Asking for opinions- I'm using an art tablet this time to draw, so- Do you prefer the mouse lineart or the tablet lineart? Refer to older posts for mouse lineart ^_^
Comment or reblog your opinions, I'd love to hear them!
- Mod Purple
(sidenote: by "new monitor" I mean "the monitor I draw on now," not a monitor I bought for drawing specifically. I didn't buy a monitor with bad colors thinking "oh boy, I can't wait to draw on this!")
In the end, THIS surface pro didn't explode, but I was convinced it would die "any day now" because of how poorly it run for 6 of those 8 years. It's kind of impressive that it was limping along for so much longer than it was working correctly.
If anyone in the audience happens to be wondering whether to buy a mobile art tablet or a usb drawing tablet... buy the usb tablet, save yourself the grief, this cheapo non-display Huion feels a thousand times better to draw on and was a fraction of the cost and has zero chance of exploding.
Novella November presents a rambling post about how to get a cheap drawing tablet for digital art without shelling out hundreds of dollars!
Step 1: own, or buy, a Kindle Fire tablet from 2023 or earlier generation, from the compatibility list below:
Amazon Fire Max 11 (2023) -- Generation 12
Amazon Fire 10/HD 10: (2015-2023)-- Generations 5,7,9,11, and 13
Amazon Fire 8 (2015-2022) -- Generations 5,6,7,8,10, and 12
Amazon Fire 7 (2014-2022) -- Generations 4,5,7,9, and 12
Amazon Fire 6 (2014) -- Generation 4
.I have a Kindle Fire 10 from 2017, which I got for around $40 on ebay Used. It works well for my level of work, but if you're out here being doing the most photo-realistic highly detailed huge beautiful art... um, I would probably try to grab a newer generation device that is not a decade old already like the one I got.
Today I learned: The number in the Amazon Fire name is the number of inches of the screensize, so the bigger the number, the bigger the screen and drawing space! So, a Kindle Fire 10, or 11 will have a bigger screen than a Kindle Fire 6 or 7.
Step 2: follow the steps on this website, according to your device model :)
It will require a few downloads, and enabling developer options on a tablet, but don't worry, the guide will walk you through each individual step, and a lot of it is automated, so don't feel intimidated, you got this!
If you are more comfortable following video/audial guides, you can watch along here:
Step 3: Download the free app "Sketchbook" from the app store, (orange icon, of a pencil on an orange background) and off you go!
If you want a stylus better than the cheap generic ones usually sold for phones, this is the style that I have, which is called a "Capacitative" stylus:
[ID: a stock photo of a capacitative stylus for drawing on digital screens, showing 2 stylus, in black and silver, and an example of someone drawing on a tablet with one. The stylus are shaped like regular, smooth pencil-shaped stylus, but instead of ending with a thick black rubber tip, instead end in a thin fine point, with a round clear disk on a flexible stem. End ID]
I don't know if the "capacitative" part actually does anything special…? Maybe it does on newer tablets, I just prefer these by being able to see the actual point of contact on the screen more easily. You can usually buy these online or maybe at actual eletronic stores for anywhere between $3-$20, I got a multi-pack for around $15 because I constantly lose them into the ether of ADHD "out of sight out of mind".
Another setting I enable for easier drawing, is to go under the full device settings, and either under Accessibility (Or, Developer Settings), turn on the option to "display touch"/ "Show touch: show visual feedback for touches" so that you can actually see where your finger/stylus are in contact with the tablet while drawing.
Of course, if you have a bit more money to spend, you can skip past all these steps of buying a used Kindle Fire tablet and jailbreaking the Kindle Fire into being a normal tablet, and just buy a regular android tablet.... but its usually a lot more pricey, and the quality of android tablets varies *wildly* so you would have to be more familiar with the specs you need.... you'll have to make sure it can display modern resolution (?) and has at least 2GB of RAM.
I am *not* good with tech stuff beyond anything that directly holds my hand so I have absolutely no clue how to pick out a different tablet, I just know the one I have (which is already a decade old before I even got it lol) is 2GB of RAM, 1920 x 1200 pixels, 32GB of base storage, and I can expand that further with a MicroSD card, and it uses a MicroUSB cord to charge, not type C, which is something to keep in mind if you don't have a microUSB charger on hand and you end up buying an older model!
Anyways, that is my random post about how to get into digital art and drawing tablets without shelling out $200+ on a specialty tablet, expensive paid program, super fancy stylus, etc.
Oh, and I found the link for the official website for the app :D
SketchBook is sketching, painting, and illustration software for all platforms and devices. With professional-grade drawing tools in a beaut
