How to get used to your Drawing Tablet

Follow to see art first:
Become a member:

In this video I give advice for getting used to a drawing tablet for the first time.

Equipment I use:
Screen & Audio Recording: OBS
Video Recording: Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra, Victiv 54inch Phone Tripod
Editing: Vegas Pro
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Art in these videos is often based on lessons from channels such as: Proko, Boro Drawing, Marco Bucci, James Gurney, Paintable, Kazone Art, Marc Brunet, Mark Crilley, SomeNormalAritst, Volen CK, Reuben Lara, Mattias Pilhede, Peter Draws, Dave Greco, Will Terry, Trent Kaniuga, Sinix Design, DoKiDoKi Drawing, ericanthonyj, Akihito Yoshitomi, Sycra, Istebrak, Whyt Manga, Kuzomari
Art from others that I do not have permission to use is blurred. This is just a video log of my art progress over time. I have no intention of stealing content from other people.

Art, Artist, Digital Art, Art Tutorial, How to Draw, Learning to Draw, Anime, How to draw anime, How to draw manga, Figure drawing, Character drawing, Art advice, Listenable, Iterative Drawing, Learning how to draw, How to get better art drawing

[Cryptic]

Solitaire and Minesweeper are also good picks for games to practise your eye-hand coordination.

Those games were specifically added to Windows to help people who had never used a mouse come to grips with it, and they work well for a pressure pad too.

[tatarciewich]

Good tips. My two cents: align your tablet placement with your display, meaning keep it in front of the monitor and not to the side. Also be consistent with your tablet and keyboard placement, always set things the same way, it helps to build eye to hand coordination.

[vesainthesewer]

I recently bought a tablet, and the learning curve has been quite overwhelming. So, thank you for making this! :]

[JSS_-ivgy]

J3SS Here!

remember, NO MATTER Where you think you are in your art, Improvement is mileage + consistency.
Keep on practicing -but remember to Always take breaks to not burn out!!!

you all got this :3

[domainmojo]

I'd like to assure everyone reading this and having doubts- YOU can do this. As with everything, it just takes daily practice.

I bought the Deco Mini7 online for my 11-year old son as a Christmas present(for an African kid- in a small town/village, it's a pretty big deal and I'm so happy for him) and he couldn't use it comfortably, so I showed him how to trace drawings with Krita, and I instructed him to trace every day(the same advice I gave him to inspire him into drawing- to draw daily, and to get to where he is now - pls take note).

He took that advice better than I thought- drawing and tracing every day, and using it like in the video- for like an hour or more, in total, per day- and it only took him 2 weeks of daily practice (along with his normal pen/paper drawing).
Now, he's used to it and he can use it pretty comfortably. I'm so proud of him! That's my son. I'm not a total failure after all. 😉

[BeeDaWorker]

literally did not expect this to become a problem since im already good with a pencil

[authenticthreads]

Writing until your handwriting looks like your handwriting.

[Calamity]

A long time ago I had a major burn out with digital art because it overwhelmed me, but now I think I'm ready to start learning to draw again. Your kind encouragement and motivation has really given me hope again. I will definitely be watching more of your videos because I'd love to draw in the manga art style!

[GraeHall]

My nephew recommended OSU so seeing it here in this video I decided to give it a try. Definitely helpful for getting comfortable with moving across the whole range of the tablet, with timing. And it's just lowkey fun. Once you get the hang of it.I went from 72% to 90% on one after 4 or so tries so seeing that improvement really helped encourage me to keep going.

[FranksCreativeCorner]

I have a Wacom Intuos S, which is great, but really small. In traditional I'd feel more comfortable since i use bigger canvas and I'm watching directly at my hand drawing, so when I jumped into digital drawing I felt so frustrated cause I couldn't get anything drawn decent. Even now, drawing a straight line, a circle that connects, or just connecting lines is really hard for me, so this was the video I needed. Thank you!

[sumsumab]

the best thing to improve hand/eye coordination on screenless tablets is enabling your os cursor, your brush shape is lagging (depending on strength of your device) but os cursor is not. immediately after doing it I could draw circles.

[jaydenarts]

Something that helps me is warming up before drawing. Doing different shapes and lines while not focusing on the tablet but on the screen makes me get used to it!

[mauriciolee]

Out of the 6 videos of how to use drawing tablets I've watched, yours is the MOST EFFECTIVE. One of the reasons is it tells me to play a game to learn how to use the tablet. Thanks.

[gothickangelstudios]

I got my first Wacom in 2006, took me a few days to figure it out. I used to play Atari when it came out, the joy stick cordination from that console reminded me of the hand eye movements I needed. I now have a newer one and I still prefer the no screen version. It sits on my lap. When I used to play the joysticks did the same lap way.

[zeldascarlet]

My first tablet was a screenless huion h430p . Im a bit struggled with because of sensitivity thing and learning csp was hard. Lineart was so thick etc... it took some time but i get used it. Still sketching not so nice compared to screen tablet other than it was okay i loved it

[katarinamor]

"Your hardware/software doesn't make you a better or worse artist" - but it does.😭 I spent about 10 years drawing/painting in Photoshop and it still felt awkward (you know, like walking with your feet tied together - you could sort of get used to it, but not enjoy it). Then I switched to Clip Studio Paint and that's when I finally started to enjoy digital drawing/painting - it makes a HUGE difference when the program you use doesn't impede your workflow. So my advice would be: if something feels painfully awkward, don't just try getting used to it but also try changing things.

[fixthespade]

If your tablet and screen have different proportions (eg a 16:9 monitor and a 4:3 tablet) it's a good idea to make sure Force Proportions (sometimes called Constrain Proportions) is turned on so your tablet matches the monitor. It leaves with a bit of dead space on the tablet, but means your motions directly scale to the monitor instead of being out of sync. Without it you end up having to draw an oval to make a circle on screen, which will not only slow you down but will make you develop bad habits and muscle memory for drawing.

[tarang]

Thanks, this really helped. I have a really a small tablet (6×4 inches) so it's really hard using it, since it's my first time using something other than paper to draw

[tatarciewich]

Learning to use a pen tablet comes with a learning curve but there is something magical to it when things start to look the way you intended. And maybe we should consider pen tablets better suited for digital painting and not necessarily for super crisp line art?

I think Sinix and Daniel Ibanez use pen tablets, maybe also Ahmed Aldoori and Trent Kaniuga, if I remember correctly. And they all are amazing.

Honestly when I got an IPad and Procreate I was a bit underwhelmed, I guess I just prefer my 24 inch display, CSP and a cheap Huion pen tablet.

[emmet_xrcmiy]

I've found that I need my pen travel to be identical to the travel distance on the screen, otherwise I end up drawing the wrong distances in my sketchbooks...

Thank-you for the tips and help!