What Do I Need for a Profesional Digital Art Setup

Beginners Guide to Digital Fine art

Hardware, Software and Getting Started

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Getting into digital painting tin exist a scrap overwhelming at the kickoff, and then we've put together this uncomplicated guide to help get y'all started out on the right human foot.

What is digital painting?

Digital painting is very similar to traditional drawing and painting - making marks on a flat surface to create a moving picture - but instead of using a pencil and paper, or brush and sail, you use a tablet, computer and some art software.

The basic skills used in digital painting are the aforementioned ones needed for traditional cartoon and painting, but digital besides has many conveniences that tin brand the process easier:

Digital painting is less messy - no tubes of paint, no h2o, no cleaning!
Digital painting is usually more compact - you dont need a large studio space or lots of storage for canvases and paints for digital painting, just some desk-bound space.
Digital painting is usually faster - yous don't accept to mix your own colors, prime your canvass, wait for paint to dry, varnish the art, clean upwards later on…. not to mention, digital tools like undo and layers can help speed up the painting procedure.
Digital Painting tin can exist much more portable - if portability is of import to you, it's pretty easy to create artwork on something small and light similar an iPad or a laptop.

It nonetheless takes time and practice to go good at digital painting, just like traditional painting and drawing.

While going digital removes some of the difficulty from things like mixing paint, to make practiced digital art however requires the very same fundamental fine art skills, similar cognition of perspective, anatomy, lighting, colour theory etc.

Digital Painting is very inexpensive to outset, but in that location are also more expensive professional solutions available for those who want them.

If you want to start painting digitally, the first thing you'll demand is a tablet:

Tablets

There are 3 master types of tablet for digital painting

Graphic Tablets - also called screenless tablets, drawing tablets and pen tablets.
Brandish Tablets - as well called screen tablets or pen displays.
Tablet computers - all-in-one, standalone tablets that don't need a separate computer, such as the iPad or the Microsoft Surface Pro.

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1. Graphic Tablets

Graphic tablets are the cheapest blazon of tablet, and what nigh beginner digital artists offset with - that's not to say that they are merely for beginners; many professionals prefer to apply a graphic tablet instead of screen tablets.

Graphic tablets are flat slates with a drawing surface on one side; some have buttons and dials forth one border, some take touch and gesture functionality on the cartoon surface, some are bluetooth enabled.

They all come with a stylus which you use to draw on their surface, while looking upwards at your computer monitor, similar to when you use a mouse.

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Graphic Tablet advantages:

Cheaper
Simple functionality merely good plenty to do professional work with
Usually very sturdy and durable as they accept few delicate parts
About are lightweight and small-scale enough to be very portable
It's much easier to find a healthy sitting posture when using a graphics tablet

Graphic Tablet disadvantages:

Cartoon on the tablet while looking upwardly at your monitor takes fourth dimension to get used to
Line drawing is less authentic on a graphics tablet compared to a screen tablet
Really small-scale graphics tablets can cause wrist problems over time, as they tin exist likewise modest for you to describe lines with your elbow and shoulder

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Recommended Graphics Tablets

Recommended for tight budgets

Huion HS611

‍Huion HS611 does everything you need a tablet to exercise, in a portable, cheap and reliable parcel.

Reliable option for virtually artists

Intuos Medium

‍Intuos Medium is small enough to be able to move around and put in a backpack, only large enough to exist able to depict properly from the shoulder and elbow and save your wrist from getting tired.

Specialized Tablet for big arm movements

‍Intuos Pro Large

‍Intuos Pro Large is nigh as big as graphics tablets come up - if you need to make large, sweeping arm movements, this is i of the only tablets that is big enough to do information technology.

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2. Display/Screen Tablets

Display tablets are screens that also act as a cartoon surface, so you tin can draw straight onto your digital sheet. It feels closer to traditional drawing and painting than using a screenless tablet does.

Display Tablet advantages:

Drawing on a screen feels more natural than drawing on a tablet without a screen, every bit it'due south virtually like you are cartoon on a digital piece of paper.
Considering there is a tiny disconnect between where y'all describe and where a line is created, it is much easier to draw accurate linework on a screen tablet than a screenless one.
Tin can act as a monitor when not used for art.

