How to Work With Wacom Tablets
If you want to create high-quality art in a program like Photoshop, you will probably find that a mouse just won't get the job done. A mouse is fine for moving thing around or controlling functions, but if you are trying to draw lines, it is far too hard to move smoothly. Also, with a mouse the drawing tool has only two settings, on or off, with no gradations between. Because of this, most digital artists now use digital drawing tablets, such as those manufactured by Wacom.
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Instructions
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Using the Tablet
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Install your Wacom tablet. You should have the tablet itself, a pen, a pen stand (depending on your model), a mouse (for use with the tablet), a USB cable, the Quick start guide, and a CD containing the drivers and the user manual. Insert the CD and follow the prompts to install the device drivers. Now connect the tablet to the computer using the USB cable.
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2
Open a graphics program like Photoshop. Place the mouse (the one that came with the tablet) on the tablet. You will see that you can use the mouse on the tablet just as you would use your usual mouse to click on function, move objects, and right or left click. Remove the mouse from the tablet.
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3
Pick up the pen and click on the paint brush tool in Photoshop to select it. It helps to keep in mind when using the tablet that the surface of the tablet is matched (or absolute positioned) with the screen so that the sides of the tablet are "touching" whatever is touching the sides of the screen. What this means is that in Photoshop's default display mode, the left side of the tablet matches where the toolbar is. The canvas would only be in the center part of the tablet. In order to have a greater area to paint on, you need to go to "Zoom" in you view, and then go to "View," select "Screen Mode" and click " Full Screen Mode." The canvas will now fill most of the screen, and you can use a much greater percentage of the drawing surface for drawing and painting.
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Move your pen on the tablet so that the brush tool is over the part of the canvas you want to paint on. It takes time and practice to get the hand/eye coordination down. If you touch pen to the tablet and drag it, you will see that the brush is laying down paint on the canvas. But the key point about using a tablet is that if you apply greater pressure to your pen as you apply a stroke, a greater amount of paint will be applied. This means that, unlike the mouse, the pen has gradations of paint between just on and off.
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