Okay, so I FINALLY got myself a Cintiq Tablet... a month ago.. and I haven't had very much time to screw around with it due to school and gaming. Despite this, I know I promised some people I would post my thoughts on the tablet when I got it, so I figured a "First JAMpressions" (totally original, plz dun steal!) would do.

Before I go into detail about the tablet, let me just take a moment to brag about my cheap-assery. I got this $1000 tablet (barely) used (no damage or anything, all original parts and extra pieces) for only $725 w/shipping and combined the purchase with Live.com's ebay cashback offer. Using the offer, Microsoft promises that they will send my paypal $175 sometime in January (25% off), which brings the purchase to $550, which is only a little over half the price of buying one from Wacom or somewhere else. Despite my wallet being nearly empty now, I'm still quite happy with this purchase.

For those of you who don't know, the Wacom Cintiq 12WX is a drawing tablet with a screen which allows the artist to do digital art as if they were doing it pencil-to-paper. Here's a video of the tablet in action (not me drawing).




Setup

This thing was a bit of a bitch for me to set up. I was probably foolish to think it would be a simple USB connection (like other non-screen tablets), but that's what I thought. This tablet basically works as an alternate monitor for your PC. Because of this, there is a small box that you connect the tablet to that works similar to a monitor's menu buttons.


(lol, Kirby)

This box needs to be connected to your PC using cables similar to those of a monitor's. If your PC has a video card that allows you to connect 2 monitors to one PC, then you're all good. If you don't, then you'll have to constantly disconnect one monitor and connect the other. Because I'm not a PC genius, I didn't realize at first that my video card could handle this. Well, that and the cords that should've worked were different from the ones in the manual. After some frustrating disconnecting and reconnecting in my cluttered, messy space.





Friggin Lazengann poked me in the forearm/armpit so many times I had to temporarily move it and Starscream!





Eventually I got things figured out and had it set up perfectly. THEN I had to figure out that I can set up my second monitor so that it's a desktop right next to my main monitor. Before, I was switching the tablet to the main monitor, then restarting to get the mouse/pen to work on the tablet screen. Really, I was just super retarded when it came to the setup for this friggin thing for some reason. ANYWAY, after I got it all set up, I opened up Photoshop CS3 and got down to business...


USING THE TABLET

This thing is seriously a dream. After some hotkey customization on the tablet, this thing handles like a true dream. It really feels just like drawing on a piece of paper with a pencil or pen. The pressure sensitivity is great. If you press down hard, then you get a full use of the brush size you currently have. If you do light sketchy strokes, you'll get very light, thin lines. This pressure sensitivity leads to creating very natural-looking artwork (something I wanted to put into my artwork after using the Pen Tool for so long). Another awesome feature is the eraser portion on the opposite end of the tablet pen. Just flip it over and you switch from brush to eraser on the fly without any sort of lag.

I have a couple gripes with the pen, though. First, from time-to-time I accidentally press the double click button on the pen:



And second, my strokes are really bumpy and whatnot--not as clean as I'd like. This can be seen in a couple pictures I drew and included at the bottom. Both of these gripes, however, may be resolved simply by using the tablet more and improving myself. There is one other big gripe I have with this tablet, though. Colors on the tablet are different from the colors on the desktop. When I opened pictures I colored in the tablet on my main monitor, the colors were more washed out and dull compared to what I saw on the tablet screen. However, a good remedy for this seems to be to just move the picture over to the main monitor once in a while (really simple--just click and drag it to the left or wherever you set up your second desktop in the preferences) and make sure that the colors are what you want since that's also probably how it would print out if you choose to do that.

I also noticed that the screen gets pretty warm after a while and my drawing hand starts to stick to the screen after long drawing periods. The remedy for this will probably be to get some tablet gloves like in the video above.

So, in conclusion based on my first impressions..

PROS
+Just like drawing on paper with a pencil
+Bright, clear screen so you can easily see what you're doing
+Pressure sensitivity allows for a wide variation in strokes
+Nice, big screen with plenty of room
+Hot Keys on the tablet reduce the need of using the keyboard (though keyboard is still a good, quick way to switch tools)

CONS
-Because it's big, it takes up quite a bit of space
-Setup isn't simple
-Not very portable at all as it requires a lengthy installation (beyond just plugging it up)
-Screen shows colors differently from the normal monitor
-You have to turn off the second desktop in your preferences, or else windows and files will be put on the second desktop even if you're not using your tablet

So overall, though it's not portable and takes some time to set up initially, it's definitely looking like a must have for any artists like myself. Definitely consider this if you have the money or are interested in one. And now, without further adue.....

TEH ARTZ

First thing I decided to sketch out was this!



And then I drew a requested penis for Pedro (but don't seem to have the picture anymore..) followed by THIS!



Now if I could just thing of a cool signature style....

So there are my JAMpressions thus far of the tablet. After I've spent more time with it, I'll be sure to update you all with better artwork!