How to Use a Drawing Tablet

[@Creepyartspace]

I'm a digital artist myself and just got a tablet today, got to say I'm surprised on how quickly I picked it up, and I really enjoy how drawing on the tablet feels rather than just my screen

[@JMulvy]

I love the humor and animation in these videos. Even though a lot of this will no longer be of use to me at this point, I am still going to watch every video. Thanks Brad! btw, I played a dungeon of Elder Scrolls Online on my tablet once, no problem. My tip: learn how to properly hold your pen. The way we are taught to hold it for writing, to make small, precise, detailed curves, is not conducive to the free, flowing, sweeping movements needed in drawing and or painting. If you only move your fingers or finger tips you will limit your range of motion and fatigue your hand and wrist to the point of pain. Relax your grip, try a different grip, include your elbow and possibly even your shoulder if needed. It took me just over a year of practice but I finally feel like I got it down and I even have a nice new callous to show for it. 😅

[@johnhoskins7335]

This video made me feel sooo much better! Watching Brad, the pro, made the same wobbly lines I do was awesome. I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong, besides not having enough practice. Turns out, it's just a very sensitive device.

[@Sifter2D]

Everybody talks about drawing tablets, but nobody talks about drawing a tablet.

[@1_Life_gaming_313]

Lmao

[@33rdstreetknits]

Oh how the turn tables…

[@v666s]

Lol

[@SachinChaudhary-sb1sh]

😭😭 Bro

[@ryanjacoblover]

A person who thinks all the time has nothing to think about except thoughts.

[@Kogami]

This is a great roundup of advice, great job! I mostly use the tracing pencil sketch and playing with Osu advice when I first started out and I'm glad to see it recommended here! And for those learning: Don't sweat if it takes some time to get used to your tablet! I know most of my friends got used to theirs within a week or two but I frankly took a month to get used the hand eye coordination. We all learn things at a different pace, so the key is to keep using your tablet :)

[@Cryptic0013]

One of my favourite bits of early PC gaming lore is that Microsoft started putting Solitaire on computers back in the 80s because nobody had ever used a mouse before, and they were having a heck of a time getting to grips with it (no pun intended). And yet somehow it never occurred to me to actually try playing some card games and whatnot with my tablet. Gonna start doing that and these other exercises *today*. Thanks for the video, Brad! This is a huge help, and has actually spurred me to get back to practising with my tablet after I got discouraged in the early going by the steep learning curve and how awful my sketches looked in digital. I knew I should keep at it, but everything looked so gnarly that it was hard to get motivated because there were no 'wins'. Perhaps getting some literal wins in a CCG while chalking it up as 'training eye-hand coordination' will get me back on track!

[@BenjaminAlternate]

I know the family of the individual who made the solitare game for microsoft! XD

[@xnajx]

Even though I'm not a beginner I still love watching your videos and how you explain it simply to the audience. I'm a designer and the best part about using a tablet for me is that is takes pressure off my hands. For a period of time I stopped using it and just used a mouse which caused my hand to really hurt from all the clicking and moving. The soft tissue between the thumb and first finger has become quite tense which has caused some thumb stiffness. YAY RSI!

[@elescritornomada]

Very useful information, thanks. I use an Huion tablet and Krita. I still learning but I'm doing better every week, I love to try and experiment with the different types of pencils.

[@animegurlmbp]

I just bought a drawing tablet (the green one he was using but the blue version [Deco MW]) and I also use Krita for both my laptop and tablet

[@bigbrainsheep9083]

same :D

[@ZekLullaby]

I hope the art class kids come back in future videos. Do they have names? This is very valuable information, even with years of experience in digital art it's really nice to sit down and enjoy a fun refresher. I'm always looking forward for more videos.

[@tricat92]

I'm an Instructional Designer and am trying to get into the world of illustration. I love your style of teaching, it makes for such an engaging learning experience.

