to paint using the pen? (WACOM?) is that what its called?

Hans V
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<http://www.skoogo.com>

Wacom is it. But I'm not sure what you mean by painting in Photoshop. It can be done, but you might want a program like Painter, depending on what you are trying to do.

I would definitely recommend a wacom tablet. i have one myself and it's fantastic. Mine was around £130 and came free with a program called painter, which gives really realistic brush strokes. But you can also use photoshop for 'painting'
Get a tablet! you won't regret it

My choice is also a Wacom. Got an ancient Graphire 2, still going strong, but I'll be using a wide screen Intuos soon.

The Intuos is bigger, enabling better accuracy, and it has more levels of pressure sensitivity.

Rob

Definately Wacom...

I have the smallest Graphire3 that they made, and it works great. 512 levels of sensitivity, which is enough for all but the most demanding users. And the small size is nice...takes up very little room on my desk. Would I prefer a larger tablet, or even a Cintiq? Prefer...maybe not. But having them in addition to the small one? Yeah.

But what Rob left out is something worth considering, that is: even though a tablet may be small, never forget that you can zoom in, inside of your Photoshop document; that covers almost any accuracy/resolution issues you may come up against.

I have a Wacom Intuos 3. pressure sensitive and angle sensitive and i
love it. Once usinh one of these you would never use a mouse for
painting.
If you would like to see something completely hand painted in a few
hours I will post my link to a portrait I did a little while back.
(Done like a traditional oil paintng)
There is a bit of freehand digital on there. Go get a Wacom - spoil
yourself! :-) You don't need a big one, mine is 4.5x5.5 but an IT mate
of mine tells me there is a screen one on the market now that is not
that much dearer. I think I would still use a tablet the traditional
way, watching a monitor though unless it was a large panel.
http://kayleenwest.blogspot.com/2007...-portrait.html