Sijun, I've gathered that the general concensus is Wacom 4x5 or 6x8, preferably Intuos, but Graphires are gaining popularity. I've also gathered that 12x12 is far too large and far too tiring.

[ceenda]

Tinusch: Yep. I have a 12x12 which I bought simply out of greed and it is very cumbersome. The problem is that it's square, and hence not 4:3 like the monitor, so by setting the tablet to 4:3 you lose the extra space you paid for in the first place.

[DJorgensen]

My Wacom is a 4x5 Graphire 2 that I got a year ago when it was on sale,(and the price has not really changed since then). I like it a lot, but I have to agree that it is very hard to get used to the dimensions of it as compared to normal paper.

Also when I first started using it, I remember that it was really weird not watching your hand as you drew - but instead you have to watch the screen. And, I think that the plastic tablet was kinda weird in that it just doesn't feel like you're drawing or painting on paper. I'm used to it now though, and I use my tablet every day.

From what every one else says, I think that I would really like to have the 6x8 tablet now. It looks like it would solve a couple of my problems. Thanks

[eyalyab]

i have a wacom graphire1. its not that good. i mean.. the pressure sensitivity is not nearly as good as the intuos'es' (blaaahgghgh plural relative). even the old wacom pen partner has better pressure sensitivity.

buy an intuos. i think they even have tilt sensitivity. that's cool. do people use this tilt option? i want to see it in action.

for the bigger tablet owners that get tired (pitifull). wacom lets you downsize the active area of your tablet, so if you have a 12,000" by 31246", look no further! you can resize it to 6x8 or whatever.

Pongo: how many tablets do you need?! send me one. pleassse. ill buy from you the intuos you dont need. im looking to replace my graphire1 with an intuos.

[noxi]

I�m with Wacom too. Alltough I don�t have experience of any other kinds. Availability is good atleast.

I use A5 size. Quite small but I really think that the size is irrelevant. Of course a larger one would be cool but smaller one is just fine especially for a beginner. Oh yeah, cheaper too. o)

[antx]

I just bought an Intuos2 A4 (9x12). I was using a Wacom Artpad for 5 years and then a Graphire for another 2 years.
The Artpad was just fine for me. At this time I didn�t use it for actually painting and drawing but rather for makeing textures, postprocessing and things like this. I got so very used to it that I actually used it even as mouse replacement. If someone would have stolen my mouse from me at that time, I guess I wouldn�t even have noticed.

The good old Artpad 1 came with 2 spare leads which I used all up over the 5 years and by looking at the scratches on the pad one could even tell what software I was using the most.
When The last lead got so short that I couldn�t really use it anymore I had to switch back to mouse for most things. At some point I got the Graphire. Since the small Artpad worked well the small Graphire will do as well I thought and for a half year this was actually true. Then I discovered this forum here and got a hang on painting and drawing. It didn�t take long til I noticed that a bigger tablet would be better for that kind of work.

Now since two month I was looking around which one I would buy. I decided on the A4 and right after that decision this thread was opened where many talked good about the A5. I went anyway for the A4 since I could set the active area of the tablet to something smaller than the full tablet in case it turned out too big for me. Regarding the price I just said to myself that this is a thing I�m gonna use really every day, so no need to be stingy here. Last argument for an A5 over an A4 would be the needed space on the desk. I have plenty of space so an A4 it was at the end.

So how happy am I with it? Well, I really just bought it. Comming from the Graphire I�m of course quite exited about all the additional features (who knows if I ever will use them ). After some first tests I think it feels quite good. Definitely a more accurate feeling but for sure telling I will need some weeks I guess. So lets see where I get with it. Hope it�s not good for physical exercise only... (damn, I feel already much stronger with my right arm ).

Okay, lots of babbling about myself, but perhaps you can get something helpful out of it.