I’ve just received my third Wacom (call me a Wacom-a-holic), so it’s only right that I finally rate all my digital art tools as a loyal user of 11 years.
I was gifted my first-ever Wacom on my 14th birthday, my second when I was 17, and now, at almost 25, I’ve contemplated upgrading my digital art collection once more; so when Wacom reached out for me to review their new MovinkPad Pro 14 ($1,399), I couldn’t have emailed back any faster.
Sticking with a brand for a little more than a decade is a rarity these days, but there’s a good reason why I keep coming back to these beautiful devices, and it’s their ability to take an already phenomenal product and improve it every single time. So I’m super excited to test this new gizmo out.
Don’t get me wrong, I still use ALL of my Wacom products, and they all work just as well as the day I got them (despite some obvious wear and tear over the years — we don’t talk about the super glue incident on my Cintiq display), but let’s just say the brand has evolved majorly over the last decade — so get ready for the ultimate art nerd-out you’ve ever read.
You’ve been warned.
Wacom Intous Comic
This was my very first digital art tool, and I can’t recommend it enough to beginners. It’s inexpensive, extremely portable and is super easy to set up with any device you like. I was a huge fan of the physical hot keys on this one, and boy, has that undo button seen some things.
The biggest con I had with this was obviously the disconnect between your screen and your hand. It took a few months to calibrate my brain to the hand-eye coordination required, but nonetheless, a great tool to start your digital art journey.
Though it could definitely be done with lots of patience (and undo button smashing), this device was the hardest to get extremely accurate and clean lines with and also the furthest away from feeling like traditional drawing (for obvious reasons).
So that’s why, when I’d ruled myself as a serious digital artist, I decided it was time to close that gap between digital and physical art by upgrading to a display.
Enter: the Wacom Cintiq 16
Wacom Cintiq 16
The memories I’ve had with this darn display are irreplaceable.
It seems like it was just yesterday that I was a five-foot-four kid lugging around a huge gaming laptop, a Cintiq 16 and a crap ton of cords. Seriously, the amount of cords needed for the setup of this thing had me feeling like Serial Experiments Lain.
Despite requiring the setup of a NASA scientist, the Cintiq was my go-to for anything and everything. The large display and seamless connectivity had me drawing, animating, photoshopping myself into celebrity photos — she’s been my ride or die for every creative endeavour you can think of. Finally being able to draw directly onto a display made digital art feel so much more ‘traditional’, where I was much more closely able to replicate my art style in a digital form (well, almost similar to my traditional art style; I was always too cheap to buy good brushes — I had the stingy handicap perhaps).
My hot take for this product (though perhaps a user bias): this version of the Cintiq 16 had the best pen Wacom has ever released. The ergonomic shape was a godsend for my crampy hands — and I loved the eraser on the back of the pen; I don’t care what anyone on Reddit says (bring it back please, Wacom!).
Wacom MovinkPad Pro 14
Lord, where to start with this marvel of digital art technology? How about not needing to bring along a huge backpack, laptop, 70 cords and an outlet to start.
Right off the bat, the freedom of its slim design, lightweight and no need for additional tools felt like a literal huge weight off my shoulders (Alexa, play Shackles (‘Praise You’ by Mary Mary). Like, what do you mean I can sit anywhere and draw? This is luxury!
I was a huge fan of the display specs of the MovinkPad Pro — the screen was ultra HD and vibrant, had adjustable brightness settings, and for the first time, I got to use Wacom’s hybrid pen and touchscreen technology, which made drawing so much faster (and required way less dexterity than using your display and laptop in tandem).
There was also an amazing paper-like finish on this display that truly made it feel like you were doing traditional drawing — not to mention the insane touch sensitivity of the surface and pen that you could literally shade with (this finding really made me nerd out).
The tablet also came to me with a heap of free apps installed, including Sketchbook (drawing pictured on the left) and Infinite Painter (drawing pictured on the right), which solved my brush cheapness issue, instantly upping the quality of my work despite only playing around for an hour.
Admittedly, I wasn’t a fan of the slim pen design compared to my Cintiq’s, but once again, this is personal preference — I like a lil’ heft to my pen; this one is super lightweight, which I’m sure people will be big fans of. Additionally, the device took a really long time to charge! I swear I was charging her for three hours and she’d just made it to 90 per cent — but on the flip side, the battery life on this thing is mighty, I think I watched anime on it (yes you can use it as a normal tablet too which is literally so fun) for a whole day and it only lost 15 per cent of its battery.
That’s where the cons end, though; if I’m being extremely picky (which I’m well known for), otherwise, the MovinkPad Pro had me feeling like a kid in a candy store. Never have I used a digital art tool that’s bridged the gap between digital and traditional art better than this, including its compact mobility perks. And just to be sure it really is the tool that enhances my digital art to its highest potential, here’s another drawing of BTS’s V.
Unmatched ‘pen to paper’ feel aside, this tablet really is the whole package; in fact, the speed and capabilities of the product as a standalone device put my dying Dell laptop to shame — so it could 100 per cent become your main tech product.
And I’m tempted to do so…
In conclusion (tearfully)
I really enjoyed using this device, and had a really tearful goodbye with it as I posted it back to Wacom after the trial period. I didn’t think I’d be convinced that the $1.4K price point was worth it, but boy, I reckon it’s bang for your buck after fiddling with it for a month.
Having now used every evolution of Wacom products, I can confidently say that it is no wonder that this brand is at the forefront of the digital art tool world — and this tablet is the beast that sits atop the throne.
You can shop the Wacom MovinkPad Pro 14 here for $1,399.
The post Gotta Sketch ‘Em All: Reviewing All My Wacom Evolutions From The Last 11 Years appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .
