The Bamboo Wacom Experience
I'm still at Chapter 4 of Digital Painting Fundamentals, somewhat distracted by drawing that Ditko-style sketch of Spidey I started. As I worked on the web-spinner's webbing, I remembered just how much I appreciated the Wacom despite my inability to draw.
Spidey should always be drawn upside down. Sketch by author.
Revelations about the Bamboo Wacom
There are, however, a few things I wish I knew before I purchased a Bamboo Wacom a year ago. Moreover, there are some things I only found out while I was using the input device with Corel Painter. Here's a quick list:
1. Wacom products aren't cheap. Unless you really plan to use it, don't buy one just because you suddenly woke up one day and decided you'll be working as a background artist for Pixar or becoming a regular penciller on Marvel's The Avengers. Try someone else's Wacom and find out if it's you're cup of tea. Even if you're an extremely talented drafter, painter, or artist, you might realize you're better off with a good Canon Scanner and inexpensive wireless mouse. Personally, my first few weeks with the Bamboo was terribly discouraging not only because I had no talent, but because my hand just couldn't move the pen very well. It's not for everyone.
2. The Bamboo pen is not the same as a drafting pen, technical pen, ballpen, brush, or ink no matter what digital artists or clever advertising will tell you. It's better and worst depending on your skill. Also, some digital art books would instruct you to use the Wacom and "rub" the pen on the tablet like normal art materials like pastel or crayons. These instructions don't apply to the Bamboo - they're for the more professional (and more expensive) Cintiq or Intuos series.
3. Drawing with a Bamboo Wacom is cheating (kinda). Wacom's technology maps the drawing tablet so accurately and detects the pen movements so well that it also calculates and corrects any inconsistency in your stroke. In short, it actually makes your strokes smoother even if your application has a setting to reduce stroke adjustments. Don't believe me? Draw one pencil stroke on a piece of paper. Draw another on the Wacom. The paper and table affects the smoothness of your pencil stroke while the Wacom stroke is as smooth as the legs of a K-Pop singer. Most digital artists admit that they could never recreate their artwork on traditional medium and this is due to the Wacom's amazing technology. That doesn't detract anything from the beauty of their artwork but you have to admit it's not the same as the old days with canvas and drawing paper.
4. Know what you'll use it for. Bamboo Wacom is advertised for use on the desktop and most applications. It doubles as a touchpad so ideally if you're using a laptop you can use it as a bigger input device. The truth is, it's somewhat awkward to use the Wacom to control the cursor on a Windows, Ubuntu, or openSUSE desktop. Although it's great for painting on Corel Painter, I struggle with using the Wacom on CorelDraw especially when working with technical designs. Some users can use the Bamboo Wacom while working in Microsoft Word or anywhere else for that matter, but I'm resigned to the fact I'll use my Bamboo Wacom primarily for Painter and maybe Corel Paint Shop or Adobe Photoshop. Sometimes the mouse really does do a better job.
5. I don't recommend using the Bamboo Wacom with a laptop. I found it initially difficult to have my tablet to the far right of my Ideapad. If I was working on a huge Samsung display and an ATX chassis or an iMac, I could move everything to one side and it would just be me, the Bamboo, and the monitor. But I don't have a desktop so although you can reason out using a wireless mouse is similar, it really isn't. I find myself stretching a little bit more with my right hand to use the Wacom compared to using my dependable Microsoft Mouse.
6. Use the Bamboo as often as you can. Long-time digital artists would laugh their ass off, but I struggle with pressing the button on the side of the pen. Despite being shaped as a pen, it just doesn't feel right for a guy who has been using Mongol, Bics, Pandas, and markers ever since he was a kid. I feel more comfortable now holding the Wacom pen but only because I forced myself to practice (and reminded myself how expensive it was).
7. Use the Zoom tool. A lot. The beauty of working in digital art is the ability to zoom in and see all your mistakes and pathetic strokes. Using a Wacom tablet lets you make really large strokes and correct the overall curve. You can also draw tiny lines and details that you can erase using Corel's or Adobe's Zoom controls. You can't do that as accurately even with a rubber eraser on a sketchpad.
8. Lower the opacity. A lot. When sketching, I felt better with a lower opacity because the faded lines felt less permanent and emulated the appearance of sketching on paper. When I initially started drawing at 100% opacity the sketch looked horribly permanent and discouraging. Sure, you can always create another layer on top when you're ready to draw but that's my insecurity in a nutshell.
Zooming lets you correct everything that's wrong. Sketch by author.
9. Use all the tricks available to digital artists and don't feel guilty about it. There are no layers, transparency controls, effects, sharpen, nodes, or color controls with traditional medium. A French curve and T-square was pretty much all we had in the old days and even then drawing a straight line was close to impossible. Digital art is the future and trees and chemical companies will thank you for the amount of paper and toxic materials you're saving.
10. It's damn fun when you get used to it. It's also terribly frustrating if you keep expecting each stroke to be 100% Da Vinci. Like traditional art, digital art takes time. Forget about all those smug artists in DeviantArt who boast about completing an artwork in one hour. Relax, you're not getting paid to draw like Jim Lee or Mike Mignola (not yet).
The most important lesson I learned while playing around with Corel Painter and the Wacom, however, is to draw something you like (and my favorite subject is pretty obvious). After close to a year, I finally began to appreciate investing on a Bamboo Wacom. It took awhile, just like drawing Spidey's weblines.
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