I keep toying with the idea of a small graphics tablet to let me doodle on
a computer, or make notes on a photo (like a circle around an object of
interest and a bit of a caption).

I have a very old, cheap tablet which I haven't used for (I think) decades.
Thinking back, I probably got it as part of an add on offer with my
Windows 2000 Gateway PC.

I remember using it once to design a logo for headed note paper and quite
liked the result, but haven't touched it since.
It has a serial interface and I assume that it is well out of date for any
driver although tinkering under Linux might enable it to be recognised.

Anyway, cost/benefit analysis suggests that something more modern might be
a sensible option.

I started researching and stumbled on this:
https://www.creativebloq.com/features/best-drawing-tablet
Apart from an interesting view on what constitutes a cheap price it was a
bit of an eye opener.

Firstly I had no idea that modern graphics tablets had touch sensitive
displays built in. Logical when you consider it, but I was still thinking
of the traditional style which was basically a touch pad (as found on
laptops) where you moved the stylus on the pad and watched to lines appear
on your main monitor.

Secondly the site was listing standard tablets (Apple, Microsoft, Android)
as serious options.
I had previously thought that phones and tablets (and touch screens on
laptops or desktops) didn't have the sensitivity to allow fine graphics
work.

So I am now trying to understand my options.

(1) I have a couple of (fairly old) Android tablets so could I buy a
stylus and turn these into graphics tablets?

(2) Should I go with a dumb no display tablet? The price of an entry level
one is remarkably similar to a graphics pen for use with an Android tablet.

(3) Should I go with an entry level graphics tablet with built in display?

I'm looking for experience of any of these three options.

My budget might stretch to £100 is absolutely necessary but certainly not
to some of the recommendations. I note that the Wacom Cintiq 22 is
reported as at a "fantastic price" of only £1,299.


Cheers



Dave R



--
AMD FX-6300 in GA-990X-Gaming SLI-CF running Windows 7 Pro x64

--
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus

On 24/11/2020 17:58, David wrote:




I bought one a little while ago thinking it might be handy for doing
ad-lib sketches during presentations, as we used to do on overhead
projectors (and, long long ago, on flip charts). But a bit of trial and
error showed that my artistic and coordination skills are letting me
down. I'm sure you get better with practice, but my results were
sufficiently disappointing to discourage me from carrying on.

So my advice would be not to spend much. Mine has a 7 inch working
diagonal, I suspect something larger might be better.

Of course if you are David Hockney the results will be fine.

On Tue, 24 Nov 2020 18:24:14 +0000, newshound
wrote:

On 24/11/2020 17:58, David wrote:




I bought one a little while ago thinking it might be handy for doing
ad-lib sketches during presentations, as we used to do on overhead
projectors (and, long long ago, on flip charts). But a bit of trial and
error showed that my artistic and coordination skills are letting me
down. I'm sure you get better with practice, but my results were
sufficiently disappointing to discourage me from carrying on.

So my advice would be not to spend much. Mine has a 7 inch working
diagonal, I suspect something larger might be better.

Of course if you are David Hockney the results will be fine.

I think graphics tablets are one of those things where you seem to
need to spend 'enough' to get something that's 'nice / easy to use',
(as I understand is the case with musical instruments etc).

Daughter has a Wacom Intuos3 'Wide' tablet and compared with the more
basic (serial / mouse emulating) tablet she had before it's very
smooth / accurate in use.

I think much of that is down to the features in the pen, as the tablet
itself.

https://www.dpreview.com/articles/85...com-widepentab

Cheers, T i m

On Tue, 24 Nov 2020 19:36:42 +0000, T i m wrote:

On Tue, 24 Nov 2020 18:24:14 +0000, newshound
wrote:

On 24/11/2020 17:58, David wrote:




I bought one a little while ago thinking it might be handy for doing
ad-lib sketches during presentations, as we used to do on overhead
projectors (and, long long ago, on flip charts). But a bit of trial and
error showed that my artistic and coordination skills are letting me
down. I'm sure you get better with practice, but my results were
sufficiently disappointing to discourage me from carrying on.

