They say a poor artist blames his tools...

... but don't under estimate the power of changing medium, because holy smokes it makes a difference. It just cost me 400 dollar to learn this.

Context: I am very stubborn. I want to learn digital art so not drawing on anything besides a tablet seems kind of pointless. Ill doodle on work breaks on a sketch book with a mechanical pencil, but whenever I study art and really really practice, I use a drawing tablet and the tablet I've been using for several years has been a $200 XP Pen, one of the cheapest drawing tablets with a display screen. Not awful for the price, but certainly quirky. The pen itself has a strong spring in the drawing nib and required more pressure than normal in order to work.

Recently, it died, and I had to buy a new device. Biting the bullet, I spent double the price on a new Huion Kamvas Pro 13 and holy smokes, what a difference. THe pen is far more sensitive, the screen is larger and my figures are coming out far more fluid and and smooth. In fact, lines are so easy, Im drawing a little too fast and have had to correct mistakes more often, but the most important thing is that drawing figures has become way way more fun and Im losing myself more in practice.

The thing is, all these things that I like about this new tablet? They could have totally been achieved by switching to paper and charcoal. Newspaper print and a pack of artsy burnt wood. Or maybe something else from the clearance section of Micheals. SOmething far cheaper than a 400 dollar device.

Now I won't be returning it, because I will use it every day until it dies like my previous one, but now Ill remember the next time Im feeling a little stuck, switching to a new medium is probably the best choice.

When you draw figures, what is your go too drawing materials and have you switched it up recently? I highly reccomend it!

when it comes to computer parts, quality can make a world of diffrence. It's hard to make art if your pc keeps crashing.

I got both a dirt cheap & very expensive drawing screen & drawing tables from XP-pen recently, & both have there strengths. The big screen is great for serious work while the cheap tablet is great for chill project on the couch. I don't think throwing too much money is really going to make too big a difrence having diminishing returns, but tech changes fast so updating maybe more important.

As for trandishinal art tools, I've had a lot of fun in the past going a cheap as possible. I challanged myself to what I called the caveman art challange, your only able to use tools you make yourself & it really helped me learn to be very resourceful.

I'm pretty similar to you, doing a lot of doodling in sketch books, and doing more "serious" stuff on a 10 inch Samsung tablet that is too small and can bug out a bit. It feels so much better drawing with my pencils and pens