Using an iPad or Android tablet for digital drawing/painting?

[stanw]

I want to use an Android tablet or an iPad for digital drawing and painting. I realize there are limitations with both platforms for doing this, though my idea would be to start the artwork on the tablets and finish on a Mac. Ideally, I would get a Surface, though that is a much more expensive route.

1. Can anyone recommend an Android tablet for doing this? I know that some of the Samsung ones come with a stylus, though are they pressure sensitive? Are they better than just any tablet with a 3rd party stylus?

2. Has anyone else done what I'm trying to do?

3. In general, would this work better with an iPad or Android tablet ?

Thanks.

 

[MRU]

Simples .....

Note 12.2 with Corel Painter Mobile / ArtFlow / Sketchbook Pro

Buy the bigger S-Pen with the eraser and I find I have a tablet that I can draw and paint on with as much finesse as my Wacom Cintiq without being chained to the computer.

The Note 12.2 is also available quite cheap these days too.


Of course you could get a Wacom Cintiq Companion but .... they are very overpriced.


And yes - for drawing the S-Pen offers VASTLY more accurate and of course pressure sensitive brush strokes than a capacitive stylus offers.


As a tablet - I prefer iOS on tablets, but for drawing / illustration the Note 12.2 has been the best for me. I had a surface pro 2 and found despite its extra power and full windows - it was fatally flawed as a drawing tablet due to issues with third party software and H-DPI scaling and the edge shift of the stylus towards the edges of the screen which made apps like photoshop a pain to use, also ironically Corel Painter full version is really poor performing on the Surface Pro 2 and it's ui also has scaling issues - that Corel Painter Mobile, on the Note 12.2 performs better.

 

[mi7chy]

Surface Pro 3 > Galaxy Note 2014 12.2 and 10.1 > any stylus

 

[tbayrgs]

Simples .....

Note 12.2 with Corel Painter Mobile / ArtFlow / Sketchbook Pro

Buy the bigger S-Pen with the eraser and I find I have a tablet that I can draw and paint on with as much finesse as my Wacom Cintiq without being chained to the computer.

The Note 12.2 is also available quite cheap these days too.


Of course you could get a Wacom Cintiq Companion but .... they are very overpriced.


And yes - for drawing the S-Pen offers VASTLY more accurate and of course pressure sensitive brush strokes than a capacitive stylus offers.


As a tablet - I prefer iOS on tablets, but for drawing / illustration the Note 12.2 has been the best for me. I had a surface pro 2 and found despite its extra power and full windows - it was fatally flawed as a drawing tablet due to issues with third party software and H-DPI scaling and the edge shift of the stylus towards the edges of the screen which made apps like photoshop a pain to use, also ironically Corel Painter full version is really poor performing on the Surface Pro 2 and it's ui also has scaling issues - that Corel Painter Mobile, on the Note 12.2 performs better.

MRU--ever able to spend any time with the SP3? I very briefly owned an SP2 and the SP3 seems like a huge improvement. I know they changed from a Wacom digitizer to a N-trig, didn't know whether that's an improvement or not in the drawing/illustration department.

 

[MRU]

MRU--ever able to spend any time with the SP3? I very briefly owned an SP2 and the SP3 seems like a huge improvement. I know they changed from a Wacom digitizer to a N-trig, didn't know whether that's an improvement or not in the drawing/illustration department.

I haven't matey... I have not even seen one in person either.

 

[JackieInCo]

MRU--ever able to spend any time with the SP3? I very briefly owned an SP2 and the SP3 seems like a huge improvement. I know they changed from a Wacom digitizer to a N-trig, didn't know whether that's an improvement or not in the drawing/illustration department.

This.

The Note Pro mentioned above isn't cheap, $500-700+ so you might as well skip the limitations of Android and get a full computer at that price.

 

[MRU]

This.

The Note Pro mentioned above isn't cheap, $500-700+ so you might as well skip the limitations of Android and get a full computer at that price.

Note pro 12.2 can be picked up for $400-500 which is significantly cheaper than a surface pro 3 regardless, and you won't have many of the issues such as those drawing apps like corel painter & sketchbook pro having terrible UI scaling issues due to the HighDPI screen and Windows lack of High DPI support in third party applications.

Performance wise based on my Surface Pro 2 which was the i7 model also was very poor on those drawing apps - compared ironically to their android counterparts which whilst may lack the full bells and whistles - meant that illustrating is swift, fast, smooth and responsive and does not invoke lag issues which I found in the likes of Corel Painter 14/15 on Surface Pro 2.

I'm basing this entirely on illustrating / drawing. The N-Trig whilst an improvement in pen edge detection especially around the corners of the screen on the surface Pro 3 only has 256 layers of pressure sensitivity and so whilst an improvement in one way - it is a big drop down from the 1024 levels of the previous version too.