I decided I have to learn some graphics program. My budget is too low right now to spend more than couple dollars on anything right now, otherwise I'd just pick PS and try to get into that. Also I didn't sketch/draw/make computer graphics for a long time already. As I can't afford PS, do you know good, new tools and toys that could lead to making something? I don't really care about the outcome, I care about tool potential and what could express me better than a pencil or charcoal, which is actually only thing I'm in possess of (only manual things, paints, pens, so on now). I made some google research and other forums search, but I'm writing here as there are couple artists here too.
GIMP is the answer, it is almost as good as photoshop and completely free. You can also get decent drawing tablets for cheap, i think mine cost about £40. Then you're all set.
I'm saving money for one, but at cheapest 500pln (115 euro) price it's really low on quality. I also have no idea what program I could run on android besides gimp and photoshop. I'm pretty open for ideas.
unfortunately. I've got no actual tools to do anything now. Just gimp you already mentioned. And paper, canvas, ink etc. I would like to start learning some graphical program and know tricks people use. It doesn't really matter what will be the programs, besides I need as much and interesting you can think of, I'd like to be able to choose things that fit my needs. I will post later here.
Like badgergale mentioned Gimp is free, but disagreeing with him in that you should be looking to pair with a tablet. Tablets more facilitate traditional art on a digital medium, not what most would actually call "graphics" in the traditional sense. For most graphics refers to image manipulation or purely tool driven digital works. (purely semantics, but meh) Before you run off buying any accessories, work on mastering the Pen tool in Gimp. Photoshop's Pen Tool functions the same way as Gimp's so you can make that transition easily and as for Gimp being "inferior" to Photoshop I disagree wholeheartedly. IMO it largely comes down to what you're familiar with seeing as the bells and whistles on the newer versions of Photoshop compared to Gimp are largely superficial and are simply shortcuts to something you can do in Gimp. Long story short the pentool is primarily used to create vector style characters, but you can certainly create raster characters using small soft brushes for the outline and using the smudge tool for any shading transitions.
I have quite a problem with graphics card for now. Gimp doesn't draw me straight lines and I will be probably buying a drawing tablet at some point. I'm kinda stuck, because I don't know much how to fix the problem (linux doesn't read specific dual card on this laptop model is what i figured out, which is both strange and complicated), but it's a matter of a bit of time. The tablet would serve me for sketches as hand draws are what is most imporant for me, I guess I could also go for a cheaper method, which is scanning hand draws and putting them as a sketch layer, but I guess nobody does it nowadays. Not sure I get what raster means more than made of pixels, could you explain what you meant? And, is your signature made by you?
I probably used the wrong word but I meant the pen tablet, the drawing pad thing you plug into the laptop rather than a iPad or whatever. I dunno, the only real problem I found using gimp, a cheap pen pad thing and an old laptop is what you said - that you can't freehand lines unless you zoom in close, as it seems to go jagged. Though I think if you're trying to find the fluency of a traditional materials like pen and paper then you'll struggle, especially without spending a lot of money. Ultimately it is a different medium and works pretty differently to traditional ones.
The pen tool lets you draw straight lines which is why I suggested you master it. It's an actual tool the program has just hover and find it, in the most basic form you pick two points and determine the curve of the line the resulting line with no curve will be perfectly straight.. More or less vector means each color, each section of the image is separate so it can be enlarged indefinitely and maintain it's quality. Raster means the image has limited re-sizeability as colors are blended. (well that's not the actual definition, but you get the picture, nothing to worry about.) Yes and no, the character isn't mine, I just do effects and backgrounds as I haven't the patience to do original characters or anything like that. They're called Graphics Tablets, Wacom prolly being the most prominent brand, but they're pricey. The Pentool in the program gives you perfectly smooth lines, but the smoothness of freehand is really more your efficacy with a touchpad or mouse than an issue with the program. Graphics tablets exist because people tend to be more comfortable with good old fashion pen and paper in terms of drawing should they count themselves as an artist since that's the traditional medium for doing so, so they tend to be smoother, but you can get the same smoothness with a mouse or touchpad the program doesn't prevent it. Nah, you can get the same fluency as traditional without spending money you, just need to know how to work your program and for some they can't get the same fluency with traditional mediums as a computer, it's what you're comfortable with which is why different mediums exist.
