I've been looking around at some of the art you've all posted and it's really great. I am new to this and wondering if you are using a mouse to draw with or something else because I have only the touch pad on my laptop and it's seems a bit hard to draw with sometimes.

I have no formal art training either.

Wacom tablet is imo at its best ;
you can draw / paint with the mouse, but a pen is more accurate.

sorry mods,

I agree with Wally, I drew/painted a few images with the mouse before I got a tablet, it's do-able but much more natural with a pen and tablet that are pressure sensitive.  I can't even imagine drawing/painting with a touch pad on a laptop, that's got to be a challenge...

wls, photoshop was created to manipulate photographs, and most users still
do that (photomanips).  but if ya wanna draw something, you'll find some of
them use the mouse, some use tablets of varying price and complexity, some
use vector/path tools, et al.  post a scan of a rough sketch of what ya wanna do
and they can tell ya how to make it look good in CS3 or whatever. 

Attached Link: http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=59&t=698843

Oh wow!!!   That is really impressive!  The hair and eyelashes must have taken him forever...  Well...  They'd take me forever, even with a tablet...  rofl

Formal art training or not a drawing tablet will certainly make sketching your ideas more humanly normal than trying to do them via a mouse. No doubt it certainly can be done using a mouse but a drawing tablet will make the whole experience more natural to you. Drawing tablets like everything else come in different flavors. But no doubt certain manufacturers have a good edge over others and Wacom has this advantage. Even copying a photograph for Photoshop manipulation becomes much easier when you can lay the original photo under the acrylic screen that comes with most drawing tablets allowing you to trace over the image with the drawing tablet stylus becomes much easier than simply using a mouse. Using a tablet you can control the flow allowing you to control the amount of “ink” being put down at any one time. And if you don’t like it…you can turn your pen around and use the other end as an eraser just like a real pencil. As far as formal training is concerned, I suggest you go to the library and start reading beginner’s books on sketching. This will definitely help in creating true to life situation renditions. Early artists had no formal training…they practiced and that’s what made them great.

regardless of the "tool" you choose, you need to practice-practice-practice

and then practice some more.

i've used and still use all three methods mentioned (touchpad, mouse, wacom tablet) and i have to say each serves a unique purpose. for quick-and-dirty stuff i use the mouse (i try not to draw with the touchpad too much...) but if it's going to be a big project or got a lot of detail i use the tablet.

you adapt, remember they're only tools, it's "you" that makes it art.

:)
retrocity

Best example to answer this is to scribble something complex on paper with a pen, scan it and open this scanned image in photoshop. Now ry copying that scribble in photoshop with your mouse. Unless your hand is extremely steady, it's going to be hard to copy that shape exactly. Now imagine doing that with a tablet, (taking in mind that with a tablet you are using a pen and when writing on paper you're using a (you guesed it) pen. you can imagine how copying that complex scribble will be a whole lot more accurate.

Plus with a tablet you get added bonuses such as "pressure sensitivity" which is good for things such as hair for example.

Hope that helps, giving you a practicle example.