Wacom Intuos 4 Wireless Tablet Review

I just recently purchased the Wacom Intuos 4 Wireless Tablet and have been impressed with its functionality. After some practice with my hand eye coordination, the benefits of this product for digital artists became obvious. I have always sketched on paper and was unsure if this tablet would provide a similar drawing experience. It does take some adjusting, if you are used to traditional forms of sketching and painting on paper or canvas. Though I still enjoy traditional forms of art, the tablet allows me to seamlessly translate those traditional skills into digital images. Sketching, painting or digitally altering photographs with a mouse on a computer canvas is difficult to perfect if you were trained with pencils, pens and paintbrushes. However, the Wacom pen is able to provide that bridge into the digital art world for traditionally trained artists.

The Wireless version of the Wacom Intuos line of tablets is an upgrade, in my opinion. I enjoy hooking up my Apple laptop to the big screen TV. The Wireless feature allows me the freedom to use my tablet from the couch. Even if you sit in front of the computer and sketch, it is nice to be free of that mess of wires. The only drawback to the Wireless tablet is that it only comes in one size, Medium. If you want one of the other sized tablets then this may not be right for you. I have to say that the Medium tablet is, for me, a big enough sketch space. Unless you draw with very long strokes this will likely be the right size. It is big enough but still quite compact and easy to throw in a bag on the go.

The programs that I have used the Wireless Wacom Intuos 4 tablets for include: Photoshop, Corel Painter and Sketchpad. Using layers within programs such as Corel Painter and Photoshop, make it easy to create different versions of the same project. If you were working for hire you could show a variety of options to your employer with, for example, different lighting or color schemes. Another benefit to digital art is that undoing mistakes is as easy as a few key strokes. Corel Painter is by far my favorite digital painting software. It has a wide variety of brushes and a user friendly layout. It just takes some playing around with brushes and colors to get the hang of painting on a computer. I really enjoy the digital color mixing artist pallet option. You can choose your color by picking from a digital color wheel, or by blending different colors together on a pallet. In addition to making my digital painting experience feel more like painting, the Wacom tablet has improved my ability to select areas in photoshop.

Overall I would recommend purchasing the Wacom Intuos 4 Tablet if you have an interest in digital art. I am currently practicing on my Wacom tablet in order to get into a Digital Media Masters Degree program in Vancouver. I hope to eventually start a career in Digital Media. I believe that for art enthusiasts and professionals alike the Wacom Intuos 4 Tablet is the first step into the digital art world.