Good Art Programs? What do you use? Recommendations?

[Talemage 47]

Hi.

I'm deciding that I should write stories and fanfics and also do digital art.

According to what you use and know, which art program would you recommend that I use? I know GIMP, Inkscape, Sculptris, Art Rage, OpenCanvas, Paint Tool SAI, Photoshop, CorelDRAW, and Google SketchUp.

Which one is reasonably better than the other?

[Arrow 236]

I personally use PhotoShop and Paint.net (freeware).

 

PS is the superior one though, so I would recommend that.

[FLARE 952]

Well...I wouldn't say any of them are superior than the other, try a few of them, see which one works for you and what you are doing/ the art stye you hope to achieve.

[Gordon Freemane 9]

It depends on your preference, really. I personally use Photoshop Elements for all my art. I tried Sai for a while and found it more complicated than Photoshop, so it's just a matter of searching and experimenting with different programs to see which one you like more.

 

There are free trials for the more expensive programs like Photoshop, or you can just download them off of other sites.

[Marcato 2,143]

Although photoshop is likely one of the best, there are many other FREE programs that do much the same thing. I have always used paint.net because its so simple and easy to use in comparison. Also its free, so you aren't using your money on a program. In the end it depends on what kind of program you are looking for. If you want high quality and fancy graphics you may want to get something like photoshop, but if you need something simple that has plenty of basic effects and image editing standards you can find free software for that.

[ScottishUnicorn 285]

GIMP, Photoshop, Paint Tool Sai, I personally like Paint Tool Sai a bit.

[Heartstrings 102]

My favorite is Paint Tool Sai. It has a very fast brush engine and quick canvas rotation, the interface is really easy to use and has everything you need in a really easy to access location. It isn't buggy, or bloated and has all around everything you'd need in an art program. It's probably the best program for digital painting out there.

[5guysburgersnfries 216]

Well, personally I use Photoshop CS5 but yesterday I asked my all-time-favorite Deviant (AngelSkully check it out, her art is amazing :3) what she uses for her line-art and here's her response:

"yes for drawing Sai is definitely better. I just can't draw in photoshop

because the brushes and the tablet doesn't react so smoothly like Sai does.

photoshop is great to finalize a picture or to have some effects sai doesn't have

(motion/gaussian blur and some other useful filters) like its name, it's good

for photos ^^"

So I took her advice and tried SAI, the controls are a little bit confusing but it's really easy to get used to and very worth it since the lineart comes out a lot neater then it does on Photoshop.

Edited March 26, 2012 by Sudnifisent

[Ragtime 60]

Photoshop is kind of the industry standard.

Sai and Open Canvas are good for recognizing tablets, i.e. they're more comfortable to draw in.

Paint.Net is a good free substitute.

GIMP I've never really given much thought.

InkScape I haven't tried, but whatever.

Illustrator's neat if you're into vectors.

[Chickey 383]

Photoshop is my favorite.

Sai is pretty good, and cheap.

and gimp is free, but not as good as Sai or Photoshop.

 

(There are ways to get Sai or photoshop for free)

[Mephala 2,633]

LOL. I'm cheap so I use GIMP I don't really do anything on it though. If I want to edit something I use Pikink as I'm too simple minded towards art XD

Edited March 27, 2012 by PinkieDaShy

[Dragonshy 2,305]

Iv'e done some really cool stuff with GIMP 2, and its free.

On the other side Photoshop is better (Or so i've heard), but it costs money.

Paint Tool Sai looks ok, I haven't used it. Its free.

[Azura 1,107]

I use Photoshop CS5 and Paint.NET.

 

Although Photoshop is obviously better I use Paint.NET as much as Photoshop because I've been using it for a while before getting Photoshop so I'm used to how Paint.NET works and I work faster with it.

[Eavath 278]

So far I've used Photoshop, GIMP, and Inkscape.

 

Photoshop can be overwhelming when first using it, and that can put you off of it. Once you figure out all the shortcuts and such, though, you can quickly do many things.

 

GIMP I'm still getting used to after switching from Photoshop. So far it seems to be alright for whatever I'm using it for ^^"

 

Inkscape is purely used to do vectors. It's got just enough tools to do what you need it to do, and it's really user friendly.

