3 Types of Drawing Tablet for Digital Art

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In this post, you will learn about 3 types of drawing tablet for digital art so you can decide which one you should get that suits your style.

I’ve always been a fan of traditional art. There’s something about creating art on paper (or canvas!) that excites me. I love to experiment with different types of art mediums.

I’ve tried color pencils, markers, watercolors, acrylic paint, you name it. However, as an artist, I know that i can’t restrict myself to only certain type of medium or a certain type of substrate. You’ll want to explore all the options, and one of the options to create art digitally!

Art is all about expressing yourself and digital art provides endless possibilities for you to get creative. Yes, it could be intimidating at first, but I assure you, once you get comfortable with it, you’re going to love it!

You can use almost any type of software to create digital art. You can even use Microsoft Paint to draw! In fact, my very first video I uploaded on my YT channel was a drawing of Sasuke and Itachi which I drew on Microsoft Paint completely with a mouse. It got over 20k views at that time, and I remember being so excited about it.

Unfortunately, I don’t have the video anymore (I deleted it at one point when I started to get serious with my channel). That said, the excitement I had when the video was getting so much attention might be the fuel for me to really get into digital art.

The most common tool you need to get started with digital art is a tablet and a pen (or a stylus if you will). In most cases, the pen is always included with the tablet. In case that it’s not, you may need to invest in one. We’ll get to that later. So what kind of drawing tablets are out there?

Screenless drawing tablet

My first ever drawing tablet was a screenless drawing tablet from WACOM. It was the WACOM Bamboo Fun tablet, the first generation of its kind. It was an entry-level drawing tablet. It was weird drawing with it at first, but it didn’t really take that long for me to get used to it. 

The drawing software that I used it with was Adobe Photoshop at that time, but you could use it with any type of drawing software you want. In fact, if you get the newer version of the Wacom Intuos, you even get to pick one drawing software like the Clip Studio Paint Pro or Corel Painter Essentials for free!

Here is one of the first few drawings I made with it:

Mind you, these drawings were made more than 10 years ago, so please be nice!

Its small size was perfect, since it didn’t take a lot of space on my desk. And the good thing is, by having a smaller active drawing area on the tablet, you can cover a huge area quickly without moving your hand too much. It would be less straining on your wrist and on your hand. 

So if you’re unsure which size you should get, just get the smallest one. You’ll eventually want to upgrade to a drawing tablet with a screen anyway, so as an entry-level drawing tablet, the smallest one would be more than enough!

I loved everything about my Wacom Bamboo Fun tablet. I had so much fun drawing and painting with it. It quickly became my favorite gadget for creating digital art.

However, because I used the tablet way too much, the surface eventually lost its paper-like texture due to friction. The surface got so smooth, that it almost felt like I’m drawing on glass and it wasn’t a fun experience. That was the time when I decided to upgrade to a drawing tablet with a screen.

So here are the Pros and Cons of a screenless drawing tablet:

Drawing tablet with a screen (non-wireless)

My second drawing tablet I got to replace my Wacom Bamboo was the Gaomon PD1560. It was a drawing tablet with a screen. It was significantly larger than my Wacom Bamboo Fun, but the cool thing about it is, the tablet itself acts as a screen. How convenient, isn’t it? You can see how I use the Gaomon PD1560 in Photoshop in the video below:

I was excited to get my hands on the tablet since it was my first drawing tablet with a screen ever. At that time, you can’t find anything that’s remotely similar that’s affordable. The only thing that was similar was the Wacom Cintiq and it was way more expensive than the Gaomon tablet.

Gamon PD1560 wasn’t a bad tablet at all. If you watched the video, you can see that it worked really well!

One thing that was annoying about it was, you need to connect so many cables to your computer for it to work. It’s not something that I want to do every single time when I feel like drawing. And the cable mess was just horrible.

Because of its size and how weirdly the adjustable stand is attached, storing it is not easy. As for now, I just shoved it to the back of my shelf where it’s now collecting dust.

So here are the Pros and Cons of Gaomon PD1560 tablet:

Drawing tablet with a screen (wireless)

Shortly afterwards, I decided to get a new drawing tablet. One feature that’s important to me is portability. I wanted that flexibility to draw anywhere I want. It didn’t take me long to decide to get an iPad Pro.

Best thing about it is that I don’t need to connect it to a computer, and I don’t need to install any driver for it to work. I can literally use it anywhere I want.

I can draw on my couch, on the kitchen counter, even in the plane when I’m flying! It’s the perfect all-in-one drawing tablet. The drawback though, is the price. Well okay, you can’t really compare it with any dedicated drawing tablet.

It’s basically a small computer with extra features that lets you draw on it. But if you would like a drawing tablet that does so much more, you should definitely consider getting an iPad Pro. You can even go for a regular iPad if you want to save money.

My iPad Pro was a 12.9″ Gen 4 and I absolutely love it. It’s probably slightly a bit too big and a bit too heavy but it isn’t that big of a deal. I can certainly live with it. If I could’ve done things differently though, I would’ve gone for the 11″ one.

For the drawing app, I use Procreate, which is like the most popular drawing app among iPad users. Although the app is not free, it’s also not that expensive and it’s a one-time purchase. So you should definitely get it if you use an iPad. 

Since the app is so popular, there are so many tutorials out there. If you don’t know how to do something on Procreate, you can literally type some keywords on YouTube search and I guarantee you, you’ll find the solution to your problem every single time. One thing that I wish it could do is to vectorize drawings.

Procreate can’t create vectors since it only works in pixels, so you might want to get another app if that’s what you’re aiming to do. Adobe Illustrator is probably the best solution for that, but you need to pay for the app monthly. If you’re looking for a one-time purchase app, Affinity Designer 2 is definitely what you want to look into.

That said, if you don’t want to enlarge your drawings exponentially and print it somewhere, you don’t really need to worry about vectorizing your drawings. Procreate is more than enough. I’m very happy with the app and it does everything what I want it to do.

One thing that throws people off is that Apple sells their pens ‘Apple pencil‘ separately. And everyone knows that they’re not the cheapest pens out there! Sure, you can get a knock-off brand one but if you decide to get the Apple pencil, I can tell you from my experience that it won’t disappoint you.

So to recap, here are the Pros and Cons of iPad Pro 12.9″:

To conclude, if you’re new to digital art and just want to experiment with it, you should get the Wacom Intuos with Clip Art Studio. There’s also a Bluetooth version so you don’t have to deal with the cable mess. Play around with it and see where it takes you.

But if you don’t mind spending more money and are looking for a computer tablet anyway (for work, for school), go for an iPad Pro 11″ and get the Procreate app. You’ll be glad you did.

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