crystallicfire - Tumblr blog

[crystallicfire]

A glorious fuck-ton of perspective angle references (per request).

[From various sources.]

[crystallicfire]

Woahhhhhhh.....!!!! The amount of efforts!🙌🙌

[crystallicfire]

Happpppppppy birthday my fav boiii!!!!!!🥳🥳🥳 This is technically my first digital art and it looks kinda good... I am so happppy!👻👻👻 . . . .

[crystallicfire]

Merlance 💖💖

Inspired by @fishwrites' watercast.

And @bleusarcellewrites ' Tail-less love' on insta!........ i.e. fics that made me draw Merlance basically!!!

[crystallicfire]

Top 12 alternatives to Photoshop for digital painters and illustrators

Hello there!

Yes, we haven’t done this in a while… but our inbox and chat are swamped with questions on the subject, so this article was very much needed.

it’s a simple list of art apps, but we know you love those :D

Enough with the intro, here it is, a list of twelve art apps you may want to check out.

ArtRage is an art program for beginners and professionals. With its minimal interface, it’s easy to keep the essential tools at hand without stealing space from the canvas. Panels can be moved around and tools can be customised. We all know how important it is for digital artists to be able to modify brushes!

Pros: easy to use; friendly interface; essential tools from professional apps available; available for iOS, Android, Windows and Mac

Cons: it may get sluggish with big files and when using big brushes, but performances also depend on the running machine; limited selection of editing tools if compared to Photoshop - ArtRage is more of a painting program rather than an editing one.

Paid

ArtRage Lite is a different version at a cheaper price, mostly for beginners, but also for professionals if they need the essential.

Now free, Sketchbook is the famous app created by Autodesk for various platforms.

Pros: clean, friendly interface; easy to use; professional features

Cons: lack of official tutorials; doesn’t offer as many tools as other apps (it’s down to the essential); paid subscription in Adobe style for multiple licenses

Free and paid

Black Ink is a powerful little program few actually know, but there’s a reason: this isn’t your classing drawing app. What’s cool about it is the vast selection of special brushes, completely non-realistic, and definitely able to boost your creativity.

Pros: vast selection of customisable brushes; excellent performance

Cons: not very easy to use; non-intuitive interface

Paid

This is probably the most complete software for painting, drawing and animation. It was originally known as Manga Studio, but with its updates and addition of features, it became Clip Studio Paint. 

This doesn’t say much about the quality of the features themselves considering the affordable price (if you haven’t used the app yet, that is), but among graphic apps, this one is the top seller.

Pros: professional features for illustrators; layout tools for comic/manga artists; 3D reference models; customisable tools; various sales with special prices

Cons: the interface may not appear intuitive at first; the program may lag (again, performance also depends on the running machine)

Paid

GIMP is the famous open source image editor originally created for GNU/Linux and available for OS X and Windows. 

Best known as Photoshop’s main competition, this is a manipulation program for both beginners and professionals who love design.

It offers many professional features, making the program a powerful tool.

Pros: professional editing tools; supports different formats; supported by different platforms; active community

Cons: in spite of the simple design, many options are hidden and it takes time to discover all the features; slow startup

Free

Krita is an open source painting app created by artists for artists.

Pros: easy to use; intuitive interface; great brush workflow; brush stabilizer; customisable brushes; general good performance; very enthusiastic, although small, community

Cons: it may be slow or even crash depending on the running computer and the app’s version; very few editing tools compared to Photoshop

Free

MediBang Paint is a free and light app for drawing and painting, perfect for manga and comic creation.

Pros: vast selection of brushes; cloud sharing; friendly, minimal interface (non-desktop app); also available for iPad, iPhone and Android

Cons: requires an account to use all features; non-intuitive interface (desktop version)

Free

Mischief is a sketching app with essential tools, useful for brainstorming and ideation.

Pros: infinite drawing canvas; friendly interface; easy to use; cheap pro version

Cons: few updates; offers only the essential (but that’s the point); no editing/adjustment tools

Free and paid

Corel’s jewel, Painter is the most famous software that offers digital tools able to give a traditional feel to brushes and canvas.