[@PapiDimple]

If I’m being completely honest, I just ran across your page have watched three videos and absolutely love them all. You’re very open. Very kind very informative. I’ve always wanted to get to into digital drawing, etc. I love anything that has to do with technology and being able to create. I must say it’s not easy in the beginning but your words are so encouraging to get us started. I want to create logos. I want to create digital custom illustrations for my mother. She is a yorkie breeder and having her own website/social media in style it’s just something I would love to do. I’m probably writing so much but I just wanted to thank you I’m going to continue watching you. You have gained a loyal subscriber.🎉❤

[@ghost_twig]

This is actually really great. I've had an old tablet like these sitting for years, gathering dust. Thank you for this

[@eternal1803]

Sir please post videos regularly at least in a gap of 2 weeks because you are such a good teacher

[@czerwonygozdzik3915]

It's always a joy to watch and learn from you - thanks for the new tips !

[@cold_horizon]

This is exactly what I wanted help with thanks dude. BTW the extra effect on the hair movement was a nice touch

[@catrplrstudios5790]

Just bought my tablet few days back , there was no better timing for release of this video .thanks Brad ❤️❤️❤️

[@Pufferzsola]

I was so glad that you brought up Huion HS611 as an example! I have one too, and i really love it!

[@mohoodie8728]

Former finger artist here, Got a good sized decent quality tab today and it's going pretty good!

[@nicetrayyy]

Love your humorous approach Brad. Keep it up!!!

[@matthewpeluso6505]

replacing my mouse all together helped me. Like for example, I would use it to navigate the web and just learn the boundary of the live area. This is one reason why I recommend a medium tablet over a small one. That being said, you can always make it work if all if can afford is a small one.

[@nsgames24]

2:14 Dude, that background music was awesome. I honestly didn't think I would get into these, but I learned how to get used to mine by using it as a computer mouse for a week.

[@daijishinomori9161]

Love this! I've use two Huion tablets of different sizes, though I didn't have that big a learning curve somehow. I'm not sure if it helped since I didn't do it very often, but I used to do drawings using a mouse on MS Paint, just for funsies. They don't look great, but they weren't terrible, either. I do have a preference of using the smaller tablet, Huion's H430P. I find that navigating the screen is faster because of the smaller work area. As someone who has wrist problems (tenosynovitis), I have the benefit of smaller movements, i.e. minimal strain, with this tablet. The exercise you discussed here is new to me. I think I'll benefit from this with my larger tablet. Thanks for sharing!

[@yunan9610]

Well, you can adjust the work area with bigger tablets. I have H950p myself. The good thing about the bigger tablet is that I could place the tablet on my lap whenever I have no table and just place my laptop on the ground and I don't have to hunch over

[@AbelA.García]

Man this video took me from a 0% to about a 60% proficiency in less than a week! Of course I practiced a lot, but knowing what to expect from the tablet and doing the exercises is a game changer. I appreciate this video, thank you!

[@TNGraFix]

Tomorrow I'm getting my Drawing Tablet. Thanks for the video mate! 😊

[@Prukings]

That’s nice

[@TNGraFix]

@@Prukings Thanks 😊

[@ultimatpower9143]

Same inshallah 😂♥️♥️♥️

[@TNGraFix]

@@ultimatpower9143 Congrats brother ✨

[@shreyaunnecessarilylonglas607]

Did you learn how to draw digital art? I'm having difficulty learning after getting the tablet.

[@terrymead2122]

Outstanding! Your humorous sharing of information is great!

[@Tom_and_Lulu]

Thanks Brad, just what I needed to get the tablet out of the box and have another go. Cheers.

[@NoobZylis]

im definitely coming to this guy again, i haven’t even got my drawing tablet yet but this guy explained stuff to where i can understand, thanks Brad! ^^

[@Shorrey]

Practice helped. And I was surprised how fast it came!

[@RodrigoDAgostino]

Love your teaching style, Brad!

[@theempireofstud]

I love these animations and these videos are very useful!

