I have a 9x12 Intuos, though I imagine a size a little bit smaller would still be nice to use. I don't have it at school here with me, but I also don't have a scanner, so I doubt I'd get much productive done in the area of art with one and not the other.
Drawing direct to a tablet is a... different experience. It's a lot different than pencil or ink to paper, stylus to tablet surface is like drawing on glass. It takes a lot of getting used to, but once you do, you realize what an amazing tool it is. The pressure sensitivity is awesome, and it feels great to be able to "undo" when your hand doesn't do exactly what you want it to. I prefer to use it for coloring and cleaning up artwork I had done by hand, rather than draw to it directly, but it's perfectly good for both of those uses. It'll probably come packaged with Painter Classic, and Painter combined with a Wacom tablet is an awesome thing.
They're a little pricey, but you can't go wrong if you want one for either work-related art or recreation. Of course, I know a lot of people who thought buying a tablet would instantly give them artistic skill. I don't think this is the case, but it's funny to hear people whine about how they can't do CG coloring right because they don't have a tablet, and expect to instantly know how when they do... heh heh.
Oh, and as a sidenote, it will improve your iSketch playing abilities tenfold, this much is true!
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