So my advice would be not to spend much. Mine has a 7 inch working
diagonal, I suspect something larger might be better.

Of course if you are David Hockney the results will be fine.

I think graphics tablets are one of those things where you seem to need
to spend 'enough' to get something that's 'nice / easy to use', (as I
understand is the case with musical instruments etc).

Daughter has a Wacom Intuos3 'Wide' tablet and compared with the more
basic (serial / mouse emulating) tablet she had before it's very smooth
/ accurate in use.

I think much of that is down to the features in the pen, as the tablet
itself.

https://www.dpreview.com/articles/85...com-widepentab

Cheers, T i m

Thanks.

I suspect the playing field may have changed, though, with mass produced
touch screens for budget phones and tablets.

If you can buy a 10" Full HD Android tablet for not much over £100 then
the underlying technology cost of a touch sensitive screen must be way
lower than in 2005.

Which hopefully explains why I am now asking the question.


Cheers



Dave r



--
AMD FX-6300 in GA-990X-Gaming SLI-CF running Windows 7 Pro x64

--
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus

On 24/11/2020 20:03, David wrote:
On Tue, 24 Nov 2020 19:36:42 +0000, T i m wrote:

On Tue, 24 Nov 2020 18:24:14 +0000, newshound
wrote:

On 24/11/2020 17:58, David wrote:




I bought one a little while ago thinking it might be handy for doing
ad-lib sketches during presentations, as we used to do on overhead
projectors (and, long long ago, on flip charts). But a bit of trial and
error showed that my artistic and coordination skills are letting me
down. I'm sure you get better with practice, but my results were
sufficiently disappointing to discourage me from carrying on.

So my advice would be not to spend much. Mine has a 7 inch working
diagonal, I suspect something larger might be better.

Of course if you are David Hockney the results will be fine.

I think graphics tablets are one of those things where you seem to need
to spend 'enough' to get something that's 'nice / easy to use', (as I
understand is the case with musical instruments etc).

Daughter has a Wacom Intuos3 'Wide' tablet and compared with the more
basic (serial / mouse emulating) tablet she had before it's very smooth
/ accurate in use.

I think much of that is down to the features in the pen, as the tablet
itself.

https://www.dpreview.com/articles/85...com-widepentab

Cheers, T i m

Thanks.

I suspect the playing field may have changed, though, with mass produced
touch screens for budget phones and tablets.

If you can buy a 10" Full HD Android tablet for not much over £100 then
the underlying technology cost of a touch sensitive screen must be way
lower than in 2005.

There is touch sensitive and touch sensitive though. A typical screen
digitiser can detect where its being touched but not necessarily much
more. A wacom tablet it sensitive to where, and how hard, and at what
pen angle (in two axis), plus the state of several pen buttons.



--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

On 24/11/2020 18:24, newshound wrote:
On 24/11/2020 17:58, David wrote:




I bought one a little while ago thinking it might be handy for doing
ad-lib sketches during presentations, as we used to do on overhead
projectors (and, long long ago, on flip charts). But a bit of trial and
error showed that my artistic and coordination skills are letting me
down. I'm sure you get better with practice, but my results were
sufficiently disappointing to discourage me from carrying on.

So my advice would be not to spend much. Mine has a 7 inch working
diagonal, I suspect something larger might be better.

Of course if you are David Hockney the results will be fine.
It's hard to beat a white board or flip chart for ease of use and
keeping the audience interested

On 24/11/2020 20:46, wrote:
On 24/11/2020 18:24, newshound wrote:
On 24/11/2020 17:58, David wrote:




I bought one a little while ago thinking it might be handy for doing
ad-lib sketches during presentations, as we used to do on overhead
projectors (and, long long ago, on flip charts). But a bit of trial
and error showed that my artistic and coordination skills are letting
me down. I'm sure you get better with practice, but my results were
sufficiently disappointing to discourage me from carrying on.