[@LemonEyesNL]

Yay finally a video about hoooow to learn to use! Awesome!

[@minilopkastudios4711]

0:38 Wow! It's the exact same tablet I have!

[@PaperStick_]

Cool!!

[@SL2797]

3:30: We are going to practice drawing BOOBIES!!

[@ellie_cr]

To Do: Accidentlyforce quit chrome he says... 🤣🤣🤣 Done! Also, I'm really excited to try your new course! I did your procreate course before & it was awesome. Loved it!

[@ethankrone2447]

time to play cs2 on the drawing tablet!

[@punkbuster2004]

Oh wow , i only just started looking at digitizer tablet and you helped me a lot for the first steps. Now i am not going toy use it daily, only as a rookie designer for my own stuff

[@TheNommers311]

1:00 "when did we get a budget for a ladder?" 🤣💀

[@meowsers-h5f]

"i has your cat" LMFAO

[@Gloomy_Rain_]

Itsy really interesting how you make us understand with easy way and your animation is very nice learned a lot thank you😊

[@premd8983]

love the new animation on the mouth keep posting amazing videos

[@chrisjpndala7576]

the way you present your videos nice and funny that's why I love them

[@joehoandroid]

I like your videos very much! And I am still flabbergasted that animated Brad has now a mouth to talk.

[@mactube72]

Best way to teach..funny and easy to understand. Thanks!!

[@tegistardis69]

an addition to lightining round tip 1 "try ditching your mouse!": a couple rounds of Osu! is a good way to get the connection down if you're having problems on the hand-eye coordination disconnection. could likely get the same effect across as a couple days of casual computing/browsing in an hour or two just because of the pace and context being more applicable to real-time tracking and placement, while looking at the cursor on the screen only. its like practicing touch-typing but for handwriting and drawing. learning to do it without looking at your hands, but rather the output of your inputs.

[@chileanyways196]

please do a tutorial on how to draw still life's! like how to draw cubes, pyramids, and any other shape on top of each other

[@artofk118]

In my experience, getting rid of undo while sketching helps with mastering the pen tablet since it forces me to think about where my line goes next which helps with the control of the tablet.

[@FabehaMohsin-d7n]

The intro was so entertaining 🎉 keep up the good work

[@ndesanaARTa]

the way of carrying in the video is very fun, I really like it 🤩🙏

[@dredanhaner3210]

2:04 this reminds me of the smartboard calibration system

[@joshlia6469]

Omg I thought I was the only one 😂 the memories from school pressing each corner on the crosshair

[@thill6482]

Can you please make a video on how to draw hands & feet? I feel like these are some of the hardest things to draw.

[@thcrtn]

It's definitely a 2 left feet situation the first time, I tried to use the lasso ... (More responsive ya!) Turns out it just didn't wanna start. it Made a lil circle of a cursor then started to lasso... But it wasn't the same each time 🤣 I gotta stick to it... I remember learning pliers for jewelry... Now they are like extended fingers with good grip lol so it's possible... The practice drills seem amazing... I'll be doing those b4 I get back to attempting other activities

[@AlphaGamer1981]

can you do one about hands? They are probably the hardest to get right, both back hands and front hands

[@FireflyX5L]

I swear, if I use one of those tablets I’ll be tapping the actual corner of it (the inactive area lol) I have a pretty old Wacom. Rather than having corner marks like that, it’s evident that it’s separate from the inactive area (plastic). Those, on the other hand, only shows you the active area with lil corner marks :)

[@drocaan8746]

You had me in the first 9 seconds of your video ! Well done 🫶🫶

[@Lively-Shiro]

Me with my yoga laptop holding it like a cave man, and using the pen

[@SoulSearch11110]

Very entertaining video. What's that wrapped around your hand and what is it's purpose?

