There is no doubt in my mind that Wacom makes best-in-class tools for modern, digital artists who specialize in a number of different disciplines. I myself, in my day job, am a video editor. I’ve been messing around with every editing software under the sun for over a decade now. I started out making short films and sketches in college on Final Cut and eventually moved on to my professional career rooted in Adobe Premiere. But hardly ever, did I try to customize the way I work.
Over the years I would meet editors, older and more experienced than me, swear by the Wacom tablet and how it’s helped them do their job faster and more efficiently. I would try to take a quick spin with their setup, but it never stuck.
Flash-forward to 2025 and I have my hands (or, more aptly, “hand”) on Wacom’s Intuos Pro and the Pro Pen 3. The duo make an excellent first impression. The tablet is wafer thin, with a smooth matte surface while the pen has a counter-weight that allows it to rest in your hand. The software and hardware are set up in minutes and with the option to plug the tablet into your computer via USB-C, you could be up and running even quicker.
The Medium version of the Intuos Pro features two dials and two sets of directional buttons. These responsive and unobtrusive tools can be customized to fit any number of creative workflows. Additionally, purchase and subsequent registration of a tablet will allow you to access free trials for software to kick-off your digital art making journey.
When it was time to put pen to paper (pun intended) I found myself slipping up and making mistakes I would never make with a keyboard and mouse setup. Moving footage around in Premiere would lead to misclick after misclick that had me spamming Command+Z. I could tell almost immediately that this was going to take some time to get used to. With work’s quick turnaround times, it meant that I needed to make learning to use the Intuos Pro an extracurricular activity.
I decided to switch things up and use the free trial to Clip Studio Paint that I had been offered. Under no circumstances would I call myself an artist, especially when it comes to drawing or painting, so I did what I did when I was first learning to draw on my own as a kid. I traced. I pulled a png of Pikachu off the internet, created a layer in Clip, made that layer translucent, and tried to mimic the line-work using the Intuos Pro and Pro Pen. My hand was shaky, imprecise and my lines were more squiggly than I had anticipated.
A Pikachu I traced with the Wacom Intuos Pro
Eventually, I was able to make something that I was satisfied with, even if my ego was a bit bruised and my wrist sore. I didn’t set out to become a great artist overnight. I know that that takes time. It takes time to build up the skills, and the confidence, to make something that will make you happy. Artists spend years studying and honing their craft to do what they do.
And that is the type of artist that Wacom’s Intuos Pro and Pro Pen 3 are for. They are for the skilled artist, who have a deep knowledge of theory and tools at their disposal, and who want to move into the digital space in an intuitive way. For a beginner like myself, the learning curve may prove to be too steep.
At the same time, I did a little A-B testing with my iPad Pro, an Apple Pencil, and the app Procreate. I traced a photo I had taken of a weird looking bird I saw, and the results weren’t far off from the Pikachu I had made. The lines are still shaky, but the distinct, ovular bird was still rendered to my liking. The biggest difference here was the speed with which I was able to make the bird. For a novice like me, this felt like a great place to start a hobby of drawing, sketching, or painting with ease and portability.
A bird I traced with an iPad and Procreate
It should be said, I believe there is no right way to work. If you want to dip your toe in and make doodles like me, take whatever route you find the least amount of friction.
For the experienced artist, however, it’s hard not to recommend the Wacom Intuos Pro. Wacom is the name in digital art, so it feels kind of inevitable that you will cross paths with their products as you make this journey. If you have the time and the drive to learn, the depth provided right out of the box by Wacom is the best way to invest in yourself.
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