So my advice would be not to spend much. Mine has a 7 inch working
diagonal, I suspect something larger might be better.

Of course if you are David Hockney the results will be fine.
It's hard to beat a white board or flip chart for ease of use and
keeping the audience interested

Also, in the case my maths teacher (Nickname Biffo) in the 1960's,
he kept the 'audience interested' by throwing the board duster at
anyone who dozed off, fidgetted or didn't pay attention.

Biffo also played cricket, so he had a good aim.

On 25/11/2020 14:10, Andrew wrote:
On 24/11/2020 20:46, wrote:
On 24/11/2020 18:24, newshound wrote:
On 24/11/2020 17:58, David wrote:




I bought one a little while ago thinking it might be handy for doing
ad-lib sketches during presentations, as we used to do on overhead
projectors (and, long long ago, on flip charts). But a bit of trial
and error showed that my artistic and coordination skills are letting
me down. I'm sure you get better with practice, but my results were
sufficiently disappointing to discourage me from carrying on.

So my advice would be not to spend much. Mine has a 7 inch working
diagonal, I suspect something larger might be better.

Of course if you are David Hockney the results will be fine.
It's hard to beat a white board or flip chart for ease of use and
keeping the audience interested

Also, in the case my maths teacher (Nickname Biffo) in the 1960's,
he kept the 'audience interested' by throwing the board duster at
anyone who dozed off, fidgetted or didn't pay attention.

Biffo also played cricket, so he had a good aim.
They must have taught that in teacher training college because mine did
the same; one of the teachers occasionally also launched a small milk
bottle at an unfortunate miscreant (but it may only have happened once,
memory is fading). In retaliation some wags put match heads between the
folds on the rubber or, when newfangled roller boards appeared, drew
willies on the back. Eeeh, 'ow we larfed.

On 25/11/2020 14:10, Andrew wrote:
On 24/11/2020 20:46, wrote:
On 24/11/2020 18:24, newshound wrote:
On 24/11/2020 17:58, David wrote:




I bought one a little while ago thinking it might be handy for doing
ad-lib sketches during presentations, as we used to do on overhead
projectors (and, long long ago, on flip charts). But a bit of trial
and error showed that my artistic and coordination skills are letting
me down. I'm sure you get better with practice, but my results were
sufficiently disappointing to discourage me from carrying on.

So my advice would be not to spend much. Mine has a 7 inch working
diagonal, I suspect something larger might be better.

Of course if you are David Hockney the results will be fine.
It's hard to beat a white board or flip chart for ease of use and
keeping the audience interested

Also, in the case my maths teacher (Nickname Biffo) in the 1960's,
he kept the 'audience interested' by throwing the board duster at
anyone who dozed off, fidgetted or didn't pay attention.

Mine used to throw sticks of chalk - not at the kids at the back, but at
the back wall instead. Result - a shower of chalk bits covering the
kids. He was not daft.

--
Chris

On Wed, 25 Nov 2020 15:17:08 +0000, Chris Ridd wrote:

Mine used to throw sticks of chalk - not at the kids at the back, but at
the back wall instead.

Board rubber to the back wall with serious force and resultant loud
BANG and plume of dust. Bits of chalk would be pinged off the back of
the heads of those not looking the right way.

--
Cheers
Dave.

In uk.d-i-y David wrote:
(1) I have a couple of (fairly old) Android tablets so could I buy a
stylus and turn these into graphics tablets?

Yes (styluses available from Poundland and upwards). However it'll be
rubbish because the stylus has to look like a finger to the tablet so it's
hard to use accurately - it's like writing with crayon.

To do it properly, you need a tablet which has pen support. There are a
number of technologies - Wacom EMR is the classic one which has a passive
pen as probably used in your old tablet PC, and newer versions in the Galaxy
Note phones and Galaxy Tab tablets. Others: Ntrig (Microsoft Surface),
Wacom AES (variety of laptops), USI (Chromebooks), Apple Pencil (some iPads)
are active styluses that have a small battery inside.

