Digital art on a small budget, part 1 software

If you're following a couple of artist on social media you probably noticed there are a lot of artists who use iPads in combination with procreate or Adobe Photoshop when they work with Windows. And if you're an professional artist that's a good choice. But in case you're not a professional (yet ) or don't want to spend a fortune on software and or hardware then it's good to know that there are alternatives.

Somewhere around 2005 I was wondering if I could add some colours to some old comics I've made. Because I didn't want to spend a lot of money on a software license I searched for alternatives. And after some while I found Inkscape a free open source vector graphic software. And for the purpose this was a great piece of software. There's an easy to adjust option to fill an area with a colour bucket which I used the most to add colour to a scanned drawing. Back then I didn't use the computer very much and I also hardly made any drawings until around 2016 when I slowly picked up drawing again. At that time I wanted a little bit more functions and found Gimp to do this. And at this moment I still work with those two programs to create art.

So now you probably want to know a bit more about those programs, and I also want to tell about another program Krita. Starting with that all these programs are open source and free to use. What means anyone can contribute to the program and their creators find it more important to empower people / artist with good software rather than to make money ( but feel free to donate to any open source project ). Another benefit is that the programs can be used on multiple operating systems so if you use Windows, Mac Os or Linux you can use it.

So in short what are the differences ?

Inkscape: this program is aimed at vector graphics, so if you're designing logos use a lot of basic shapes make flow charts that sort of stuff this would be the best choice. But it also can do a lot of editing on drawings. At the moment I use Inkscape to trace a scanned drawing so the resolution can be increased ( from png to svg and back to an png ). The controls / user interface are easy to control and after a while you can do most things with it.

Gimp: is a great piece of software that probably has the most possibilities. At least almost everything I wanted to do can be done with Gimp. It's aimed on image manipulation , Gimp is short for GNU Image Manipulation Program. The program has a bit of steap learning curve but once you master this program you'll love it.

Krita: this is a relatively new software and build for digital painting. It has a lot of different brushes and a intuitive interface. Although I never really give it a good test because I was already familiar with Gimp, if I had to choose a program to start with it would be this.

I could go very deep into details about all 3 programs but I think it's best if you just give it a try. For all these programs there are manuals, tutorials on YouTube, different Forums, Facebook groups and so on. So in case when you're stuck support is nearby.

And remember, it's just like art: an expensive brush doesn't make you a better artist or necessarily makes a better painting. So it's the same thing with commercial software doesn't make better art, nor does it means that free software is badly built or hard to use.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading, next time I want to explain a bit about operating systems and how to save money on that.

Until next time


Greetings Andres

How it's made

It all starts with a sheet of paper. I just like to draw on paper it feels better when you have to think first about the amount of space you have, when there is less room for errors and the lines you make aren't corrected to a perfect smooth line. I know with the right equipment a full digital drawing can be an amazing piece of art but very often it becomes an anonymous art where you can't recognize the style of the artist. So my steps are:

Step 1: This is the brainstorm and sketch step, usually I make a couple of quick sketches trying ideas and compositions to see what works best. Very important step, if the quick sketch doesn’t look good you’ll probably end up with something that could be much better.

Step 2: From a couple of sketches I pick the best looking and start to draw the design with pencil and paper. This one is from "Endless Chase"

Step 3: When the drawing is finished it’s time to trace the design. I used to do this on the original but recently I purchased an A4 lightbox to trace the drawing with fineliners. A good idea if you have a drawing with a lot of details. Also saves a lot of time erasing the pencil lines.

Step 4: At this point the design is digitized. It gets scanned and cleaned up. I use GIMP to remove dust pixels and little slips of the pen. Only thing at this point the design has a low resolution. ( Sorry no images but I'll post a tutorial in the future about this topic )

Step 5: The resolution must be higher, and if you’re a traditional artist you might recognize this. The solution is to trace the drawing with Inkscape. This way converts the drawing to a vector graphic ( be careful with smoothing lines ). And with this vector graphic you can scale up to any resolution you like. Save everything with a transparent background and we are ready for the next step.

Step 6: Time to add colors. Back to GIMP selecting areas with the magic wand and fill those with color and finish those areas with maybe a brush to add shades , textures etc. Best practice is to save multiple steps in this process. In case you want to change a thing you don’t have to redo everything.

Step 7: After the design is fully colored there is an opportunity to add text , outlines or maybe something else to make it complete.

Step 8: I think it is a good idea to wait a day or maybe longer before I upload the design. Very often I discovered little things like forgot to add my signature. And if everything is still good than I upload my work. At the same time I make a promotional image for social media channels. My advice don’t upload the same high resolution file to any social media, someone else can take your work with no problem.

Step 9: Is promoting my design on different social media. And thinking about the next one. My favorite is Instagram because that’s aimed on images. But maybe you prefer a different channel.

Until next time, have a great day.

Greetings Andres