But once you’ve learned the basics, your imagination is the limit! If you are a beginner you may feel overwhelmed by all the options and get lost in technical aspects of the program. If you want a career in video games, animation, feature films, or any general production studio, knowledge of Photoshop goes a long way. It’s an industry standard for all digital artists across the entertainment industry because it just works. With this software you have a huge variety of painting tools, brushes, filters, plugins, and layer styles.

Over time it slowly became a staple for many other industries, digital art included. Photoshop started as an image-editing program for photographers. It’s feature-heavy, regularly updated, and you can use it to create everything from concept thumbnails to comic book pages or even photobashed pieces. If you need a bit more info on these programs just keep reading.Īdobe Photoshop is the most popular and widely used software for digital art. In this post we’ll take an in-depth look at 7 of the most popular programs for digital drawing & painting by comparing their features and seeing how they stack up.īut if you’re in a hurry here’s a quick overview to help you decide: If your goal is to work for a game studio as a concept artist then you’ll probably have a different set of goals. Yet there’s always new software coming out to compete against Adobe’s throne.Ĭhoosing your art software is no longer about the biggest features, but rather finding an application that suits your specific needs as an artist.īeginners who just want to practice are better off choosing a free program compared to professionals who want to learn software for an industry job.

Each program handles brush strokes and color blending differently, and the price tags vary from expensive to free.Īdobe Photoshop still reigns supreme as an all-round industry standard for digital artists. The right software can help you paint faster and feel better about your artwork. That means if you buy something we get a small commission at no extra cost to you( learn more)ĭigital art software gets better and better each year.

Resources Digital Painting Written by Claire Heginbotham Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links.

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