Wacom Tablet Help

Hey guys,

Just wondering if when any of you draw/paint art if you have an easy way to have Photoshop up and a reference up at the same time? I am working on a laptop so I don't have a huge screen to make windows smaller without losing a ton of room so any alternatives would be nice. I finally am an adult with money (lol) so I bought a Wacom and I'm trying to get used to it and just practice drawing with it. 

Also - any other help/wisdom/insight with Photoshop and/or Wacom tablets, that would be so awesome. Thank youu!!

I don't work with Ps often but there's a couple of solutions I know of off the top of my head:

1- Have the reference open in another window and just use alt+tab to switch between them quickly.
2- Or have it open in a second document tab in Photoshop and use ctrl+tab to switch back and forth.
3- Paste the image onto directly onto the canvas in another layer and hide,resize, or move as needed.
4- Download a third-party program like Honeyview and set it to "always on top"

I know FireAlpaca (and possibly Medibang) have it built-in but I'm fairly sure there's no option for that in Ps unfortunately.


And some advice; If you've never used a drawing tablet before, its gonna be weird and you might not get immediate results but it wont take long to get the hang of it. Stabilizer/correction is your best friend. And try using shortcuts whenever possible because I swear ctrl+z saves so much more time than clicking undo every two seconds. If you have any other questions feel free to ask!

Oh my gosh you're an angel thank you so much :')

Oh which one did you get? My first one was a Bamboo that I got for Christmas probably almost 10 years ago now, and then after my horse passed four years ago I got myself a new Intuos tablet which I love! And yes I use Photoshop as well except I have a lovely big monitor so not much help with a little laptop screen

I have been using Photoshop and wacom tablets for about 6 years now. There are a few things if you're new. Like. Meka said it's going to feel weird when you use your tablet for the first time. My recommendation is to use your tablet  like you would use your mouse for a solid week if not more just so you get the feel for it. Also whenever you can, practice with it. Doodle something every day if your schedule allows. 

As for Photoshop itself there are so many things within the program that I don't have character space to explain or point out/help what have you lol. But with the reference thing the common practice is to put the reference in a new window in Photoshop. Me, if im working on manipulations I'll put the ref directly on the thing I'm working on in a new layer so I can turn it on and off as I need. For tags and Sig's however, I use the "put it in a new window in Photoshop" method. 


It's all seriously up to you. Play with Photoshop and your tablet and find what works best for you. That is the great thing with art. You can experiment and make it your own. You can find your own style. 

Ifyou need any extra help, shoot a pm my way.

Alicia - I got the Wacom Intuos, but I went without the Bluetooth! So far I'm really enjoying it, but there is definitely a learning curve to getting used to drawing on it.

Bela - Using the tablet as a mouse is a great idea - I'm going to try that. I've used PSP back in the day and GIMP more recently, so I'm sort of confident on how to at least operate Ps, but I'm definitely trying to learn the short cuts and easier ways to get around and do certain things. Like I've used paths in GIMP, but it's way different in Ps, and I'd say a little more difficult to get used to, so I'm still working out things like that. Attempting to draw on a tablet is just totally new for me - like I see some of the stuff people do and I'm like convinced it's fake haha like how?? So I'll definitely keep up with the sketching!

Last edited on 2018-05-04 at 14:23:32 by Kilburn Sport Horses

Nice! Mine has the bluetooth but unfortunately I killed the battery because I wasn't using it and forgot to plug it in -_-

Congrats on your new tablet! I also work on a laptop though my screen is a decent size so I'm not sure how helpful it will be to you, but as Bela said you can open up the reference in a new window on PS.
I usually pop out both the reference and my "working" window and adjust them next to each other so I can see both on my screen, this allows me to zoom in or out on either image depending on where I'm working as well
example