I bought my Wacom two 2 years ago, during my first year of uni. I've lived at home for the full 3 years, but still received a decent student loan, so I took advantage of that to buy myself better tools to aid my practice. I decided to get a Wacom to aid my illustration and chose one with silver trimmings to match my mac (sad, I know lol).
It's a great graphics tablet for beginners, and my work wouldn't be where it is today without it. It's quite difficult to get your head around at the start, as you're drawing on the tablet but it's coming up on your computer screen, so you're not actually looking at your hand or pen nib when you're drawing, so I was VERY shaky at the start. But once you spend a good few hours getting to grips with it, it's an invaluable tool for someone who specialises in digital illustration.
In the two years I've had it it's never broken, and it has an impressive battery life too. It comes with a usb cable so you can either draw wirelessly or wired, which means if you prefer wireless but run out of battery, you can keep working - you don't have to wait for it to charge 👍🏻 I think it was around £250 when I bought it, so it's not really breaking the bank and I use it all the time, so I've deffo got my money's worth.
The only real downside to it, is what I was saying earlier about not being able to look at your pen nib when you're drawing. Even though I've gotten used to drawing like this, I do miss drawing in the more 'traditional sense', so I think I might upgrade to either a Wacom Touch, which has an in-built screen, or an iPad Pro. Following illustrators online, I've heard many good things about iPad Pros, which could double up as normal tablet for sharing work online etc, but I'm nervous about it as I don't know if I'd have to switch to a new software for drawing, as I'm 100% committed to Photoshop at the moment.
Anyway, if you're starting out as an illustrator, or wanna try your hand at digital illustration, I would definitely recommend a Wacom Intuos Pro! They're super easy to set up, don't break (touch wood) and are a very affordable compared to some of the more advanced models.
4/5 from me 👍🏻
Adios,
Bronte
P.S. It's April and it's snowing... WHAT ❄️