Best Drawing Tablet for Beginners and Pro-Wacom Intuos Pen Tablet

AnnyReview11 Comments

The best drawing tablet for beginners and pro is Wacom Intuos Pen & Touch tablet. This drawing tablet is the essential tool for comic book artist like me or any other artist. From editing photos to 3D sculpting, the Wacom Intuos line is an amazing pen tablet that match the needs for any artist. Here's my review.

There are different steps in the journey of creating a comic book. The first step is writing a story and creates the characters related to the story. The second step is bringing to life the story and the characters. The third step is sketching the comic pages, and the fourth step is finishing and editing them. I'm not going to talk about the other steps such as create a website, marketing your comic book, and so on. These steps are very long and require a lot of details and explanations. I will definitely talk about these topics in the future. For the first post, I want to talk about the tools and materials that I use to draw my comic book, Legends of the West.

essential tools for comic book artist Legends of the West illustration

I still draw comics by hand. I even ink and apply the screen tones by hand. I know, I know, some of you are saying "WHAT?!" I am used to drawing by hand since I was a little girl and, honestly, when I began to create Legends of the West I was not aware of pen tablets, tools, and software to create comics. I just bought a bunch of books to learn how to draw manga and none of them mentioned the use of tablets and software. Now a day, there are tons of different digital tools that substitute pen and paper. So, yes, I know, I am old, 🙁
Where was I? Oh...yes, once I finished my "handmade" page, I scanned it on my computer and edit it with Photoshop to make it suitable for my website. And guess what, I used to use my computer mouse to edit in Photoshop.

Yes, I used the mouse to work in Photoshop until last year when my friend gave me her Bamboo Pen tablet for free because she was going to buy a new one. I instantly fell in love with it. I learned that using a pen tablet it is way easier than using a computer mouse. YEAH, welcome to the modern world, Anny!
Anyway, the Bamboo tablet was a little old and I began to have some issues with the pen. It was missing the grip and I had put to much pressure in order to complete a line with the brush tool.

One day, I was watching on YouTube one of my favorite channels, The Futur, which is a channel for graphic design, marketing, etc.
The graphic designer was showing how to remove the backgrounds from a photo in Photoshop. The designer was using a Wacom pen tablet. I found it really cool, and I said to my self, "I wish to have a tablet like that one too". I checked Wacom website to get some info and prices. I found out that the graphic designer in the video was using Wacom Pro. Of course, it is one of the most expensive tablets, it cost about $300/400 and even if it is really cool, I can't afford it. Anyway, I did some research about it and I ended up buying the Intuos Creative Pen & Touch tablet Comic that I love so much.

Here is the YouTube video that I'm talking about. Just in case some of you are interested.

Wacom Intuos Pen & Touch Tablet Review

Wacom is one of the most popular brands for digital technology tools for creative people like us. From the most professional designer to the newbies, Wacom has pretty much anything you are looking for. They really have good quality products. Intuos is a new line of pen and touch tablets. There are four different versions for different needs.

INTUOS DRAW CREATIVE PEN TABLET

Intuos Draw Creative pen tablet comes in black and white or mint and black. It's the most basic version of the Intuos line. It is a great start for beginners that are not familiar with pen tablets. The Intuos Draw includes ArtRage Lite software, which is a drawing, sketching and painting software. You just need to plug in the tablet in your computer, register it, and download the software for free. All the Intuos come with training and tutorials but not all of these tutorials are free. However, the software is free. Obviously, Intuos Draw and the other entire versions include the pressure-sensitive pen.
Intuos Draw is not multi-touch.
OK for Windows or Mac.
USB wireless is sold separately.
Right or left-handed use
It is available only in the small size
Active area: 152 x 95 mm (6.0 x 3.7 in)

Intuos Comic Creative Pen & Touch Tablet

On sale on Amazon; $79.95 free shipping (with Amazon)

Intuos Art Creative Pen & Touch Tablet

On sale on Amazon; $99.95 free shipping (with Prime)

INTUOS ART CREATIVE PEN & TOUCH TABLET

Intuos Art Creative Pen & Touch tablet is a great match for more advanced artists who like create a digital painting and design t-shirts. I was debating to buy this version or the comic one because I create custom design t-shirts too. In fact, this version comes with Corel Painter Essential 5 software, which has a lot of brushes and cool features that allowed you to create awesome digital paintings. This version comes with the pressure-sensitive pen, (available in all of the Intuos versions)
It is multi-touch.
Right or left-handed use,
USB wireless is sold separately.
OK for Mac or Windows
Color: Black or Black and Mint
It comes in two different sizes small and medium
Active area sizes: Small: 152 x 95 mm (6.0 x 3.7 in)
Medium: 216 x 135 mm (8.5 x 5.3 in)

INTUOS PHOTO CREATIVE PEN & TOUCH TABLET

Intuos Photo comes with Corel PaintShop Pro X8 for Windows and Corel Aftershot Pro 2 for Windows and Mac. Macphun Creative Kit is available for Mac users.
This software is great for creating amazing effects with photos. This pen tablet has the same exact features than Intuos Art except for the tablet color available only in black and it is available only in the small size.

