Comic Artists, What Art Program Do You Use, And Why?

I use Procreate because it runs on my iPad, has great tools and is a one time purchase instead of subscription based. The UI is really simple and intuitive which is really the number 1 thing I’d say it has going for it. The learning curve is extremely minimal. I’ve looked at CSP and Photoshop because of how much other artists rave about them but it seems like there is a lot to learn just to get started with those programs. I also use Affinity Designer, but just as an image slicer tool. It can do vector art but I really haven’t even begun to experiment with that part of it. It shares a lot of the same benefits as Procreate though.

I use Clip Studio. Although I know I'm probably not using it to it's full capabilities, it's my favorite so far. The stabilizer and vector settings make it so much easier to do line art. Plus it has a cloud system so I can jump back and forth from my laptop and tablet. Unfortunately the mobile version is paid subscription only while the desktop version is one time.

I do wish I wasn't so reliant on it since Photoshop is the industry standard.

I actually use three programs
First I use Paint tool sai to do my sketches, lineart and coloring
Then I transfer it to medibang -- to apply the tones, speech bubbles and applying text
And finally, I use photoshop to combine all of the canvasses for a single episode then slice it according to the required image size for tapas.

I am comfortable using the three for drawing but It depends on what type of digital art I'm making like for example, if it is semi realism I use photoshop, for a manga(the one that will be printed and publish for a physical book) it's medibang since it has the standard canvas sizes ready for it and the screen tones and lastly if it is a webcomic/webtoon I mostly use paint tool sai because I feel more comfortable with the brushes there and it's cleaner doing line art. Another thing is I can easily customize the shortcut key for the tools -- which is really helpful because it makes me work faster (like without having to navigate the tools using the mouse then returning it to the canvas again.)

I'm using ibispaintx on my phone to illustrate my comics and I just love it.

I use Firealpaca for my comic. When I first got a drawing tablet, I didn't really have the money to pay for an expensive drawing program nor did I know how many there were. At the time I had a friend who used Firealpaca, a youtuber I looked up to who used it, I was using its sister program medibang on an ipad I owned. Plus it's completely free which is always good thing. Firealpaca specifically has a brush that I love and use all the time, so I'm privy to still use for my comic. I do have medibang still and clip studio, but I only use them for special occasions.

I use an older Photohop version. I clean up my scanned pages using functions like 'Dodge' tool, 'Burn' tool, 'Replace Color' with ease. I like the layering and text functions. Also my screentones are generated here.(I can set them to a certain degree to minimize moire effect)

I use Krita For flatting or drawing lines cos it draws smoother & does the job well. It also can open my Photoshop files. (however things like texts & layer effects becomes 'rasterized' when file opens on Krita, so I do them on later stage.）

Clip Studio Paint because I f​cking hate photoshop with a passion after having to take so many goddamn classes in it

I use Clip Studio mostly to pencil & ink my comic, then Photoshop for most of the coloring...I toggle back & forth between the two for certain FX, and to lay down a texture noise in some of my backgrounds.

I use Illustrator to letter my comic. CSP has lettering capabilities, but Illustrator is still the best as far as I'm concerned. I bought Affinity Designer earlier this year which is supposed to be their version of Illustrator, but I think Illustrator is still better(from what I've heard from one letterer who tested it...I also haven't tested out Designer yet, but will soon).

I started out learning Photoshop & used it mainly for coloring while doing my pencils & inks traditionally...then a peer of mine created some art for me using CSP(then Manga Studio) and I was curious to try it out. Like @ButterflyEmpress stated- the stabilizers and brush engine make it easy to work with...for most of this year, I'd been working on standalone pieces and trying to get used to coloring pieces in CSP.

Paint.NET, because it's free

...I mean, that and I like it as a program. ^^ It's like MSPaint but stronger: a simple UI, with lots of powerful tools if you know where to look.

0its.png1366x728 55.7 KB

Look at that...so clean...it may not have everything, but it has everything you need and it's just * chef's kiss *

Medibang paint for pretty much everything. I've been using it for the past...4 years so it's basically the software I'm most accustomed to and it's got a simple layout with basically all the tools I need for colors, effect, text and everything else. Plus cloud save has been a lifesaver when i forgot to save or my stuff crashes which is nice.

The only other stuff I use is photoshop (sparingly) and Fire Alpaca if i wanna make a gif or something (just simple stuff tho)

Gonna add to the list of people who use Clip Studio Paint (Ex), which i've been using for hell of a long time, even back to its previous versions- Manga Studio 4 & 5.
I've used Photoshop and the other Adobe things back when I was in art college but never really used it for personal art.

I used to draw traditionally and then scan it, to work on it digitally, but my laziness towards that ironically led me to git gud at just starting without drawing on paper first.

As for why i sticked with Clip Studio its a swiss army knife of art, don't got to switch to other software- just start a picture using it and finish using it-

And it has many helpful tools and secrets just hidden in throughout it like placing in 3d objects into your art, good animation tools,paint not going over lines, and other things.

