ESSENTIAL THINGS: The Wacom Tablet

This is the first edition of ESSENTIAL THINGS, what I hope will be a series of highlights of some of the things that I own that I plan to have and to use for years to come.  For my first week, I want to talk about something that is not at all essential to most people, but to artists who work digitally, it is ABSOLUTELY essential, the Wacom tablet.

Early into my training for the Tough Guy race, doing portraits for people, I lost my Intuos 2 stylus (the pen that is used as if it were the mouse of the computer) for about the eighth time in the five + years that I have owned the thing. I’m a chronic loser (of things), but each time I lost the stylus, it would turn up. The people at Wacom were fantastic on one particular occasion, when I ordered a new pen to replace my lost pen, and discovered the old pen the day the new one arrived, they let me just ship the new one back and refunded my money.

This most recent time though, it seemed gone for good. This thing had been through the wars with me, moving from Seattle to TX, Boston, Madrid, it went through Central America with me and back to MA, up to Alaska and back down to Bend. The thing was BEAT. And it would not die! It looked like hell, and I will admit, here in front of you, that there were times I wished it would die, just so I could upgrade to a new model. With portraits to be done, I had to make a choice, to either get a new stylus, which would be hard because at this point it was very old, or finally buck up and buy the Intuos 4. Christine ultimately made the choice for me, which was good, because I have a hard time with large purchases. They make me break out in hives.

Here I am saying goodbye to my little buddy. He’s in a better place now.

I will admit, the Intuos 4 is a truly stunning thing. As a fan of all things Wacom, I really can’t recommend them any more highly. With my Intuos 2, I went with the medium size, but discovered after the first year that I was much happier if I used a much smaller area of the pad, meaning there was a lot of tablet that wasn’t being used for anything. When it came time to upgrade, I dropped $200 for the small version, which I am extremely happy with.

If you are an artist who works digitally and are considering getting a tablet to help with your art, you really should not consider anything other than Wacom. I know that sounds extremely salesman-y and definitive, things I don’t like being, but for a product like this, going cheap is really something that will torture you in the long run. I know this from experience.

• If you are a graphic designer who doesn’t do a ton of freehand drawing, you can definitely get by with the Wacom Bamboo (with pen). It’s only about $60 or so, and as far as a couple of colleagues of mine have said to me, it’s been very reliable and helpful to them.
• If you are like me, and do a lot of freehand drawing, you will want more sensitivity in the pen, which makes the Intuos line absolutely brilliant. The smallest (and the one I use) is more expensive than the bamboo (which is also quite small) at $200, but man, does it feel like money very well spent. I can’t even fathom getting the largest version of the Intuos though. I think I would get tennis elbow from having to move the pen around so much.
• If money is no object (oh look at you, Richie Rich) then you could drop a PREPOSTEROUS AMOUNT OF MONEY for the Cintiq, which allows you to draw on what amounts to the monitor screen. It’s like real painting. This is too rich for me at this stage in my life, but everyone I have heard of who uses this completely and utterly swear by it, so maybe it’s worth it?

For it’s great customer service, products that will stand up to a relentless, years long beating and just fantastic quality, I am happy to have the Wacom tablet as the first of my Essential Things, even if it’s only essential for digital artists.

Oh, and a few weeks later my old stylus showed up again. If my wife is reading this now, it might be the first she has heard of this. Sorry honey!