Display Tablet disadvantages:

Much more than expensive than screenless tablets
Less durable than a screenless tablet, every bit they have more than moving and frail parts
Not very portable; only the smallest screen tablets are remotely portable, and must be paired with some sort of computer too.
It's hard to maintain a proficient posture when working at a screen tablet, and if you aren't careful discover yourself hunching and developing back and wrist problems

Recommended Screen Tablets

Recommended Budget Screen Tablet

Huion Kamvas sixteen

The Huion Kamvas 16 is a really solid and well balanced brandish tablet, as well as affordable.

Wacom Cintiq 16

High quality and affordable

The Cintiq sixteen has a squeamish blend of size, quality, functionality and price, and is a safe bet.

Cintiq Pro 24

A big screen for the highest budgets

The Cintiq Pro 24 is the perfect size to maximize screen infinite - most would struggle to achieve and use the extra space on something bigger.

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three. Tablet Computers

Tablet computers are standalone, all in one solutions in which the tablet and figurer are in one device - the iPad is the best case of this, but also includes some other devices like the Microsoft Surface Pro and the Wacom Mobile Studio Pro.

I personally prefer using this kind of tablet and have used them for most of the last decade, due to the farthermost portability they provide.

Tablet Computer advantages:

Only like with a screen tablet, drawing on a tablet computer's screen feels like to traditional art
Very portable and lightweight enough to carry with you all solar day

Tablet Computer disadvantages:

Extremely expensive and poor value for money compared to other setups
Small screen
The iPad has limited software compared to a Windows pc, and even a Surface Pro or Mobile Studio might non be suitable for all windows tasks, due to their limited hardware specifications, small screen size etc.
Very delicate and many working parts, meaning they are prone to eventual damage or failure, especially if you have advantage of its portability

Recommended Tablet Computers

Highly portable painting device

‍iPad Pro 12.nine

The iPad Pro 12.9 is what I utilise for everything; information technology'southward fantastic only expensive, and has a restrictive operating system with limited software, merely there are ways around its limitations.

General Purpose Windows Tablet

Microsoft Surface Pro

The Surface Pro is also expensive, and runs Windows with a broader software selection, but has a worse stylus and painting experience.

Windows Tablet specialized for art

Mobile Studio Pro

I used an onetime version of this, the Cintiq Companion; they are expensive and as portable as a typical laptop, but they run Windows and take a slap-up painting feel.

Recommended Phone for Digital Painting

Samsung Notation

You could also include the Galaxy Note serial of phones, as you lot can pigment on them quite well. They are obviously highly portable, but have a worse painting feel than something like an iPad; they also accept express software and hardware.

Desktop or Laptop

If you're buying a graphics tablet or brandish tablet, and not a tablet estimator, yous'll need a pc or laptop to claw it up to and run your art software on.

Any computer will work really, as long as it is at to the lowest degree good enough to install your art software on it, but if you are using an old and slow computer it will run the software slowly - you might be express in how big your paintings tin be, how big your brushes can be, that sort of thing.

If y'all want a smoother painting experience I would recommend a desktop or laptop with at to the lowest degree 8GB of RAM, something like an Intel i5 processor and at least 50gb of free hard disk infinite for the software, scratch deejay and your art files.

If y'all'll exist painting at a specific desk for the foreseeable future, a desktop PC will go you more power for the same corporeality of coin, but since I like portability I'd personally get a laptop.

Optional Hardware

There are besides a few other things you lot might consider getting hold of eventually, to brand your painting feel a flake more comfy:

A painting glove is a common purchase, peculiarly when using tablets that can go warm. They end residue and sweat from your paw from getting onto the tablet, and assistance keep it clean. They also help your mitt glide smoothly over the surface of the tablet.

I didn't need a glove on my screenless graphics tablet or on my iPad pro, but it was necessary with my Wacom and Huion screen tablets, equally they would both get warm and crusade my hand to sweat, which would quickly muddy upwards the screen without a glove.

