I have drawn on paper since I was two and I think I can draw just fine but it looks like a 4 year old coloring book when I try to draw with my  drawing tablet. I've had one for nearly 5 months and I haven't improved with it. Sometimes I'm more serious about practice drawing with it and totally fail. I simply just cannot draw with it.

Yet I see incredible works done by guys who have the same hardware and I have no clue how they got there. The only solution I can conceive is they draw then scan it in or use a Tablet Monitor Such as XP-Pen Artist16 Pro which is waaay beyond my budget right now.

Does anyone have any insights?

It is common to scan in hand-drawn work and then do additional work digitally, so that could be part of what you're seeing.

Professional artists making a living from their work will also often invest in better tools, so yes, they may be using more expensive (and capable) hardware.

Five months -- especially if you're getting frustrated and giving up easily sometimes -- is not a long time to learn a new skill though, and drawing with a tablet would be quite different to your usual physical media.  Think about when you were young, or ask your parents if you can see some of your childhood drawings.  It probably took you years, not months, to get to where you are now.  It's probably well worth giving it some more time, and accepting that your work will be of poorer quality for a while as you practice.

Are you struggling with digital painting, or just line work?

Digital painting is entirely different beast than traditional painting. Color theory, lighting, shadows, ect... are transferable, but you need to learn how to utilize the tools which play a lot differently than traditional mediums. I've been able to get some close results in Photoshop with custom brushes, but it's still much different to me anyhow.

If you're able to share your digital art work maybe we can point out some issues and provide suggestions for you. What software are you using?

It takes a weird leap inside your brain to be moving your hand at one location and be controlling the cursor at another location. This is fairly easy to learn how to do with a mouse, but when you've been drawing with a pen your whole life, it can be harder to re-learn...

I've seen a few artists try ditching their mouse and using the pen for everything -- web browsing, text editing, etc... just to build up more "pen minutes" of practice time.

hahaha I think this is a sophisticated form of spam.

You have a single post.
You joined the same day you created this thread.
It links to a product.
You mention that others have done "incredible work" using tablets, but you make sure to say that they did it with this same hardware.

I hope I'm wrong. I know you have no way to prove it, though, so I'll let it go.

I ended up scanning the drawings and using the pen to redraw over the now visible template on screen. This worked, but without the template all my drawings ended up terribly skewed.

No idea how much practice it takes until one can draw properly, but i assume nowadays with touchscreens the issue is gone, because you see what you draw right under your hands as usual.

Finally i also tried to use the pen to play Quake III, but no luck there either, i still got fragged.

4 hours ago, Kryzon said:

hahaha I think this is a sophisticated form of spam.

You have a single post.
You joined the same day you created this thread.
It links to a product.

Fair comment. The link is removed. The topic is staying open for now.

@Tom Sloper now that @JoeJ has posted, it seems that it was him using an alias account? I'm confused.

But this topic seems legit now. I was wrong after all, yey.

36 minutes ago, Kryzon said:

@Tom Sloper now that @JoeJ has posted, it seems that it was him using an alias account? I'm confused.

No, I am confused now. Anyways, i do not make alias accounts to advertise any products. Even if the OP is spam the question is useful, and because i have used such 'pen' (i do not even know the proper name) for paid work, i shared my experience. Notice my experience was bad, so no advertising here from my side. (Check IPs if you don't trust me).

2 minutes ago, JoeJ said:

No, I am confused now. Anyways, i do not make alias accounts to advertise any products. Even if the OP is spam the question is useful, and because i have used such 'pen' (i do not even know the proper name) for paid work, i shared my experience. Notice my experience was bad, so no advertising here from my side. (Check IPs if you don't trust me).

There is just some confusion, and I caught it too because when you read the OP's post:

I have drawn on paper since I was two and I think I can draw just fine but it looks like a 4 year old coloring book when I try to draw with my  drawing tablet. I've had one for nearly 5 months and I haven't improved with it. Sometimes I'm more serious about practice drawing with it and totally fail. I simply just cannot draw with it.

Yet I see incredible works done by guys who have the same hardware and I have no clue how they got there. The only solution I can conceive is they draw then scan it in or use a Tablet Monitor Such as XP-Pen Artist16 Pro which is waaay beyond my budget right now.

Does anyone have any insights?

then your reply:

I ended up scanning the drawings and using the pen to redraw over the now visible template on screen. This worked, but without the template all my drawings ended up terribly skewed.

No idea how much practice it takes until one can draw properly, but i assume nowadays with touchscreens the issue is gone, because you see what you draw right under your hands as usual.

Finally i also tried to use the pen to play Quake III, but no luck there either, i still got fragged.

It just appears like it's a response from OP when it's actually just your experience on the subject.