Anyone here use a drawing tablet / pen thingie?

[GrimTim1980]

TL;DR:  I bought one of those drawing tablets / pens. Cheap one for $40 off NewEgg with 8192 pressure. Are the more expensive ones any better? I don't mean super expensive.. I mean maybe $100-$150 or so range.. let's say $200 max.. or maybe even name brand like Wacom. I sort of like this one, but wish the drawing was more fluid like a pen.. it's a little wobbly. Maybe it's wobbly because I don't have enough room? I only bought a 6x4 sized tablet because my friend does artwork and says he likes the smaller ones better for drawing straight lines. I'm thinking I want a bigger tablet and am deciding to get a nicer one if I do so.

I'm not much of an artist, but I did make some people laugh with my drawings. I tried drew a naked body while drawing my lines went wobbly, so it looks like the person has cottage cheese thighs.

In all seriousness, though I was going to see if the tablet helped with vectorizing raster things for arcade artwork.

[Leslie Moak Murray]

I use tablets. Wacom Intuos. You can get a refurbished one on Amazon for $65 (small). It takes some getting used to. Play with the pen pressure settings in Photoshop in the Brush panel. It's also worth spending the time to master the pen tool for smooth curves.

[GrimTim1980]

I have to learn some of the Photoshop shortcuts too. I'm good with Premiere, but don't use shrotcuts in Photoshop much.

I definitely found out I'd like a larger tablet. 

[Chuck Uebele]

I've had a nice Wacom tablet and a cheap one. The expensive one was much nicer to use, but I get by fine with the cheap one. All depends on what you're doing. Actually, most the time, I just use the touch pad on my laptop. Once in a while I pull out the tablet. 

[GrimTim1980]

"depends on what you're doing" -- well I'll be honest.. I drew a naked picture of a fatman so the cottage cheese thighs fit right in. If my skills get even a little better, I may do a whole book of this guy in different poses lol. But my original idea was to scan in some arcade artwork and try to reproduce it in high quality.

I'll probably get a Wacom Intuois Pro Medium. I read some of the features.. such as you can use a finger to move your image around, pinch to zoom, 8192 pressure levels, etc. I know it's more than the price range I listed, but I will split the payment into 4, so it's not as big of a financial strain on me.

PS - For the naked guy, there's a funny backstory to this..

My friend doesn't like Jonah Hill (the actor). And I'm watching a talkshow one day and see some random dude started drawing naked pictures of Seth Rogen (I got the actor wrong my friend hated), so I ordered my friend the book as a gag gift. I wrapped it in a nice box, with some tissue paper and wrapped a ribbon and a bow on the outside or something. You know, classed it up.

So I give him the package and he's like what's inside, it's not a *dirty word here* or something is it. He figured it was a gag gift right off the bat. I was laughing so hard I said "it's that guy you hate, Jason Biggs" (got the name wrong again).

So now the book sits on his living room table as a conversation piece when people come over.

[Chuck Uebele]

Whatever work you enjoy doing and whatever equipment works best. I like the smaller tablets, as it reduced my hand having to move around so much. I've got all sorts of nerve damage in my wrist, now, so I have to be a bit careful.