Pros: different selection of media; many professional features; PS-friendly

Cons: certain brushes may work slow; not easy to use at first; the software may crash (this is the most common report); pricey

Paid

Paintstorm Studio is a professional software for digital painting. It’s focused on the use of brushes and blending, which makes the software a little gem in the digital painting field.

Pros: good brush workflow; brush stabilizer; “close gap” feature; customisable interface and tools; professional features; affordable price

Cons: non-intuitive interface (desktop version)

Paid

Procreate is the powerful drawing app for iOS. 

With the very sensitive Apple Pencil, Procreate is so easy to use that many artists chose the iPad over the most famous graphic tablets.

Pros: friendly interface; makes it easy to organise files; excellent brush workflow; customisable brushes; video recording; affordable price

Cons: hidden features; only available for iPad

Paid

SAI is a simple app for artists who want to focus on painting and drawing. 

It’s well known for its good pressure support and its essential tools for manga artists, but SAI can be used by any kind of artist who wants to paint.

Pros: easy to use; friendly interface; light software; customisable brushes; tons of (non-official) tutorials

Cons: limited selection of tools, even basic ones; limited canvas sizes and uses; it might crash from intensive work, especially with big canvases and brushes; supports only RGB colour mode; lack of support

Paid

We hope you’ll find this list useful. 

If you think there are other apps that should have made this list, don’t hesitate to let us know!

Thank you and peace out,

G&M

Buy us a coffee ❤

Other articles:

10 inspiring and helpful YouTube channels for digital artists

6 inspiring Art Podcasts for digital artists

7 amazing Photoshop extensions and tools for digital artists

[crystallicfire]

Everyone struggles with this feeling. 

But you know exactly how much work you put into your art, how many hours and how much care and love went into your pictures and no matter the amount of likes or retweets you get, you KNOW the worth of your work.

[crystallicfire]

A scene redraw from one of my all-time favourite fanfic "Shadow of the past" and "Ghost of the future" by @wittyy-name and @zizzani(@dreamwips) !!!

I love these mirror-fics. You guys have some amazing skills!!! 😍😍😍

[crystallicfire]

The accuracy of this post scares me!

[crystallicfire]

[crystallicfire]

This is so important!!!!

I’m sorry but it’s really annoying to see this keep happening on my dash. For those who don’t know,Pixiv is considering shutting down access to western users.

Why?

Because of edits and reposts onto social media sights, such as Tumblr, Facebook, even Twitter. The problem has been here for the past months and I really just get sad seeing everyone reblog edits and reposts of art that’sUNSOURCED.

I’m sorry if I seem bitchy, but this is a critical issue, because not only would this cut off fandom posters, it cuts off any person in the US from accessing Pixiv.

Pixiv artists are already deleting their works and accounts, more and more artists are deleting everything because of this. I have alreadymade a post about this on my main,  and so havetwo ofmy friends. You may say we’re throwing a big deal about this, but the thing is- we’re just trying to make sure that us fans and future fans have the art resources.

Things to know:

ZEROCHAN AND WEHEARTIT ARE NOT SOURCES.

I REPEAT. ZEROCHAN AND WEHEARTIT ARE NOT SOURCES.

If you really absolutely don’t know, try the Google Images source thing.

Or better yet-saucenao is a better one, as if it’s a pixiv work, it shows you the original pixiv link, if it’s deleted or not, and the artist.

If you don’t know the source, DO THOSE STEPS ABOVE, and if they don’t work, state you don’t know it and ask around.

Oh, and biggest thing for the Vocaloid fandom mainly, along with other fandoms:

this is a list of pixiv artists who do not want their art reposted or edited at all.

If you ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO REPOST THEIR WORK, ASK THEM FIRST! It won’t hurt you to be polite, and even if they don’t understand english they probably will understand what you’re saying.

[crystallicfire]

Happppppy birthday to my favourite paladin!!!!!🎈🎊🎂🎁🎉🍬🎂🎁🎈🎂🎉🎊🎂🎈🎈 #vldfanart #instart #voltronlengandarydefender #vldkeith #happybirthdaykeith