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Programs of artage.
12 years ago
Feh... journals. I never do journals, because words are silly, but here is.
Been trying a bunch of different art programs since getting back into drawing. Part of the reason for digital was not having much of a surface for sketching, not having a scanner worth it's plastic, and having conned the wife out of her Intuos3.
First program I tried was Photoshop CS3, because last I had done anything digital was with PS 7 (non-CS). CS3 is great, and I liked the familiarity of the interface, and how it readily played with the tablet. When dealing with decent resolutions, however, the cursor became an issue, like, a major issue for me. Couldn't find the damn thing half the time. Next attempt was with GIMP. For the price, you really cannot go wrong with GIMP. I loved most things about it except the action with the tablet wasn't quite as nice and it took me some time to even get it to play well with the Intuos3.
I'm likely doing myself a disservice by switching around to all sorts of different programs, because each attempt involves at least an hour JUST figuring out the interface and controls. I'll freely admit that swapping around to different programs so often kinda contributes to this.
While banging my head against GIMP one day (boy that doesn't sound right) I saw Artrage 3.5 Pro was not only on Steam, but half off! Regardless of if Artrage is geared for figure drawing or not, it is just damn fun! The interface is really easy to get and it has all sorts of tools geared for people used to working with actual paint on actual canvases. For me though, no matter what settings I tried in both the driver for the tablet and Artrage itself, it was absolute junk for making smooth lines. Some of the tools also had this nasty habit of leaving a long thin trail noticeably after I had already lifted the pen from the surface... it was painful. Recently, some awesome folks directed me towards Paint Tool SAI, which all the cool kids are using these days... and I see why! The program is small and efficient, it instantly took to the tablet without any fuss, and its... oh, how to describe it... it's very creamy.
Yes, SAI is creamy. There is some damn innate function in the program that just cuddles any pen input I gave it. The color blending and application are also... well, creamy! I suspect I'll have to purposely try to make hard color shifts, because by default it just lushes on the color like it's a flavor.
I've said it before by just seeing SAI in use, and I'll say it again having actually tried it - You get this program a more polished interface, full polished english translation, and put it on Steam for $30 and it would sell like a crazy mad thing! Ahwell, so looks like I'll be messing with SAI for a bit now. Going to try a few different brush packs and see what floats. Wish I could import a set pallet or swatch group, but sounds like that's bound to the settings file.
Been trying a bunch of different art programs since getting back into drawing. Part of the reason for digital was not having much of a surface for sketching, not having a scanner worth it's plastic, and having conned the wife out of her Intuos3.
First program I tried was Photoshop CS3, because last I had done anything digital was with PS 7 (non-CS). CS3 is great, and I liked the familiarity of the interface, and how it readily played with the tablet. When dealing with decent resolutions, however, the cursor became an issue, like, a major issue for me. Couldn't find the damn thing half the time. Next attempt was with GIMP. For the price, you really cannot go wrong with GIMP. I loved most things about it except the action with the tablet wasn't quite as nice and it took me some time to even get it to play well with the Intuos3.
I'm likely doing myself a disservice by switching around to all sorts of different programs, because each attempt involves at least an hour JUST figuring out the interface and controls. I'll freely admit that swapping around to different programs so often kinda contributes to this.
While banging my head against GIMP one day (boy that doesn't sound right) I saw Artrage 3.5 Pro was not only on Steam, but half off! Regardless of if Artrage is geared for figure drawing or not, it is just damn fun! The interface is really easy to get and it has all sorts of tools geared for people used to working with actual paint on actual canvases. For me though, no matter what settings I tried in both the driver for the tablet and Artrage itself, it was absolute junk for making smooth lines. Some of the tools also had this nasty habit of leaving a long thin trail noticeably after I had already lifted the pen from the surface... it was painful. Recently, some awesome folks directed me towards Paint Tool SAI, which all the cool kids are using these days... and I see why! The program is small and efficient, it instantly took to the tablet without any fuss, and its... oh, how to describe it... it's very creamy.
Yes, SAI is creamy. There is some damn innate function in the program that just cuddles any pen input I gave it. The color blending and application are also... well, creamy! I suspect I'll have to purposely try to make hard color shifts, because by default it just lushes on the color like it's a flavor.
I've said it before by just seeing SAI in use, and I'll say it again having actually tried it - You get this program a more polished interface, full polished english translation, and put it on Steam for $30 and it would sell like a crazy mad thing! Ahwell, so looks like I'll be messing with SAI for a bit now. Going to try a few different brush packs and see what floats. Wish I could import a set pallet or swatch group, but sounds like that's bound to the settings file.
