artists! favorite tablets and software?

[beignet]

i thought i would make a little poll and discussion thread as im interested to know
what fellow artists on CS are using to make their digital art! ipad and procreate or wacom and photoshop?
what else do you use and why?

if you selected "other" in the poll, please share what you are using in this thread!

[Asterlie]

I've always used Wacom products because it's what I first discovered and I know they'll work; I'm currently using a Cintiq 16 and used to use one of the mouse pad type tablets (can't remember which one, though).

I've done a bit of exploring over the years in terms of art programs before I finally settled on Medibang Paint. It lags occasionally on bigger art work that I'm working on, but I've learned to work with it because I'm stubborn. I've used Photoshop, Paint Tool Sai, and FIre Alpaca in the past, but I have a preference for Medibang.

I also have an iPad, but I personally don't enjoy drawing on it, so it's been collecting dust.

[picklesthedrummer]

i currently use the cheapest wacom tablet on the market which is the wacom intuos S, its small but gets the job done
and for software i use clip studio paint pro

[Espresso. ༺]

I haven't used a drawing tablet in a couple years, but when I DID I really liked wacom. I used to use FireAlpaca before moving onto Medibang (which is... nearly identical, LOL). If I'm being honest, in the past I've found drawing tablets to be a bit cumbersome because you have to consistently make sure your drivers are up to date, pen nibs need to be replaced every so often, and perhaps this is just MY experience of them just because I bought mine off of amazon, but they seem to randomly just.. stop working or become incredibly glitchy after awhile, and every single time thats happened to me I've never been able to find a way to fix it even after scouring hours on old forum threads.

So nowadays I just use a mouse. Themouse I'm using now is WAY too big (I've got admittedly small hands, I have a hard time holding my Galaxy A14 in my hands) and way too sensitive for me to comfortable draw with it, though. I used to love my laptop's trackpad for doing art digitally (ESPECIALLY PIXEL ART UGH) before that just sort of petered out (tbf, that time WAS my fault). With all that being said though, I've been thinking about getting a new wacom tablet for christmas NOT from Amazon this time, or at least maybe getting another much smaller and less sensitive mouse.

[Asterlie]

I haven't used a drawing tablet in a couple years, but when I DID I really liked wacom. I used to use FireAlpaca before moving onto Medibang (which is... nearly identical, LOL). If I'm being honest, in the past I've found drawing tablets to be a bit cumbersome because you have to consistently make sure your drivers are up to date, pen nibs need to be replaced every so often, and perhaps this is just MY experience of them just because I bought mine off of amazon, but they seem to randomly just.. stop working or become incredibly glitchy after awhile, and every single time thats happened to me I've never been able to find a way to fix it even after scouring hours on old forum threads.

I can second FireAlpaca and Medibang basically being the same thing lol, I always joke that FireAlpaca is light mode and Medibang is dark mode. I think my drivers auto update, so I've personally not had problems with it, and I think I may be a touch neglectful about replacing my nibs, but my pen still works so it's staying c,:

I've had that weird issue where the pen just doesn't work - usually happens when I'm working on something, I reach over to the mouse to zoom in/out or something and when I go back to drawing, the pen doesn't seem to be registering. My solution was to just jiggle the mouse around and it'll work again; really weird issue, don't know why it's doing that unless it's my nib, but I'm not worrying about it until I can't fix it anymore ;v;

My biggest gripe about using drawing tablets, specifically mine is the set up. I hate unplugging my set up for any reason, or upgrading my PC or anything because then it means I have to reconnect my drawing tablet and oh, boy, it's that a nightmare. I know where the cords are supposed to connect (it's got a USB and HTML cord that hooks into the PC), but sometimes the cords are acting a little funky, sometimes the PC has one port that doesn't work like the other and I have to shuffle cords around, sometimes it connects to my PC but then only decides to work like a mouse pad (and OMG is this one a NIGHTMARE to deal with, it means a LOT of playing around in your PCs settings), sometimes the drivers don't work and I have to redownload them (or, rarely, go to an older version of one), or some other cacophony of issues. Thankfully I don't have to undo my set up like ever usually; if I did, I wouldn't be a digital artist, I fear c,:

[Espresso. ༺]

I can second FireAlpaca and Medibang basically being the same thing lol, I always joke that FireAlpaca is light mode and Medibang is dark mode. I think my drivers auto update, so I've personally not had problems with it, and I think I may be a touch neglectful about replacing my nibs, but my pen still works so it's staying c,:

I've had that weird issue where the pen just doesn't work - usually happens when I'm working on something, I reach over to the mouse to zoom in/out or something and when I go back to drawing, the pen doesn't seem to be registering. My solution was to just jiggle the mouse around and it'll work again; really weird issue, don't know why it's doing that unless it's my nib, but I'm not worrying about it until I can't fix it anymore ;v;

