# Good painting software?



## BlackDragon007 (Feb 13, 2011)

Hey guys. So, I have a rough sketch of my fursona and some other characters I made up and I want to try to put some color on them. I could do it by hand, but I'd like to try a digital coloring first. Anybody got a suggestion for a good painting software? Thanks for your help 

Side Note: I have no money to pay for a super expensive softaware like photoshop. I'm also a sukie artist so I need one that's not super complicated to use. Also, I have no tablet or drawing board and don't want to get one unless I have to.

Drawings: http://www.furaffinity.net/gallery/blackdragon007/


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## Monster. (Feb 13, 2011)

Corel painting works like photoshop, but it's not super expensive. There's also GIMP; I don't know where you get that, though.


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## Delta (Feb 13, 2011)

http://www.gimp.org/


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## Vaelarsa (Feb 13, 2011)

http://www.systemax.jp/en/sai/

It's not super expensive (It's like $60.),
but it's awesome.

Only standard things you can't really do with it is add a lot of filter effects (like on Photoshop), or add text using a text tool.
But for digital drawing and painting, it's really good.


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## BlackDragon007 (Feb 13, 2011)

Thanks guys



Gaz said:


> Corel painting works like photoshop, but it's not super expensive.



Do you know where I can find it?


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## Lobar (Feb 13, 2011)

Either use GIMP or 'acquire' Photoshop.  The former is free legally.


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## Zydala (Feb 13, 2011)

if you work with GIMP I highly recommend getting Gimp Paint Studio and GIMP for Painters (one's a bunch of awesome brushes, another is a program tweak). Along with Paint Tool Sai, Art Rage has a lot of fun settings for a paintish look. There's a free version (and the newest one isn't very expensive at all), so check it out if you'd like.


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## Lobar (Feb 13, 2011)

Zydala said:


> if you work with GIMP I highly recommend getting Gimp Paint Studio and GIMP for Painters (one's a bunch of awesome brushes, another is a program tweak). Along with Paint Tool Sai, Art Rage has a lot of fun settings for a paintish look. There's a free version (and the newest one isn't very expensive at all), so check it out if you'd like.


 
Link to these GIMP mods?  I mainly edit photos, but I could always use extra tools.


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## Jw (Feb 13, 2011)

Lobar said:


> Link to these GIMP mods?  I mainly edit photos, but I could always use extra tools.


 
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=167429

Enjoy.


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## Monster. (Feb 13, 2011)

BlackDragon007 said:


> Do you know where I can find it?


Anywhere, really. Don't buy it offline, though; it exceeds well over $200 for newer versions.


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## mrhippieguy (Feb 13, 2011)

Just to add my opinion, MyPaint is a decent piece of software, it's what I've been using for a while.


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## Ley (Feb 14, 2011)

I find Paint Tool SAI to be very easy to use

http://sai.detstwo.com/sai/

I got it here free~


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## Spatel (Feb 14, 2011)

I've used GIMP for everything. I feel like Adobe Illustrator would be ideal for my particular style, but I do the best with what I have.


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## Arshes Nei (Feb 14, 2011)

I can use freeware just as well as commercial versions. Don't believe me, look at my apple paintings


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## OxfordTweed (Feb 14, 2011)

Leybun said:


> I find Paint Tool SAI to be very easy to use
> 
> http://sai.detstwo.com/sai/
> 
> I got it here free~



You might want to check in the upper right corner, and make sure it doesn't say XX Trial Day. I believe that's just an English pack.


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## Tao (Feb 15, 2011)

I lineart in Photoshop CS5pro and color in SAI

You can get SAI free instead of spending $60 on it


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## Arshes Nei (Feb 15, 2011)

Tao said:


> I lineart in Photoshop CS5pro and color in SAI
> 
> You can get SAI free instead of spending $60 on it


 
If you want to encourage piracy, it's a ban. I suggest you read the rules.

People act like 60 for a painting program you'll use for hours each day is a lot. But these are the same people who spend money on conventions, video games, and consoles.


