Does using a tablet improve drawing skills?

scourgewarper

I'm inclined to think yes but am interested in your thoughts. Like many I use a wacom and think its one of the best investments i've made. Since your essentially holding and moving a pencil and perform often identical movements and strokes to drawing would you say using a wacom actually improves your drawing skills/hand-eye co-ordination?

I'd say most of my time using a wacom doesn't involve fine motor movement its mainly repetitive strokes in zbrush but I do have to make some fine strokes now and then especially if i'm painting a mask. I also use it a lot for photoshop work which is mainly precise strokes and varying pressure.

So has anyone else noticed any improvement in their drawing ability which they could attribute to using a tablet?

Joao Sapiro

comparing to a mouse is much better to use, but it wont make you good at drawing, no tool does that.

dolemite

I think it's a different skill. You can't zoom in with paper to do fine detail work. Also my intuos 4 has a precision mode that is useful. Like zooming in, it makes all my drawing a matter of big strokes, and not at all about fine precision.

scourgewarper

I suppose your also not looking at the point your drawing at too when your using a tablet which is essential when you draw, I don't know I just seem to be somewhat better at drawing lately but maybe thats just practice!

Rens

depends on how you use it i guess, but i dont see why not

know that drawing can be devided in many skill points, so you will not cover all of them by simply controling your pc with a pen, but there sure are quite some points that it does

kary

I have definitely found this to be the case. I've not been able to do as much drawing in the last few months as I would like, but been doing tons of modeling and sculpting, and it is easier to draw now than when I was last able to regularly.

Probably just a mix of more time spent thinking visually and raw hours spent getting the hand to make precise strokes -- so it wouldn't make you a great illustrator, but the mechanics won't be as much in the way.

Mark Dygert

It's probably practice and you're sharpening your artistic eye. The more familiar I get with a object in 2D or 3D it helps me to draw it in the other. So its not so much a tablet but a familiarity and a way of thinking that helps me improve. Of course practice with any kind of hand eye coordination helps out quite a bit.

Firebert

draw from life to learn how to draw.
you can trace shit with a tablet, which may help, but if you really want to beef up your drawing skills, draw something from life at least once a day every day. drawing what you see helps you visually and mentally pick out form and depth far more than using any photograph. tracing shit and saying you drew it however is FAIL. soooooooooo yeah... that's my post for the day.

scourgewarper

Vig wrote: »

It's probably practice and you're sharpening your artistic eye. The more familiar I get with a object in 2D or 3D it helps me to draw it in the other. So its not so much a tablet but a familiarity and a way of thinking that helps me improve. Of course practice with any kind of hand eye coordination helps out quite a bit.

I definitely agree, to go slightly off topic i've found that since I started 3d modeling I look at everything very differently than I used to, this may sound saaad but if I have to wait or queue somewhere I often find myself looking at stuff and imagining how I would make it in 3d, where it's topology would flow etc hehe and I guess that's not a common thing to most folk.

I guess I just appreciate and analyze structure and form in the real world a lot more these days due to the fact I spend the majority of my day working on 3d objects.

JacqueChoi

I can draw quite well with pencil (won a few awards for hyperrealism), but it seems like I have to completely relearn everything I know when I draw with a tablet.

There's so many little tricks built into the muscular memory of my hand that I can't seem to transfer over to a tablet.





Having a plethora of brushes, layers, and UNDO does speed up a lot of things though.

ArtsyFartsy

I haven't been able to transfer my pencil drawing skills to the tablet at all. Probably just need more practice.

In the end I don't think it matters much. Drawing is more about observation rather than the physical act of rendering images on paper. If you do it through photoshop, or modeling, or any way, as long as you spend the time to look and understand an object, then you're learning how to draw.

Wahlgren

I dont know if a wacom makes you better at drawing but ctrl z certainly does help if you get my meaning

I also seem to do better when im using the wacom but thats probably just because i use the wacom more in everyday "life"

Rens

yeah the ctr z thing is a bitch,

when i draw on paper, im much more careful about what i do, and how i do it,
one wrong line can really damage your drawing

so by using paper, you will learn much more to focus on your strokes. (imo)

Ferg

practice is practice... wacom has helped me more with color than anything. It's a lot easier to digitally switch between colors, undo, try other shades, tweak levels, that kind of shit, than it is with acrylics. I still love my pencils, pens and paints, but when it comes to quick experimenting and sketching with color, tablets are very useful. I just bought a tablet pc... am very anxious to get out and do some serious life drawing with it, seems like the perfect tool (except outside in the sun >.<)

Quokimbo

Practice improves skillz...

TWilson

When I bought my first tablet it cut my texture creation time in half. So it does by way of giving you more time to polish. If you can't draw now it's not going to help though.

Vrav

It's a trade-off, but I'd say if you go at it the right way, a tablet can definitely help improve drawing skills. For me, what it allowed me to do was break out of my artistic shell and sketch more, draw tons of random shit and just erase it without wasting paper, pencils and the like. Digital sketching also allows easy flipping and editing of a sketch, so you develop a new way of handling your drawing so it looks correct. Do a lot of sketching with the tablet, once you get used to the hand-eye coordination part (that's the trade-off if you're using a non-cintiq), then go back to paper and see how you've improved.

rolfness

naaah you dont need a tablet.. get a big assed block of really cheap paper and a pencil and draw and draw and draw.. thats the only thing that will make you good. Draw everything, anything.. Using cheap paper also has the added benefit of you not really caring too much about fucking it up... scrunch it up throw it away start again or draw something else. The quality line or shading or anything depends on the confidence with with you draw it with.. and it will show. Practice builds confidence. remember wax on wax off... lol

BradMyers82

Does it make you work faster? Yes.

Does it make you better? Depends on the person, I think.

Because really, drawing and painting is all about how you problem solve and your mental ability to perceive and render out shapes, forms, and values. I think the physical hand eye coordination is a really small part of what makes a good artist.

So if you practice for a while, the coordination won't really be much of an issue no matter which medium you use. So, if you get better at drawing on paper it will certainly transfer over to digital and vice-versa.
If you want to get better at drawing, just come up with a plan of attack, and practice your ass of. That's the real way to do it imo.

However, I think that because working digital is a faster way to do things, it may make you grow faster as an artist as well. You can turn out more work, faster; and quite possibly improve at this faster rate. Of course, like I said, it all depends on the person.

notman

I felt that, when drawing, I'm way more able to translate what I want with my tablet, than I am with a mouse. For modeling, I'm not sure that it's made anything better for me.

coldkodiak

i only work in digital now.

I find everything you can do on paper, you can replicate or do better on the computer, and do it faster.

About the only thing I haven't really found a great way to replicate is the feet of sketching interior/exteriors with markers and a ruler.

You just can't beat that.

But you won't improve just because you're switching over. I felt I improved only because the computer enables me to work the way I want to.

Rwolf

Although I think it can make it worse in some cases. I'm tending to use the marquee too to cut and past body parts that I've drawn to big or small, and redrawing over that.

Can't do that with pencil and paper

Ruz

well these days texture sizes are so big it seems less necessary to have a tablet

Blaizer

no improvement here, i only work faster and easier than with an ugly mice. I use a wacom intuos 3 for all the work, to model with my 3d app, photoshop, zbrush, etc, i do all with wacom XDD

I wish i could do the same as with a real pencil, my wacom is not so wonderful.