Which drawing program do you use for your digital art?

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Maxinquaye

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Since I started trying to become an artist - not even a better artist since I'm not even ready to crawl into the newbie creche yet - I've tried out different programs. By now I've tried MyPaint, SAI Paint Tool, Photoshop, and Krita.

https://krita.org/

I'm actually a little bit in love with Krita. I would say it's as good as Photoshop - with much of the same philosophy behind it, except it's free. Though, it's purposefully more limited since the devs are focusing exclusively on making a digital painting and drawing program. So, while there is some 'photoshopping' functionality, it only exist to make painting easier.

The artist David Ravoy has made some fantastic pieces with Krita. Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93lMLEuxSLk

It made me think - what program is your favourite?
 

mightyjaxar

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Since I started trying to become an artist - not even a better artist since I'm not even ready to crawl into the newbie creche yet - I've tried out different programs. By now I've tried MyPaint, SAI Paint Tool, Photoshop, and Krita.

https://krita.org/

I'm actually a little bit in love with Krita. I would say it's as good as Photoshop - with much of the same philosophy behind it, except it's free. Though, it's purposefully more limited since the devs are focusing exclusively on making a digital painting and drawing program. So, while there is some 'photoshopping' functionality, it only exist to make painting easier.

The artist David Ravoy has made some fantastic pieces with Krita. Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93lMLEuxSLk

It made me think - what program is your favourite?

I mostly use photoshop. (It's common enough) I like to photoshop all of my pencil drawings.

Some stuff I drew/photoshopped:

kzojiIP.png

etXuDkq.jpg


Krita sounds pretty cool, might have to check it out.
 

juniper

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In my mind, Photoshop is for enhancing/fixing already existing art. Not for creation. But that might just be my remembrance from years ago, when I worked a bit in that kind of thing in my job.

Krita looks neat - that YouTube video was cool. Apparently the drawing was done in an hour, according to one of the comments? Krita seems designed for painting new works, not adjusting old ones. And then I went to his comic. Cute!
 

TheIlluminatedMuse

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I use Photoshop religiously. But I as well use Corel Painter. I usually create the work in Photoshop, bring it into Painter and then back into Photoshop for touch ups.

Another free program is GIMP. I've never used but hear good things with it. That Krita looks promising...

I've also done some animation using After Effects and animated one of my stories...
 

Orianna2000

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I started with Paint Shop Pro, fifteen years ago, then switched to an older but free version of Photoshop. Currently, I use Photoshop Elements 11, which is a slightly watered-down version of Photoshop. It's affordable, and it does absolutely everything I need, with the exception of curved lines. I would give anything to be able to draw a line and then curve it, like you can do in Paint. . . . But anyway, I use it for both photography and digital painting, probably 50/50. I also use it to create digital sewing patterns. I've heard people say, "But it's a photo-editing program! You can't DRAW with it!" but it really does a brilliant job with digital painting. I've done some of my best work using it! In fact, I just ordered PSE 14. Anxiously waiting for it to arrive.
 

Aschmer

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Manga Studio is a wonderful program for digital illustration! It doesn't have as many editing capabilities or the diversity of Photoshop, but if you have no interest in type or photo-editing and just need an art program, it's definitely a great competitor. Plus, with a price tag of $50 as opposed to the ridiculous monthly rates for new Adobe CC programs...Yeah.

Here's an example of working in Manga Studio if anyone is curious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKECirLFjPI
 

Orianna2000

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Just an update, my Photoshop Elements 14 arrived and I've been using it for the past few weeks. Loving it! They got rid of one feature I liked and used often (the ability to quickly change the color ratios of an image), but other than that, it seems to be the same, with a few additional features, like compensating for camera shake, getting rid of haze, whitening teeth, and a smarter auto-selection. It's pretty great!

Just FYI, I use a Wacom Intuos Pen & Touch tablet when I draw. It's a flat tablet (not an iPad) that connects to your computer and lets you draw using a stylus, so you can use the natural motions of sketching, instead of struggling with a mouse or touch-pad. Makes a HUGE difference in my drawing skills! I recently noticed that Wacom has a new drawing tablet out and was seriously thinking about trying it. But my old one works just fine, even if it's slightly outdated. I figured I'd probably wait until it breaks or wears out, and then replace it. Except I hate that moment of panic, when I realize I can't work for the next several days while I wait on an order to arrive. I'd rather replace it on my own time, before the old one breaks, so I have a spare to fall back on, and so I don't have any forced time off.
 

