Salutations, traveler of The Internets! Welcome to William's Bloody Hell, so named after our founder, Sir Bloody William.
He is seen in the likeness above in a rare, 19th century woodcut. This
image was rumoured to have been
commissioned after a bout of unpleasantness
in the White Chapel district of London. Do enjoy your stay and peruse our many, varied offerings, much of which cannot be found elsewhere!
::Today's soundtrack: Queen - "We Are the Champions"::
THIS IS COPY/PASTED FROM MY DEVIANTART JOURNAL:
I had carefully considered over a very long period of time whether or not I
should purchase an art tablet. A few years ago, I didn't even KNOW about such
things. At the time, you couldn't find Wacom products in electronics stores like
you can now. So, I had talked to some of my online artist friends to get their
two cents on them. Nearly ALL of them had an art tablet of some kind or another.
Even the poor college students. Here I am, a home owner and a guy with a career
and university students living on ramen noodles have them.
One of the main factors about it, though, is that I am picky. If I am going to
do something, I am going to really think it over and do it right. I know my
clumsy self, and I really, honestly could not see me figuring out how to work
the "standard" Bamboo or Intuos tablets properly. The whole
touch-the-stylus-to-the-tablet-but-the-action-is-on-the-main-monitor idea seemed
beyond my grasp. My hand-eye coordination ain't so great, and I know it. The
Last Starfighter alien folk aren't going to be breaking down my door to
pilot a craft for them any time soon, capice?
Therefore it was rather serendipitous that a few events coincided, thus
prompting me to buckle down and make the major purchase of a Wacom Cintiq
tablet. Firstly, I had started work on my pretty ambitious Lawndale Tinies art
project, a series of rather rough pencil drawings in digital surroundings.
Secondly, I saw my US income tax return estimate from my accountant. The
Lawndale Tinies project would have been a horrendous work effort if done
entirely by mouse. I had started working it that way, so believe me. Then I saw
my tax return amount, and thought, "Yes, I am going to bite the bullet and get
that fancy tablet I've had my eye on." Finishing the Lawndale Tinies project
really drove the concept of tablet ownership home as it seemed nearly
fundamental to have to get the art completed before I died of old age.
So, I bought the Cintiq online and began the waiting game. All in all, it didn't
take any longer than a normal mail order purchase to arrive, but it simply FELT
like eons. The first time in a long while I had bought something truly expensive
for MYSELF and I could not wait for it to show up. Seriously, Wacom needs to
invent some kind of teleportation device for delivering their Cintiqs. I paid a
lot for it, so it should just materialise in my hands, yes?
When the Cintiq FINALLY got delivered to me, it was quite magnificent. First of
all, the box was much larger than I expected, and I really wasn't sure WHAT to
expect. Then I opened it, and lying on top in a lightly padded liner was IT. The
Cintiq. I do believe my hands were shaking slightly. Also, I think I let out a
kind of mad scientist-like cackle as I unwrapped it and held this piece of
machinery in my hands for the first time. Only slight insane laughter, I
promise, but it still felt as though Optimus Prime had handed me The Creation
Matrix.
Getting the Cintiq set up was another matter. I have not previously owned an art
tablet, so was rather unsure on the set up, yet had this idea of "plug and play"
set in my brain. I hear tell many OTHER tablets are ready to work with just a
USB attachment, but with the Cintiq, this was not the case. The Cintiq, you see,
has a monitor screen on it, therefore, you NEED to have TWO VIDEO CARDS in your
computer for it to operate properly, IF you want to use your "regular" computer
monitor as well (and I do). I had no idea before I tried hooking it up that this
was the case (and I found out from another new Cintiq owner on Twitter that he
didn't know either), so I recommend Wacom try to better label that on their
website. Maybe an annoying flashy disclaimer somewhere.
Now, I don't know about you, but when it comes down to the inside guts of my
computer, I have no idea what is what and how that crap works. Really. There
could be elves in there for all I know. Luckily, I have a friend who is super
smart about these things and he helped me get set up. This wasn't very simple,
either. Turns out, my local computer-tech-type shop does NOT have video cards
(they are 85% refurbished laptops and miscellaneous cables) and neither does
Walmart. The nearest Radio Shack and Staples stores are over and hour's drive
away. However, my super smart friend found a spare video card he had squirreled
away somewhere, and installed it into my PC for me with the gentleman's
agreement that this summer I help him with remodeling (This friend can build a
PC from parts but cannot rewire a house, which I can do. Our skill sets help
each other, which is handy.). Also, I let him fart around on my swell new tech
toy for a little while.
Now that my tablet is working and configured, I got down to actually using it
for art things with the Lawndale Tinies project. I could not believe it. Using
this device was LIKE BLOODY MAGIC. Normally, retouching raw pencil work and
blending it with digital effects is difficult and time consuming. The tablet
just made it FEEL so damn easy. I got my scratchy pencils all cleaned up and it
felt like nothing, as compared to the arduous task it regularly amounts to.
After the Lawndale Tinies was all done, I tried out the Cintiq with digitally
inking. i had only straight up digitally inked two or three REALLY simple images
before, and this time I wanted to test it out with something totally full of
lines. So, I drew a silly little mummy picture on paper, scanned it, and began
inking all of those damn bandages digitally. Now, I'm a big supporter of using
varying line thickness when inking. It is very important to me that you can get
more of a sense of depth from the inks by making some spots of a line thicker
than another, so using the Cintiq stylus as a means to ink bandages wrapping
AROUND a body, was a really good test. The stylus was a zillion times easier to
use in this way than a mouse, but I still think I need to get way more
proficient at using the stylus AT ALL before inking everything in this method.
All in all, the Wacom Cintiq tablet was a very hefty purchase, but it really
does feel like it was worth it. If you're a person who does some or all of your
art creation digitally, this might be something you want consider for yourself,
too. I've said this before and I'll say it again, the Cintiq tablet WAS CRAFTED
BY WIZARDS. Using is like wielding sorcery, and it's frakking AMAZING.
Cheers,
William the Bloody
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