I need to get a drawing tablet for my daughter. I want to spend about $50-100, so obviously not top-of-the-line, but of course I want the best I can get in that price range. I don’t have a clue what to get because I have no experience with them. I don’t know what size would be best or anything. Anyone have one they can recommend?
What does she need it for?
Depending on the tasks, having a tracing cover is a must - or completely unnecesary. Size? Large enough not to have to spend too much time dragging things around so you can reach them, small enough to be portable.
She just needs it for recreational drawing. She draws using her laptop touchpad all the time and still manages to make really great drawings, I have no idea how (I can’t even stand to use a touchpad for web browsing). But she’s dying for a tablet.
She doesn’t use fancy programs or anything, just some free online thing, but she says it has a lot of features, and she makes use of them.
Her laptop screen isn’t very big, if that makes a difference. It’s 14".
We got a Wacom bamboo tablet for $60 - something from amazon. They have different software packages. My daughter uses it constantly, so it’s a hit. The only things I worry about are keeping track of the stylus (so far so good) and the usb connection on the tablet seems a little iffy but it’s holding up.
IMHO Wacom is the way to go.
The Bamboo is around $50 and is a nice beginner option.
Gah! Ninja’d by mack 
If you think you can swing it the Intuos is really nice for around $80
I just figured out what Wacom is up to. Unquestionably, Wacom is the way to go. It used to be Bamboo was their regular everyday drawing tablet and Intuos was their professional tablet. Now they’ve gone and renamed things so the Intuos Pen is the average tablet and the Intuos Pro is the professional tablet.
Guess the bamboo line is mostly just a bunch of special styluses now! The Intuos Pen that zoid linked should be the way to go. It’s better than the Bamboo Pad model he linked and is worth the price hike. She’ll thank you for it.
The Pen, like the others, comes with bundled software. It might or might not be an issue but you may need to consider that when you redeem your software, the license is only good for one platform and a minimal number of downloads.
Sketchbook express isn’t a problem because it’s a free download for anybody. Art Rage studio isn’t, so just make sure it goes on whatever computer will get the most use.
We originally set everything up on my macbook but then my daughter gravitated towards my windows computer with the big monitor. So she can use sketchbook but not art rage on it (until I spring for a pay copy).
Besides drawing there are a bunch of animation programs out there that my daughter enjoys (she’s 10).
Mack, you can’t deactivate the license on one computer and switch it to another? From the forums it says that artrage can simply be uninstalled on one computer and then reinstalled on the one you want it on. (See bottom post). It’s a bit old but I don’t see why they would change that. The FAQ also says that it can be installed on a second computer with no problem.
The free version may be limited somehow but that’s pretty rare.
Edit: There’s also an FAQ question for the Wacom giveaway copies, so even those have license keys that should be transferable.
Thanks, I’ll check that out but another problem is that I’ve “exceeded my number of downloads”.
When I asked about it, Wacom support replied “As stated on the registration page FAQs:
Q: Can I download these applications if I switch from one operating system to another?
A: No. The applications are only available for the operating system that you have selected in the registration process.”
…in which I selected OS X.
Seems like they keep the bundled software licensing situation a bit tighter than the full-priced stuff.
Thanks for the recommendations! I went with the $100 Intuos Pen and Touch. Seemed like the extra features were definitely worth another $20. I had a really hard time deciding between the one with the standard software bundle or the manga one, because she draws a ton of manga, but I ended up just getting the standard one. I don’t know what the difference would be between a normal drawing program and a manga one, but if she wants the manga program we can get that later (it was an old version in the bundle anyway and the new version has better reviews).