To draw or not to draw? Nope, that's not the question. Digital vs. traditional is a better question, but this tip is about the value of using a drawing tablet. I won't go into the the question of digital vs. traditional here, other than to say, I think there's a place for both and I would encourage you to maintain your skills in both. They are different and will be suitable for different purposes, in my opinion.
I can't recommend a drawing tablet highly enough. If you have any kind of drawing experience, you'll learn to love digital drawing if you experiment with it a bit. I used one for years, a small Intuos by Wacom, mostly while working in Photoshop and most especially when doing clipping paths. It's just a much more natural way of working than point and click or drag. Then I started doing more retouching types of things like masking, smoothing, enhancing or hiding. I even started using the tablet while working in Illustrator, which is also a very good fit. InDesign or page layout, not so much, though when your wrist starts to hurt, a tablet is a great alternative and your wrist will thank you.
I think what tipped me head over heals in love with my tablet, which is now a large Intuos 3 by Wacom, was when I followed a link in a Wacom advertisement to a demonstration video on YouTube, where someone was demonstrating their use of a tablet in a speed painting. Wow, that's an amazing thing to watch, especially if you've never seen it before. Very entertaining and inspiring. The person whose video I was watching, was also using SketchBook Pro, an application for sketching that was developed I believe by Avid and has now been taken over by SmithMicro. In fact, I was so impressed by this application, that I purchased it for my daughter, who also received my old tablet. It's a fun and relatively easy to use application that also happens to be pretty inexpensive.
The step up to the Intuos 3 from the smaller Intuos was a vast improvement. Of course the increased size was great, more natural and easier to use. More importantly, the increased sensitivity of the pen/tablet was terrific. After all, for digital drawing to be competitive with traditional pencil and paper, sensitivity is a key issue and they've come a long ways down that road. I understand they (Wacom) have gone even farther with the Intuos 4, so I'm looking forward to the day when I can get one of those. A friend of mine, a professional photographer, uses a Cintiq and loves it. There are advantages to digital too. Layers come to mind, but I'm going to save that for another discussion. I'll finish by saying that if you draw and do not have a digital tablet, it would be worth your time and money to get one and learn to use it. I don't see how you'd ever regret it.
Tool Tips
