Tools of the Trade

There are so many tools available for artists looking to create digitally. These programs vary in what they can accomplish, price, and ease of use. For many, the gold standard is Photoshop, but if you’re just getting your feet wet, what options are there?

As someone who has looked into these options extensively, I’ll share my first-hand experience with using the most recommended programs. Through this series of articles called Tools of the Trade, I will explore some programs artists can use to create comics, illustrations and even animation. The first program I’ll discuss is Paint Tool SAI.

Paint Tool SAI

Paint Tool SAI is a program developed by Systemax that was designed to be lightweight and easy to use. The requirements aren’t as substantial as other programs, but it is still powerful.

The program is extremely easy to use and customize. There are tons of variations and natural textures for brushes. It’s not difficult to get a close approximation of watercolor or marker texture and blending, more so than many other programs I’ve used in the past.

For being such a light program there is an incredible amount of flexibility and customization allowed. Almost every “brush” I’ve used behaves so naturally it makes the transition from traditional medium to digital much smoother.

This program is used by many artists, even professional ones, to create single images that range in complexity.

Drawbacks

The main drawback I found was the lack of instruction offered by the company. However, after a quick YouTube search I found many tutorials for creating my own brushes, effects and even how to make comic book pages.

I also have a habit of making very large images, with many layers, and I find that the program doesn’t handle larger projects as well. The program crashed once and I may have invented a few swear words.

Systemax offers a 31-day free trial, but even after that expires it’s only around $50 for the whole program. If you’ve spent any amount of time looking at how much programs like Photoshop cost, Paint Tool SAI is a real bargain. That bargain just comes with some limitations.

For a first program I would highly recommend Paint Tool SAI. Even after trying different programs I still prefer it for the texture capabilities.

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