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Reliable and affordable digital art program?


Anacybele
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Can anyone point me to one?

Photoshop is far too expensive now. Adobe only has this monthly fee bullshit. I had Photoshop CS3 until these greedy asses decided to stop supporting it.

Paint Shop Pro is too laggy (I've determined that the tablet pen lag issues I've been having were caused by this garbage, not the tablet or pen themselves being bad. Tablet and pen work fine in Windows Sketchpad. And the program itself tends to lag in general too. I've checked system requirements for it, googled for help, absolutely zero answers). I would really like this one otherwise. But you can't make art with lag. I would never recommend this program because of this.

GIMP is too confusing and dumb to me.

And anything else I've looked at so far is too expensive.

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The one I use (aside from my preferred MS paint which I know is an acquired taste) is FireAlpaca. It's free, so no reason not the give it a try at least!
I haven't used any paid art programs, so I can't compare and contrast with those, but having used Gimp, FireAlpaca feels a lot less clunky to me. I definitely have some issues with FA, but it's not a bad program imo.

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Paint Tool Sai is a popular one among a lot of artists! I've been using it for over 8 years and I've never gone back. It has a straightforward interface and it feels nice to draw in. Another favourite that I've seen people use is Clip Studio Paint - this one is a bit more complicated mainly because it comes with a crap ton of features including making your own poses, effect brushes that'd you see Manga artists' use etc. I have it, but I don't use it specifically to draw in but to use it for all the cool effects brushes for after I finish drawing in Sai. Both of these programs are not free unfortunately.

I remember there being a popular free program and I believe it's called Medipang Paint! 

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Autodesk sketchbook used to cost money but now they're offering it for free. I don't really like the layout but it's free so I think it's worth just trying out to see if it's your thing. 

https://sketchbook.com/ 

 

If you're willing to fork over some money, Clip Studio Paint was my program while I did art. It's got a lot of features  

https://www.clipstudio.net/en

It goes on sale a lot if you're willing to wait for the sales. Plus it's got a free trial if you just want to test it. 

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4 minutes ago, carefreejules said:

Paint Tool Sai is a popular one among a lot of artists! I've been using it for over 8 years and I've never gone back. It has a straightforward interface and it feels nice to draw in. Another favourite that I've seen people use is Clip Studio Paint - this one is a bit more complicated mainly because it comes with a crap ton of features including making your own poses, effect brushes that'd you see Manga artists' use etc. I have it, but I don't use it specifically to draw in but to use it for all the cool effects brushes for after I finish drawing in Sai. Both of these programs are not free unfortunately.

I remember there being a popular free program and I believe it's called Medipang Paint! 

How much do those go for?

I've been using GIMP when I have the time to draw, but it would be nice to get something a bit better.

Yes, I know my art sucks.

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3 minutes ago, Rezzy said:

How much do those go for?

Paint Tool Sai is about 5400 yen according to the site so that's like ~$55 or more depending on what your currency is while Clip Studio Paint depends on when you buy it since, like someone said above, it always goes on sale. I bought Clip Studio Paint Pro for $18 when it was on sale and then I upgrade it from Pro to EX for $100 (getting Clip Studio Paint EX from the start is about $200). The Pro version isn't on sale right now so it's $50.

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6 minutes ago, carefreejules said:

Paint Tool Sai is about 5400 yen according to the site so that's like ~$55 or more depending on what your currency is while Clip Studio Paint depends on when you buy it since, like someone said above, it always goes on sale. I bought Clip Studio Paint Pro for $18 when it was on sale and then I upgrade it from Pro to EX for $100 (getting Clip Studio Paint EX from the start is about $200). The Pro version isn't on sale right now so it's $50.

Thanks, I guess I'll have to keep an eye out for sales.  $20 or so seems pretty reasonable.

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And to add on other cool programs/sites related to drawing, I'd recommend using sites like Pose Maniacs for pose references or buying a program called Design Doll to make your very own. Making your own poses and using them as your own reference is a lot more fun than it sounds because you can accurately recreate a pose that you have envisioned in your head instead of googling really specific poses which don't turn up the results you want. 

Pose Maniacs is free and although you can't edit the poses in anyway, there's many versions of the same pose but at different angles and perspectives so you can pick out which one you want to use. 

Another good resource is the 'How to Draw' section on Pixiv since artists of all skill sets submit and post their own references. You probably won't encounter many of tutorials written in English, but to me it's really helpful considering I have what people would call an 'anime' style so seeing these kinds of references gives me a lot of inspiration.

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1 hour ago, Anacybele said:

Nope, can't use this. It isn't compatible with tablets. Or at least, not mine.

Anyone got other ideas?

Oh, really? Weird. I've never had issues using a tablet, but that's too bad. Might be worth trying to troubleshoot, as I think it is a good program! However, there is a program that's essentially just the same as FireAlpaca but more geared toward manga artists. You may have better luck with that one? It's called MediBang Paint.

Other than that, I know that Krita is another free art program. I've heard good and bad things about it, but never used it myself. 

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@Anacybele I also recommend Autodesk Sketchbook. Easy to use and likely compatible with your device.  The other recommendation would be Pencil2d. https://www.pencil2d.org/

It is primarily an animation tool but I found sketching on it to be natural and enjoyable. It is also free, so nice resource to have if you decide to do more with it. If you have a Windows Tablet, this will work but won't work on android. 

If Pixelart is something you are interested in, https://www.pixilart.com/draw. Also, free and you can use this on pretty much anything.

 

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3 hours ago, carefreejules said:

And to add on other cool programs/sites related to drawing, I'd recommend using sites like Pose Maniacs for pose references or buying a program called Design Doll to make your very own. Making your own poses and using them as your own reference is a lot more fun than it sounds because you can accurately recreate a pose that you have envisioned in your head instead of googling really specific poses which don't turn up the results you want. 

Pose Maniacs is free and although you can't edit the poses in anyway, there's many versions of the same pose but at different angles and perspectives so you can pick out which one you want to use. 

Another good resource is the 'How to Draw' section on Pixiv since artists of all skill sets submit and post their own references. You probably won't encounter many of tutorials written in English, but to me it's really helpful considering I have what people would call an 'anime' style so seeing these kinds of references gives me a lot of inspiration.

Oh wow, this could be really useful! Sometimes I have trouble finding the right pose, even on a site like DeviantArt that has tons of drawing pose references, even images that are specifically MEANT to be that.

And thanks to everyone else for their suggestions too. :)

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1 hour ago, Etrurian emperor said:

I had to use Gimp for a school project. It did look confusing but its actually pretty easy once you get the hang out it. And its free. 

What kind of art do you think about making?

I said no on GIMP already, didn't you read the OP? I tried it out a lot of times, I never could get the hang of it. It's too stupid.

Uh...you haven't seen my art thread? It's currently near the top of the creativity board. I just draw stuff.

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2 hours ago, Anacybele said:

I said no on GIMP already, didn't you read the OP? I tried it out a lot of times, I never could get the hang of it. It's too stupid.

Uh...you haven't seen my art thread? It's currently near the top of the creativity board. I just draw stuff.

Yes I did read the OP. That's why I mentioned I found it confusing myself until I didn't. 

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