[@r3ckl3ssofficial]

No one really touches on this topic but it feels like I can never do anything I could basically do before. Emphasis on the basic. It’s hard for me to close circles. It’s hard to make a straight line. I can’t make shapes as easily. I use this tablet for Osu but when it comes to drawing I’m terrible. I’m using a small gaimon tablet I heard was good for Osu as I’m a big fan of the game originally. And went ahead to use it for drawing and bleh. My drawingings suck. I’m good at sketches on it but when it comes to using a pen option I can’t go back and erase it, because if I do it doesn’t look as nice as when I use a real life pen. And watching you draw on your tablet that looks like mine gave me hope. Your drawings look amazing and you don’t go back or redo. How’s you master this? I draw on Medibang. I know I won’t get a response on this youtuber but to anyone who also uses a tablet with not screen built into it. How did you overcome this? Please I need help.

[@creativejoe_studios]

This was very useful. Thank you

[@rahatulation]

I'm using XP Pen G960S for around 1 year. It is really helpful.

[@josiahflenor2257]

You literally need to come back I thought you weren’t cancelled 😭😭😭😭

[@tomatobuns]

2:06 instructions unclear. launched 2 nukes and sold my house

[@loopthedoop]

Oh, I've been waiting for you to post again!

[@АртемГірман]

I like your advice to use a pen instead of mouse for some time - it really helps you get a graps of movements and your working area on a tablet, thanks you)

[@mercy7640]

rooke question incoming: do i have to learn how to draw before learning how to use a tablet OR can I learn how to draw while using a tablet? save me someone

[@mercuryon8608]

I hope its not too late but you can learn drawing while also learning how to use the tablet Its easier to learn to draw with paper and pen cuz ofc youre already used to them, its like using sticks instead of a fork to eat. To eat you have to learn how to use the tool. I hope this helps (10 months later)

[@DebarghaBhattacharjeeDB]

​@mercuryon8608 it's helpful for me and others like me that are starting out and watching the video now. Thank you.

[@animehair05silently88]

I'm not an expert yet but there's no reason you can't just do a little with a tablet and a little with just paper too when you start out, yeah

[@Scoundrel_Plays]

Is there no way to move the cursor with the pen before drawing so you know where it is? Or do you have to guess and then keep erasing if you’re not in the right place

[@AveryChristmas-f8h]

I recently bought a laptop and am considering buying a drawing tablet to connect to it for animating. I have an iPad that I normally use for animating but there are limitations to what software I can use with that. at first I was worried about the learning curve with a non-display tablet as that is what I'm used to, but I came across this video in my researching pen tablets and now I'm not so scared of trying :) thanks a lot this video was very helpful. (and funny too)

[@ducksushi2427]

Thanks man, I really needed that.

[@helenanilsson5666]

I haven't used a tablet in many years (I quit drawing not long after high school), but now I'm kinda thinking of getting one again. What's mainly holding me back is that one of the more frustrating things about these tablets is that I couldn't rotate my work surface the way I could a plain paper, which is one of the reasons why I quit the tablet even before I quit drawing, and learned to do lineart with the path tool (click on point A, click on point B, adjust the anchors so that the line gets the right curve). With the obvious downside that all lines had completely even thickness unless I put in the extra effort to manually erase a bit of the lines at the thin parts or add ore lines where I wanted them thicker. The way I understand it, if I use a drawing pad with a screen I'd be able to swirl around the work surface in a way more similar to how I'd move the paper? Or is it better to just bite the bullet and learn to draw in a static position?

[@bradleejames5859]

My name is Bradlee too!

[@DemonCoreEntertainment]

No neck superiority

[@deltafour1212]

This is a godsend!

[@sadev101]

you're the best on art

[@alessandracaldeiradealmeid6827]

Thank you so much, I really needed some help as beginner

[@lymstudiosartistnbo]

Hi brad. This is very awesome.😀👍👍👍👍

[@Middle_OfMay]

thx so much I was actually ganna buy one of those for myself to start self-taught animating but I needed to know if they were good so this vid helped a lot 1+ sub!

