Do I Need Photoshop?

[Smokie-Horse 83]

I'll keep it brief, guys. I'm not a professional artist, or even a good hobby artist, but I sketch some of the things that come into my head sometimes just because I like it. But more recently, I've been getting some really powerful compulsions to draw more seriously, especially when I see all the great works of art that my talented fellow fans come up with in this fandom and all the others I'm involved with.

 

It just makes me feel lazy, really.

 

Now, I'm cheap, so I've tried drawing in several different ways - black-and-white ink, paint, using Gimp, pencils, markers, a couple other free art programs - and none of them seem to click with me, and I dislike pretty much everything I've drawn so far. Because all the artists I like use Photoshop, I can't help the feeling that it would help me out some if I got it myself.

 

What do you guys think? Photoshop; worth the investment?

 

(and a big thanks in advance to anyone who replies c: )

[lelouch. 625]

Ive seen a lot of great videos on youtube regarding photoshop, and i have some hands on experience too (although i sucked)

 

It really depemds on how much time you have to spare for it. If you have the time and motivation, you can hone ypur skills and soon make the type of art that makes scrolling down google a fun thing

[Sceethe 704]

you don't need photoshop, but it depends on your skill level and what you are going for.

its the go-to program for most professional artistssince there is basically an unlimited amount of what you can do, for example focus points, horizon lines, perspective tools, creating gamut masks, cropping using composition, about 20 different layer options and so much more.

 

i am on my phone currently, so i'll stop here, but basically, summarized in one sentence, you don't need it.

if you want to know more, i'd gladly talk, though

[shy0wl 484]

I'm more of an aspiring artist and for digital art I use a program called Autodesk Sketchbook.  It is free, but it comes with a pro version that has a lot of advanced level stuff, I believe it's about $25 for the pro version.  You can unlock some of the stuff for free by simply making an account.  I think it's a pretty good program, I use it with my pen tablet and it's easy to use.  

 

Here's a link if you want to check it out:

https://www.sketchbook.com

Edited October 10, 2014 by shy0wl

[Smokie-Horse 83]

Just fyi, you guys are awesome. I'll give everything you've mentioned some thought.

[Solid 1,327]

It's really up to how far you want to go.

 

If you just want to have fun, relax, do some art, nothing too serious then I would recommend free programs like gimp (personally using it)

 

If you are looking forward to some hardcore professional art then Photoshop is neat, but I would say you probably need to practice with the free art softwares anyways so you can be familiarized with the art mechanics before going hardcore with photoshop.

 

So in general practice with free art softwares for now, if you think you are ready for some hardcore stuff and have the time and stamina then go for photoshop.

 

Just a reminder, some people are just better at art so it's okay if you aren't as good as those experts. It doesn't make you a less capable person or anything like that. I do extremely crappy art myself so I can speak for that.

[acehenandez 21]

in general it might be , but it might be great to try free trial programs like paint sai with a cheap 50$ bamboo tablet and see if you like it  

[Justin_Case001 4,934]

Krita.  World class digital drawing and painting program.  Great alternative to Photoshop.  Free and open source.

 

https://krita.org/

 

Depending on what kind of art you'd like to do, this could be worth a look too.  I believe this is what they call "vector graphics."  Not too sure.  I haven't messed around with this one much.

 

https://inkscape.org/en/

Edited December 2, 2014 by Justin_Case001

[lunarpony7 183]

Krita is really great! On windows though it's a bit slow under certain conditions, though it's been very actively developed lately and should hopefully see some speed boot under Windows. If you use Linux by any chance it's supposed to be much faster under that OS, I would try it but can't get my cheapo pen  tablet working win Linux. There is Paint tool SAI, which is really quite nice under windows, though if I could I would probably use Krita. I actually got a free download of SAI from someone on DA, but if you really want to walk the plank matey, erm, I mean get it for free you should be able to find it(or PS) if you use good judgement for what you download. 

 

As for photoshop, it's great for a lot of things, and a lot of very amazing artists use it for amazing things. However I personally think it's not the best tool for digital painting because it has no brush stabilization, something which both SAI and Krita have, along with great brush engines. It's also very expensive too, so unless you plan on doing lot's of photomanipulation and such.... Actually no, just start with GIMP, and Krita, both are free and open source, and quite good. For digital painting you can apply most photoshop tutorials to [insert painting program here] pretty easily. I think of you want to learn more about digital painting crtl+paint is a great website to check out! Also if you don't have a pen tablet, you should get one, and not a cheap crappy one like I did, real Wacoms start at like $50, so it's not a very big investment, just use all the money you saved not buying photoshop!

 

edit: looks like I'm a bit late here

Edited December 1, 2014 by fyrepony

[Satintheunicorn 10]

I feel like if your not persuing art as profestion you don't really need ot have photoshop. It is really useful but I like alot of what people are saying. I do suggest you get a small wacom tablet it will help you get the work looking better but it doesn't really matter what you use.

[11th Doctor Whooves 794]

:  I'm moving this topic to General Discussion, where you should be able to get more responses.  Another great idea for a topic like this would be a status update or a blog post.

[Celli 4,349]

Paint tool Sai is a great program for art,if you feel photoshop is expensive, also photoshop is good if you're looking to touch up on photos and stuff, Sai and Ps are pretty similar in terms of artwork features. 

http://www.systemax.jp/en/sai/