Intuos Photo Creative Pen & Touch Tablet

On sale on Amazon; $99.93 free shipping (with Prime)

Intuos 3D Creative Pen & Touch Tablet

On sale on Amazon; $199.95 free shipping (with Prime)

INTUOS 3D CREATIVE PEN & TOUCH TABLET

If you are into sculpting and three-dimensional art, Intuos 3D might be the right match for you because it comes with ZBrushCore from Pixologic one of the leading user-friendly software for 3D-Sculpting/Digital-Clay. This tablet has the same features like the other ones except for the color and size.
Intuos 3D comes only in black and in the medium size:
Active area: 216 x 135 mm (8.5 x 5.3 in).

INTUOS COMIC CREATIVE PEN & TOUCH TABLET

Last but not least of the Intuos line is the Intuos Comic Pen & Touch Tablet. This is the one that I purchased. All the Intuos tablets are pretty much the same the only main difference is the software that comes with it, color, and size. As you can expect, Intuos Comic comes with Studio Paint Pro and Anime Studio Debut, great software for comic book artist.
It comes in two colors; mint and black or all black. It is available in both sizes small and medium. I got the small size in mint color.

At first, when I opened the box, I thought that the tablet was too small. However, when I started to use it, I realized that the small size is what I need. I have a MacBook Pro and the tablet matches my laptop size. Plus it is easy to carry around wherever you want. The pressure-sensitive pen gives you the real feeling of using a pencil on paper. You don’t need too much pressure on it. It is very sensitive and fit perfectly in your hand.
The Intuos tablet is user-friendly, very easy to install and download the software. It is well designed. I just love it!

I truly recommend it. Like I said, it is great for beginners and pro. I think for the price, you get a lot since includes all these awesome software and tutorials. I haven't used much Clip Studio Paint because I didn't have a chance to edit a page lately. But I will do it pretty soon and probably I will write a post about it.
The price for Intuos Pen Tablets varies from the size. Obviously, the small size is cheaper from the medium one. I bought mine around Christmas on Amazon for $89 free shipping with Prime

On sale on Amazon; $99.95 free Shipping (with Prime)

Intuos Comic Creative Pen & Touch Tablet

For some reason the Intuos Comic in mint color is more expensive; $114.95 free shipping with prime on Amazon.

WACOM INTUOS PRO

The Pro version is the best of the best. It has more features and includes all the software from all the Intuos tablets. It includes the New Wacom Pro Pen 2 designed to be exceptionally sensitive and responsive like a natural extension of your hand. Wacom Pro comes in medium and large size. It is built with premium materials like anodized aluminum and fiberglass composite resin. It is 8mm thick.
Active Area size: Medium: 224 x 148 mm / 8.7 x 5.8 in
Large: 311 x 216 mm / 12.1 x 8.4 in
Creative left and right-handed, USB and Bluetooth 4.2
OK for Mac/Windows. Express Keys, Home Button, Touch Ring, Time-saving settings.

Wacom Intuos Pro large

On sale on Amazon; $499.95
free shipping (with Prime)

Wacom Intous tablets features graph table

Wacom Intuos Pro is really nice but honestly, you might not need all these features and you can get by perfectly with the Intuos version.

In conclusion, if you are a beginner and you never used a pen tablet before, get one of the Intuos lines; choose the software that you might need most. If you are a pro, I would still suggest buying one of the Intuos because it does the job without spending too much money. If you are a professional and you work as a graphic designer or a freelance artist who needs different software for various projects, then buy Wacom Pro.

I hope that this information about Wacom Intuos Pro and the Intuos Pen & Touch tablets line helped you to decide what to use and eventually buy. Do your research and maybe compare other brands and see what is the best fit for your skills and budget. If you decided to purchase one of them, click directly on the pictures and it would redirect you to Amazon.
Usually, Amazon has the best deal better than the website.

Also Read: <a href="https://www.pixpa.com/blog/best-drawing-tablets/">Best Drawing Tablets for Graphics, Art and Illustrations in 2019</a>

Here the link for Wacom website;

https://www.wacom.com/en-us/products/pen-tablets/intuos-comic
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11 Comments on “Best Drawing Tablet for Beginners and Pro-Wacom Intuos Pen Tablet”

  1. Hi, So the time has come for me, to being able to buy a drawing tablet. I have saved a little bit of money, so I can buy it. The problem is, I don’t know which one should I pick. Right now I am thinking about Wacom tablet, and XP-Pen tablet.
    I think that Wacom tablet is pretty safe pick, the are very stable company, with (I think) pretty trust worthy product quality. The problem is, they are very expensive. I am able to buy Wacom intuos Pen & Touch . This is an older model but still very good one.

    The other option is much cheaper XP-Pen Deco 01 https://www.xp-pen.com/product/84.html . This tablet (from what I found) have much higher pressure sensitivity than this from Wacom. And they have much bigger draw area which would be a lovley advantage to have, since it would be so much more comfortable to use such a big area .

    1. I am using the Wacom Intuos tablet for a couple of years now, and I never had an issue. Wacom is a reliable company that builds good quality products. You always pay what you get for. But if you are a beginner, get the tablet that is more affordable and you think that is going to work better for you. You can always upgrade or get a better one later on.

  2. I’ve had a Wacom Intuos draw tablet for a while and it was like $150 when I bought it. It’s worked for me so well and I would definitely recommend. I’m buying a new tablet as I want to expand, but yeah there you go.

    1. I’m not familiar with that particular pen tablet but I’m glad that works fine for you. Most of the time, it’s not necessary to spend big bucks for good products. 🙂

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