My kid wants a drawing tablet - help plz?

[dr. b 486]

Who here has experience/insight that they can share? @Jane or @Anelle ?

 

My daughter wants a drawing tablet for her 10th birthday. She draws constantly (comics, pictures, designs her own Pokemon, etc., etc.). She's nuts about it. She wants to be able to draw on the computer and then learn how to make animations of her drawings.

 

I am looking at the Wacom Intuos tablets (not the Pro series). The medium sized tablet is probably the most I'm willing to spend (279.99 CAD) and has a 8.5 x 5.3" drawing area. Is that a decent choice? Not sure if the small version would be too limiting Are there other brands of tablets that you would recommend instead?

[Galeigh 284]

For the same price of a wacom tablet you can get huion drawing tablet that has an actual screen on it and is also well known for its high quality budget prices. 

 

Wacom is on the decline in quality last I checked. 

[Anelle 784]

Wacom is on the decline but as far as I know the Intuos line is pretty solid. A thing to consider is support level, Wacom still has most support right now but as other brands get bigger and bigger presence then it's probably fine to choose one of them. There's Huion and XP Pen for cheaper alternatives, you see them a lot on Amazon and like Galeigh said you can get a screen tablet for a great price. Realistically, at this age and stage in her art growth any of these would be a good choice. I can help you narrow down from a shortlist if you'd like.

 

The real issue here that you're going to want to consider in all this is what program is she going to use to draw. That's a HUGE part of this that beginners overlook. Especially if she wants to animate! 

 

The lions in the game for art right now are Clip Studio and Procreate, but Procreate is iPad so let's say Clip Studio for you. It is NOT an easy program to learn, but like with any program, the more you use the more adept you become. It can do SO MUCH. 

 

There's cheaper, simpler programs as well I'm just not familiar with them but a quick Google gave me a bunch of leads so I'm sure you can find something that suits her needs.

 

All this to say--- yes, what you've picked is fine but go on and take a look at some of the screen tablets because sooner rather than later she's gonna ask for one of those instead lolololol

[dr. b 486]

Thanks for the tips, you two. I did do a quick Google search for alternatives to Wacom, but lack of familiarity with any of the suggested brand names kinda turned me off a little. "Huion" made me think Huawei == get outta here

 

My next question was going to be about software, so thanks for pointing that out Anelle. It just now occurred to me that we have an iPad, and somewhere on our bookshelf is an Apple Pen my wife almost never uses... should I just buy the right iPad apps and let her draw on there since we already have then pen? That would save me some $$$ (at least until she wants to upgrade someday?)

[Anelle 784]

I very recently switched to an iPad and I fucking love it. I know a lot of artists have just switched to that in recent years, so you could look at what the model you have can do. If it can support something like Procreate (which is ten bucks and is constantly getting better, it's even expanding small animation tools!) then you might let her take ownership of that. If you go that route, I'd suggest having a talk with her about it being a "starter" and that upgrading it is a LOT of money so you can explore options to save up shit like christmas money or whatever your kid gets i dunno her finances. I have brain farts going but basically I'm suggesting making it clear that it's not just a "have a hand me down" it's "this is a real art tool and you'll use this to learn with" just because I know I was sensitive about hand me downs for art shit i dunno man fuck i ain't a parent

[dr. b 486]

Yeah I don't think she'd see getting started with the iPad as a "hand me down". None of us even remembered that we had the Apple Pencil Her birthday isn't until December, so we can try out the iPad solution for a while and see how it goes. There's still time to decide if something different might be better and then get that as a birthday or Christmas present. (If schools get shutdown again during the second wave of COVID-19 then she'll have lots of time for drawing )

[Anelle 784]

Rad. Like I said, be sure to check out specs on whatever model you have because I ain't 100% sure on the capabilities of each model but I assume for a 10 year old starting out as long as it can run the program it'll be fine

[Anelle 784]

just a heads up-- there's some brands like Huion and Xp Pen doing prime day deals on some of their tablets if you're still wanting options

[dr. b 486]

Thanks for the tip, I forgot to reply earlier in the week We already got her setup with Procreate on the iPad and she's loving it so far. Definitely *a lot* to learn, but she has at least got the hang of working with layers, changing brushes, drawing, filling in colours, using the eye dropper / colour picker, etc. Don't need much more than that to start. We'll just keep learning as we go.

[Anelle 784]

hell yeah! I'm glad she's enjoying it! I'm so glad you're so supportive of her with it too! If you have questions about it lemme know, I'm definitely still learning it myself but I'm glad to share what I've learned! share some of her stuff if y'all are comfortable with that!

[dr. b 486]

This is doodle #1 from her experimentation with Procreate. I think it's a raccoon.

 

[Anelle 784]

That is so cute, I love it! She clearly has some art chops already, I bet she'll really grow with this!

[dr. b 486]

2 minutes ago, Anelle said:

That is so cute, I love it! She clearly has some art chops already, I bet she'll really grow with this!

She draws a ton, so she has definitely put in a lot of practice!