Complete Amateur Question!

[Raritas 6,820]

Hey everyone! I have really nooby question which I have been dying to ask anyone. I was wondering, what is a good art program which a lot of people use to make all the INCREDIBLE Fan art? I am a complete Novice when it comes to this stuff, I make PMV's, but never attempted fan art lol. It would be good if someone could help.

Edited September 5, 2012 by ReliableDuck

[The Soldier 2,044]

There are different kinds of programs. I use Photoshop. But i heard from Motion Spark that GIMP has different kinds of formats as well. (At least i think he saids that. My talent isn't a good memory...)

[Raritas 6,820]

Thanks, I have GIMP at the moment, But I guess I should get a graphics tablet to start with lol.

Edited September 5, 2012 by ReliableDuck

[Castoro Chiaro 181]

There's a couple options open to you. GIMP's a pretty good, flexible program since I can't afford Photoshop and it's rather easy to use. Paint for newer versions of Windows is actually pretty good too from what I've seen; while you can't do layers and things, I've seem some quality work produced from it and it's even simpler to use. SAI's great for line work and there's free translated versions floating around if you know where to look. Most folks that do vectors and such for MLP use Adobe Flash, but I don't have that so I know nil about it.

 

As for drawing itself, if you've got a scanner you could draw by hand and then paste the image into GIMP. Or alternatively, if you've got a digital camera, you could do it that way. A tablet isn't necessary to produce digital art; I've colored my pictures digitally for years without one.

[FedoraMemes 582]

I've heard some good things about SAI, that's what a lot of digital artists use, and there is a demo version which you can try for free.

 

I haven't tried GIMP yet for vectoring, so I'll have a look at vectoring in GIMP at some point.

[Raritas 6,820]

There's a couple options open to you. GIMP's a pretty good, flexible program since I can't afford Photoshop and it's rather easy to use. Paint for newer versions of Windows is actually pretty good too from what I've seen; while you can't do layers and things, I've seem some quality work produced from it and it's even simpler to use. SAI's great for line work and there's free translated versions floating around if you know where to look. Most folks that do vectors and such for MLP use Adobe Flash, but I don't have that so I know nil about it.

 

As for drawing itself, if you've got a scanner you could draw by hand and then paste the image into GIMP. Or alternatively, if you've got a digital camera, you could do it that way. A tablet isn't necessary to produce digital art; I've colored my pictures digitally for years without one.

 

Cool thanks! For some reason I completely forgot about scanning in pictures lol, I might give it ago, even though I'm not that great at drawing haha

[Castoro Chiaro 181]

No worries. c: We all gotta start somewhere. I would suggest checking out some tutorials and references, they're super useful when you're learning!

[Motion Spark 7,811]

Hey everyone! I have really nooby question which I have been dying to ask anyone. I was wondering, what is a good art program which a lot of people use to make all the INCREDIBLE Fan art? I am a complete Novice when it comes to this stuff, I make PMV's, but never attempted fan art lol. It would be good if someone could help.

 

first of all this thread is more fitting for creative resources, since you are seeking for advice, this forum is to post artworks.

 

now, my favorites for the moment are photoshop and sai, but you can always do some neat stuff with your mouse, obviously you won't get a super high definition drawing but at least can practice with the mouse, I've been drawing with the mouse for years until I won my tablet in a contest.

Edited September 5, 2012 by Motion Spark

[Raritas 6,820]

first of all this thread is more fitting for creative resources, since you are seeking for advice, this forum is to post artworks.

 

now, my favorites for the moment are photoshop and sai, but you can always do some neat stuff with your mouse, obviously you won't get a super high definition drawing but at least can practice with the mouse, I've been drawing with the mouse for years until I won my tablet in a contest.

 

Oh ok cool thanks, I'll try it out with a mouse first on GIMP lol, I'll see how that goes ha ha, Congrats at winning your Tablet!

[Motion Spark 7,811]

Oh ok cool thanks, I'll try it out with a mouse first on GIMP lol, I'll see how that goes ha ha, Congrats at winning your Tablet!

 

oh no, I won it a long time ago hehe, nov last year, and it's not that great, it's really smooth because it's wacom, but it's super small so that a bit unconfortable, actually I would like a bigger one :S

[FunkiiPanda 199]

You don't have to use a program to make great fan art, there is always pen and paper ^^ but if you must use a program you can always use something like adobe photoshop or paint tool sai to make great fan art too ^^

[Pix3M 607]

It has more to do with how you use what you're given, and what sort of medium you want to work with. I'm a pixel artist and I've made something that dropped people's jaws with MS paint.

 

Chances are you want digital painting though, but people will probably tell you that a tablet is a must-have for that. If you wanna stick with a mouse, pixel and vector are other possible options.

[Enigma 200]

Paint Tool SAI is a very good program, though is difficult to torrent so you'll probably have to buy it (it's really cheap as far as software goes) but it's not compatible for Macs. I use Adobe Photoshop CS6 and I'd recommend that though it can be a little difficult to start with, takes time to learn how to use it and can be taxing on RAM.