So long are the days where meticulous drawing and shading must be done with pen and paper.
Wacom, a maker of drawing tablets, has released an update to its consumer-level "Bamboo" line.
Drawing tablets allow drawing, shading and photo editing to be done on a computer with a pen instead of a mouse.
Cameron Cotney, sales associate at Best Buy, said some industrial design students use drawing tablets to design blueprints or touch up digital photos.
"You aren't going to be controlling a game with it; it's more of an artistic feel," Cotney said.
Bret Smith, industrial design chair, said the tablets remove the limitations of a computer mouse and allow students to input continuous forms more naturally.
"It allows you to have the human touch," Smith said.
The tablets come in different versions to suit each unique user.
The Bamboo Pen is the cheapest at $69. It allows input from an included pen. It includes Corel Painter Essentials, a drawing and painting program.
Cotney said Corel Painter Essentials is like a beefier version of Paint on a regular computer.
The Bamboo Pen is great for drawing, coloring and editing images.
Aside from its use as a drawing tablet, Cotney said the Bamboo Pen is also popular with teachers.
It can aid in slideshow presentations and it allows drawing on the screen.
The Bamboo Pen and Touch is the next step up. Priced at $99, it supports input from an included pen and multi-touch input from your fingers. It comes with Adobe Photoshop Elements, a stripped down consumer version of Adobe's popular professional photo editing software.
The support for multi-touch input allows the tablet to be used as a large trackpad.
Cotney said it's like using charcoal and using your finger to apply shading.
The most expensive consumer tablet, priced at $199, is the Bamboo Fun. The Bamboo Fun supports both pen and touch input, and is slightly larger than its cheaper brethren. The Bamboo fun comes with both Adobe Photoshop Elements and Corel Painter Essentials.
"The most expensive one is a little bit bigger and it comes with [all] the programs," Cotney said.
When used with the included programs or other supported software, all of the tablet's surfaces are pressure sensitive--the harder you press on the surface with the pen, the darker the shade or the larger the stroke.
Those looking for more may be interested in Wacom's professional line of Intuos tablets.
Starting at $229 and increasing in price based on size, Intuos tablets offer better sensitivity and a better drawing surface.
Cotney said the tablets are easy to use.
Installation takes several minutes and requires loading the drivers on the included CD.
The tablets support both Windows and Mac.
Overall, Cotney says that the tablets allow you more freedom and better control.
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