My Daughter, the Artist
...created this from scratch with Microsoft Paint for a wolf-drawing contest.Does anyone know of any better art software programs so she can advance her career and support me when I retire?
Labels: pictures
posted by scalpel at 11:19 PM
25 Comments:
Well, the best free program of which I'm aware is called GIMP. It's not quite as powerful or user-friendly as Photoshop, but... it's free!
If you're willing to fork over money (or download illegally), Photoshop is very good. My wife also recommended OpenCanvas, which she says is better for linework.
I dated a CGI artist when I lived in La-La land. He worked on many well known films including Titanic and actually directed his own 3-D movie.
He used Softimage (www.softimage.com).
Very pricey, but the things he could do with it were incredible.
I watched him create 3-D characters from scratch, then add textures, layering etc. Utterly amazing.
CardioNP
She made that in Paint? No suggestion on what program to use, but that's awesome!
here is Paint.Net(http://www.getpaint.net/) - free software and a lot more powerful than paint and free. GIMP as suggested -but it has quirky interface and might be harder to learn .
BTW awesome drawing .Definitely she has some talent.
I'll second Gimp. Free download, works on almost any sort of computer.
The interface can be confusing at first, there are separate windows rather than everything being contained in one window. Gimpshop is a version of Gimp that is designed to be more like Photoshop, also a free download.
Art Rage is incredibly neat and the basic version of it is free. There is a bigger version that has a lot more features, but the free version is still very good.
http://www.artrage.com/
http://img230.imageshack.us/my.php?image=catpaint4gd8.jpg
Simple picture of my cat that I did in just a few minutes.
Wow! Very nice!
I have GIMP, and Photoshop trial. For some reason the Photoshop trial meter is stuck, so I've had 30 days left for about three weeks now.
I don't know about anything for the computer, but if you have a pocketpc, you should look into kidcolor. It is a simple and free application for windows mobile that can help eat up the hours waiting at the doctor or the DMV or for those especially boring sermons at church.
Well there are many programs, ranging from free to $7000. I like Gimp, it's all I use, but if she can do such a great job in Paint...maybe spending a little money wouldn't be a bad idea:)
Did she draw that using just the mouse? If you don't already have one, invest in a decent Wacom tablet. No matter what software she's using, a proper drawing tablet will give far more control and make it much easier to draw freehand.
Thanks for the ideas, everyone. I'd never thought about the tablets, she just used the mouse and the regular old paint program.
I'd say for just drawing stuff like Xara Xtreme (xara.com) alias sketch pro, or corel painter are very good, especially if it's about drawing and not image manipulation. Unfortunately they're not free (for xara, only the linux version is) but what's nice about them is that they really try to emulate natural drawing.
My son is an awesome artist and makes all kinds of things. He has been creating his own comic books for years now. My sister in law recently bought him this bamboo thing that I have no clue how to use, but he has been having a great time with it and doing some incredible things with it too.
I don't know how to add a link, so I'll just paste it in here for you. Not pretty, but it will get you there, right?
http://www.amazon.com/Bamboo-Medium-Tablet-Graphics-Software/dp/B000V9RL6G/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1217432615&sr=8-2
A wacom tablet usually comes with corel painter wich is really nice and used by alot of professional CG artists.
Photoshop - Creative Suite 3 is by far the best out there (yet). I hate The Gimp; it's not user friendly AT ALL. I've been using Photoshop for 7 years and I couldn't figure out Gimp.
If she wants to do animation, Pixar uses Renderman but it's even more pricey than Photoshop, at around $3,000 (cheaper if you're a student of an art school though).
If you're looking for something less than Photoshop, I'd suggest Paint Shop pro. Has many of the same features as photoshop, slightly less user friendly but still manageable.
As far as tablets go - Wacom is the best and comes fairly cheap ($100 or so) for a good sized tablet. You can go up from there but if she's serious - I'd consider a tablet b/c it's MUCH easier to use than a mouse; the pens allow for lighter/harder pressures etc.
I do photo manips in my spare time, as well as touching up my photgraphy or just fiddling. Photoshop and a Wacom tablet have been my backbone for a long time. If the industry itself wasn't so cut throat, I would have furthered my education with it but.. c'est la vie.
Very impressive!
What a great picture!! She's got talent for sure. :)
I can't draw stick people successfully so no comment on art programs.
My d-i-l, her mother and brothers are extremely artistic and it looks like my granddaughter is the same. When she was almost two...the first thing she would say when she woke up and her feet hit the floor was "Where are my colors?" she drew out the colors word so it sounded French. Too cute?
You must be so proud of her. :)
P.s. Colors or coleurs the way she pronounced it was her word for crayons. :)
We found a great deal on a tablet by searching Craigslist. Take a look on there and see if you can find something for her. That's an awesome picture! :)
I know of a site where they draw wolves, lions, and other animals. It's called the lion king fan art archive. Lots of artists having contests like that, and drawing and designing their own animals! Every month, they vote in an artist of the month. The community works together and artists grow and further their skills together. Alot of 12-13 year olds and teens, etc. I don't know how old your daughter is, but the picture looks like she'd fit right in! Most of the artists there have tablets or photoshop that they use. There's also a community drawing board they call sketcher. Where around 10-14 artists at a time can go chat/draw together! If it seems like the sort of thing she'd be interested in, the website is: http://fanart.lionking.org
I do all my art with the computer (mostly because cats, oil paint, and paint thinner in a 700 sqft apartment is a bad idea).
I use Photoshop CS2 and have a Wacom Intuos 3. If there was one thing in life I would die without it'd be the Wacom. Air? Pffft, who needs it.
I'm a few days late getting to this, but I'd also like to recommend the Wacom tablet. I've also heard a lot of great things about Softimage.
Of course, if your daughter is already doing that well in MS Paint with a mouse, you could get her just about anything and she'd master it in no time. Impressive!
There's also an open source vector graphics package for Linux and Windows (that is free, and open source) called Inkscape ( http://www.inkscape.org/ )
I'm pretty sure it supports tablets and the vector drawing packages seem to be how a lot of artists do work similar to hers. In addition, I have to represent for the GIMP as well. Great, free, open source graphics tool. Pretty much the same damn thing as Photoshop when it comes to kids, all the crap in Photoshop is more geared towards photo editing and the like. I wouldn't really say Photoshop is as much for drawing.
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