[@sloth451]

Great tips Brad! thank you 🖌

[@bajakeka]

I NEEDED THIS THANKS MAN

[@Camyhdz]

Hey brad can you please do a video about eyes on paper drawing? Thanks

[@BenjaminAlternate]

I was adjusted immediately! I used to Swordfight with my brother a lot, as well as a bunch of other hand-eye coordination activities. So, I thought--Well, no use spending money on a fancy one if this works just fine for me! XD

[@Mii..]

Can you do a tutorial on how to draw different hairstyles, and maybe hair types?

[@CursedLexy]

I have two screens one is laptop and one us monitor every time I need to duplicate my screen lol

[@demonheart13]

I would love to see someone play elden ring on a drawing tablet and stream it

[@geanysoares3042]

Great video it’s fun and informative!!!! I’m looking into get something that will work with procreate, I have a Chromebook , so any advice on iPad with good amount of layers and not too old for updates that won’t break the bank? Thank you 😊

[@user-op8fg3ny3j]

Where I struggle is when I need to rotate the canvas on screen but then I don't know what angle corresponds on the physical tablet

[@Deblackification]

Thx for fooling me ☠️😑

[@aster8537]

really helpful advice, thank you

[@yunan9610]

Biggest thing about the tablets is that signing documents became so simple

[@ThatOneOddGuy]

I have a huion g930L Give me tips It's difficult ot draw since ei can't rotate it when drawing curves

[@mrakaardiansyah2472]

Dang,youre finally back. I thought there will be no more tutorials anymore

[@pdhowler]

Brad, great stuff. I was wondering if you'd consider trying some drawing, inking, animating with dogwaffle. Project Dogwaffle. Such as PD Howler?

[@cedric8375]

Ur awesome brad

[@angadsngh01]

How do you use animations? Would love to learn that along with digital sketching. Cheers!

[@AlanWalkerFan1357]

lets goo another uploadddd

[@agauerm]

Having to guess where to put the pen is too much of a hassle, I prefer the tablets with screen.

[@Froslev45]

Yeah I tried with a screenless now for like one week. And its so uncomfortable, really annoying so I returned it ans got a Xppen 16 inch instead

[@MVNA_]

I was always a little confused about drawing tablets. Thanks. Btw am i first?

[@Aviyah_69]

Yh

[@Jadebones]

No. Lots of people before you were also confused about drawing tablets.

[@tx59DavidH]

I have never been able to figure out how you find a particular spot on your picture once you lift your pen up. If you need to be at a very specific spot how can you find it when the tablet is a blank page? It would be easier if the picture showed up on the tablet too.

[@rememoryswithkazisefat9464]

hello awesome man

[@rowl97865]

really!! Thanks a lot!! just it took one video to clear mountains of confusion

[@BenjaminAlternate]

I highly recommend using it as a mouse for whatever you do on your computer to get used to it, for example: Play chess online with a tablet! the grid nature of chess helps you be accurate!

[@mort0303]

What's a good set up for the tablet and screen? Should they be close together like a laptop, or spread apart? What about angles, should I tilt the tablet?

[@Scruffi]

All that is probably going to come down to personal preference. You have to decide what works best for you. I would suggest that whatever setup you decide on, you should keep it consistent. You'll be developing a new sense of hand-eye coordination - drawing in one place while the art appears in another (I mean it's similar to using a mouse - your hand moves on the desk and the pointer moves on the screen). Personally, I would place my tablet to the right of my laptop so it was located where a mouse would be (I'm right-handed), and push the tablet up against the laptop edge so they would always be squared up with each other. That consistency helped me find that hand-eye coordination more quickly and felt more natural than other options. But a lot of people I've worked with would keep their tablet directly in front of them, between them and their keyboard. So it's a matter of preference.

[@sadclown_66]

7:50 Instructions unclear, I am now addicted to osu! and don't draw because of that.