A friend of mine gave me a Genius Mouse Pen tablet, and I have to say, which tablet you get, in the end, doesn't matter. Mine has fairly low pressure sensitivity (it's nearly impossible to get lines to taper perfectly!) but in the end, it creates art that looks great to me. I can do small things like teeth textures on dragons and large things like flat colors. Of course, the Intuos and Cintiq lines are superior to it, but only in that they're far more efficient and sensitive to things like pen pressure, making it easier to get the job done.

Of course, my cousin surprised me today with a gift of an Intuos5 Medium, so now I don't know what to do with my Genius tablet anymore o_o;; It was mighty nice of him...I was very, very unprepared to see a Wacom tablet box sitting on the dinner table!

Excellent tutorials and articles, thank you!