Mouse vs. tablet

[Steel_Wind]

Was it unsuited for drawing lines, like say, mountains? I'm currently using a mouse, and I've heard that any tablet is superior to a mouse. It may not be the greatest for image editing, but I'm planning to use it nearly exclusively for digital art, mostly maps.

Well, for your purposes it may be great. In the rest of my Photoshop work, I was not trying to draw with it, but place precise nodes with a pen, manipulate nodes, transforms, choose and apply texture and drop shadows, and moving objects around a battlemap.

All of those tasks require technical precision and for that, a mouse is preferable.

When it came time for doing a drawing task, namely, shading and using a scattered tip brush to build up random detritus - the pen and tablet worked admirably.

I do not mean to dissuade you from buying it. It sounds like you want to engage in more "art" than I do. I am not interested in doing artistic topographical maps; my interest lies in creating new battlemaps for use in a VTT where technical art demands of the underlying surroundings tend to be more precise and exacting. Even still it was useful for aspects of "gussying up" those technical elements.

Your planned maps seem different than my own needs, so you will likely find even more uses for it.

If hardcore drawing was my purpose, I might prefer to have bought the more expensive medium size model. That would be my only caveat to you.

[Cartography Dragon]

Well, for your purposes it may be great. In the rest of my Photoshop work, I was not trying to draw with it, but place precise nodes with a brush, manipulate nodes, transforms, choose and apply texture and drop shadows, and moving objects around a battlemap.

All of those tasks require technical precision and for that, a mouse is preferable.

When it came time for doing a drawing task, namely, shading and using a scattered tip brush to build up random detritus - the pen and tablet worked admirably.

I do not mean to dissuade you from buying it. It sounds like you want to engage in more "art" than I do. I am not interested in doing artistic topographical maps; my interest lies in creating new battlemaps for use in a VTT where technical art demands of the underlying surroundings tend to be more precise and exacting. Even still it was useful for aspects of "gussying up" those technical elements.

Your planned maps seem different than my own needs, so you will likely find even more uses for it.

If hardcore drawing was my purpose, I might prefer to have bought the more expensive medium size model. That would be my only caveat to you.

Thanks for the clarification. I did think about getting the medium, but sadly it's a bit out of my price range, as I'm a high school student who's only source of income is a summer job

[Midgardsormr]

Well, for your purposes it may be great. In the rest of my Photoshop work, I was not trying to draw with it, but place precise nodes with a brush, manipulate nodes, transforms, choose and apply texture and drop shadows, and moving objects around a battlemap.

All of those tasks require technical precision and for that, a mouse is preferable.

I find I much prefer my tablet over a mouse even for that kind of work. I'm a visual effects compositor, and I frequently need to place nodes on a spline with sub-pixel accuracy.

Here's a screenshot of what I'm doing right now, using my Intuos tablet as my primary input device:

roto.png

I have become so accustomed to the tablet that the idea of placing those points with a mouse is abhorrent. So it's a matter of taste, I think. The only time I reach for my mouse these days is when I want to do something on my second monitor.