I’ve been working digitally almost exclusively for about 3 years, using Wacom’s Intuos 4 drawing tablet hooked up to my MacBook Pro 17 laptop.  This techno combo has freed me from working at the studio.   I spend my days in coffee shops and cafes working away with this set up.

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The Intuos 4 has high sensitivity and drawing with it is a breeze, but notice the one drawback.   There is no visual screen to draw on.  You have to look up at the screen on your computer while your hand moves the pen while drawing.  This seems akward at first but in a couple of hours your brain adjusts and it starts to seem very natural.  I looked at Cintiqs initially but balked at the price.  Then I read about the Chinese drawing tablet the Yiynova DP10U.  It was about $360,  which is about a third of the cost of the smallest Cintiq.   So I ordered one.

yiynova3

After messing with the Chinese instructions, they never seem to get the English just right–ha, I couldn’t get it to work.  I ended up calling customer service and a Yiynova tech picked up the phone.   I could hear a kid crying in the background and a television on, and assumed he was working from his home.   He was very nice and informative and had me up and running shortly.  Excellent tech support, based on the one phone call.

yiynova

The Yiynova mirrors what’s on your computer screen.   Drawing on it was almost like drawing on paper!  There is a slight gap due to the thickness of the glass and the image, which you adapt to very quickly.  If there was any lag time I didn’t notice it.

yiynova one

What did annoy me though was…. My HAND was in the WAY!   I am so  accustomed to not looking down at my Intuos tablet that my hand seemed like an obstruction.   It’s that way when I draw in my sketch books too.   When I work with my Yiynova, I generally don’t look down at the Yiynova screen, I look at the computer screen.   So it seems like kind of a waste of money.  But I’m sure as time goes on I will get used to it.  Here’s a Youtube vid  review of one.    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5E4IDM2tPaY

yiynova test

Here’s a jpeg of what I was drawing on the Yiy.    It’s a rough comp of a character I made up when I was in grade school.  His name is A1.   Yes, I named him after a steak sauce.