Digital Art

define what you want.

are you going to paint graphically?
apply a filter to make it look like a painting?
cut things out and composite things?
the list is almost endless.

generally one doesn't dip, because unless you spend only the $50 or so for a painter, you'll need photoshop or corel. and a tablet, and all of that is expensive.


---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

I'm thinking of painting graphically and I have a tablet.

Photoshop is were I'd start.

you'll need corel painter, (or whatever its called now). photoshop has some painting stuff but its not designed for that. and a good tablet, mine is a wacom intous medium. you can check prices.

from there you have to figure out the program. knowing how to paint helps. but i know some people can never use a tablet well. though you could get the monitor version of wacom, which is much more money.


---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

Okay, thanks. Do you like to do digital art?

For painting from scratch digitally I'd recommend ArtRage. It's inexpensive and does a good job of mimicking traditional mediums and it's pretty intuitive, you can be productive with it pretty quickly. Corel Painter is very powerful but is expensive and has a steep learning curve.

Thanks @ David King

I recommend ArtRage also or Twisted Brush

i do composites, it takes a long time and doesn't sell well for me. i do colorizations, they do sell well for me. they are both a form of digital art.

i do recommend getting a tablet, its useful to have. and it will take practice getting used to it.

---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

I use artrage twisted brush and corel painter. Mostly corel painter

I've only ever used Photoshop since I do photo manip composites, photo editing and enhancing in 20 years of digital art. Never tried actual painting with Photoshop other than very basic addition in the composites.

Another vote for Art Rage.

I use Corel Draw to make vector drawings, as for photo retouching I prefer Photoshop to Corel Photo Paint, but it's just a matter of taste.

The most of my drawings in instagram when I post them they are from artRage .i use an android phone and it's free but not free on the iPad I have.anyway I recomend it.also take a look at pastels from apple store it's free but you can create only three drawings

ArtRage is a great program. I used to use Corel Paint and if you look on eBay you can usually get a copy of the "student" version for a decent price. You might want to take a look at MyPaint also - it's free. Xara is good for graphics and not too expensive - especially if you get one of the older versions (which are still very good) - see eBay.

I've used ArtRage, Corel Painter, PaintstormStudio, Rebelle 2, Adobe Sketch.

ArtRage is fairly decent, available on both iMac and iPad, Wacom tablets and Cintiq's and PC.

Corel Painter on iMac and PC, Wacom tablets and Cintiq's, I think it has a fairly steep learning curve, plus if you want additional brushes you have to purchase them.

PaintstormStudio is my favorite (used to be ArtRage) and it does have a huge learning curve, but it comes with all the bells and whistles and then some...iMac and iPad, Wacom tablets and Cintiq's, not sure about PC.

Rebelle 2 is a great program for watercolor, but it's iMac and Wacom Cintiq's, not available for the iPad, not sure about PC.

Adobe Sketch has a decent watercolor app for iPads, not sure about other tablets or PC's.

Thank you everyone for the feedback! I will definitely try all of them.

This is my latest digital painting done on the spot at Barnes and Noble cafe using my Ipad and ArtRage4.

This guy was, unknowingly, almost the perfect model.

Have come to really like ArtRage4 for this kind of work but would like to create it in larger sizes

Bill Tomsa

https://billtomsa.blogspot.com/

I have a facebook page specifying many freely available art apps and programs: you might like to take a look?

https://www.facebook.com/groups/PhotoAppFreebies/

I would recommend Topaz Studio as a freebie, Dynamic Auto Painter (it has a long trial period), Fotosketcher (free),
and perhaps one of the best painting apps (usable inside Topaz Studio and/or PS) is Topaz Impression.