Wacom Art Tablets

[Nick Griffin]

I don’t know much about traditional airbrushing but I think you will be EXTREMELY satisfied with a Wacom tablet. I’ve had four of them ovr the past 15 years and when you need the control and dexterity of a tablet using a mouse is like… (what was the old saying?)… using a mouse is like attempting to draw with a brick.

There are so many ways in Photoshop to mask off an area you’re sure to find one that suits you perfectly. Just spend the time to learn more than one way to make selections so you’re making them as quickly and simply as possible. Sometimes manually drawing a mask with the pen tool is best. Other times it’s quickest to simply clone a channel into an Alpha channel and then adjust that channel’s curve or levels to create a mask. Sometimes it’s quickest to just draw the Alpha mask you want.

Best of luck and hope this is helpful.

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“Some people say that I’m superficial. But that’s just on the surface.”

[Mike Gondek]

Many ilustrators think they need to buy the very large size (12×19) expensive tablet. You really will do fine and most likely better with a standard size (I like 6×8, 4×6 is a little small), and it will probably be better on your hands as you will not have to make such large hand movements to get to the other size of screen.

Wacom also has their Intuos line which has 2xlevels of sensitivity of the grapphire line, and recognizes if the pen tilts, and has a few more mouse buttons. The Cintiq is the highest end option actually lets you draw directly on the screen.

I would recomend a 6×8 Intuos for you, if that does not make your budget then a grapphire.

You will digitally be able to accomplish better masks quicker than with friskfilm.