Any artist out there use a pen tablet, Advice?

As a long time traditional artist and long time Macintosh user for the
creation of my digital art, I find the Wacom tablet the only thing that
makes creating my type of art a reality on a computer. To me without a
tablet the computer is fairly useless, you can¹t draw with a mouse.

I have become intrigued with the Pen Tablet PCs as sort of a digital sketch
pad as it were. But trying to get answers from your typical computer store
people has been quite difficult, and no store display models seem to have
the professional graphics programs I use like Photoshop to Painter so I can
not test the usefulness of the equipment myself. So I seem the best thing to
do is ask the people who already use pen tablets for their advice.

Pressure Sensitivity?? Are the all tablet PCs pressure sensitive? If not
which are and how good is the sensitivity compared to a Wacom tablet?

Programs?? I know Photoshop and Corel Painter are available for the Windows
OS but does the pen input work with these programs?

Thanks for any advice you guys may have.

David F Kyte
http://www.racingartist.com

On Sun, 04 Apr 2004 19:48:19 -0400, David Kyte wrote:

> As a long time traditional artist and long time Macintosh user for the
> creation of my digital art, I find the Wacom tablet the only thing that
> makes creating my type of art a reality on a computer. To me without a
> tablet the computer is fairly useless, you can¹t draw with a mouse.
>
> I have become intrigued with the Pen Tablet PCs as sort of a digital sketch
> pad as it were. But trying to get answers from your typical computer store
> people has been quite difficult, and no store display models seem to have
> the professional graphics programs I use like Photoshop to Painter so I can
> not test the usefulness of the equipment myself. So I seem the best thing to
> do is ask the people who already use pen tablets for their advice.

> Pressure Sensitivity?? Are the all tablet PCs pressure sensitive? If not
> which are and how good is the sensitivity compared to a Wacom tablet?

Most of the pressure sensitive tablets have 256 levels of sensitivity. Not
quite a granular as the higher-end Wacoms but equal to their entry-level
products.

>
> Programs?? I know Photoshop and Corel Painter are available for the Windows
> OS but does the pen input work with these programs?

I have Photoshop 6 and Painter 8 installed on my tablet and use both.
Installing the newer pen-enabled driver from Wacom is necessary for
pressure response from Painter 7 and 8. Had trouble with Wacom's earlier
release on the drivers but the latest ones have been holding up for me.

I still use my desktop to "finesse" drawings but apparently some Tablet PC
artists don't feel that need:
http://www.greenjem.com/oil.htm
http://zinovate.com/weblog/gallery/4.aspx

--
Sharon F
MS-MVP ~ Windows XP Shell/User

On 4/4/04 8:36 PM, in article , "Sharon
F" <> wrote:

> Most of the pressure sensitive tablets have 256 levels of sensitivity. Not
> quite a granular as the higher-end Wacoms but equal to their entry-level
> products.
>
Thanks. I know the entry level Wacoms have 512 level of pressure so I guess
this is something I would have to try to see if I like. So I can assume all
tablet PCs are pressure sensitive?
>
> I have Photoshop 6 and Painter 8 installed on my tablet and use both.
> Installing the newer pen-enabled driver from Wacom is necessary for
> pressure response from Painter 7 and 8. Had trouble with Wacom's earlier
> release on the drivers but the latest ones have been holding up for me.

I realize I would most likely do the same especially seeing I have one of
the "Big Ass Wacoms" and two big monitors. I did notice while looking into
Tablet PCs that Wacom has dropped the price of their Cintiq LCD tablets by
$1000 but the Cintiq 18SX is still $2500.00!, The 15" model is down to
$1400.00.

The other question I thought of is can Tablet PCs be used with or as a
second monitor?


David F. Kyte
Automotive & Motorsports Art
http://www.racingartist.com

>
> I still use my desktop to "finesse" drawings but apparently some Tablet PC
> artists don't feel that need:
> http://www.greenjem.com/oil.htm
> http://zinovate.com/weblog/gallery/4.aspx

"MarchPerf" <> wrote in message
news:BC9832AC.5E5B%...
> So I can assume all tablet PCs are pressure sensitive?

No!

On Tue, 06 Apr 2004 10:10:52 -0400, MarchPerf wrote:

> The other question I thought of is can Tablet PCs be used with or as a
> second monitor?

Tablet PCs are very similar to laptops in this respect. I believe that most
models are capable. I have a Motion 1200 and, as with all of the Motions,
it can do this. MVP Terri Stratton has an excellent tablet site that can
help you sort out what each available tablet does and does not do:
http://thetabletpc.net

I was reading the tabletpcbuzz forums this weekend. A representative from
Wacom participates there now and then. He mentioned that they are working
on a driver that will allow the use of the normal pressure sensitive tablet
screen *and* a Wacom tablet for those times that you need the extra
sensitivity.

--
Sharon F
MS-MVP ~ Windows XP Shell/User

On Tue, 06 Apr 2004 10:10:52 -0400, MarchPerf <>
wrote:

>Thanks. I know the entry level Wacoms have 512 level of pressure so I guess
>this is something I would have to try to see if I like. So I can assume all
>tablet PCs are pressure sensitive?

Like Mike Williams said, not all are. Most are that I know of though,
so just check http://thetabletpc.net - Terri's site, has a great
matrix for comparisions of features.

>>
>> I have Photoshop 6 and Painter 8 installed on my tablet and use both.
>> Installing the newer pen-enabled driver from Wacom is necessary for
>> pressure response from Painter 7 and 8. Had trouble with Wacom's earlier
>> release on the drivers but the latest ones have been holding up for me.
>
>I realize I would most likely do the same especially seeing I have one of
>the "Big Ass Wacoms" and two big monitors. I did notice while looking into
>Tablet PCs that Wacom has dropped the price of their Cintiq LCD tablets by
>$1000 but the Cintiq 18SX is still $2500.00!, The 15" model is down to
>$1400.00.
>
>The other question I thought of is can Tablet PCs be used with or as a
>second monitor?
>

You can certainly do multiple monitors depending on the model, but you
can't use it as an "additional monitor" to another system. You can
certainly RDP into an XP machine or something running terminal server,
or even pc anywhere or any other remote software, but that's not going
to get you what you were looking for if I understood the question
proprely.

Wish I could draw. About the most artistic thing that comes out of my
tablet is real bad stick figures I send to a graphics buddy I know in
Boston. I like to make him "twitch and foam at the mouth" as he
describes his reactions to my attempts at art.

John





>
>David F. Kyte
>Automotive & Motorsports Art
>http://www.racingartist.com
>
>>
>> I still use my desktop to "finesse" drawings but apparently some Tablet PC
>> artists don't feel that need:
>> http://www.greenjem.com/oil.htm
>> http://zinovate.com/weblog/gallery/4.aspx

"JDTHREE [MVP]" <> wrote in message
news:...
> On Tue, 06 Apr 2004 10:10:52 -0400, MarchPerf <>
> wrote:
>
> >Thanks. I know the entry level Wacoms have 512 level of pressure so I
guess
> >this is something I would have to try to see if I like. So I can assume
all
> >tablet PCs are pressure sensitive?
>
> Like Mike Williams said, not all are. Most are that I know of though,
> so just check http://thetabletpc.net - Terri's site, has a great
> matrix for comparisions of features.
>

Whereabouts on the site is the info about pressure sensitivity levels? I
couldn't find it.

Cheers,
Adam.