So, I broke down and bought one of those Huion display tablets touted in the FurAffinity May 7th Community Announcement. (Don't click the link if your PC is slow, as the number of comments is ridiculous). If you care about the Huion affiliate link for FA, which gives the site a cut of the proceeds, the Huion Store link is here. Yeah, I know you IB people may not care about FA, but there's a decent Mother's Day sale going on throughout Sunday, so I really do recommend checking it out.
My niece has one of those, and I have to admit it looked really impressive. I'm still kicking myself for not asking to try it out myself, but... now I'll finally have one of my own, shortly. I've got money these days, so I'm not sure why I'm always so damn frugal. 8)
You know, I've been using Wacom tablets for a long, long time. I started with a tiny Graphire in the mid 2000's, and currently own a Wacom One, which is well over a decade old. While I've gotten used to using it for coloring and (believe it or not) even playing games, I've never really felt comfortable using it for inking. When I try to ink with it, I can't follow my sketch lines very closely and my lines are all wiggly, so inking easily takes two or more times longer on the PC than on paper. That's why I do all my art traditionally. Sketching is a nightmare on paper, but inking is WAY easier.
The consequence is that my production is virtually nil. Composition is really hard on paper and I hate sketching, but I love inking. On the PC, it's the opposite. Plus, I only draw when I'm at my work desk downstairs, and I can't really draw on my computer desk upstairs.
Since I'm allergic to any portable technology I don't really "own", like phones and touch tablets, I figure I'd try one of these display drawing tablets. Maybe that'll encourage me to squeeze one off every now and then between compiles. It certainly can't make my productivity any worse. Surprisingly, the model I bought has a MUCH bigger drawing area than my trusty old Wacom, despite having a built-in screen with a real glass surface, and ended up costing less than what I paid for my regular tablet over a decade ago. Man, technology really has come a long way.
Mind you, I just ordered it, so I have to wait for it to show up. But, I'm actually pretty excited. I didn't realize these things were so cheap, or that they finally have IPS displays as standard. I'm pretty lazy with technology these days, so it's been a long time since I've bought any hardware. I figure since I'm finally moving my main workstation from Win7 to Linux this summer, it's time to start fresh and build a new workflow from scratch. New rig, new software, new workflow... new everything. I'm long overdue. Heck, I still do everything with Photoshop 5.5, which is literally the same 25+ year-old copy I've used since college. I'm thinking of moving over to Krita.
I've been so deeply depressed and worried over the last month for a number of reasons, and have been getting almost no sleep for weeks. As such, work on my comic and everything else artistic has stalled. If I have a new toy to play with, and it works as I expect, I'm hoping to have a few little doodles out for your amusement. I haven't done any stuff like that since my oekaki days, back when I first got a Wacom tablet. I miss those days. The wiggly lines didn't bother me so much when I was doing pixel art on a 300x300 canvas. Time to get up to date.
Now I just have to find out if the tablet actually does support Win7, or if that was just a typo on the specs sheet. I don't want to surf the web with my main workstation, so I have several computers, including a Win10 "beater" (because I always want to beat the $#1! out of it). I'll sort it out.
Anyway, in the meantime, I've got some more writing to do. Art is a pain in the ass, but I always get back to it eventually.
my huion 16 pro has been pretty great :3 i've had it for... 3 years now i think? first tablet i ever had basically. but apparently i was a massive stupid, and i pulled off the screen protector and never knew it for like 6 months till i scratched it =l i heckin swear the protector had a pull tab, so pulled it ToT... then i bought a new protector, and scratched that up real bad after like 4 months, and was like 'wait, i have to magically not fuck up replacing these without getting bubbles under it every 4months?!... ....so i cut a piece of glass and put it on there, its been great ever since! :3
my huion 16 pro has been pretty great :3 i've had it for... 3 years now i think? first tablet i ever
Ooh... they say the new Gen3 model has a laminated glass surface that can't be easily scratched. Does the older model not have that, so a screen protector is necessary?
Another reason why I decided to buy a new tablet is that my old Wacom recently got gouged badly. I'm not sure how. I tried to fix it with some sandpaper and plastic polish, but the protector just kind of delaminated and can't be polished smooth. I've heard that a sheet of Mylar from the hardware store is a good substitute, so I might try that as a backup.
Ooh... they say the new Gen3 model has a laminated glass surface that can't be easily scratched. Do
under the protector was pretty good glass, till i managed to put 3 small scratches in it eventually as i started to clue in on my mistake x.x first scratch i thought was the pixels going funny since it was a perfect vertical line XD
under the protector was pretty good glass, till i managed to put 3 small scratches in it eventually
Nice! I hope it ends up being really good to you. And yeah, the non-Wacom brands tend to be much more affordable. I'd make sure to get a screen protector, though, my buddy Sali has had bad luck with the screen surface's ability to weather wear and tear.
EDIT: Hah! Okay, someone else mentioned it. That's what I get for not refreshing before commenting.
Nice! I hope it ends up being really good to you. And yeah, the non-Wacom brands tend to be much mor
I was less than impressed with the recent Wacom offerings, and their licensing terms are not nice. Everything is a subscription.
I also haven't forgiven them for breaking the Wacom pen driver for my tablet. The official Win7 driver has telemetry that causes huge amounts of lag, rendering it unusable, so right now I'm using a driver written for XP that just happens to work on Win7. The Win10 driver doesn't even support my tablet anymore, because of course it's impossible to offer legacy support to what is essentially a glorified joystick.
So, yeah... I'll give Huion a try this time.
I was less than impressed with the recent Wacom offerings, and their licensing terms are not nice.
They went subscription too?? How??? Do they come break your legs if you don't give the tablet back?? LOL good lord. That sucks though, I'm not surprised they broke the driver, their drivers have always been notoriously terrible.
My XP-Pen has great drivers, never had a single issue– it's the hardware that's the problem. The ring on mine broke in like five months, and the pen nibs wear down faster than art gum sneakers.
They went subscription too?? How??? Do they come break your legs if you don't give the tablet back?
