Intuos3 12x19!

Try a Wacom. You won't believe the difference.

It's a 37" LCD Widescreen from Mitsubishi... And yes it was a couple years ago. I have to say I can't imagine life without it now. Though it is a desk hog

Okay, I think I misread you the first time. For some reason, I had thought you were trying to say the opposite of what you were actually saying. Hey, I've been sick. Thanks for being patient with my medicated, stuffy head.

On the monitor tangent, I just bit the bullet and picked up a 24" LCD monitor, breaking many years of CRT usage for reliable color...

http://www.nextag.com/gateway-24-lcd-monitor/search-html

I have to say I'm very impressed. There is a slight change in the vividness of the image from photoshop to SL, but overall I'm extremely pleased, especially for the price. Its very accurate at displaying gray nuances, which is a problem I had always had when I had to use LCDs previously. I can't imagine working on a smaller monitor now, and the desk space it saves is amazing.

Welcome to the flat world, Cory. Once you go flat, you never go back.

Congrats, Cory. I made the leap from CRT to LCD about a year and a half ago when one of my 21" CRTs died and I no longer had dual monitor (which simply won't do), so I bought two 21" Viewsonic VP211b monitors. I was simply blown away by how much better they were, and as you said it was most evident in showing me detail in the blacks that I couldn't see at all on my CRT. They're also much easier on my eyes. Definitely one of the best investments I ever made, along with my Wacom.

I don't dare try out a wacom....if i don't know what i'm missing then i'll be better off

however in the next year or so i might invest in a smaller tablet...so maybe i'll get a wacom when i do that. the adesso is working for me for what I'm doing at the moment: bold, cartoony graphics.

i am wishing that i had a smaller tablet for traveling though. i'm going to my parents house this week and i'm gonna miss mine. it's too big to bring with me...i'd probably break it.

I got my wife the Wacom 6x11 Intuos3 for Christmas, and got my kids the mid-sized Graphire, and they are both absolutely loving it.

From all consumer reports, customer reviews, and everything else I have been able to find, Wacom is the absolute top notch tablet company and nothing else compares.

Congrats Chosen! We are all (more) jealous of you in my household

How does the Graphire compare to the Intuos?

I've heard some people opting to buy a larger Graphire rather than a smaller Intuos (for the same amount of money)... I see the spec differences but I don't know that the practical differences between them are?

-peekay

What`s the purpose/benefits of having one this large?

Im kind of confused, because I have a small (4x6) one and I can`t imagine using anything larger.

Does it have to do with maybe having a larger monitor?

I am a professional illustrator (and part-time college professor) and I gotta say that tablet size for me is a non issue. I never look at the tablet, I look at the screen while the fingers and pen do their magic more or less blind. You can have the biggest tablet in the world and if you attach it to a 17-inch monitor -- that is going to be the effective size of your canvas. A point in fact that is emphasized with even the largest (or smallest) monitors.

I work in Painter, Alias Sketchbook pro, and Photoshop. In all three I do a fair amount of zooming in and out depending on what I am working on and the size of the canvas (document) that is required. For a 6 x 9 trade (no wrap around) book cover, I normally work at 200% or 12 x 18 at 300 dpi. This allows for promotional materials like posters etc as well as trim sized book reproductions. I own a mid-sized 9 x 12 tablet and it is plenty. I get larger gestural lines and strokes when needed (not so often as you might think) and very comfortable drawing and painting strokes without thought or restriction. When I work analog I like working large ... but as I have embraced (and as publishers have increasingly demanded) digital originals, I have adapted to digital work-flows. I have the larger Wacom, tablet, I just don't see the point. That is just my opinion of course. We could have the same discussion about brushes and when it comes down to it, you use what you are comfortable using.

As in most cases ... it is not the size that matters its what you do with it.

The biggest differences are the Intuos line has twice the resolution of the Graphire line, and (more importantly) the Intuos senses tilt in addition to pressure. The Graphire senses just pressure. Also, the Intuos has more accessories available for it like the airbrush tool, and the "6D" beveled art pen.

The tilt thing is huge. It makes your drawing sooooo much more natural.


Good question. Here are the benefits as I see them:

1. More natural arm movement.
   
   Drawing on a small tablet vs. a big one is like drawing on a notepad vs. a full sheet of paper. As any good art teacher will tell you, drawing on big paper is essential for developing your art.
   
   
   
2. More control.
   
   On a small tablet, every little movement of the pen translates to a huge amount of distance traveled on screen. Let's use your 4x6 as an example, and assume you have a 19" screen. Since a 19" standard format screen is roughly 12x15, every inch of movement on the tablet equals about three inches or so of movement on screen. In other words, you have three times less control than if you were drawing on the screen directly.
   
   With a full sized tablet though, you can get a ratio of 1:1, or even better. The analog between hand movement and on-screen cursor movement is far more precise with a large tablet than with a small one. That means your work goes much faster, and turns out much better with much greater ease.
   
   
   
3. More options.
   
   With a large tablet, you can divvy up the canvas space between multiple monitors, and/or section it to the exact proportions of your screen(s). With a small one, that's nearly impossible.
   
   One way to look at it is you can always turn a 12x19 into a 4x6 if you want, but you can never turn a 4x6 into a 12x19. I like freedom.

If I think about it, I could probably come up with a few more benefits, but those are the big three.