# Art Programs?



## Murphy (Aug 30, 2010)

I recently ran out of space on my hard drive, so like a mo' ron I deleted friggin everything on my computer, including all my programs. D; Including the one I actually paid for... err... came with my tablet. Then I realized I just had to delete a bunch of movies I DL'd and boom, soo much space. 

So anyway, I was lookin to see if anyone knew of some legit art programs that are floating around the web. I really don't wanna pay for one, but if it's cheap I might. I really miss using my tablet!!!


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## Taralack (Aug 30, 2010)

GIMP and openCanvas are free. I know there was an open source Painter but I can't remember what it was called. Paint Tool SAI is also relatively cheap, you should at least try out the demo.


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## Zenia (Aug 30, 2010)

Gimp is free. So is openCanvas1.1.
You can get Photoshop Elements for around $89 or Paint Tool SAI for around $50 or something.


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## Zydala (Aug 30, 2010)

Paint Tool Sai is like $60 but it's a great program :]

GIMP is best when you use the GIMP for Painter mod and Gimp Paint Studio brush packs (links found here ---> http://forums.furaffinity.net/threads/79396-Poll-Who-uses-GIMP ). All of it is free, though, and it's probably the best free program.

Open Canvas 1.1 is a great tool, and the later versions (oC 3 and 4) are particularly inexpensive as far as I remember. They're only for XP right now though :\

I also really love ArtRage - there's a free version at their site (only one layer tho), ArtRage 2 is like 25 bucks and ArtRage 3 is... $80 I think?

Runner ups: Artweaver (free), MyPaint (free), Sketchbook Pro (more expensive but pretty nifty)


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## savageorange (Aug 30, 2010)

Zydala said:


> Paint Tool Sai is like $60 but it's a great program :]
> 
> GIMP is best when you use the GIMP for Painter mod and Gimp Paint Studio brush packs (links found here ---> http://forums.furaffinity.net/threads/79396-Poll-Who-uses-GIMP ). All of it is free, though, and it's probably the best free program.



Better than MyPaint ?!?!
(Murphy: As you might guess, while I support the use of GIMP(+Painter) as an image *editor*, I think MyPaint is far better in terms of simply *drawing*)

I thought we had a recent thread about this same topic, though..


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## Runefox (Aug 31, 2010)

MyPaint is pretty good, so is GIMP once you get used to the bizarre interface. I personally like Inkscape for doing lines, which is also free.


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## Zydala (Aug 31, 2010)

savageorange said:


> Better than MyPaint ?!?!
> (Murphy: As you might guess, while I support the use of GIMP(+Painter) as an image *editor*, I think MyPaint is far better in terms of simply *drawing*)
> 
> I thought we had a recent thread about this same topic, though..



well ymmv, of course. I had less trouble blending stuff when working with gimp's stuff than when I played around with MyPaint. I use neither in my repertoire, truthfully, and he support that GIMP has gives it just the slightest bit of an advantage for me. But the whole reason that so many programs exist is so everyone finds what's best-fitting :]


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## savageorange (Aug 31, 2010)

Zydala said:


> well ymmv, of course. I had less trouble blending stuff when working with gimp's stuff than when I played around with MyPaint. I use neither in my repertoire, truthfully, and he support that GIMP has gives it just the slightest bit of an advantage for me.


ah, that's cause GIMP+painter has blending stuff in the tool options, whereas Mypaint has smudging/blurring built into the brush system.
(so instead of adjusting the existing brush or tool options like in GIMP, I usually want to select a brush that is designed for smudging. Since you can persistently assign 10 brushes to hotkeys, this is typically virtually instant.).

I find Inkscape excellent for cleaning lines and inks, personally.
Recent GIT revisions of mypaint have a nice ink brush which is wonderful for inking lines -> I usually import the result into Inkscape for further neatening (the Trace Bitmap function is very useful)


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## Zydala (Aug 31, 2010)

yeah the blurring/smudging in mypaint is a little on the rough side for me. But other people can make it work, and that's cool :]

Inkscape is a pretty awesome program!


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## Shiroka (Aug 31, 2010)

I quite like Paint.Net personally. Don't let its name fool you; it has almost as many features as Photoshop, is considerably less confusing than Gimp and of course, is completely free. If you're using Windows, that's what I'd recommend.


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## Zydala (Aug 31, 2010)

Shiroka said:


> I quite like Paint.Net personally. Don't let its name fool you; it has almost as many features as Photoshop, is considerably less confusing than Gimp and of course, is completely free. If you're using Windows, that's what I'd recommend.


 
God I was trying to remember the name of the last night! I totally would have added that too. Yeah Paint.Net can be pretty good


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## RailRide (Aug 31, 2010)

savageorange said:


> Recent GIT revisions of mypaint have a nice ink brush which is wonderful for inking lines -> I usually import the result into Inkscape for further neatening (the Trace Bitmap function is very useful)



How do you deal with the zillions of control points Inkscape's trace function often creates? (or do lines done with mypaint turn out _that_ well?)

I had to abort inking a comic panel with Inkscape because intricate parts of the linework were getting out of hand with the number of control points that had to be deleted, and the subsequent line adjustments this required.

---PCJ


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## Runefox (Aug 31, 2010)

In Inkscape, select a line and hit CTRL+L. That will simplify the line. You can use it over and over again, but the chances of it causing artifacts increases with each use.


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## Arshes Nei (Aug 31, 2010)

http://forums.furaffinity.net/threads/2217-Various-Art-Programs-and-where-to-download-them You should be checking the other forums in this category, you'll find a lot of stuff stickied and repeated lol.


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