How to get start with digital art

The purpose of this guide is to help beginners navigate the broad sea that is digital art (painting). Looking for traditional art? I created a a beginner's guide to traditional art.

Digital Art Programs & Software

There are a few contesnstants for the title of best digital art software for beginners, and all of choices come with a learning curve of some sort. Once you learn one, though, the others are mostly similar enough that it's not hard to switch to another one. You just need to learn what layers are, what effects you can do with them, and learn words like opacity and flow.

If you want to start without a huge upfront price, I'd say go for Krita, which is an amazing choice in the sea of art software programs.

Adobe Photoshop - offered now in a subscription model, but you can get CS6 or CS5 forever for a steep, upfront cost.

Pros: Often considered the industry standard , has tons of brushes, textures, and resources to use –as the community is huge.

Affinity Photo / Designer - great programs, though pretty new. I currently love them. Both are much cheaper than Adobe's offering.

Designer can use raster/vector brushes, though AP might be a bit more similar for painting to PS if you're used to that. You could try free trials for both and decide then.

Krita - Free & Open Source - a fine example of free and open source software killing it. Great community, brushes, textures, UI, price! Geared more for painting than alternatives like GIMP.

MyPaint - has a lovely, endless canvas (raster) & nicely done brush engine. Free & open source. Can require some technical knowledge to install on macOS (use MacPorts).

GIMP - free & open source a bit buggy, but now much better, comparable to PS but with a trickier to use UI. Though you can mod it to look like PS.

FireAlpaca & MediBang Paint which are both free digital painting and manga creation software that are close to Paint Tool SAI.

As for sketching programs, there are options in Autodesk's Sketchbook, Mischief, and others.

For now, I think it might be easier to start off learning one of the above first.

Hardware for Digital Artists

I recommend you invest in a digital drawing pad . You don't need a Wacom cintiq or something, just a basic one without a screen will do. If you want to get a Wacom Cintiq, go for it though! There are also many decent competitors in the graphic monitor space! Check out the XPPen Artist Pro 16 Graphic Drawing Monitor if you're interested!

The one I used have is the Wacom Intuos, and I liked it. I now use a XP-PEN Deco Fun S .

You probably do not want to paint with a touchpad or a mouse…

XPPen Deco Fun S Review

It is a brilliant, lightweight, portable & smart tablet that helps me to draw, write,sketch and in many other works.

It's 6.3×4 inch drawing area is best for drawing & also for playing OSU game. For playing OSU game, no drivers are required.

XP-PEN Deco Fun has an ultra-thin & ultra-light body that I can carry it anywhere with me by putting it in my laptop case or briefcase.

It is designed for both left-hand as well as right-hand users. Both can use this tablet easily.

The Pen which comes with it to draw on tablet is battery-free & there is no need to charge it.

Pen contains two buttons which can be used as pen/eraser & mouse by switching it.

The pen comes with 10 Replaceable Nibs and one pen clipper.

XPPen Deco Fun tablet is multi-functional & can be used for painting, animation, cartoon, comic, illustration & sketching.

XPPen Deco Fun is compatible with Mac 10.10 later, and Windows 7/8/10 & works with almost every drawing softwares such as Photoshop, SAI, AI, Autodesk, SketchBook ,Zbrush, Krita, Maya, and More.

This XPPen Deco Fun Tablet first requires drivers to be installed to work & drivers are easily available on XPPen official website.

You can easily download the drivers & install on your PC or laptop & configure with your XPPen Tablet Modules.

I do not facing any problem while using this tablet & it is helping me in my works & really reduced my working times.

Butterfly Boy Artwork in collaboration with XP-Pen using their 'Deco Fun S' tablet

Thank you for reading!!!

Have a Nice Day , Stay Safe!!!