Digital Artist Tools: Tablet, Software and Monitor

At Script My Toon, we’re proud to work with some of the most innovative digital artists and caption maker professionals in the cartoon field. Our client-facing site includes both an artist and dialoger dashboard, allowing for artists to submit their comic strips with no text, then for dialog or text to be inserted by a caption maker.

For those who are just entering this field or looking to make some technological upgrades, there are several items that digital artists everywhere should be considering for their overall artist toolkit. This two-part blog series will cover several of the most important tools for you to ensure you’ve considered or purchased to help you become a high-quality cartoon creator or any other kind of digital artist.

Tablet Selection and Software

First and foremost, the tablet has become the most popular primary device for digital artists, and is the one the vast majority use today. Specifically, drawing tablets are those that come with specialized mouse options and pressure sensitivity, elements that might not be present in all tablets. Drawing tablets come both with and without screens depending on your needs.

In addition, and often chosen at the same time as your drawing tablet technology, the drawing software you land on is very important. Photoshop is the most popular and common option here, and has numerous features specifically for digital artists. However, if you do not have the budget for Photoshop, you can consider Coreldraw, Krita and others.

Monitor Options

Colors are very important for any digital artist, and for this reason, the monitor you choose is also vital. You need a monitor that can produce industry-standard colors, and that have good viewing angles and solid brightness and contrast capabilities. Our team will be happy to recommend an ideal monitor for your needs.

Resources

For those who are new to this field or learning a new program, it’s important to take advantage of the resources available to you. There are numerous online resources available, whether we’re talking YouTube tutorials, magazine articles or even books dedicated to digital artists and themes.

Calibration Devices

In many cases, depending on your specific setup, you may need a monitor calibration device. This is a device that regularly updates your display settings, measuring the color and other settings from your monitor and correcting the output as needed.

Now, calibration devices are not cheap, and they’re mostly for those who make art as part of their living. There are limited free tools that will perform some of the same tasks, but for the highest possible quality, this is the way to go.

For more on the tools available to digital artists, or to learn about any of our cartoon tools or comic book creator resources, speak to the staff at Script My Toon today.