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

[Missapogee]

I use medibang for everything. I know it technically has "comic maker" features like panel materials and bubbles but i like doing everything by hand. particularly because my style is lineless and more painterly-oriented.

I've also been using medibang for like 6 years and I'm bad at learning new programs

[MeltingCORE]

Heya! I use Clip Studio Paint for all my art stuff. I used to use Paint Tool Sai and MS Paint but CSP has stolen my heart! The features rock!

Like you, I also start with sketches I then color over. I show my process in many of my speedpaints/speeddraws!

vvv This one is older but shows what I did in Paint Tool Sai!

[Shanny8]

I have CSP on my iPad...I dont mind the $4.49 a month- I just gotta get used to working on an iPad.

[Shanny8]

CSP is great for lettering if you, like me, don't want to spend a ton of money on Illustrator

There's also Affinity Designer. It's closer to Illustrator than a lot of other programs(even better than CSP in lettering) and it's only a one time payment of $50...sometimes they will have a sale; I got it back in April for $25.

[honeyandcreambutter]

4.99 isn't bad imo but I'm on 7.99 cause I have Pro once I went Pro I couldn't go back to Ex

[Shanny8]

I have EX on my laptop, but I figured I didnt need it as badly on my iPad. Besides I can always transfer art back & forth between my laptop and iPad with Dropbox.

[Llyrel]

Ah, yes, Affinity is one of the softwares in my wishlist, actually! I got the trial last month, but didn't get to experiment much with it... then came the time to renew my Photoshop subscription and although $50 for Affinity is pretty cheap, I didn't feel like spending all of that money all at once D: but! I'm definitely going to buy it one of these days... the vector illustration options looks definitely interesting and better than any other Illustrator alternative I tried so far!

[Schwarze_Neko]

I use medibang paint pro (it's free). I like it because it has an option to put panel material in the page and I can cut it however I want. The speech bubbles are also there and it's pretty similar to photoshop so I like it a lot ^^

[JoshRaid]

I use medibang because it's what my brother uses.

[nauko]

So like every person who started drawing with a tablet in the early 2000s, I have my roots in photoshop when it comes to digital art. I had that program before I even had a tablet and was just messing around with a mouse. But when paint tool sai came out, it quickly became my main program for everything. I just liked how simple it was, I was struggling with translating my traditional art skills to digital form and the structure of SAI made it more comfortable because it didn't feel like a huge jump in tools or process---you put color on page and mix and blend or paint over with another color easy-peasy. I used PS to edit my final piece tho, but man Photoshop is heavy on my system and expensive af so fuck 'em lol.

Paint tool Sai is still my main for all things related to illustrated painted pieces. But when it comes to comic making, everything but thumbnails is in CSP EX. CSP for me was kind of like catalyst for comic-making. I hate wasting money, you know, so when I decided to buy the Pro version at full price I made sure to use it for the first short comic I managed to finish XD;;
It was the same when I decided to upgrade to EX. Thinking about the money i spent helped motivate me more to be actively using the program lol. I mean I always wanted to try drawing comics but the buy definitely solidified my resolve.

Anyways, I think it was worth it. I like how specific it is to this trade and all the cool assets and features it has. I was worried about sketching in it because I'm very particular about my draft brushes---basically I just really like and am used to SAI's normal soft brush. I use that for everything haha. But CSP has a similar brush literally titled "SAI brush" I downloaded from assets, so I'm solid lol

[RosesnWater]

Yahhhh! Finally someone said sketchbook! I was beginning to worry I was the only one- though I haven’t seen any Krita yet -^^’

[TheDWrek83]

Ha and then there were two.

I use the iPad Pro version as well but it isn't quite exaaaaactly like the desktop version unfortunately.

[Puck]

True that, "it´s probably just a matter of which program you´re more familiar with"
The weird thing is that photoshop is very easy for me to use, but that´s because I been
using programs which are similiar since the 80s like deluxe paint. I find Photoshop very
logical

[RosesnWater]

Yah, agrees, desktop is WAY better, but upside is I personally think the one for the phone is pretty good! (I get a lot of drawing done when I’m working ^^’)

[Legendofgenii]

Photoshop is all I know. I’ve used it since PS5 (1999?) I was very smoll and it came with the PC, so I gave it a go. I only drew with a mouse too (don’t miss that), and used a scanner to import my drawings.

I eventually got a tiny old school Wacom, which was much smoother and quicker that using a mouse, but it still didn’t feel as good as traditional drawing (No drawing directly on the screen or anything), so I’d still draw on paper and scan.

These days I use a Cintiq, which cost more than my car at the time but aaaaah it’s just like drawing on paper - only better because you have layers, can move things about and the undo button Of course. ️

I don’t use paper at all now, which I guess has saved me a few pennies on notebooks, pencils, pens and storage space.

Lately I am experimenting with painting in photoshop (for backgrounds) and I’ve purchased a few brushes from other artists - which are amazing.

I’m still using CS5.5 as I don’t really want to pay a monthly subscription for CC. 🤨

[CursedBeasts]

I do some basic sketches and panels in Medibang and the rest in Procreate, both on an iPad with the apple pencil. Like, the only reason I still have an Apple product lol.

[MissEljebel]

I use Clip Studio Paint! Before I was using GIMP. My boyfriend got me a new drawing tablet last year for Christmas, and it came with 2 years free of Clip Studio Paint. I tried it out, and I find it suits all my needs! When it comes time to renew the license, I'm definitely gonna do it!

[Siromany]

Aaa sorry I was gone for a bit so I was unable to check the thread but reading through all your responses, it's amazing how different and similar peoples processes are! I can completely understand like, for those of us who just had the software at the time to just keep moving alone with what we have, and for those of your trying new stuff out and finding what you like.

I forgot to mention that Paint.Net is actually also used for my comic, but I don't personally use it myself because my editor is the one who uses it to resize and put the fonts on. You won't be finding any of those fonts on MS Paint of course ^^"

[CarltonIsaac]

Adobe Photoshop CS6
(started using from 1996, it was Photoshop.2 back then)

MS Paint / Pencil and Paper for layouts and drafts.

[nekocoa]

I use Krita for all of my work because it's free and has a lot of good features for different types of projects. I've grown to really love using it, but it is a bit of a problem to make comics on because I can't figure out how to easily use the text tool so I have to hand letter all the words in my comic. Though I think having handwritten text can look cool sometimes.