What programs do you use to draw?

[disneydorky]

I'm an art major in college, but I have not transitioned to digital yet, I just got a tablet a couple weeks ago and have been just using paint with it to get used to it, but there has to be a better program to use. I did some playing tonight, I made my new avatar, and a quick edit/doodle, of one of my favorite villagers


But what programs do you recommend to use?

 

[himeki]

If you are just trying it out, go for GIMp. It's good and free.
If you are planning to draw more, buy Sai. It's powerful and very easy to use!

 

[Reineke]

I'm no expert but!

I would say go for paint tool sai, especially if you want to mostly draw on the computer. It's more... intuitive than photoshop. It's about the cost of a new video game. Also, you can get photoshop cs2 legally for free now because of how old it is... which is AWESOME. I wish I'd had that when I was learning, haha. As far as I'm aware, any art school is going to make you use adobe software anyway (photoshop, indesign, etc).

 

[disneydorky]

The school I'm at right now doesn't have any classes that accept or teach anything digital. I use acrylic, pencil, and ink. I'll be transferring next year, but for now I'm just playing. Lately I've literally been tracing stuff in paint because I can, and it's fun, but I'd like more brushes and to be able to layer things, a grid would also be super useful to me.

 

[Naiad]

I'd recommend Paint Tool SAI! There's a free trial (30 days, I believe)~
While Photoshop is generally considered more ~ professional ~ and all that, SAI is typically easier and more efficient with drawing. Because of that, most artists draw in SAI and then do touch ups in Photoshop

 

[Airy]

For open source (i.e., free), in addition to GIMP, there's MyPaint and Krita. I couldn't make a whole lot of sense out of Krita, though...it's a lot more complicated than Photoshop in my opinion. MyPaint is better if you want to just play around with tablet doodling.
Clip Studio Paint is similar to Sai. There is also its expanded version Clip Studio EX, but that one is geared more towards manga artists (like, I don't mean manga-style, I mean that it's used for actual comic book production in Japan). I think Paint is around the same price as Sai, and it also has a 30-day trial. I have it and like it!

 

[himeki]

I'm no expert but!

I would say go for paint tool sai, especially if you want to mostly draw on the computer. It's more... intuitive than photoshop. It's about the cost of a new video game. Also, you can get photoshop cs2 legally for free now because of how old it is... which is AWESOME. I wish I'd had that when I was learning, haha. As far as I'm aware, any art school is going to make you use adobe software anyway (photoshop, indesign, etc).

You can get photoshop for free? Damn, need to install that stuff...

 

[Jint]

If you want something that's free, you can try firealpaca or azpainter ' u ' both are free, have layers, some blending brushes and I thinnnkkk have grids to put in the bg for reference
But otherwise same as above, paint tool sai is a good program to start out with!!
I also use clip paint studio but it's super tailored for crisp lineart and manga drawing; and if you don't rely on blending much you might want to give photoshop a try too -- a lot of pro artists use that to paint their pieces~
I hope this made sense ahahaa >->o
​

 

[tealeaps]

I use photoshop and sai, both are great to draw with but I find that sai feels more natural and user friendly. You can also make tons of different brushes to suit your needs in sai, so recently I've been using it more.

 

[Mega_Cabbage]

I use paint tool SAI. Have you checked to see if there are any student discounts for the program? I know in my high school you could get Photoshop at a discount.

 

[Zanessa]

FireAlpaca and MediBang Paint Pro (Formerly CloudAlpaca) are the best. Free and easy to use.

 

[Tinkalila]

FireAlpaca and MediBang Paint Pro (Formerly CloudAlpaca) are the best. Free and easy to use.

I can also highly recommend medibang paint! I use it for all my drawings, although I occasionally touch things up in Photoshop Elements 9.

 

[TinyCentaur]

I only use Photoshop to draw.
I can't get SAI because I have a mac, and I tried to use FireAlpaca. It's not for me.
I've gotten too comfy with using Photoshop. ;u;

 

[crystalmilktea]

I use Photoshop CS5 because I bought a student Adobe package thing a few years ago for school ^-^ I use my mouse for my art though, so it's probably different than tablet users ;w;

 

[Kuroh]

I usually use Paint Tool Sai

 

[g u m m i]

GIMP.

 

[Caius]

Depends on what I'm doing. If I want a watercolor feel, I'll go for Sai. If I want a hard-lined look to whatever I'm working on I'll take it into photoshop. It all depends on how I want my projects to work out