A few questions about graphics tablets and art programs

[AutumnFerret]

this is a few questions for ALL you artist out there. as many replies as possible would be great!

SO! I've just started getting into digital artwork. I've done a ton of research and decided my favorite art program out of the bunch is Medibang Paint Pro, (because it is free and I is poor). and I've been trying to decide on a graphics tablet too. I'd rather not spend more than 100$ because as stated previously "I is poor". and I thought I had found the perfect tablet, the Huion h610. it's only about 50$ and I thought it'd be perfect for a new artist like myself... well, according to some sources, the Huion h610 is not compatible with Medibang. and I say "according to SOME sources" because, according to some OTHERS, it works fine. Now I'm not about to drop $50+ on a tablet that may or may not work with my program of choice.

SO! heres the questions: What program do you use/did you used to use? How much did it cost? What tablet do you use/did you used use? and how much did IT cost? Basically I just need some advice on a cheap and easy way to get the bare bones of what I need to get started.

[GastricAztec]

There are a lot of free art software, such as Gimp and Paint.net, but they don’t have CMYK and RGB like Photoshop does.

[MaxTwenty]

Paint Tool Sai is fantastic, and 2 is leagues better, though it's about $50 or so. Buying 1 gets you 2, so no decision need be made there. Though with 2 you're gonna want to save as bmp and have a some way to convert to png or jpg, since it still only saves as .sai, .psd and .bmp files. The reason I recommend it is because it has an excellent stabilizer, which compensates nicely for the whole disconnected drawing on plastic feeling of a tablet.

Unfortunately I don't know much about tablets outside of Wacom, all of which are probably more expensive than you're looking for (especially the cintiq). That Huion incompatibility sounds like really finicky drivers, which is not uncommon for tablets in general; you can probably get it to work with enough percussive maintenance, but don't quote me on that. With any tablet see if you can get the chance to try it in meatspace first, or at least be darn sure of the return policy.

Also, I'd really strongly recommend sketching on paper and using the tablet for inking/coloring only if you're going to get a tablet without a screen, though that's dependent on you having a scanner lying around somewhere. If you can manage to sketch with all the disconnect, it'll be impressive, but don't be discouraged if you never feel comfortable sketching exclusively on it. A budget option might also be taking a photo of a sketch (being careful to line it up perfectly and transform/scale as needed) then inking/coloring over that.

[AutumnFerret]

though that's dependent on you having a scanner lying around somewhere.

surprisingly. that is in fact the one useful thing i have just lying around. lol

[NSW]

SO! heres the questions: What program do you use/did you used to use? How much did it cost? What tablet do you use/did you used use? and how much did IT cost? Basically I just need some advice on a cheap and easy way to get the bare bones of what I need to get started.

I use Krita (https://krita.org) for software and a cheap ($79) Wacom Intuos. Krita is free, open source and works on multiple platforms. Wacom just works without issues on Linux, which is what i use.

As far as cheap tablets go, if you are on Windows, anything should work so long as the drivers are installed properly. Sometimes you need to install a specific version of the driver to have it work without issues, just depends on the tablet. My advise would be to buy the tablet from someplace with a good return policy. Amazon would be my first choice but any place works.

Hope that's helpful in some way. I use mine just for fun and my own personal enjoyment, i'm not a serious artist or anything.

[Nalzindar]

1) I use Wacom Intuos Pro (small), probably not the cheapest tablet here, together with Clip studio paint (formerly known as Manga studio). Both tablets
and paint program works great and are compatible with most computers and operative systems. Unfortunately though, you can't look at the tablets
when you are drawing either, you have to get used to look at the computer screen but that is easier than you think!

(The small one costs 199$ and the large one 399$ and on this you can attach an A4 paper and draw on that with the digital pen. So neither of them are probably the cheapest around)
(One Clip Paint also comes in two categories, the cheap one to 50$ (but are often on sale for half the price!) which do have everything you really need and is highly recognizable, and an expensive to 218$ which you only need if you are a professional artist for living)

2) The upside with these are that they are easy to use, as I said, you do get used to drawing on a tablet without looking at it, it comes after a few hours
of exercise and the pen doesn't require battery at all. One Clip can look a bit advanced but the program has a lot of help on how to use it, and you can
also look up on their homepage for help and on youtube where people explain how to paint.

3)As for tip on how to start drawing; At I first STRONGLY recommend that you get to know your program, then you can start like any child, use another
picture as an under-layer (in the program) and use that for a reference. Focus on how to draw lines first and thereafter you can focus on the coloring
which is a project on its own.

4) This is a picture drawn on One Clip with a background image (and plenty of artistic liberties) https://aryion.com/g4/view/459343
And this is a picture taken from my imagination: https://aryion.com/g4/view/472012

[Halcyon]

I am perhaps more fledgling of a visual artist than everyone else who has posted in this thread, but I use the Wacom Intuos Pro (or whatever the cheapest one is, it was like 79 bucks) and Photoshop CC.

I don't have a screen but I do all of my sketching in Photoshop itself. I really prefer it this way because I can use stuff like the ellipse tools and the wonderful "undo" button to get my stuff looking good.

ctrlpaint.com has some great tutorials on how to use Photoshop for art.

Lastly, here's an example of some of my own sketching, though it isn't much: https://aryion.com/g4/view/493154