I bought a tablet about a year ago, and barely ever used it for art much. I'm wondering if it takes a while to get used to? I have a fairly cheap one, but I'm assuming it just takes a while to get used to. Is that true? Is there a certain spot like center with monitor to make it feel better?

It takes a bit of getting used to. Not a year, you really have to push yourself in drawing while looking at the screen.

i find it easiest to use on "Mouse Mode" instead of "screen mode" where it takes your screen area and translates that to the tablet drawing area.

the hand-eye coordination feels weird at first, but you'll get used to it. you probably want to make sure that it's mapped to a screen area with the same aspect ratio as your tablet though, otherwise things can get really awkward. do some exercises like drawing geometrical figures (circles, boxes, diagonal lines, etc), i think that might help somewhat.

When I was doing some regular drawings initially it felt weird. I think It was mainly ZBrush that got me using it the most, and then when it came to texturing it'd just become natural. I think In terms of drawing I'd always drawn in a small area so I spose this smaller wacom was easier for me, an A4 one might take longer to get used to. Apart from setting it to one screen as I have two, I didn't set anything specific up about it (...except disable the buttons because I keep pressing them).

Definitely worth using though. At uni a couple of my housemates didn't buy them and when it came to sculpting, their movements seem very clumsy only using a mouse.

Like equil says, do make sure you check 'Force Proportions' on the Mapping tab, otherwise you will be drawing skewed. When I first used the tablet I felt like a kindergartner again :/ - it lasted for a couple weeks of constant drawing.

To beat the already dead horse into a fine paste, make sure it's set to your screen size and then start drawing/painting.
Also make sure you set up some hotkeys after your first week or so, makes a lot of things easier.
It'll take some time for your brain to lock in the new tool but man when it does... you wont even think about it anymore.

so does every one but me use it in Pen mode, not Mouse mode like i do? :S

I use Mouse mode. In which case, yeah, don't have to worry about Mapping problems haha

I like Screen Mode because you always know where to move your hand to quickly jump around the screen to vital menu and interface tools.

It took me project or two to get used to it back in my teens. Maybe about 30-40 hours worth of practice and I got the hang of it.

How cheap of a tablet? All of the Wacoms, even their low end ones, are excellent to learn on. When I first started digital art I bought some odd cheap brand. It was crap. It took batteries, had odd jitter to the strokes and terrible pressure sensitivity. so depending on you tablet, it can be harder/frustrating to learn.

Personally I like my tablet angled, it hurts my wrist to use it flat, so I built this for it.

It feels more intuitive, from years of drawing on a drafting table.

Good luck

Oo smart!! ^^ haha

took me about 2 days to get used to, and i only use it on PS and Zbrush, also if you got multiple monitors be sure to map it to only one, the closer the tables drawing space aspect ratio is to your monitors the better.

using mid sized intuos3 on a 22inch 1680x1050 display and i find it matches up well.

How cheap of a tablet? All of the Wacoms, even their low end ones, are excellent to learn on. When I first started digital art I bought some odd cheap brand. It was crap. It took batteries, had odd jitter to the strokes and terrible pressure sensitivity. so depending on you tablet, it can be harder/frustrating to learn.

Any tablet made by Trust does that. I've been using a cheaper Wacom bamboo fun for the last four years. Abused it to no end and it works the same it did when i bought it for £60.

The next step up will be a intuos3 for me. Get a nice medium size and angle it like yours Enodmi ;D

I'm still pretty bad with mine for accurate stuff. Although being an A6 one using it on a 24" monitor makes it pretty hard. Getting better with it in Zbrush though which is nice

@Lazerus Reborn ya i started on a bamboo, there by no means bad even know there the low end of wacom, still use my on my laptop when not at my main desk

Originally Posted by passerby

@Lazerus Reborn ya i started on a bamboo, there by no means bad even know there the low end of wacom, still use my on my laptop when not at my main desk

I know I love the thing still! But a larger tablet would be a nice upgrade now that I'm getting serious about Digi art. Probably caddy it to uni for work or pass it down to my little brother depending when I can get this new one.

The first time I bought a tablet I hated using it. It was such a weird disconnect from not looking where I draw. I kept with it and now I can't imagine not using one. It took me about a month of just drawing basic shapes and doodles in PS before I really got the hang of it. Currently I have the tiny bamboo tablet but I'm about to upgrade to the Intuos 4 Large

I got a 3X5..or something...Intuos 3 in college. It was pretty much the cheapest, smallest size. It was really odd to use at first, but like others said..you get used to it. At my last job we had Medium Intuos 4's, and having a larger drawing space definitely helps, since you don't have to be as precise.

Just keep forcing yourself to use it, even if your not drawing..just use it to navigate the web or anything for a while...it will help with coordination. And just practice drawing...youll get it after a while.

Try watching and doing a few of these.

http://www.ctrlpaint.com/digital-pai...-lesson-1.html

Endomi thats awesome man. What's it made of? I literally have a beanie baby under mine to give it an angle haha

It really depends on the application in my opinion. Drawing/scupting in zbrush/photoshop is no problem, but due to the way the interface is setup I find the tablet to be a pain in the ass in the navigation department for Maya/Max. Not sure if anyone else has tried using them.

The pen buttons are hard to use if they are integral to the interface.

Originally Posted by Zombie Acorn

It really depends on the application in my opinion. Drawing/scupting in zbrush/photoshop is no problem, but due to the way the interface is setup I find the tablet to be a pain in the ass in the navigation department for Maya/Max. Not sure if anyone else has tried using them.

The pen buttons are hard to use if they are integral to the interface.

Why would you do that, though?

Just use the tablet, the more you use it, the more comfortable you'll become with it. Simple as that.

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that you are left handed? It sucks being a lefty, mostly because the keyboard shortcuts in most applications are set up to use the exact same hand you're using, the bastards at adobe don't even care so you might want to use a program like Art Rage or something where the tools are easy to get to and not tucked behind sub menus and little fly out bars but right there easy grab and tweak.

If you're right handed, well I guess you just need to suck it up, deal with it and get used to it. About the time it takes a 4yr old to get comfortable with holding a crayon it will take you to get used to using a tablet? Maybe longer if you don't use it as much.

Originally Posted by passerby

took me about 2 days to get used to, and i only use it on PS and Zbrush, also if you got multiple monitors be sure to map it to only one, the closer the tables drawing space aspect ratio is to your monitors the better.

using mid sized intuos3 on a 22inch 1680x1050 display and i find it matches up well.

which, for me, negates the immense gains of a second monitor you can cram your menus into. so i usually map one of the tablet's buttons to switch between 'active' monitor. takes a little getting used to though.

..mouse mode?