Meander, drawn with Cintiq

This is my first drawing with a Wacom Cintiq.

The Cintiq is a monitor-tablet. This sounded cool when I had first heard about it.. But in front of me, it is over 21 inches long and weighs about 25 lbs, and has a cord the size of a telephone cable coming out of the center of its back. And it generates heat. This is good in winter! But in the summer... I can predict my arm depositing a film of sweats across the screen that conspire to eat away at the protective screen coating.

The Cintiq is best for those who don't have previous tablet experience. As someone who has over eight years of normal tablet experience, I can say that there isn't anything I can do with a Cintiq that I can't do with a normal tablet. That being said, the Cintiq simply makes drawing easier to do as a person.

It is easily manipulated as a drawing surface, making it really easy to draw at any angle. It tilts and rotates in its stand, so it's like a really awkward, heavy, incandescent drawing pad with an umbilical cord. You can even stand over it and look down on your work, evaluating it like a real drawing. You know how you have to draw a character upside down sometimes, or need to draw a smooth curve according to the muscle memory of a horizontal stroke with your arm, only at a 45-degree angle? This would normally necessitate drawing what you need to draw, and then flipping or rotating that in an image program. Here, you just rotate the Cintiq. The only thing missing is the feel of a paper. Unlike the other tablets, you can't replicate paper feel by placing a piece of paper on the tablet and drawing over that, because you would be covering up the screen.

It is possible to draw with it in your lap, since it lifts out of the hub in its stand. But it is kind of uncomfortable. When technology improves so that light materials become cheaper, we will start to see lighter, more manageable Cintiqs.

There are a total of 8 programmable buttons on the side, so undoing and saving can be accomplished with one press.

I'm having the most trouble finding a way to draw over it comfortably. It's so huge, that I lean on it when I draw. The max resolution is 1600 x 1200, but I am currently using a more passé 1024 x 768. This zooms the image on the screen, making it easier on my poor eyesight.

That is my impromptu review of the Cintiq. It's a handy tool for a professional artist, but not a necessity. No, the Cintiq won't make your drawings look better xD That task is up to you!


This is a picture of Meander after Rule had resuscicated the memories of the spider and centipede styles. It was drawn in OpenCanvas.

(Click here to read about Meander's story from the beginning)