What drawing tablet should I get?

[Iori]

So I'm about ready to start looking for a tablet, but just like any sane person, I don't want to spend $1000 or anything like that.

I'm looking to draw legit manga and comic strips, but I'm looking to do all penciling, inking, and manga coloring with pencils, pens, and Copic markers. I only need the tablet for screentone in the manga (and potentially the comic strips too), and probably coloring the comic strips.


I would appreciate some suggestions, based off of those specifications.

[Gaff]

If you're only using it for tones and maybe a little bit of colouring, are you sure it's really worth your while buying one?

It might be easier using a tablet for working with screentones in Manga Studio, but I wasn't greatly impressed with their tone library. If you're scanning or making your own tones, you can just as easily size and trim them using a mouse.

If your heart's set on it though, or you really want a tablet just to see what it's like, you could just get an entry level wacom tablet like the Bamboo. They're not too expensive [amazon link].

[toast]

Just get a Wacom Bamboo tablet, or if you're willing to spend some more money, get an Intuos

also ugh don't waste money on manga studio, you might as well get photoshop which is a million time better. Or just torrent photoshop, or buy Paint Tool SAI and download GIMP

[Celestial-Fox]

I suggest you try a really small tablet, since the size doesn't really affect much, in my opinion, especially of you're just starting out. The main difference is that small tablets require more fine, finger articulation, when larger ones allow you to use more of your arm/wrist to draw. Even though I upgraded tablets last year, I still bought a size Small, because it was my preference—even though I had enough resources to get a bigger one.

[Rio]

If you're just going to use it to tone, you don't need a tablet for that but since you said that you may CG, then getting the Bamboo would be perfectly fine. The only reason to get an Intous would be to have the pressure sensitivity for drawing directly onto a graphic software program. It's up to you about the size.

[Celestial-Fox]

I don't even really notice the difference between my Intuos pressure sensitivity and the Graphire I had.

[Sylux]

cintiq 24hd

[trilokcool3]

Hey hey guys can i get any tablet in between US $35-$40 ??? I really need one ^_^
(and sry Iori, posting this in your thread)

[Rio]

If you get it used or it's not a Wacom- yes. There's some here in Amazon.

@ Seefy
I don't either (maybe because I mainly do cel-style and not painterly) but I know someone who's studying to be a graphic designer and she can tell the difference.

[Rubisko]

I don't know how the bamboo performs, but from what I've heard it's a good choice for a first tablet. Seefys comment about tablet size is very much according to my experience as well, my first tablet was a letter sized Graphire. But if you plan to do a lot of line art and know that you will use your tablet a lot I would recommend a medium sized tablet since you'll want make use of your elbow and shoulder to make smooth and accurate lines.

It's also somewhat of a question of how much space you have to your disposal in front of your monitor. Make sure that you'll be comfortable with the size you choose