Aug 6th, 2024

Author: donich_admin

Wacom Tablet

I had a go at some digital art today.

Unfortunately when I came back from Norfolk a few weeks ago, I decided to leave a load of stuff behind as I was having problems carrying a heavy bag. Because I thought I would be back in three weeks, I ditched about everything, including my precious Surface tablet. Then after last week’s bombshell about my foot, I realized I wouldn’t be back in Norfolk until at least October, and I was stuck with only an old Surface (dodgy screen and failing battery). So for hospital I am borrowing an iPad off R, and I am hoping that J’s next door neighbour will post me the Surface from Norfolk this week.

So instead of trying out digital art on my Surface, I am having a go at it on an old Wacom tablet we had in the house. It is actually quite good, although there are a lot of limitations. One of these is the fact that the tablet itself is really a large touch pad – i.e. it is not itself a screen (you draw on to it and your output appears on the PC monitor). The other is that paint.net which is what I was using as software doesn’t entirely support the tablet – so it doesn’t allow you to vary pressure on the pen.

Here is a very quick sketch I drew of Lucky.

I think I will buy the Surface pen to start using when I get back. It occurs to me that even if I don’t do full scale pictures with it, it would be very useful for touching up pictures (adding details that are too fine for physical pens or pencils).

Off to hospital today and staying overnight as my operation is at 7:15am tomorrow. I should be going home on Thursday. I keep saying things like “In 24 hours the operation will be done, and in 48 hours I will be home again”. Not sure how much it helps.