Top tips for buying a digital drawing tablet for a medical illustrator

A heads up before we begin

Predominantly I work with 2D medical illustrations and 3D assets. We also do a combination of 2D and 3D animations, so our workstations are built to support these kinds of projects.

This particular setup that I have in our Now Medical Studio offices works really well for me and my team. If you're new to the industry, starting out, or even just dipping your toes into digital illustration for the first time, I wouldn't really expect you to have an extensive setup like mine. An important thing to keep in mind as you read this article is that I've been digitally drawing for over 10 years and the equipment that I use are ones that I accumulated and upgraded as I progressed in my career as a medical illustrator and animator.

I don't expect and also wouldn't encourage anyone who's starting in the industry to go and purchase the most expensive piece of equipment.

Display vs portable digital drawing tablets

Many people have asked me whether or not I like to use a Cintiq or another brand of standing drawing monitors vs a smaller portable digital drawing tablet. Most of the time I think these people are looking for some advice as to what they should buy for their own work set up as it's a lot easier to follow what someone else is working with.

For those people asking, I can say that I always have the same approach with any expensive equipment purchases and that is...

You should always evaluate whether a certain piece of equipment can help you speed up your workflow before you invest in a purchase. If there's a chance that it could hinder or slow down your workflow, then that's not going to be a good investment and you could risk wasting a lot of money on something you might not use regularly.

A good investment for me is to buy equipment that I will use every day or every other day. Personally, for me, large drawing monitors are not something that's versatile because I switch between 3D and 2D work a lot. For a lot of my work, like 3D modelling or working with certain software, I like to use the mouse and keyboard because I want to have more control over my navigation within these programs as well as have access to keyboard shortcuts. If a large drawing tablet is in my way, it's going to really hinder my production workflow as I jump from project to project.

So consider your workflow and the type of projects that you work with, these can help you figure out what kind of equipment you might need in order for you to do your job successfully.

Start cheap, and work your way up

If you're starting out or are a beginner in digital illustration, then investing in a large and expensive drawing tablet is probably not going to be the best investment for you. Start small, start cheaply and then work your way up and progress as your skills progress.

When I first started out studying medical illustration, I didn't have the most expensive equipment available to me. My first ever Wacom tablet (a Wacom Graphire4) was one I bought from Currys more than 10 years ago. I spent a couple of years drawing on that as my digital illustration skills progressed. You can check out my first ever medical illustration I created in Adobe Photoshop below:

When I become more confident in my drawing skills and knew that this was a career path that I wanted to pursue, I used student discounts to buy and upgrade my equipment. The second Wacom tablet that I had was a grey Wacom Intuos and this one lasted me for about eight years. It still works, impressively, and we use it as a backup drawing tablet for other people in the studio.

Over the past couple of years, I've been working with a Wacom Intuos Pro (Medium size) and this is the model that we buy for all of our artists that work in our medical illustration studio.

So let’s take a look at the different digital drawing tablet options that are available and check out some pricing options.

---

Starter digital drawing tablets

One by Wacom

Price range: (~£35 - £50)

Sizes: Small & Medium

Great for: This tablet is a great starter tool if you’re looking to dip your toes in digital illustration It allows you to get used to digitally drawing with a pen.

Doesn’t include: does not have any multi-touch or express key functionality.

>> Learn more

Wacom Intuos

Price range: (~£70 - £180)

Sizes: Small, Medium, & Large

Great for: This tablet is a great starter tool if you’re looking to dip your toes in digital illustration It allows you to get used to digitally drawing with a pen and also includes customizable express keys to help you speed up your workflow.

Doesn’t include: does not have any multi-touch functionality.

>> Learn more

---

Mid level to advanced drawing tablets

Wacom Intuos Pro

Price range: (~£200 - £450)

Sizes: Small, Medium, & Large

Great for: This tablet is a great starter tool if you’re looking to dip your toes in digital illustration It allows you to get used to digitally drawing with a pen, includes customizable express keys, and multi-touch functionality to help you speed up your workflow.

It also has a “Pro Paper Edition” that might be of interest to some artists.

Doesn’t include: Does not have a screen to draw on.

>> Learn more

---

Pen displays/screens

Wacom One

Price range: (~£360-£400)

Sizes: See spec list on product page

Great for: If you like to draw directly on to a screen.

Doesn’t include: The small size might be an issue for some artists who like to work on larger screens.

>> Learn more

Wacom Cintiq

Price range: (~£530-£867)

Sizes: See spec list on product page

Great for: If you like to draw directly on to a screen.

Doesn’t include: Larger stands sold separately

>> Learn more

Wacom Cintiq Pro

Price range: (~£1900-£3150)

Sizes: See spec list on product page

Great for: If you like to draw directly on to a screen.

Doesn’t include: Larger stands sold separately

>> Learn more

---