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## OxfordTweed (Feb 15, 2011)

Arshes Nei said:


> If you want to encourage piracy, it's a ban. I suggest you read the rules.
> 
> People act like 60 for a painting program you'll use for hours each day is a lot. But these are the same people who spend money on conventions, video games, and consoles.


 
Oh, I know, right? When looked at next to other programmes, SAI is amazingly cheap. Most people's phone bills cost more than a license for SAI.


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## Max_Amasoka (Feb 16, 2011)

Photoshop 7 is what I mainly use. When I'm at school I use Illustrator cs5. Gimp does let you do some pretty good stuff though, but I really like Photoshop because I can get more filters. =3 Filters are fun. And it's great because usually I'm too lazy to make backgrounds and textures by hand so I just put a filter in. ^^


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## Arshes Nei (Feb 16, 2011)

Max_Amasoka said:


> Photoshop 7 is what I mainly use. When I'm at school I use Illustrator cs5. Gimp does let you do some pretty good stuff though, but I really like Photoshop because I can get more filters. =3 Filters are fun. And it's great because usually I'm too lazy to make backgrounds and textures by hand so I just put a filter in. ^^


 
I'm sorry but that's a pretty bad practice. People who use shortcuts like that shows up very badly. It's obvious.


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## Jw (Feb 16, 2011)

Max_Amasoka said:


> Photoshop 7 is what I mainly use. When I'm at school I use Illustrator cs5. Gimp does let you do some pretty good stuff though, but I really like Photoshop because I can get more filters. =3 Filters are fun. And it's great because usually I'm too lazy to make backgrounds and textures by hand so I just put a filter in. ^^


 
It will just come out looking rough and unappealing. Heck, it's better to draw and get the practice instead of making a lackluster shortcut

EDIT: Arshes Nei Ninja'd me


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## Max_Amasoka (Feb 17, 2011)

jwmcd2 said:


> It will just come out looking rough and unappealing. Heck, it's better to draw and get the practice instead of making a lackluster shortcut


 
Well, I have been working on my shading, stippeling and stuff lately, so I don't use that as much now. Plus, I don't like to color a lot of my art. You'll just have to see my art on FA and Deviantart to see what I do. =3


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## arecaidian_fox (Feb 17, 2011)

Okay, hopefully someone reads this...I've been looking for good software as well. I have experience with GIMP 2.6, but could never seem to get good fur effects with it. Any suggestions, either for GIMP mods/plugins or different software?


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## arecaidian_fox (Feb 17, 2011)

Zydala said:


> if you work with GIMP I highly recommend getting Gimp Paint Studio and GIMP for Painters (one's a bunch of awesome brushes, another is a program tweak). Along with Paint Tool Sai, Art Rage has a lot of fun settings for a paintish look. There's a free version (and the newest one isn't very expensive at all), so check it out if you'd like.



And before someone pegs me for my other post, yes, I did see this, but I'm wondering specifically about fur textures.


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## dinosaurdammit (Feb 17, 2011)

arecaidian_fox said:


> And before someone pegs me for my other post, yes, I did see this, but I'm wondering specifically about fur textures.


 
You can make your own you know. Find an image of fur and add a layer on top of that after locking the base- manually paint in gimp the fur texture till it works for you- save, then when you need to resort to it you can change the color gradient. I just go about the hard way though. My friend uses the above method.


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## arecaidian_fox (Feb 17, 2011)

I've done that before. The result was okay, but I'm trying for a more "Brett Booth" feel...if you catch my drift.


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## arecaidian_fox (Feb 17, 2011)

BTW dinosaurdamnit, that avatar is hellah hilairious.


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## Arshes Nei (Feb 17, 2011)

There really isn't some magic brush. Fur texture is a result of observing what real fur does. 

People think it's the program - it's not... so long as it has reasonable pressure sensitivity. Painting fur is an *illusion of detail*. The same goes for hair, it tends to follow patterns in clumps and works with the plane of the form. 

