#an absolute steal for the wealth of features it provides 👏

[sketchingtons]

Hi I was wondering if you have any recommendations for tablets and stuff for someone interested in getting in to digital art. I really love your art and idk just wanted some advice from some so talented

Aaah you’re so sweet, I’m so happy you enjoy my work and flattered you’d want to ask me for advice/recommendations! I can give you a quick rundown on what equipment I’ve used over the years if it helps-it’s not a super long list haha, I basically used the exact same thing for years lol

So my first ever drawing tablet was the Wacom Bamboo fun tablet (pictured below!), which I received as a Christmas gift when I was around 13 I believe! And I basically used that baby for about 10 years for all my digital drawing Akshsj

And it held up! *pats the silver tablet fondly* I remember jokingly calling it Ol’ Reliable to my Illustration classmates back in college when I told them how long I’d had the thing lol

Can’t remember having any outstanding problems with it the whole time I used it-only the occasional inconvenience of having to reinstall drivers for it if I got a new laptop or if I was having troubles with Paint Tool Sai (which was my primary drawing program for a majority of those years as well, along with occasionally dabbling in Clip Studio Paint)

I remember Wacom brand pen tablets being pretty good for beginners, especially price wise-though again, I’ve had mine for 10+ years so I’m not sure about their price margins today and how they might compare. I’d def recommend doing some research and seeing if any of the current models look like they’d work for you, or maybe look into some pen tablet alternatives besides the wacom brand-they’ve definitely had some competition on the scene in the past couple years that might work better for you! (I’ve heard good things about Huion tablets, mostly through word of mouth, but that might be a good alternative! Can’t give my full rec on it since I’ve never used one, but it could be something to look into!)

If you’re looking into any art programs to use, as I mentioned above I used Paint Tool Sai as my primary program for many years! I have extremely fond memories of it and still think of it as a great art program-it’s around $50 if I remember correctly? And definitely worth it in my opinion. The other program I mentioned above was Clip Studio Paint-also an amazing digital art program, and very robust! It has tons of amazing features, but it’s definitely on the pricier end (pricing will depend on which version you get too)-the silver lining for this program though is that the website/developers host amazing sales periodically throughout the year and you can get the program at a great discount! That’s how I snagged my copy, so if you look into and it seems like a program you’d like to use, definitely keep an eye out for those sales! 🙌

Now after close to 10 years of using my Wacom Bamboo fun, I finally decided it was time to upgrade-so I made the jump to the iPad! That’s what I use for basically all my work now a days, along with Procreate (an amazing art program on the iPad, can’t recommend it enough) and the Clip Studio Paint app! Unless you already have an iPad though, I wouldn’t recommend it as a beginners set up since an iPad+Apple Pencil is a big price commitment upfront-but I thought I’d mention it if you were curious on what I currently use!

This turned into a bit of a ramble, but I hope you can find use in some of it! Wishing you all the best on your future digital art endeavors, and rooting for you all the way! 😊 🙏

#asked and answered #art queries #this ended up long but I hope it was a little bit helpful! #if you do happen to already have an iPad and don’t mind getting an Apple Pencil/or a cheaper pen equivelent- #then I really can’t recommend procreate enough! I use it for basically all my art now and it was only like $10? #an absolute steal for the wealth of features it provides 👏 #and if anyone’s got any other questions about my art/process/experiences please feel free to ask! 😊 🙏 #I’d love to help if I can!