(2) Should I go with a dumb no display tablet? The price of an entry level
one is remarkably similar to a graphics pen for use with an Android tablet.

(3) Should I go with an entry level graphics tablet with built in display?

If your budget is £100 I don't think you can get a stylus-enabled tablet
computer for that. That'll barely cover an active stylus itself.

If you really want to go down this route look for an old Samsung Galaxy Tab
with an S-Pen (not all do). They have been shipping them for long enough
that the old ones might be within your budget by now. But of course they
will be slower and running an old OS.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_Galaxy_Tab_series
see the Stylus column.

There are also apps you can run on a tablet to mirror pen actions to your
computer, so you can get the best of both worlds.

Another option that might be within budget is a used Surface Pro 1 or Pro 2,
which support a Wacom EMR stylus and will run Windows 10. The ones from my
Galaxy Note 2 and Note 4 work fine on my Pro 2, and clones can be picked up
for a few ebay pounds. You might also find some other old touch laptops:
http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/thre...-stylus.67533/

(unfold the 'List of devices with Windows 8 and 8.1' which are the older
ones - they can probably be upgraded to Windows 10)

Theo

In article ,
says...

In uk.d-i-y David wrote:
(1) I have a couple of (fairly old) Android tablets so could I buy a
stylus and turn these into graphics tablets?

Yes (styluses available from Poundland and upwards). However it'll be
rubbish because the stylus has to look like a finger to the tablet so it's
hard to use accurately - it's like writing with crayon.

To do it properly, you need a tablet which has pen support. There are a
number of technologies - Wacom EMR is the classic one which has a passive
pen as probably used in your old tablet PC, and newer versions in the Galaxy
Note phones and Galaxy Tab tablets. Others: Ntrig (Microsoft Surface),
Wacom AES (variety of laptops), USI (Chromebooks), Apple Pencil (some iPads)
are active styluses that have a small battery inside.

(2) Should I go with a dumb no display tablet? The price of an entry level
one is remarkably similar to a graphics pen for use with an Android tablet.

(3) Should I go with an entry level graphics tablet with built in display?

If your budget is £100 I don't think you can get a stylus-enabled tablet
computer for that. That'll barely cover an active stylus itself.

If you really want to go down this route look for an old Samsung Galaxy Tab
with an S-Pen (not all do). They have been shipping them for long enough
that the old ones might be within your budget by now. But of course they
will be slower and running an old OS.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_Galaxy_Tab_series
see the Stylus column.

There are also apps you can run on a tablet to mirror pen actions to your
computer, so you can get the best of both worlds.

Another option that might be within budget is a used Surface Pro 1 or Pro 2,
which support a Wacom EMR stylus and will run Windows 10. The ones from my
Galaxy Note 2 and Note 4 work fine on my Pro 2, and clones can be picked up
for a few ebay pounds. You might also find some other old touch laptops:
http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/thre...-stylus.67533/

(unfold the 'List of devices with Windows 8 and 8.1' which are the older
ones - they can probably be upgraded to Windows 10)

Theo

A graphics tablet is a really lovely toy, and I'm amazed they aren't more
popular. The only downside (particularly restrictive for me with my current
setup) is the desktop (that's wood, not pixels) that they take up. Ideally,
you'd have it permanently connected so you can just reach for it when needed.

I have a Wacom tablet I've had for years, and W10 just recognises it. You can
use it to annotate documents, which can be useful in Zoom/Teams meetings, and
anything where you're actually drawing becomes less pre-school instantly. But
they come into their own with decent drawing or painting software, and you can
lose yourself for hours in that. Top of the tree, in my view, is Corel Painter
- sophisticated and fairly expensive software that has myriad options and
operations, all relying on something like a pen/brush (etc, etc, etc). There's
a readily affordable version, Painter Essentials, which you won't grow out of
for a while. All painting software has been 64-bit for years, by the way.

You'll want some level of pressure sensitivity in the pen - using an airbrush
with a sensitive pen is a delight.

