Anyone use a Wacom tablet or other similar product?

[Geila]

I just started taking a beginning graphic design class for some contract work I'll be doing using Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. I'm finding that using the mouse to do the class projects is time-consuming and tedious on tasks such as contour drawing using Illustrator. I'm not in the least bit artistically talented and can't draw at all. I heard that Wacom tablets were a good way to go, and since this is for work, I figure that anything that makes the work faster, more efficient and more accurate will pay for itself pretty quickly.

They're not cheap though. I'm hoping some of you have used them and can weigh in, or maybe have experience with other tablets that work the same way. I'm especially interested in the Wacom Pro Series, if anyone has experience with those models.

:thankyou:

ETA: I saw that my post sounded rather odd - why do work that I find tedious and I'm not good at? To clarify, the Photoshop and Illustrator portion of the work will be small, and quite limited in scope, but I still need to know how to use the software and tools to accomplish what's needed. And I'll be able to work from home, which is worth a considerable amount of tedium in exchange! So I say, bring on the tech to make life easier, if it's available! :)

[bekkilyn]

I have a small Wacom Intuos tablet and use it occasionally for various things (currently drawing on smartboard files to cut and paste into a word document for a school assignment) and I couldn't imagine trying to use a mouse to draw much of anything with any precision. It's a *really* nice tablet for doing digital art, and one day I'd love to get the Painter program and try it out there, but my tablet did come with some sketchbook type software, so I tend to use those when I go into drawing mode. It works well with programs like Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro, but sometimes all I wanted to do was sketch something, so I found the simple sketchbook programs to be ideal rather than messing with the complexity of Photoshop.

[Geila]

I have a small Wacom Intuos tablet and use it occasionally for various things (currently drawing on smartboard files to cut and paste into a word document for a school assignment) and I couldn't imagine trying to use a mouse to draw much of anything with any precision. It's a *really* nice tablet for doing digital art, and one day I'd love to get the Painter program and try it out there, but my tablet did come with some sketchbook type software, so I tend to use those when I go into drawing mode. It works well with programs like Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro, but sometimes all I wanted to do was sketch something, so I found the simple sketchbook programs to be ideal rather than messing with the complexity of Photoshop.

Thanks for the feedback Bekkilyn!

[JaneV2.0]

They intrigue me, but the last thing I need is another unused art-related tool sitting around gathering dust. The Amazon ratings on them are encouraging.

[ToomuchStuff]

A few years back, Aldi's was selling things like this or computers occasionally (had some great values). I picked up one to play with, but they certainly don't help if you have no artistic talent.:|(

Practice practice practice, and I still can't draw.

[JaneV2.0]

I recently challenged myself to produce one small drawing daily, so some progress is being made.

[Geila]

...they certainly don't help if you have no artistic talent.:|(



Haha! So funny. I've long ago given up hope for artistic talent. Now my hope is that it will make my work easier, and less frustrating :). I read that the large tablet lets you place a piece of paper on it, trace over it and save it as a file. That might be worth the extra weight - the large tablet is 4 lbs, which is heavy, versus the 2.2 lb medium one with a smaller workspace. Those are the two sizes I'm debating on; I'm leaning towards the large one right now. My class won't last too long, after that I'll be using it mostly at home, and I think the extra space will be nice.

I will say that it's pretty cool to see all the stuff you can do on Illustrator, even just scratching the surface.