problem drawing with tablet

[macaron]

AHHHH~! Alright. Okay I seriously need a chill pill. I just got myself a tablet and I started to draw and it's so hard to draw with it. Any idea to make it easier for me?

[Duskylli]

What exactly are you finding hard? Do you mean just getting used to using one? Don't worry I think everyone goes through that stage it just takes a bit of practice. Besides doodling randomly for starters (eg swirly lines and stuff) I recommend using it as a replacement for a mouse when your not drawing. Hope that answers your question.

[MaiMai]

If you want to learn how to use your tablet, just keep using it like you would a regular mouse. It's how I got used to drawing with my tablet.

You just have to keep trying, and trying, and trying, and trying. There's no magic way to get used to it, you just gradually get better at your control. Keep drawing a lot of doodles and scribbles and then challenge yourself to finishing something you can personally call complete.

[LateWhiteRabbit]

I'll just quote myself from another recent thread:

As to using a tablet I've had extensive experience with it:
Like you, I started on a Bamboo. My experience was much like yours. I found it cumbersome, sloppy, and I couldn't draw with it. My coordination made it impossible - like you say, it just didn't ACT like drawing on paper. Later, at art school, I got some experience using an Intuos tablet. I mainly used it to model in Zbrush, but I found it much more responsive. I still drew everything on paper, then scanned it in and painstakingly inked it with vectors in Illustrator. Finally, I had a couple of illustration classes that FORBID me using pen and paper. I was forced to do all my work on a graphics tablet, both in class under supervision of the professor, and on my drawing assignments at home.

I sucked. It was humiliating. I felt like I either had to go so super slow to make decent lines as to drive me insane, or that I had regressed to an elementary school level with my skills. But I had no choice but to fail or keep practicing. Weeks went by, and I was drawing hours a day with no progress. My assignments looked like they had been done by a child with the shakes. The first class actually ended (9 weeks), and I still felt like I had only marginally improved with a tablet, if at all. The second class started, with the same results, and two weeks in I ... got better overnight. Literally. It wasn't gradual. One day, my coordination with the tablet sucked, the next day all my skill with pen and paper seemed to FLOOD back in, and I could draw as easily and as well on a tablet as on paper. My own personal theory is that my brain had to rewire itself to reconnect to where ever my "drawing ability" skills were stored, but once that happened....

The tablet makes a big difference too - Bamboos have pressure sensitivity, yes, but it is nowhere near the pressure sensitivity of a real pencil. Basically, Bamboos are mice with better ergonomics. Getting a tablet with extreme sensitivity to pressure (especially since I draw lightly with feathered strokes), and most importantly TILT SENSITIVITY, made all the difference in the world. At that point, I could hold and move the stylus exactly like a real pencil and get the same results.

I now do nearly ALL my drawing on an Intuos 4M. (I got one on the cheap when my studio had to liquidate its assets.) All my art is now done start to finish on the computer and I LOVE it. I recently needed my art pencils for something and when I opened their case they had cobwebs on them! I used a Cintiq occasionally at art school and at the studio I worked at, but I found the colors and pressure sensitivity wasn't quite there for me. They were awesome, just not awesome enough to justify the price tag.

Drawing with a tablet is all about practice (massive amounts worth). You basically have to retrain your brain, but when it happens, you'll get all your experience back and then some. Take it for what it's worth, but I once felt the same way as you, and now I can do 5 minute ear doodles that look like this, all solely with a tablet.

[MaiMai]

I have to ask LWR, what kind of brush were you using in Photoshop (which I'm assuming you're using) because that is probably the most real-pencil like texture I've ever seen.

[macaron]

If you want to learn how to use your tablet, just keep using it like you would a regular mouse. It's how I got used to drawing with my tablet.

You just have to keep trying, and trying, and trying, and trying. There's no magic way to get used to it, you just gradually get better at your control. Keep drawing a lot of doodles and scribbles and then challenge yourself to finishing something you can personally call complete.

do you have any idea how to make it more sensitive?

[MaiMai]

Check your tablet settings.

[LateWhiteRabbit]

I have to ask LWR, what kind of brush were you using in Photoshop (which I'm assuming you're using) because that is probably the most real-pencil like texture I've ever seen.

It is a brush I downloaded from Andantonius on DeviantArt, with some minor tweaks of my own. Keep in mind you'll need to be working high resolution to get a good result - the brush needs lots of pixels to give you the nice texture in each line. For reference, each of those strokes in my image is 15 pixels wide in the original file.

Wacom's newest drivers also let you go into your tablet properties and fine tune the pressure sensitivity curve, so you can decide how quickly or slowly the ramp from thin to thick is when you press down, or if you want more of a middle ground. You'll want to play around with it depending on how much pressure you like to use when you draw.

[Hellboy]

Are you using it in Mouse or Pen mode?
In Pen mode the tablet area represents the screen and (for me) it’s a complete pain to move around like that.
In Mouse mode you move the pen in the same way you would a mouse.

Open the Bamboo Preferences software and tweak the settings more to your needs. At first is a big change, but I’m sure you’ll get used to it quickly.