The separation of tablet and screen isn't a problem - you learn very rapidly
the control and coordination, and it soon (first minutes) feels entirely
natural.

You *don't* need a large one. In fact, a large one is probably much harder to
use for a beginning artist. I have an A6 (that's the paper size) tablet, and
it's easily big enough, and doesn't feel at all cramped - generous, even. Your
movements on the tablet are simply scaled up to the drawing on the screen, and
unless you need intricate precision in your drawing/painting you'll be very
happy with something of that size. My tablet is a Wacom, and it's well-made
and dependable. I do wish I had more spare time to fool around with it.

--

Phil, London

In article ,
says...

In article ,
says...

In uk.d-i-y David wrote:
(1) I have a couple of (fairly old) Android tablets so could I buy a
stylus and turn these into graphics tablets?

Yes (styluses available from Poundland and upwards). However it'll be
rubbish because the stylus has to look like a finger to the tablet so it's
hard to use accurately - it's like writing with crayon.

To do it properly, you need a tablet which has pen support. There are a
number of technologies - Wacom EMR is the classic one which has a passive
pen as probably used in your old tablet PC, and newer versions in the Galaxy
Note phones and Galaxy Tab tablets. Others: Ntrig (Microsoft Surface),
Wacom AES (variety of laptops), USI (Chromebooks), Apple Pencil (some iPads)
are active styluses that have a small battery inside.

(2) Should I go with a dumb no display tablet? The price of an entry level
one is remarkably similar to a graphics pen for use with an Android tablet.

(3) Should I go with an entry level graphics tablet with built in display?

If your budget is £100 I don't think you can get a stylus-enabled tablet
computer for that. That'll barely cover an active stylus itself.

If you really want to go down this route look for an old Samsung Galaxy Tab
with an S-Pen (not all do). They have been shipping them for long enough
that the old ones might be within your budget by now. But of course they
will be slower and running an old OS.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_Galaxy_Tab_series
see the Stylus column.

There are also apps you can run on a tablet to mirror pen actions to your
computer, so you can get the best of both worlds.

Another option that might be within budget is a used Surface Pro 1 or Pro 2,
which support a Wacom EMR stylus and will run Windows 10. The ones from my
Galaxy Note 2 and Note 4 work fine on my Pro 2, and clones can be picked up
for a few ebay pounds. You might also find some other old touch laptops:
http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/thre...-stylus.67533/

(unfold the 'List of devices with Windows 8 and 8.1' which are the older
ones - they can probably be upgraded to Windows 10)

Theo

A graphics tablet is a really lovely toy, and I'm amazed they aren't more
popular. The only downside (particularly restrictive for me with my current
setup) is the desktop (that's wood, not pixels) that they take up. Ideally,
you'd have it permanently connected so you can just reach for it when needed.

I have a Wacom tablet I've had for years, and W10 just recognises it. You can
use it to annotate documents, which can be useful in Zoom/Teams meetings, and
anything where you're actually drawing becomes less pre-school instantly. But
they come into their own with decent drawing or painting software, and you can
lose yourself for hours in that. Top of the tree, in my view, is Corel Painter
- sophisticated and fairly expensive software that has myriad options and
operations, all relying on something like a pen/brush (etc, etc, etc). There's
a readily affordable version, Painter Essentials, which you won't grow out of
for a while. All painting software has been 64-bit for years, by the way.

You'll want some level of pressure sensitivity in the pen - using an airbrush
with a sensitive pen is a delight.

The separation of tablet and screen isn't a problem - you learn very rapidly
the control and coordination, and it soon (first minutes) feels entirely
natural.

You *don't* need a large one. In fact, a large one is probably much harder to
use for a beginning artist. I have an A6 (that's the paper size) tablet, and
it's easily big enough, and doesn't feel at all cramped - generous, even. Your
movements on the tablet are simply scaled up to the drawing on the screen, and
unless you need intricate precision in your drawing/painting you'll be very
happy with something of that size. My tablet is a Wacom, and it's well-made
and dependable. I do wish I had more spare time to fool around with it.

