I bought a wacom tablet years ago (2003) and I used it for alot of my classes early on in school. I got out of the habit while I was working with a company that didn’t allow tablets in their building (some security thing, like it was going to record their top-sercret stuff?). When I upgraded my computer equipment last year, I couldn’t resist the new pretty, more functional tablets (I really used to love using it) so I bought a brand new shiny Wacom Tablet. .

Trouble with the new tablet

My old tablet was also a wacom, but it was 1 bigger and it just plugged up and worked I didn’t have to change anything, set anything, it was perfect out of the box. My new tablet, wow, so far I have managed to get my settings right for photoshop, but I can’t manage a straight line in illustrator to save my life. Can you say FRUSTRATION??? Now, I will admit that I haven’t spent nearly the time I should have at this point getting re-acclimated to my “supposed” new best friend, but its because I don’t like being frustrated in an area I am (or have been) competent.
If I change the settings for the tablet to work better for illustrator, they stop working completely for photoshop and vice versa, now normally I am not this computer stupid, but I can’t find where i can have dual settings for my tablet – should this be happening? or am I just a complete idiot?

Sample Photoshop Drawings

Since I have been having so much trouble, I have decided to keep my tablet set up primarily for photoshop on my main computer, and I have it set up for illustrator on my other computer – this is really a pain in the but, however, since I seem to do most of my work, editing, compositing, and so on in photoshop this is what made the most sense. I have completed two or three drawings completely tablet based (no mouse at all) to test my skills and help adjust to using my tablet once again.

Tablet based drawing of Tinkerbell

Tinkerbell is above and beyond my absolute favorite drawing so far (in photoshop). I know my technique needs to improve some, as I can see how shaky my lines are, but I am still quite proud of my effort. I have also started a line drawing of Chip and Dale, and completed a drawing of Ursula (in her human form, Vanessa) – ok yes I have a Disney Fetish .

Chip and Dale line drawing in Photoshop CS4

I would love to get feedback from any veteran tablet users, so please feel free to comment below. I have found a few training tutorials online that I am going to try in the next few days and hopefully will be able to report back with improved results.

Human Ursula - tablet based drawing in Photoshop CS4