Hi everyone!
I just got a tablet recently (wacom bamboo), and I'm having a hard time getting used to it... My original drawings well... soso, I wouldn't say its bad neither outstanding (you can check some of my early works in this forum (http://www.snafu-comics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=8301&start=25)). I mostly draw in a cartoony style which I picked up by studying some famous webcomic artist's work.
Anyway I couldn't reproduce my drawings pretty well with my tablet, so does anyone have some tips/tricks for starting out using this thing? Should I sketch with it or use a scanned image? How/what should I practice first? Should I use photoshop or illustrator (I like the last one's auto smooth feature, but many times it backfires><). I know that a lot of tutorials out there, but lot of them approach it from a different way, and I'm confused...

Getting used to a drawing tablet definitely takes some time! I think some people have this miss-conception that its a cheating tool in art and makes everything infinity easier but just like every other tool in art it takes some time to learn and get used to- especially considering what programs your using. I guess I cant really say if it would work better in photoshop or illustrator because I don't work in those programs- i use paintSAI, but that sounds like a choice you can make for yourself after experimenting enough in both programs. When i started using my tablet i would scan in stuff and then draw over them on a new layer but after allot of practice I got used to the drawing tablet and was able to draw in the program without needing to trace over a scanned in drawing. But the only catch to that is- i sort of traded my traditional art skills for some digital ones because now (after 2-3 years of digital art) I can barely draw with a pencil.

My biggest advice is to just practice allot with it- try drawing some scanned in things, try freestyling and drawing things without tracing a scanned image. You have allot of experimenting to do with this. Don't get to worried about what you should practice first or second- just practice! Any practice is good practice and better than nothing. If you have trouble with a very specific part of using the tablet there's allot of tutorials (like you mentioned) and if those dont work ask friends/other artists how they approach that part.

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Thanks a lot, this reply really gave me a push^^ So you say that it could affect traditional art skill badly? I mean I drawing a lot that way (so much boring classes... xD), could it mean that it holds me back to get used to the tablet, or you just went totally for the tablet, forgetting to draw in the old fashioned way? About asking other people, well.. some of my friends are very talented, but none of them are adapted to the digital technology. And bugging other artists? It's a burden for most of them as I see, its really hard to get in contact with any (ok, your making a good exception by writing here xD), and I can understand, I can imagine gazillions of fans jumping on their head yelling "teach me!". But ok, so I'll continue random practice than, its just hard sometimes because I already have some comic ideas which I want to express, makes me kind of inpatient...
Btw friends, I lend the tablet to one of them, he actually draw pretty well with it after some experimenting (ok, he could be more effective if he could utilize more features of the program...), but he was rotating around the tablet like it was a piece of paper, what do you think about that? Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

He was rotating the tablet around!? I've never seen that done before... You know there should be a way in the art program you use to rotate the canvas digitally- i know in paintSAI they make it very easy to rotate it (ive NEVER heard of anyone rotating the tablet pad!) I wouldn't suggest doing that just because I've never really heard or seen anyone do that so i dont think its a common technique and if its not common it may not be the most effective. And dont worry you can still draw traditionally- just dont get 100% sucked into the digitalness like i did. Like i never TOUCHED a pencil for like 3 years thats why im were im at with my traditional skills, but you win some you loose some i guess

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The most I can say using a Wacom Bamboo tablet, and adobe photoshop CS5; is that personally my traditional skills haven't been affected at all by using the tablet to do my sketches instead of paper, so I guess it's more of a personal thing than just general. I would suggest to draw things, scan them and trace over them in whatever rendering program you have to figure out a technique that works, and to get comfortable with the pen and tablet. After that I would suggest to still draw things out traditionally and to use the pen+paper drawings as a guide or reference to work off of without scanning it working 100% on the tablet. About the time where you are working as fast and accurate on the tablet as on pencil and paper and if you are able to control all your strokes with precision (assuming you use the pressure sensitivity for the size of the cursor *which i recommend*)
about this point you should be able to draw just as good on the tablet as paper. this obviously taken into several months , though how long you should stay on each step depends on how well you advance and feel comfortable doing.

A quick summary of the techniques I used when i was learning. but whether this helps or not i dunno.

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