I have a bit uncommon question. I'm currently rather short on cash and soon will be even shorter (gonna move out and start paying rent by myself, and that'll take half of my paycheck), but I really need to upgrade my laptop - for many different purposes, including drawing faster and (I hope) better. what would you recommend for an artist without big constant fan base (read: zero) and without much confidence in their skills?

If you want to buy a laptop on a budget, and you’re not all that confident in your craft ( or if you’ll make more out of it in the future ). Then I suggest you go with any machine that can run the software you’re using. And otherwise pick a laptop that you can use to suit your other needs ( gaming, streaming, browsing, or whatever ). 

Generally, I don’t encourage anyone to stretch their funds too thin on an “art”- computer unless they plan on doing it full-time or just spend their every waking moment outside of work drawing. 
It just wouldn’t make sense to throw that much money after a laptop if in the end, you’re not gonna need all the horsepower. 

I think something in the range of 
HP Envy/ Pavillion series, or maybe even a low -end MSI laptop should be your maximum spending. Moreso because on top of being able to handle your software - it’ll allow you to game some and pull a lot of other tasks with it. 
I’ve generally not had good experiences with Acer and Asus in regards to working with demanding software on their systems, but I can’t guarantee that there shouldn’t be decent models out there. 

But no higher unless you work with the Adobe Package. 
Generally no higher than 500-700$. 

Alternatively, you can probably build your own desktop and get much more efficiency for much lower prices. 

- mod  wackart ( ko-fi )

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