A stand might as well exist useful, to help you proceed a more healthy and comfy posture while painting. I have a item fix when I'grand using my iPad Pro at a desk, that involves 2 different kinds of portable stand used together to give me a good range of height and angle.

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Instead of stands yous might consider something like an Ergotron arm, which a lot of artists use and gives them a lot of control over the positioning of their screen tablet.

Once y'all have a tablet and computer to paint with, the last thing you'll demand is some digital painting software!

Desktop and Laptop Software

If you are using a desktop PC, laptop or a Windows tablet estimator, these are my recommendation:

Clip Studio Pigment Pro - $49.99, often on offer for $25 - this is identical to the iPad version that I currently use, and I'm a big fan.
Adobe Photoshop - $x a month - this is a professional tool that has been effectually for a long time, and software that I used for many years until I got my iPad. There are loads of Photoshop tutorials online.
Krita - costless - this software is very like to painting in Photoshop, and is completely sufficient for creating professional art piece of work. The biggest drawback is the lack of tutorial content on the internet for it.

All three of these software work very similarly, with reasonably like UI and functionality. All 3 are practiced enough to make professional work. The biggest divergence between them is in finding tutorials online - there are lots of Photoshop tutorials out there, a decent number of Prune Studio tutorials, and not very many Krita tutorials.

In that location's too ArtRage for $79 and Corel Painter for $379 that both specialize in making digital art more like traditional painting and cartoon, but I don't personally have much experience with either of them.

iPad Apps

If y'all have an iPad, your pick of apps is a little dissimilar:

Procreate - $25 - this software is super popular now, as it's well optimized for affect controls on the iPad; if you don't want to utilize a keyboard with your iPad or want to pigment when you are out and nearly, this might be the best bet.
Clip Studio Paint Pro - $5 a month, but often on offering for $2.50 a calendar month - this is what I employ and is exactly the same as the Windows version; it's great if you work with a keyboard, equally you lot become access to a total suite of desktop functionality and tools.
ArtStudio Pro - $11.99 - this is kind of a mid point between Clip Studio and Procreate, with lots of desktop-manner functionality simply also good touch on and gesture control. I've only limited experience with it, but if you wanted a unmarried software that yous could utilize both with a keyboard at a desk and no keyboard when you are out and well-nigh, this software might exist the one.

Now that you've sorted out your tablet and your painting software, you've got everything you need to begin painting!

Basics of Painting

For the basic skills of digital painting, the only things you need to understand in your software are how to employ bones layers, the basics of the brush tool, and how to utilize the eydropper tool to color pick - these iii are the foundations of digital painting.

Everything else just expands upon these basic ideas.

‍To begin with, I recommend yous lay out your software's palettes like mine, or as similar as you can in your software. This is everything you need to paint digitally:

My painting setup in Prune Studio Paint - Tools on the left side; Brush Size, Colour wheel and Layer stack on the right

Once you've grasped the very basics of making a new layer, picking colors, changing brush size and applying strokes to the sheet, you're prepare to begin this long and heady journey of improvement!

If you lot are looking for places to learn, I would recommend Skillshare for absolute beginners, every bit they have a large range of beginner content at an affordable monthly rate.

If you want a walkthrough of the nuts of your specific software, there are perfect videos on Skillshare for each. All of these links come with a 2 week free trial of Skillshare Premium, and then yous can watch them for free:

Intro to Procreate by Brooke Glaser
‍Photoshop Demystified by Gabrielle Brickey
Introduction to Clip Studio Paint past Asia Noble
Krita: Basic Level past Widhi Muttaqien

You'll get 1 month of Skillshare for free - watch the class yous're interested in, and easily have spare time to watch a couple more.

If you lot are on a tight budget, there'due south plenty of fantastic gratuitous content on Youtube, such as the channels Proko, Marco Bucci and Marc Cubebrush guy, and also on Ctrl-Paint.

For intermediate and advanced artists, Artstation Learning, Schoolism and New Masters Academy would be my meridian recommendations for educational content.

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