Basically, in any painting software is ...you're looking for a hard round circular (if you like square) brush with pressure sensitivity. 

http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2010/10/water-by-three-masters.html

This is a good blog - and Gurney's blog focuses specifically on mark making. 3 different guys have their own approach to drawing water, but all of them understood their foundations. 

Think about that, before running to see what program is the best at making an effect, and ask yourself, do you know your foundations on how to draw it in pencil.


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## arecaidian_fox (Feb 17, 2011)

Arshes Nei said:


> There really isn't some magic brush. Fur texture is a result of observing what real fur does.
> 
> People think it's the program - it's not... so long as it has reasonable pressure sensitivity. Painting fur is an *illusion of detail*. The same goes for hair, it tends to follow patterns in clumps and works with the plane of the form.
> 
> ...


 
I like to think I'm a relatively accomplished artist. But I'm not ever gonna tell anyone I'm the best. There's always someone better than you, no matter how good you get. And I'm always trying to improve, that's why I'm posting here. If there _had_ been a magical brush, now I'd know ^^. At any rate, if I can ask for a quick tip in this thread, I've basically been doing what dinosaurdamnit was speaking of. Get fur texture samplings and alter them with filters/burn/dodge/opacity/etc. I'd just like to know if I'm heading in the right direction.


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## Arshes Nei (Feb 17, 2011)

arecaidian_fox said:


> I like to think I'm a relatively accomplished artist. But I'm not ever gonna tell anyone I'm the best. There's always someone better than you, no matter how good you get. And I'm always trying to improve, that's why I'm posting here. If there _had_ been a magical brush, now I'd know ^^. At any rate, if I can ask for a quick tip in this thread, I've basically been doing what dinosaurdamnit was speaking of. Get fur texture samplings and alter them with *filters/burn/dodge/opacity/etc.* I'd just like to know if I'm heading in the right direction.


 
I emphasized the bold and point you to this.

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=154134

Dodge and burn are good for metallics, or black/white greyscale shading. Anything you use with color causes really nasty effects and shows you don't understand color or color theory. 

Overlaying textures is a niffy photoshop trick, but that's what it is...a trick. Too many people rely on its effects and features and think it makes up for lack of understanding. You are the artist, and allowing those filters to do the work for you when you don't understand foundations...I again state really show.

I'm not discouraging photoshop texture overlays, but many of these artists that are on this site still need to work on their foundations. 

http://whitetrashpalace.deviantart.com/art/UNDERSTANDING-YOUR-STYLE-1-169660607

Something many people need to read.


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## arecaidian_fox (Feb 17, 2011)

Well, far be it from me to not take the advice I asked for. Especially when I don't like what I've been doing. When my pc decides to work again (*sniff*), I'll be sure to simply try something new and do my best to think outside the lovely little box I've apparantly built around myself.


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## Taralack (Feb 17, 2011)

Stay away from dodge and burn for the love of god.


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## Heimdal (Feb 17, 2011)

I always advocate OpenCanvas 1.1. It's simple, free, effective (but wacom tablet required,) and it works with my own personal painting style. I blend my oil paints on the canvas itself; OC doesn't work exactly like that, but you can easily set it up to work with a higher degree of on-canvas colour blending. I don't have to organize my colours, or eyedropper them, I can just feel my way through it.

Aside from that... what everyone else said!

Dodge/burn and filters are a crutch. It's not always terrible to use them and play around with them, but the time it'd take to truly use them to great effect is about the same amount of time it'd take to become a much better and versatile artist all around.


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## ArmedSargent117 (Feb 18, 2011)

I'm using GIMP as a platform for practice right now (and maybe eventually more), along with the GPS mod for it. I saw on the project page that a new alpha/beta version is up for download, so perhaps in the future there will be textures that you're looking for. Barring that, I wouldn't be surprised if there were additional mods online somewhere with what you're looking for (heck, maybe someone working with GIMP could write a mod for you to include some textures, you never know). My thanks to Zydala for mentioning GPS, as I think I will be very happy with that mod in the future.


