Guild Wars 2

Hi,
I have been wanted to try digital art for a while now but I just cant find a good art program. What art programs do you digital artists use/what would you recommend.

-Tigerfangs

Hi!

There’s a ton of digital art programs out there that you can use. Photoshop (any version of it—CS6 and CS5 is what I’m familiar with) is not what I would call an art program by far, but it is a very popular choice and there are lots of tutorials out there for how to get started using it for digital art. If you like the feel of photoshop but can’t afford it, kitten is a free alternative (and it was my first art program!). In my opinion, it’s relatively clunky and hard to get into, but if you can get past that it can work for you. I personally use Paint Tool SAI, although compared to other art programs it may be lacking for your needs. Clip Studio Paint is a relatively new one I’ve come across that seems much more extensive and fantastic than other programs I’ve come by if you are interested in also being able to create comics. Some other programs you might want to look into are Corel Painter and Art Rage.

Also, digital art can be difficult if you are using a mouse. While it’s possible to make some fantastic artwork with it, you should look into purchasing a tablet if you don’t already have one. I recommend Wacom’s bamboo series if you are starting out. Monoprice tablets are cheaper but I can’t guarantee how long they will last.

Good luck!!! You can message me if you have any questions about working with digital art c:

Yikes, the forum censor got me—yeah, it doesn’t really have the best… name—look up “the GNU Image Manipulation Program” and it should come up for the free alternative to photoshop.

Thanks for the reply I will definitely check out those programs

If you’ve used photoshop in the past and are thinking of trying the GnuImgManiProg checking out Partha’s alternative version may be good: http://www.partha.com/
Also Inkscape is a vector based open source drawing tool. Can grab it from the site above as well.

Official sites:
http://www.kitten .org/ (rofl at censor)
https://inkscape.org/

I use Sai. It’s a much cheaper alternative to photoshop.

And while the above person said PS might not be a drawing program, it is actually becoming more and more draw friendly with new editions coming out. I don’t use it too much other than to touch up my images when I need to sometimes, but I know people who create wonderful images from scratch from it. It has a really good handle on texture brushes and you can easily create your own brush sets with unique textures. Sai lets you do this too, but its not as user friendly for it and the options are far more limited. Still, I draw everything I do from Sai from scratch and find it quite nice ^^

I can verify that Photoshop has been becoming way more painting friendly. More brush control now, more blending techniques, and there’s even a “Painting” pre-set layout that you can choose. However, SAI is a great choice too; although I’ve never painted with it, plenty of amazing artists use it.

Photoshop is good thanks to all of the tutorials, but I personally use Paint Tool SAI. It is possible to draw using just mouse, if you use vectors. All of my latest drawings in my commission thread are done in SAI.
Manga Studio is an honorable mention.

Going to add another vote for Clip Studio Paint. Why ? Because it changed my life, that’s why.

DO YOU WANT SAI ? Are you irritated enough by the 70 bux for abandonware ? DO YOU WANT PHOTOSHOP but the monthly sub isn’t your thing. And lets be honest unless you use photos (vidya geam concept art- mattepainitng and photobashing ) I can’t recommend PS at all. 98% is bloating your system with stuff you’ll never touch, its expensive and unnecessary for most artist.

Well fear no more Clip Paint Studio is here to save your day ! This little gem is SAI, Opencanvas and all the things , and more, you used from Photoshop, in one cheap package.

main site, rarely any sales but free trail.
http://www.clipstudio.net/en

Manga Studio 5, yup its Clip alright, also goes on sale more often .
http://www.amazon.com/Smith-Micro-Software-Inc-ALA31002327/dp/B00ANH074Y

The drawback; it can be hard for some people to get a grip on the UI, however just google Manga Studio 5 tutorials and you should find the solution.

For the “Kitten” it is supposed to be Kitten, it is replacing the word for some reason

If you are looking for a free program I suggest the following;
kitten ; kitten is a free photo editing program such as Photoshop

Inkscape ; Inkscape is a vector-based program which, if you don’t know, means that no matter how much you zoom and scale the photo you made it will not become pixelated, or in simplify terms it won’t become blurry and look like a ton of squares

If you want to do a sort of 3D modeling, which will take a fairly long time to get used to because there is so much stuff you need to know and learn if you want to do really good art, also, I just want to mention that you do not have to make a 3D object in such programs, the one I will show you will let you render then take a screenshot

Blender (3D) is the program I am talking about

If you have the money and want to get good professional programs I suggest the common Illustrator and Photoshop. You can learn both of these programs easy enough and if you can’t there are TOOOONS of tutorials all over the internet.

