Suggestions Freehand Drawing Pad?

[TXFB.INS]

Got a niece that is FANATIC about drawing, draws daily and is always asking design questions.
She is currently focusing on very detailed recreation, example she will take an eye and get EVERY detail, blood vessel etc. with a pencil drawing

She is to the age, Junior HS, that she is considering careers and what they entail.

She does not like us mouse / cursor for her designs / drawing.
What drawing tablets / pens / equipment / tools do y'all suggest?

Thanks

 

[signage]

wacom tablet, centiq depending what you want to spend

 

[Pauly]

Wacom or if you want to keep it to a budget, Huion.

 

[Bobby H]

For drawing directly onto a screen? An iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil is going to be the best value. Wacom mobile tablet computers are good but really expensive (especially for the guts inside you get for the money). Battery life for the iPad is a lot better than a typical notebook. The Apple Pencil works great. There is a fairly wide variety of iPad-based graphics applications. Adobe has several (Fresco, Photoshop, Illustrator, etc). Procreate is an awesome painting app that costs only a few bucks in the App store. Vectornator can be had for free. Affinity Designer has an iPad version as well as versions for Windows and OSX.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

I'm a huge fanatic for Wacoms. Intuos 3, 12wx, 21UX, 27QHD, Cintiq Companion (this was the one thing that would have really put a stop to my switching to Linux if this didn't have good support, it is that much of a necessity (thankfully, not only does Wacom have some devs dedicated to the linux version, it is actually baked into some of the distros (my version is Ubuntu Studio, but I digress)).

They are not cheap, they are designed for professional use. I know quite a few that like the Huion, they have improved since they started that's for sure. But I have no direct experience with them.

What are actually the parameters? Whats more important? Screen real estate, pressure sensitivity, portability etc.

While your small tablets have their place, I prefer what a cintiq (and the like) can give me. When I go portable, I have a Wacom pen that can digitally capture what I draw and I can upload that to my computer (I told y'all that I like Wacom products right?) later. But I know the younger kids like the smaller stuff, so that may be the way to go. All just depends on what's more important.

 

[Humble PM]

Recently tried using an ipad with a pen, but kept getting frustrated by the lack of modifier keys—too used to using a wacom with my left hand resting over the keyboard. Then tried it using sidecar, and suddenly on the mac screen, had all the palletes I wanted, as well as the modifier keys. Was rather taken by the combination. Didn't test all the useful pressure settings / pen tilt that I'm used to with the wacom, but it was rather fun.

I'm a big fan of small cheap wacom tablets, only time I ever used a large one, an A3 I think, for retouching, I felt like I was doing upper body aerobics.

 

[kcollinsdesign]

Might as well go straight to the pro stuff.

 

[TXFB.INS]

Thank you all for the suggestions

 

[Zendavor Signs]

For drawing directly onto a screen? An iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil is going to be the best value. Wacom mobile tablet computers are good but really expensive (especially for the guts inside you get for the money). Battery life for the iPad is a lot better than a typical notebook. The Apple Pencil works great. There is a fairly wide variety of iPad-based graphics applications. Adobe has several (Fresco, Photoshop, Illustrator, etc). Procreate is an awesome painting app that costs only a few bucks in the App store. Vectornator can be had for free. Affinity Designer has an iPad version as well as versions for Windows and OSX.

This is the future, folks. I have tried teaching my junior high daughter, who is very artistic, Adobe software on the PC. It’s a real struggle. Get her on a iPad or cell phone and she’s a wiz.

 

[rjssigns]

Some of my students are using Procreate with an iPad/stylus. Photoshop and design classes on campus have moved away from Cintiq as of a couple years ago. Everything is iPad/stylus. Powerful and budget friendly. YMMV.

 

[Bobby H]

This is the future, folks. I have tried teaching my junior high daughter, who is very artistic, Adobe software on the PC. It’s a real struggle. Get her on a iPad or cell phone and she’s a wiz.

I use multiple platforms in my work setup. Some design tasks are best done on a full fledged desktop PC with multiple monitors. I'll use a notebook PC for more light weight jobs. I use my iPad Pro for more specialized purposes, particularly tasks where I need to sketch, draw or paint something directly on the screen. The iPad is great for that. IMHO the iPad and applications available for it are not developed far enough for the platform to work as a complete replacement for a traditional desktop or notebook PC setup for graphic design. Too many features are missing in too many applications.