I've been wondering about this for awhile, and the recent art thread planted the idea of asking here. My dd (12yo) is, among other things, an avid drawer. She has recently started using a Wacom "Bamboo Fun" tablet (on a Mac) for doing digital drawings on the computer. The tablet we have is an entry-level model (and several years old), and she is sometimes frustrated with (what she perceives as) its limitations. I have started looking into fancier tablets, but I'm a bit overwhelmed. In part because I am not sure how much of her frustration is truly due to limitations of the tablet, vs. her inexperience with the drawing software (Sketchbook and Photoshop, primarily).

Are there any families out there with experience who can offer advice? "Professional" grade tablets can get quite pricey, so before we upgrade, I'd like to have a better idea of what the critical issues are. Thanks!

We also have a Wacom Bamboo for my 13yo DD.

She was extremely frustrated with it when using GIMP, SAI and Paint (we are a PC family), but Corel's products are a delight. Part of it is that some software is better with the hardware interface. CorelDraw is better able to utilize the pressure sensors built into the tablet so that it responds by producing different color intensities/thicknesses. She also loves Manga Studio and Anime Studio.

Honestly, Wacom's tablets seem to be the ones that most of the pros use, and they kind of have a lock on this particular technology. They're rugged and they seem to have pretty good response, too.

We had also looked at upgrading about four months ago-- and the next step up would have been to another Wacom tablet, at about $350. I'm really glad that we encouraged DD to explore some other software first, though, because now she's completely happy again.

Thanks for the input! Some of her work is manga-style, and some of her frustration is in trying to get the 'inking' line thickness more uniform, i.e., effectively turn *off* (or down) the tablet's pressure sensitivity. (I am thinking there must be a software control for this...) I have avoided Manga Studio because it seemed like there was some value in learning a less-specialized program, but maybe we should take a look.

In any case, it sounds like it is worth exploring the software further first before upgrading the hardware...