Tamarind

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Definitely Photoshop, and I second Orianna2000 on the Wacom tablet. I really can't imagine trying to do digital drawing or painting without a tablet, the pressure sensitivity in the tablet is such a key element to creating fluid artwork.


http://danamartinillustration.tumblr.com/
 

Princess Amps

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I use Illustrator due to the fact that in my design classes photoshop tends to be looked down on. While I do prefer how the line art looks, coloring is a pain. So in a perfect world, I would use both photoshop and illustrator.
 

rwhegwood

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I've been exploring Absolute Designer a good sub for Illustrator and am thinking about Absolute Photo, its Photoshop style app. I tried Acorn and iDraw, now Graphic and like them both, but I think the AD and AP apps above offer more overall...though the interface of Graphic is very user friendly.
 

Gribba

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I use Inkscape for vector graphics (and many other things), love that program but I also use GIMP for the photo manipulation work... These pograms are fee and almost as good as Illustrator and Photoshop.

These I made in Inkscape:
BookCover_Love-223x300.png

BookCover_owl1-226x300.png


and these I made in GIMP
BookCover_door5-210x300.png

BookCover_Photo_01-223x300.png
 

Latina Bunny

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Back when I used to do digital art, I alternated between Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. Sometimes Paint Tool Sai.
 

Max Vaehling

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I'm doing everythig in Manga Studio these days. By MS5, they had all the Photoshop functions I needed emulated, plus their own comics-specific functions. If it wasn't for web exports coming out way too large (I still use Gimp for that) and the lettering being less than ideal (though I hear they fixed that in the latest version), I wouldn't need anything else.

Toyed with Krita a while back (until my PC crashed for unrelated reasons and I haven't reinstalled it yet) - it's pretty neat but really slow once you're going for print-size images. Love the brushes and layering options, though. (Here's my first result.) I'll be sure to try it again once I have the time or need for painted-looking art

For vector graphics, I use Inkscape now because I've got it all set up for the stuff I need but I really preferred Corel Draw. Theoretically, I should be able to do it all in MS5, too, but I've never tried it. (Painted art, too. You can do a lot in MS5 but other programs can be more suited.)
 
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JoeSlucher

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Paintstorm Studio! So I have used Photoshop my whole career and have switched over to using Paintstorm 90% of the time. Mostly just using Photoshop for image adjustments, the occasional Actions and exporting the actual file. My only complaint is that the UI creates a bit of a barrier to entry but once you learn to understand it the program is super powerful.
 

dpaterso

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Toyed with Krita a while back (until my PC crashed for unrelated reasons and I haven't reinstalled it yet) - it's pretty neat but really slow once you're going for print-size images. Love the brushes and layering options, though. (Here's my first result.) I'll be sure to try it again once I have the time or need for painted-looking art
Cool beans, Max! Nice painty look, if that's the word. I might try it, I use old faithful Paint.NET for speed but it doesn't have much in the way of paintbrush function, as an unsatisfactory workaround I blur between colors using the Smudge plug-in.

-Derek
 

Isilya

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I use Autodesk's Sketchbook. Got it free on my Samsung Note.
 

WeaselFire

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Adobe does it right. And has for a quarter century. Expensive? Yup. Worth it? Double Yup. If you're a pro, you use it. Period.

Jeff
 

R.Barrows

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PaintShop Pro user, because it's cheap and simple. Unfortunately it's also become as buggy as Hell. I'm considering Photoshop, but I don't 'really' want to learn it since I've been using PSP for fifteen years. If it only quit crashing all the time, I'd be fine with it. I really need another solution.

Mostly I take screenshots for the docs I write. Since PSP stopped working, I've gone to using Robo Screen Capture which is a free utility supplied with Adobe Framemaker. It's tolerable for capturing the screenshots, but worthless for editing beyond cropping.

I do create a certain amount of graphic art, though. Realistically, I'd love to get my hands on a copy of Max or Maya. For 3D, I mostly use Wings3D, which is great for modelling but rendering and texturing is a bitch. I will check out Krita. It looks like fun.
 

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I've used a lot, but my main go-to is Clip Studio Painter Pro. I use Artrage but the post cleanups can be tricky, its great for laying down color quickly though and has an awesome UI.
I'm playing with Krita, which is a bit fiddly and resource heavy, but is incredibly powerful and professional for an absolutely free program.

I used Photoshop for post edits on occasion, but as a drawer...not so much. I had to use it exclusively when I worked in a comic studio and don't miss that at all.
 

kevinwaynewilliams

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PaintShop Pro user, because it's cheap and simple. Unfortunately it's also become as buggy as Hell.... If it only quit crashing all the time, I'd be fine with it.

What version of PSP are you having such misery with? I have PaintShop Pro X on one machine and PaintShop Pro X3 on another: no stability problems on either one. You can get either one on eBay for $20.
 
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