Fun software to look at:

https://www.painterartist.com/en/product/painter/
https://www.painterartist.com/en/pro...er-essentials/
(Corel are very spammy, but do offer good Black Friday deals.)

https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/designer/
Affinity, from longstanding producer Serif, is astonishingly good for the
price, and they also have a deep BF discount currently. The price here is for
the full version. There are two other Affinity products, a Photoshop
replacement and a Publisher/InDesign replacement - all are very good,
regardless of price.

There are countless others out there... (too damn many!).

--

Phil, London

On Wed, 25 Nov 2020 10:50:51 -0000, Philip Herlihy
wrote:

snip

Fun software to look at:

https://www.painterartist.com/en/product/painter/
https://www.painterartist.com/en/pro...er-essentials/
(Corel are very spammy, but do offer good Black Friday deals.)

Thanks for the links.

https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/designer/
Affinity, from longstanding producer Serif, is astonishingly good for the
price, and they also have a deep BF discount currently. The price here is for
the full version.

Daughter has, loves and used Serif products for *years* and their
PagePlus (that now includes the functions of WebPlus, a package that
allowed her to put up her own website with no prior experience in a
day) is still regularly highly productive for her.

There are two other Affinity products, a Photoshop
replacement and a Publisher/InDesign replacement - all are very good,
regardless of price.

+100

I have her Wacom tablet here so might get that up to her soon with a
copy of 'Designer' for her to play with. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

In article , T i m
wrote:
On Wed, 25 Nov 2020 10:50:51 -0000, Philip Herlihy
wrote:

snip

Fun software to look at:

https://www.painterartist.com/en/product/painter/
https://www.painterartist.com/en/pro...er-essentials/ (Corel are
very spammy, but do offer good Black Friday deals.)

Thanks for the links.

https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/designer/ Affinity, from longstanding
producer Serif, is astonishingly good for the price, and they also have
a deep BF discount currently. The price here is for the full version.

Daughter has, loves and used Serif products for *years*

I used to buy Serif products until one day I had sales call which after
quite some time offered me their latest product for a "bargain price".
Trouble was that I'd had an email the day before offering it for less.

--
from KT24 in Surrey, England
"I'd rather die of exhaustion than die of boredom" Thomas Carlyle

On Wed, 25 Nov 2020 10:50:51 +0000, Philip Herlihy wrote:

In article ,
says...

In article ,
says...

In uk.d-i-y David wrote:
(1) I have a couple of (fairly old) Android tablets so could I buy
a stylus and turn these into graphics tablets?

Yes (styluses available from Poundland and upwards). However it'll
be rubbish because the stylus has to look like a finger to the tablet
so it's hard to use accurately - it's like writing with crayon.

To do it properly, you need a tablet which has pen support. There
are a number of technologies - Wacom EMR is the classic one which has
a passive pen as probably used in your old tablet PC, and newer
versions in the Galaxy Note phones and Galaxy Tab tablets. Others:
Ntrig (Microsoft Surface),
Wacom AES (variety of laptops), USI (Chromebooks), Apple Pencil (some
iPads)
are active styluses that have a small battery inside.

(2) Should I go with a dumb no display tablet? The price of an
entry level one is remarkably similar to a graphics pen for use
with an Android tablet.

(3) Should I go with an entry level graphics tablet with built in
display?

If your budget is £100 I don't think you can get a stylus-enabled
tablet computer for that. That'll barely cover an active stylus
itself.

If you really want to go down this route look for an old Samsung
Galaxy Tab with an S-Pen (not all do). They have been shipping them
for long enough that the old ones might be within your budget by now.
But of course they will be slower and running an old OS.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_Galaxy_Tab_series see the
Stylus column.

There are also apps you can run on a tablet to mirror pen actions to
your computer, so you can get the best of both worlds.

