Digital Art Tools and Tech Issues, a Saga
This will be a bit different from the other blog posts. I will write about the tech that I use to draw with. And the tech issues that I had this past week. Enjoy!
I’ve been wanting a new drawing tablet for a while now. So, last week I decided to get an upgrade and bought a new Wacom Tablet called The Wacom Cintiq 16. This tablet connects to my computer and acts as a second monitor that I can draw on. I can’t type on it, but I can use the pen as a mouse. The screen is bigger than my computer, so it’s basically a flat-screen TV. When I made this purchase, I bought the small version. But this thing is huge. It’s a great tablet, the best one that I’ve ever owned. In all my years of drawing digitally, I’ve owned two Wacom Tablets. I don’t remember the types, but they didn’t have a monitor on it.
The Wacom Cintiq is easy to use, it’s like every other tablet with the exception of the monitor. Setting it up, however, was awful. I bought this thing a week ago, but it took over a weekend to set it up. The tablet delivered on the 18th of March, but I didn’t start using it until the 21st of March. Why? Downloading the software took almost an hour to set up. I tried to follow the instructions, but I’m the least tech-savvy person in my house. So I got my dad to help me. He struggled with getting the tablet registered, which was the last step. It took a variety of google searches but he figured it out. However, the tablet wouldn’t turn on. The screen would just say “Turn on Power Saver Mode.” Then shut down. We didn’t understand why, so we used the All-Mighty Google to find out.
The Wacom Cintiq comes with a butt-ton of wires that connect to each other. One wire connects to an outlet, one connects to the tablet, then two of the wires connect to the computer. Those wires are the HDMI cable and an SB cable. Both wires need to be plugged in in order for the tablet to work. But, my computer didn’t have an HDMI slot and we didn’t own a port for it, so he had to buy one. It would take three days to deliver. I waited one weekend for that port, a port that I didn’t even need. We bout the wrong port. I needed a mini HDMI port because it was the only thing my computer would take. So he went to a tech support store to buy one. After that last purchase, the tablet finally turned on! After what felt like an eternity, I could finally draw digitally agein. I started working on character sheets and I plan on starting the penciling stage of the comic adaption on this tablet. But that’s a topic for the next post.
Later!
-Bellapinkpen
