And I recommend going to the extra step for the Intuos3 line – the Graphires are nice, but the Intuos is well worth the upgrade. You’ll want one soon enough, just get it out of the way at the start!

I have had a Cintiq for a few weeks now, like you I was not sure about spending the cash for it. But as a working illustrator I can already say it has saved me hours of time on paying work.

If you make enough to even think about getting one I would say buy it. For a working professional it speeds things up so much. I would have never believed unless I had gotten one.

All you readers should check out Dan’s blog at EmptyEasel.com He has some very good articles for artists and art fans.

In fact, he has also written a very good article about Wacom tablets. Check it out here:
http://emptyeasel.com/2006/12/05/wacom-drawing-tablets-the-graphire-intuos3-and-cintiq-display/

I just bought my first Wacom to mess around with and so far it’s been a blast.

Since I’m using the Graphire, the only thing I really miss is the zoom function available on the Intuos.

With only two programmable buttons on the tablet, I’ve had to be very economical with which shortcuts I use. The two buttons on my pen I’ve set for “undo” and the zoom tool.

Then I set one of my tablet buttons as “alt” and the other as “space.”

Combined with my pen buttons, this allows me to quickly zoom in AND out, undo multiple times, and move the drawing space around with the grabber hand. Plus, when I’m using a brush, I can switch to the eyedropper tool very quickly.

Overall, a fantastic tool for digital cartooning and drawing.