Another option that might be within budget is a used Surface Pro 1 or
Pro 2,
which support a Wacom EMR stylus and will run Windows 10. The ones
from my Galaxy Note 2 and Note 4 work fine on my Pro 2, and clones
can be picked up for a few ebay pounds. You might also find some
other old touch laptops:
http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/thre...ws-10-tablets-
and-convertibles-with-stylus.67533/

(unfold the 'List of devices with Windows 8 and 8.1' which are the
older ones - they can probably be upgraded to Windows 10)

Theo

A graphics tablet is a really lovely toy, and I'm amazed they aren't
more popular. The only downside (particularly restrictive for me with
my current setup) is the desktop (that's wood, not pixels) that they
take up. Ideally, you'd have it permanently connected so you can just
reach for it when needed.

I have a Wacom tablet I've had for years, and W10 just recognises it.
You can use it to annotate documents, which can be useful in Zoom/Teams
meetings, and anything where you're actually drawing becomes less
pre-school instantly. But they come into their own with decent drawing
or painting software, and you can lose yourself for hours in that. Top
of the tree, in my view, is Corel Painter - sophisticated and fairly
expensive software that has myriad options and operations, all relying
on something like a pen/brush (etc, etc, etc). There's a readily
affordable version, Painter Essentials, which you won't grow out of for
a while. All painting software has been 64-bit for years, by the way.

You'll want some level of pressure sensitivity in the pen - using an
airbrush with a sensitive pen is a delight.

The separation of tablet and screen isn't a problem - you learn very
rapidly the control and coordination, and it soon (first minutes) feels
entirely natural.

You *don't* need a large one. In fact, a large one is probably much
harder to use for a beginning artist. I have an A6 (that's the paper
size) tablet, and it's easily big enough, and doesn't feel at all
cramped - generous, even. Your movements on the tablet are simply
scaled up to the drawing on the screen, and unless you need intricate
precision in your drawing/painting you'll be very happy with something
of that size. My tablet is a Wacom, and it's well-made and dependable.
I do wish I had more spare time to fool around with it.

Fun software to look at:

https://www.painterartist.com/en/product/painter/
https://www.painterartist.com/en/pro...er-essentials/
(Corel are very spammy, but do offer good Black Friday deals.)

https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/designer/
Affinity, from longstanding producer Serif, is astonishingly good for
the price, and they also have a deep BF discount currently. The price
here is for the full version. There are two other Affinity products, a
Photoshop replacement and a Publisher/InDesign replacement - all are
very good, regardless of price.

There are countless others out there... (too damn many!).


Thanks for all that people - very useful information.


Cheers



Dave R

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AMD FX-6300 in GA-990X-Gaming SLI-CF running Windows 7 Pro x64

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On 24/11/2020 17:58, David wrote:

So I am now trying to understand my options.

(1) I have a couple of (fairly old) Android tablets so could I buy a
stylus and turn these into graphics tablets?

Yes but you wouldn't get the pressure sensitivity without extra hardware
smart pen and driver. You could try a soft 2B pencil as a conductive
proto finger on the display.

I have one of the entry level Wacom ones. Predecessor of this one I think:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wacom-CTL-6...dp/B07HFGCP63/

How well it works for you depends on how well you can draw. More often
than not I sketch something on conventional paper by pencil and scan it.
Using the tablet to touch up the sketch in PSPro.

(2) Should I go with a dumb no display tablet? The price of an entry level
one is remarkably similar to a graphics pen for use with an Android tablet.

(3) Should I go with an entry level graphics tablet with built in display?

I'm looking for experience of any of these three options.

Likely to be expensive and/or small.

My budget might stretch to £100 is absolutely necessary but certainly not
to some of the recommendations. I note that the Wacom Cintiq 22 is
reported as at a "fantastic price" of only £1,299.

Give the Android tablet a go to see if it will do what you want first.

For small jobs I tend to use the mouse rather than set up the graphics
tablet - that requires clearing a flat space on my office desk. The
scanner is permanently connected which makes it easier for me that way.

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Regards,
Martin Brown