Anyone do any kind of graphic art/design on their PC's? Anyone know anything about graphics tablets? I have a widescreen monitor but was looking at the Wacom Bamboo Pen Tablet...I'm just not sure it will work well with my monitor, but I need something better than a lousy mouse for sketching.

I use ONLY my mouse for sketching ... had a Graphire tablet a while back - even considered the Bamboo for a while - but decided against it ... I don't see the drawback to using my mouse - some people do ... I found the tablet clumsy and inefficient after a trial of about a month or so, and finally gave it to my daughter.

I use a WACOM INTUOS tablet on an iMac and love it!

I've never used the Bamboo version so am not familiar with the limitations of it. It will definitely be better than a mouse if you want to sketch though...more natural freedom of movement.

I can't really sketch all that well with the mouse, I'm still trying to do it so I can get something going.

I was looking at the Intuos tablets but those are out of my price range at the moment, which is why I was looking at the Bamboo. I really just want the natural movement as I'm trying to pen and ink a comic strip and doing so with a mouse is a rather trivial matter.

Thanks for the input, I'm not all that familiar with a tablet and this is kind of a new voyage I'm undertaking with the comic so hopefully the Bamboo will work out well for me.

Fk that....pencil and paper then take a pic and load it with your digicam....then Gimp the living hell out of it.

It's what I do. I thought about the tablet thang...I see them on Craigslist for about $30 all the time but, I like having a physical original as a back up.





go figure..I pic a couple with focus issues....a scanner would have been nice........

I do that as well, krupa. What I'm trying to do though is create a comic for my website, something that later I can sell in volumes. That and with a No. 2 pencil sketch lines tend to show up all over the artwork as I'm not equipped for full scale art (don't have a gel eraser, pen ink, ink pen...really, all I have is a No. 2 pencil and some color pencils.).

Can I make a suggestion? Play with the idea of what you want your character to look like...feel like. A pen would go a long way with a tablet...but you will have to master the feel of the model you get. And then use something like Illustrator (I recommend because you can export right out of it for animations)

If you need help on the export to the website...let me know...I can help there doll. Good luck.

The characters are relatively easy, most of them are going to be based off real people and only two are going to be created by me. I already have an idea of what they are going to look like.

I have Photoshop and ImageReady for exporting. There shouldn't be a problem exporting to my website since it is going to be a basic JPEG once it is finished, and I'm going to be creating video with After Effects...as you can see I have already invested a chunk of money into this, another reason why I won't strictly use paper.

Oh Buggered! I'm sorry...you said comic...I saw cartoon... I am sorry I totally misread that.

But if you choose Illustrator...you will find that you can play with the paths alot easier than with Photoshop. Once you get the paths the way you want then export the paths into Photoshop. It's a beautiful thang.

Dang she is SAMMMMOKING!!!!!

alright fear...I am gonna need you to slap the s**t out of yourself.

#2 pencils? No my man. Drop $1 at any dollar store and get mechanical pencils....white erasers on them.

They do not require sharpening so all lines are uniform.

Extend them 1/4" past where you normally have your pencil lead. It will snap if you press too hard. This forces you to draw lightly and all sketch marks can easily be removed with the white erasers with no smearing that those abominable #2's produce. When you are used to doing it this way, you will not even leave a dent in the paper so all erasures are perfect.

I refuse to use anything but the 8 for a $1 pencils and I get better results than any high dollar crap I have tried.

How long does it take you start to finish on something like that, krupa? Do you shade by overlapping light lines multiple times or do you press harder for shading?

I do sketching on a pad once in awhile too, I haven't really had a problem with a #2 pencil. I would just rather have something that I can place on my website easier than taking a picture/connecting camera/resizing/touching up.

Easier to already have it sized out appropriately, touched up, and just export it over to my site.

hey bud.
i used the bamboo tablet for a few years, and just the other day finally upgraded to the intuos 4. The tablet will be strange and odd at first, but i'm telling you right now that once you get used to it, it will change your life. You can always use a mouse and the tablet at the same time. The bamboo actually has a mouse that comes with it. But once you get used to that pen, especially if you are a traditional artist at heart, this is the tool for you.

I design and illustrate for a living (http://www.nathantrafforddesign.com), and i cannot do any sort of design without first sketching it out on paper. That's just the old-school artist in me. That being said, it is such a natural transition to take a quick snapshot of that sketch and put it onto your computer, then use the tablet to create a refined digital version. Do that enough times and you won't even need to bring the sketch onto your computer.

It's just another tool for an artist to utilize.

Hope that helped. All the best.

Dude...my start to finish times aint the same as everyone elses so it is irrelevant. I do multiple overlaps but NEVER press hard..the moment you press hard..that line is permanent and you will never have an opportunity to come back later to make it flow into your design with final stage blending.

As far as avoiding resizing or touch ups....get that thought out of your head.

The ONLY way that would work would be to permanently mount your camera at a fixed distance from your work which would need to be perfectly uniform sized. Permanently set your camera settings and all shots would need to use exact same lighting. Forget it dude.

I use Photoscape. A free image editor that is basic, super fast and really easy to use. Everything I do goes through it and I can totally rework images in less than 30 seconds and you can edit batches of images just a fast.

Oh DUDE!

You PAID for Photoshop?!?!?!?!

(shaking head....these silly kids)

GIMP2 it is a free image manipulation program made by Photoshop designers and college students who didnt like what Adobe was charging for Photoshop....same features and constantly improving.

If you are dead set on the Photoshop layout..use GimpShop...it is identical and completely free. LOTS of tutorials on Youtube...just skip the ones done by spastic 15 year olds who go too fast and dont explain what they are doing.

That program is AWESOME!!!!!!

Photoshop is the professional standard and it's that way for a reason. It's better in every single department besides price. If you are an amateur and want to goof around, then yeah, gimp is great. But if you are a professional, or are on your way to becoming one, then Adobe wins every time. The tools are infinitely more accurate. There is a wider selection of them. The interface is easier to use. The program itself and it's preferences are much more customizable. Photoshop is part of a suite of other highly powerful programs which, to me, are invaluable. Illustrator is an amazing program which i use every day of my life. Also on that subject, Photoshop (because it is the pro standard) is the most compatible with other programs, which is also essential. One of the biggest things for me is the color accuracy you get with ps. Gimp has been notorious for getting colors wrong, especially in cmyk. It is good to print out work for a client and see that it is the same as on your screen. PS is also better with tablets by a long shot. Especially in cs5.

anyway, i could go on and on about this, but it's my day off so i want to actually spend a day AWAY from photoshop!!

I have no doubt that Rover knows his stuff...especially if that is what pays the bills.

I am new to the use of computers as a tool. I am old school...pencils,pens and brushes. I just screw around with it for fun so I aint paying a penny for any pc program except antivirus type stuff.

I have gotten some pretty fair results with the Gimp (according to my standards)

I designed three tarot decks with Paint Shop Pro 7. I have photoshop but I have not taken the time to learn how to use it and for some reason it does not have any help files. I need to reinstall it I think.

I really want to get a tablet but I fear if I get one I may never pick up a real paint brush again. LOL I already spend too much time at the computer.

You can do it with a mouse, but we are talking TIME and an INSANE AMOUNT OF PATIENCE...

Soo beautiful, my god that's one of those drawings you can't stop staring at.

I wouldn't use anything other than a Wacom Intuos.