[NyxTheShield 91]

I have been Photoshop Cs3 for years, still havent upgraded xP

[Cross n Bone 1]

I would recommend OpenCavas , its what I use sins one year , and its free

[Talemage 47]

Well, I went over the Software Center(I use Ubuntu), and I found this program called MyPaint.

 

This is a pressure sensitive Wacom tablet paint program. It comes with a large brush collection including charcoal and ink to emulate real media, but the highly configurable brush engine allows you to experiment with your own brushes and with not-quite-natural painting.

 

It's nice, but I really now prefer to do my art by hand. On a sketchbook.

And taking a picture and uploading it to deviantART.

And wishing for a scanner, and for someone to digitally color my scanned work.

[Thunder Mist 1]

I want an art program to make pony art. I'm going to try to hand draw and then scan in the picture what would be the best program for that? I've tried to find the program a lot of ponies use on YouTube but with no luck.

[Lux Brush 35]

Well there are several I use depending on how I would like to work on my scans. If I would like to make them in to vector art I will use Inkscape which can be found at http://inkscape.org/ or if I would just like to clean up my sketches I will use Photo Shop or Gimp.

 

Gimp is free and can be found here. http://www.gimp.org/

Adobe has now let CS2 out free as well here. http://www.adobe.com/downloads/cs2_downloads/index.html

 

Hope that helps

[MOX News 7]

I

  On 2013-02-19 at 6:09 AM, Lux Brush said:

If I would like to make them in to vector art I will use Inkscape which can be found at http://inkscape.org/

There's actually also an addon called Ponyscape, which (as you may guess) tweaks Inkscape to ideal condtions for vectoring ponies.

 

GIMP is powerful, but not at the level of Adobe products. That said, it's free.

[Gay Bird 421]

I mainly use Illustrator for vectors and photoshop for rasters. I also used to use gimp and inkscape which I can reccomend because they're the best free programs I've used. Also, check out #MLP_VectorClub on deviantart for some tutorials, templates, and examples.

[nooneimportantwashere 705]

every g7tgsft7t7stv7sv7vs7tvsd

Edited February 10, 2022 by nooneimportantwashere

[PickMeup 16]

Use Krita 2.6 its free and open source http://krita.org/

Here is an excellent tutorial series for beginner users of Krita

 

Its the best drawing software.

[Remi 1,309]

Hello everypony, the point of this thread is to discuss what program(s) you use to make your fan-art, and discuss why you use it, why you find it practical, what are the pros and cons, etc., etc..

I will start off with my program(s).

Now, I have quite a few programs I alternate with, but I'll list them regardless.

1. Photoshop CS6

Now, I find this one to be the best one, at least for me, since I like the range of abilities that you are capable to do. It is also amazing when used with a Graphics Tablet.

Here is a demonstration as to why I prefer it.

  Reveal hidden contents

 
I am a big fan of KPShadowSquirrel's works, and they are all made in Photoshop.

2. Paint Tool SAI

I find it more practical than GIMP, and I do admire the works I've seen to be a product of it.

  Reveal hidden contents

Quite the picture.

3. Manga Studio EX 4

This program I have not used that much, however, I have seen some incredible artwork be produced out of it, and I believe that the creator of this works is on these forums, as ILetThePonies' Signature is the style made by that artist.

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If you are the artist of this picture, I would like to say, that you make amazing fan art.

4.GIMP

GIMP is a program I have not had much experience with, as I mainly attempted to use it for vectoring, but failed miserably.
I do enjoy many of the works made in it, however.

  Reveal hidden contents

This man's vectoring skills in GIMP are beyond my capacities.

However, those are my programs, now, feel free to discuss about these, or your own.

Edited July 23, 2013 by The Paris Swing Cake

[Vermillion 613]

I only use the most advanced software out there my program's are sooo advanced they don't even sell them in computer shops

 

...I use a pencil and a piece o paper

I only use the most advanced software out there my program's are sooo advanced they don't even sell them in computer shops

 

...I use a pencil and a piece o paper