Plus its occasional updates that happen 1 or 2 times a year adding new tools and uses to it-
(I Love the animation tools update it had)

I'm doing my job fully in sai (except for text in bubbles - it's a job for paint). my pc is old enough to run those cool new stuff and even if I have photoshop I never used it because I ain't comfortable with it.

Clip Studio (ex) for everything except doing text and spreading out panels to switch from print to tapas scroll format, which I do in Photoshop.

I've been using Manga Studio/Clip Studio probably about fifteen years now, for its great page organisation, panel making and gloriously crisp, responsive inking. Plus now as well as the best inking tools, it has painting tools that in my opinion blow Photoshop out of the water with just lovely natural blending on the "opaque watercolour" brush in particular.

Photoshop is still the best for things like colour grading, cropping and getting things ready for print though, as well as creating marketing assets. New features coming to Clip are closing the gap, but aren't quite there yet.

GIMP is my main tool for digital/mix media arting. I normally work with multiple layers. If I find/make a cool texture I will scan/take a picture of it, edit it in GIMP and then make it an effect or a brush. I often abuse layer mode effects during colour grading.

Clip Studio Paint. I just like the options for comics on it. It's nice just being able to go on the asset store and find all the things I need.

I sketch out my pages on Sketchbook Pro - Sketching literally feels the best on this program for some reason. Maybe it's the copic marker brushes? I also so a lot of the line art here, a thicker outline of any human figures and anything that doesn't require finer details. It's steady stroke tool has been a godsend as far as clean line art goes. It's not for everyone though. For the finer line details I jump to Sai. Their stabilizer for the line art is also fantastic for getting some crisp line art. Then it's off to Photoshop to line up all the panels and do simple flat colors. Theeeeen it's back to Sai because of that stabilizer again where I can add some flat shades easily. Then itts baaaack to Photoshop for the final bit of dialogue/text, etc.

Sometimes it feels like a bit much but, eh. It works.

I got an iPad Pro earlier this year and Procreate is interesting, I was able to do a whole page there once (not the text portions however) but it was a bit of a challenge. I mostly just use Procreate when I do color sketch commissions since I'm not planning on taking it to the next usual phase (line art and adding color to the line art)...

Lotsa jumping around...

I only have iPad and I didn't own PC, so what I use is Medibang and ibis paint X since they're FReE ;v;

Medibang get annoying sometimes because it likes to FC on me and I sometimes lose my progress when I accidentally clicked "leave without saving" than "save and leave" above it. QvQ

I also once made a 10 page comic completely on my Android phone. It is a nightmare for my hands and eyes.

I have bought procreate but I don't like the app so I leave it in the dust. It was a waste of money. I really really want to use csp but they're subscription based on iPad, so I've been hesitating for a long time.

Clip Studio Paint Pro for literally everything I do. I'm most familiar with the brushes and tools from there since I first started with it 3 years ago. It's a steep learning curve if you're a beginner at digital art but once you get the feel for it, you'll be using CSP like a champ! I also feel like it's easier to work on comics there since the entire program is geared towards manga creation (although I draw in webtoons style). I have CSP (EX) on my laptop, which is what I used a year ago and then once I bought my new iPad last year, I've once again installed CSP (Pro this time) on my iPad. A few cons I have for CSP on iPad:

• Size and layers limit (because the iPad can't handle the amount of data)

• The subscription. On desktop, it's a one-time payment but on iPad, it's $4.99 (Ex) and $7.99 (Pro) a month. That's about $59.88 or $95.88 annually, whereas it's $49.99/$219 for one time payment on desktop. You can also get a huge discount during summer sales or black friday for the one time payment too! As much as it's more cost-effective to go back to desktop, I prefer the portability and direct screen time drawing on my iPad. Perhaps when I finally have funds for a Wacom Cintiq, I'll go back to desktop since it's not like my CSP license will disappear from my desktop anyways.

• The Gold + Clip tokens system - I don't mind the gold system where you pay users in gold to purchase their assets but I really dislike the fact that they added the Clippy token system recently. Some users lock their assets behind Clippy points so there's literally no way to access it unless you pay 200 gold per month and get the monthly 1000-1500 clippy tokens a month (no way to renew it manually btw! You need to wait for next month, post your own assets, have someone gift them to you or do the continuous login bonus to earn them and trust me, you can burn through the tokens FAST) At least with the gold system, you can still renew it by purchasing the $10 option

Pros on CSP:

• Stabilization feature

• Ability to download custom brushes from others

• Custom brushes in general! Oh my I absolutely love these and it cuts down my time to create effects by a LOT

• Endless supply of assets to use in your webtoons! Lots of Korean artists use these in theirs!

• The built in 3D modellers to help you with difficult/dynamic poses

• The 3D model to lineart conversion in Pro version is just- It's godsend trust me!

• ummm idk as much as i detailed the cons, i'm still pretty biased towards CSP either way haha!