My biggest gripe about using drawing tablets, specifically mine is the set up. I hate unplugging my set up for any reason, or upgrading my PC or anything because then it means I have to reconnect my drawing tablet and oh, boy, it's that a nightmare. I know where the cords are supposed to connect (it's got a USB and HTML cord that hooks into the PC), but sometimes the cords are acting a little funky, sometimes the PC has one port that doesn't work like the other and I have to shuffle cords around, sometimes it connects to my PC but then only decides to work like a mouse pad (and OMG is this one a NIGHTMARE to deal with, it means a LOT of playing around in your PCs settings), sometimes the drivers don't work and I have to redownload them (or, rarely, go to an older version of one), or some other cacophony of issues. Thankfully I don't have to undo my set up like ever usually; if I did, I wouldn't be a digital artist, I fear c,:

I will not lie, Medibang being dark mode Firealpaca is EXACTLY why I use it LOL. Sometimes jiggling my mouse would help, but unfortunately I've had times where it did not. Maybe I'm just particularly unlucky when it comes to my set ups in the past and other kinds of tech issues because I've encountered ALL OF THESE issues multiple times ToT so I just use a mouse! It's sort of just more convenient, until I got stuck with this big clunky one :'( and I'm not particularly in any position to use my money willy nilly, so I'm just stuck with it for now until I can find another solution. At least I can still color!!!

[Asterlie]

I can second FireAlpaca and Medibang basically being the same thing lol, I always joke that FireAlpaca is light mode and Medibang is dark mode. I think my drivers auto update, so I've personally not had problems with it, and I think I may be a touch neglectful about replacing my nibs, but my pen still works so it's staying c,:

I've had that weird issue where the pen just doesn't work - usually happens when I'm working on something, I reach over to the mouse to zoom in/out or something and when I go back to drawing, the pen doesn't seem to be registering. My solution was to just jiggle the mouse around and it'll work again; really weird issue, don't know why it's doing that unless it's my nib, but I'm not worrying about it until I can't fix it anymore ;v;

My biggest gripe about using drawing tablets, specifically mine is the set up. I hate unplugging my set up for any reason, or upgrading my PC or anything because then it means I have to reconnect my drawing tablet and oh, boy, it's that a nightmare. I know where the cords are supposed to connect (it's got a USB and HTML cord that hooks into the PC), but sometimes the cords are acting a little funky, sometimes the PC has one port that doesn't work like the other and I have to shuffle cords around, sometimes it connects to my PC but then only decides to work like a mouse pad (and OMG is this one a NIGHTMARE to deal with, it means a LOT of playing around in your PCs settings), sometimes the drivers don't work and I have to redownload them (or, rarely, go to an older version of one), or some other cacophony of issues. Thankfully I don't have to undo my set up like ever usually; if I did, I wouldn't be a digital artist, I fear c,:

I will not lie, Medibang being dark mode Firealpaca is EXACTLY why I use it LOL. Sometimes jiggling my mouse would help, but unfortunately I've had times where it did not. Maybe I'm just particularly unlucky when it comes to my set ups in the past and other kinds of tech issues because I've encountered ALL OF THESE issues multiple times ToT so I just use a mouse! It's sort of just more convenient, until I got stuck with this big clunky one :'( and I'm not particularly in any position to use my money willy nilly, so I'm just stuck with it for now until I can find another solution. At least I can still color!!!

I understand that! I would try to use mouse, but it absolutely kills my hand if I try it, so I'm kinda stuck with the drawing tablet or traditional art (and even that will hurt my hand pretty bad if I do it for too long).

[Luciferlius]

iPad Pro and MediBang Paint all the way.
Used to favor Procreate and many people probably like Procreate better, but there's something appealing about the default brush configurations in MediBang that is different in Procreate. I can't quite say what exactly that is, though; I am not really familiar with the technical side of digital art. The only things I know are brush size and opacity

[BlueEyedKite]

Where my Huion Kamvas users?!?! I got the Pro 16 I like it a lot! I can't go back to traditional tablets after using a display. I must admit I use no other software with it ;.; just oekaki. I am a hobby artist and just scribble on oekaki if I feel the need to draw.

[lecithinol]

the drawing tablet i use is the xp pen deco mini 7... definitely great for me! no screen so i personally think it helps me with hand-eye coordination. my hands are a bit shaky so i think it helps a little. plus the buttons are super easy to configure and use :> simple and easy, it's my first drawing tablet and i absolutely love it!!

as for software i actually have a lot of trouble finding ones i feel compatible with. ibisPaint i've always loved and used but it lacks so many things i wish i could do more with. medibang is too pixel-ly for me i feel? i end up zooming in a lot on a large canvas so it may just be me not knowing what to put the settings as, but i feel like it downgrades the quality of my art

i've heard soooo so many good things about procreate and it makes me want to save up for an ipad, but i worry about the costs of them (especially the pen replacement, i can't imagine trying to do that) and if i'll be able to find a decent one without it being like $400+ ... has anyone bought a used or refurbished one? if so, how would you say the performance is? i don't want it to lag a lot ..