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## dinosaurdammit (Feb 18, 2011)

Someone posted a link to a mod for oil brushes and textures. I am not fond of them myself but my friend swears by them.


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## ArmedSargent117 (Feb 18, 2011)

dinosaurdammit said:


> Someone posted a link to a mod for oil brushes and textures. I am not fond of them myself but my friend swears by them.


 
I've yet to try the textures and oil brushes, but so far the general drawing tools (specially after gps), seems to be pretty good thus far for practice and probably some "pencil" sketching. Now to see what I remember from art class back in middle school (no that isn't sarcasm... it's been a bit).


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## BlackDragon007 (Feb 28, 2011)

Wow, wish i would have checked up on this from time to time . Ok, well I've been checking out some of the programs and I'm wondering if there's a specific one that can take a downloaded picture (my sketch) and color off of that instead of having to draw it on the software first. Any suggestions?


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## Zydala (Feb 28, 2011)

BlackDragon007 said:


> Wow, wish i would have checked up on this from time to time . Ok, well I've been checking out some of the programs and I'm wondering if there's a specific one that can take a downloaded picture (my sketch) and color off of that instead of having to draw it on the software first. Any suggestions?


 
Most can, you just have to manipulate it correctly. Photoshop/Gimp/Art Rage/anything with layers will most likely have settings to allow yourself to paint over sketches. What programs have you tried?


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## Nicole1725 (Feb 28, 2011)

Since you are a mouse user, I think working in oekaki might be a good choice until you can afford a tablet. I say this because programs like Sai work incredibly bad with a mouse.


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## BlackDragon007 (Mar 5, 2011)

Zydala said:


> Most can, you just have to manipulate it correctly. Photoshop/Gimp/Art Rage/anything with layers will most likely have settings to allow yourself to paint over sketches. What programs have you tried?



I'm working through Gimp right now and then I'm looking into Sai, but I haven't gotten through the basic manual on either yet. Gimp seems to fit more of my style, but I'm not closed to trying something else.


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## Zydala (Mar 5, 2011)

BlackDragon007 said:


> I'm working through Gimp right now and then I'm looking into Sai, but I haven't gotten through the basic manual on either yet. Gimp seems to fit more of my style, but I'm not closed to trying something else.


 
Here's a simple way to draw over the lineart of a scanned image in GIMP:

- open the picture you want to draw over
- make sure the 'layers' window is open
- go to the image layer that is available in the box (should be labeled "Background") and set it from "normal" to "multiply" in the Mode box
- create new layers underneath; any layers you use then should just treat the multiplied layer as if it's sort of 'transparent' and the black lines will hover on top

If you need any more help figuring out how that all works I'll look up a tutorial for you that goes over basics. Hope this was a bit helpful!


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## rain-hatchett (Mar 19, 2011)

Arshes Nei said:


> I'm sorry but that's a pretty bad practice. People who use shortcuts like that shows up very badly. It's obvious.


 
I agree. The only filter I'd really use is the Gaussian Blur filter. Everything else just makes it way too obvious and lazy. 
Early on I did use a lot of them, but I had applied so many on top of each other as an experiment to make some gnarly abstract works; but I wouldn't recommend filters for any serious projects.


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## Arshes Nei (Mar 19, 2011)

http://gatling.deviantart.com/art/Brushes-143934444 amusing but interesting.


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## serbus (Mar 20, 2011)

Personally I like Open Canvas, but a tablet is required.  The current version (4.5) costs around $90USD, but version 1.1 is completely free and has the same brushes that I use almost exclusively in 4.5 anyway.  If you're going to spend money, I would definitely suggest buying a tablet instead of software and just use free programs for a while.  My first tablet cost me $100 and was the best investment I ever made.


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## Itakirie (Mar 20, 2011)

To be honest, I don't really recommend GIMP. But that's only because I was too retarded to figure out how it works.

OpenCanvas. One of the free earlier versions will work awesomely.


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## Asani (Mar 27, 2011)

Paint Tool Sai have always worked wonders for me


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