GETTING STARTED WITH DIGITAL ART – Step 1 – The hardware

My followers often ask me what kind of tablet I use, what program or app I work in, or how to get started with digital art. So I thought it might be a good idea to make a blog serie about how to get started making digital art!

Where do you begin?

So, you decided you want to give digital art a go, but you don't know where to start, what to buy, what program to use?
First thing you need is hardware!

There are so many options to consider that you might feel lost. Also a lot of artists are working with high end, very expensive, pen displays. It might make you feel like that is what you need to make digital art. There are a lot of less expensive option to consider though!

Digital art on your phone

There are a lot of (free) drawing and painting apps for smartphones out there, so it is entirely possible to make digital art on your phone. Painting on such a small screen is really hard though, and not getting the result you were aiming for, might get you discouraged. I've seen people make amazing stuff on their phone, but all in all, I believe it's more suitable for simple doodling for fun.

photo from Pexels

PROS

• Cheap: You probably already have a smartphone, so there is no need to invest
• Accessible: Same as the above, it's easy to get started if you already have a smartphone

CONS

• Small screen size
• The apps are usually pretty basic
• No pressure sensitivity
• Discouraging: The steep learning curve might get you discouraged

---

Digital art on a tablet

Just like for your phone, there are a lot of apps available to draw on your tablet. Perhaps you even have a stylus available for your tablet, to get that real writing/drawing/painting feel. The downside is that these don't have pressure sensitivity. That is, if you have an Android tablet. The Apple Pencil, which you can use with an iPad Pro, actually does have pressure sensitivity.
The downside of that is that the iPad Pro is more expensive than an average Android tablet. A simple tablet might have limited working memory, so you won't be able to make big artwork or work with a lot of layers.

Art Market Magazine - Procreate app

PROS

• Accessible: Perhaps you already have a tablet available, it's easy that way to give digital art a try
• Styli: You can use a stylus to make drawing feel more intuitive
  Easy on the go!

CONS

• No pressure sensitivity: unless you have an Apple Pencil and iPad Pro
• Depending on the tablet, the speed and available layers in your software might be limited

---

Digital art on a drawing tablet

A drawing tablet is a device you connect to your laptop or PC, just like a mouse or keyboard. Drawing tablets enable you to draw in an intuitive way. The only thing that isn't intuitive is having to draw on a tablet, but seeing what you draw on a screen. It takes some time to practice your eye hand coordination and get used to working with a drawing tablet. The upside is that drawing tablets come in various price ranges and almost all of them have pressure sensitivity. Pressure sensitivity is something I really can't live, uhhh... digital paint without! Pressure sensitivity can control brush size or opacity for example.

What size to get?

When deciding on what size drawing tablet to get, think about your way of drawing.

• Do you like to make big painting strokes, moving your entire arm? Get a big size!
• Do you draw mostly from the elbow? Get a medium size.
• Do you usually make painting strokes from your wrist? A small to medium size is probably big enough for you.

A thing to consider when starting with a drawing tablet, is that you'll need drawing software to use it, so that might make things a bit more expensive. I'll discuss drawing software in another blog post.

Wacom drawing tablet

PROS

• Relatively inexpensive, compared to pen displays or an iPad Pro
• Pressure sensitivity
• Most of them have express keys, easy for fast working

CONS

• You need a laptop or PC to use it
• You need drawing/painting software, for most of them you need to pay
• Steep learning curve, be prepared to practice a lot to train your eye hand coordination

---

Digital art on a pen display

When working with a proper, high end pen display, you probably get the most intuitive drawing experience. There is no need to train you eye hand coordination like with a regular drawing tablet. Pen displays do have a way higher price ticket though. If you are really serious about getting started with digital art and the price ticket doesn't concern you, go for it! If you would rather find out if digital art is your thing first, I'd advice to go for a drawing tablet or try playing around on your tablet or phone first.

A Wacom Cintiq 22HD

PROS

• Very intuitive painting experience
• Pressure sensitivity
• Looks crazy neat, right?

CONS

• Expensive
• You need a PC to use it
• You need drawing/painting software

---

Where did I start?

I started out making digital art about 11 years ago. When I saw the digital artworks at CGSociety.org I knew this was what I wanted to do. So I went and bought a Wacom Intuos3 a5 size drawing tablet and a trial version of Corel Painter. I still use that same Wacom tablet up to this day and I still love it!

You want to get in to digital art as well?

Remember: Digital art doesn't make you perform miracles. Working on your traditional drawing/painting skills is really important. If you can't draw a straight line on paper, digital art will get really challenging.

Practice and have fun!

---