Drawing tablet for DD clueless

[Shinyandnew2022]

So my DD11 was gifted a drawing tablet for her birthday .
She was so excited to receive it but we are all clueless and don't really know where to start !
She needs software on the laptop - the only one I know is illustrator but it's expensive !
Is there something else we can get to start her off ?
Also does anyone know am I right that it won't work with an ipad?

Feeling useless

It's a Xencelabs medium tablet if that helps.

She had hoped to create animations from drawings which so far she has done on her ipad with something called flip a clip .

Many thanks

My daughter is off to art school in September and does lots and lots of digital drawing. She recommends the free program FireAlpaca:
firealpaca.com/

Thank you so much to your DD for the recommendation I will take a look !

Could I please ask for drawing tablet recommendations? DD12 thinks she wants an iPad mini for art, but they are v pricey, and I’m not sure it’s the right thing anyway. I don’t really know how to advise. Could I please pick your brains?

Do drawing tablets have to be connected to a laptop/pc to work? What would be a good starter one? I’m not keen to pay iPad prices really. Thanks for any advice and help you could give.

There are two types which can be connected to a laptop. Some of them are like big touchpads, and what you draw appears on the laptop. The others are actually touchscreen monitors, so what you draw appears on the gadget itself (as well as on the laptop). The first type is half the price of the second, but obviously gives you a lot less feedback! If you look for "Huion tablet" you'll see the range from a good mid-range brand.

Thank you so much, you have helped a clueless person a lot. I think we may go for the Huion H640P as an entry level tablet - it seems to get fairly good reviews as a budget option.

My DD started on one of those, I think! Then moved to a Huion Kamvas (the monitor type) when doing Art GCSE. She's done work on it which was good enough to get into art school to do a course in Illustration (using the free software mentioned upthread!) so you don't need the expensive stuff at her level.
For example, she did this on a Huion + FireAlpaca. 😀

The best option in this case would be an iPad.

Yes, I'm quite surprised she needed a drawing tablet when she has an iPad. My kids draw on the iPad using procreate.

Two different questions on this thread! First case (@Shinyandnew2022), OP's DD has an iPad but was given a drawing tablet and question was about software. Second question (@zeebee) asking for advice but "not keen to pay iPad prices really.") A basic drawing tablet is around 10% of the cost of an iPad.

iPads are great for a lot of illustration work and I know that many professional artists use them -- but it depends on their style. They're pretty small and sometimes having a bigger area to play with on the tablet/laptop can really help for big or very detailed pictures rather than endlessly zooming in/out or scrolling around!