Tips for getting used to a tablet?

[Jacen]

About a year ago I bought a Wacom Bamboo Capture tablet and got frustrated with it because it was a lot harder for me to draw with than pencil/paper. Recently I pulled it out and tried again, this time with more patience, and started working on my ability to use it. I've gotten better with it, but I still can't seem to get the smooth lines that I can get with pencil, do any of you guys have any tips? I'd really like to move over to digital, but at this point in time it's more annoying than it's worth.

[WingedZephyr]

It takes quite a bit of practice. The more you use it, the better you'll be at it. There are a few tricks that may help though.

Fast/long strokes will usually give you smoother lines than slow/short strokes. Smaller-sized tablets tend to result in more shaky lines than larger-sized tablets. Zooming in on an image and working on small areas at a time will sometimes help you make smoother lines. It also can help to start with a large image (canvas) and then resize it smaller after you finish your lines, because that will help smooth out some of the jitters. And make sure you play around with the sensitivity settings for the tablet so that they work best with how you draw.

[Jacen]

Thanks for the advice.