Photoshop The same as kitten but pricey, easier(in my opinion), and has more possible things to create

Illustrator The same as Inkscape but, also pricey, simple, more of a clean and not complicated UI and all that good stuff

Other programs you can look at

Unreal Engine 4 UE4 is a great game engine that the Unreal team thankfully made free not to long ago so you can download it and make your own game. They have objects in the engine so you can just drag and drop them. Also, the best part, is if you are not a very good coder, they have blueprints which is basically a connect the dots kind of thing, but you might still need to look into how to do those.

Audacity is a nice program to record either your own voice and edit it, or record songs or anything from the internet and/or YouTube, then you can dupe parts of it, cut parts out, and make it into a remix.

FL Studio is a program that allows you to make your own music (best paired with Audacity. FL studio IS NOT free, but you can get the demo which never ends, BUT you cannot reopen your song after save it so be aware of that.

VSDC Free Video Editor is a good video editing program, but it may look confusing at first. Just play around for a few hours and you will learn how to cut parts, add music and add extra clips (such as an intro)

Make Human is a free program that let’s you edit a 3D human, which you can then drag into a program such as Blender or you can take it straight to a game engine and add it to the game. This program allows you to change the age, skin tone, private parts, the size of those parts and a lot more

Anime Studio Debut if you want to get into animation you can use this program, it is not free but it is fairly good. If you buy it and open the program it will open a tutorial on pretty much everything possible from within the program rather than having to search the internet for it, which is pretty nice. But you can also do animations in Blender, the free 3D program, and Photoshop

Links

kitten kitten .org/ (Remove .’s and spaces)
Inkscape inkscape.org/en/
Blender blender.org/
Photoshop and Illustrator adobe.com/products/illustrator.html
Unreal Engine 4 unrealengine.com/what-is-unreal-engine-4
Audacity sourceforge.net/projects/audacity/
FL Studio image-line.com/downloads/flstudiodownload.html
VSDC Free Video Editor download.cnet.com/VSDC-Free-Video-Editor/3000-13631_4-75764187.html

Make Human makehuman.org/
Anime Studio Debut my.smithmicro.com/anime-studio-debut-10-trial.html

ALL of these links are safe if you are wondering. I have all of these programs downloaded on my computer and use them all so do not be scared. Just wanted to clear this up for any of you that might be curious and what not

-WolverinesLPs

Update : Edited this due to kitten translating to Kitten for some reason (?)

Paint tool sai is probably my best choice for straight up painting. None of the bloat that photo shop comes with that youll never use. Its very well optimized too. Itll run great on even crappy pcs. Many pros use paint tool sai.

Spacerogue.9127:

Going to add another vote for Clip Studio Paint. Why ? Because it changed my life, that’s why.

DO YOU WANT SAI ? Are you irritated enough by the 70 bux for abandonware ? DO YOU WANT PHOTOSHOP but the monthly sub isn’t your thing. And lets be honest unless you use photos (vidya geam concept art- mattepainitng and photobashing ) I can’t recommend PS at all. 98% is bloating your system with stuff you’ll never touch, its expensive and unnecessary for most artist.

Well fear no more Clip Paint Studio is here to save your day ! This little gem is SAI, Opencanvas and all the things , and more, you used from Photoshop, in one cheap package.

main site, rarely any sales but free trail.
http://www.clipstudio.net/en

Manga Studio 5, yup its Clip alright, also goes on sale more often .
http://www.amazon.com/Smith-Micro-Software-Inc-ALA31002327/dp/B00ANH074Y

The drawback; it can be hard for some people to get a grip on the UI, however just google Manga Studio 5 tutorials and you should find the solution.

Going to second this. Manga Studio is by far the best drawing program I’ve ever used.

I came from photoshop and SAI, frequently using both programs on a single drawing. Manga Studio aka. Clip Studio, is like the ultimate love child of the two programs.

Also putting in a vote for ClipStudio, keep an eye out for a sale it’s definately worth it. Best part is that it’s multi-platform

But until then, another option is Krita
https://krita.org/

Also multiplatform, and free. It’s a lot more powerful than it seems however the UI is still in development and takes a little development. It has a huge amount of features and tools for painting and illustration and definately worth the look.