What is digital painting? A complete guide for excelling

Look around, and you'll see yourself surrounded by technology. From young ones to old age, everyone knowingly or unknowingly uses technology in their daily routines. Technological advancements have brought a considerable change in the preferences and hobbies of people. If you want to invest your time in something great, creative, and add to your skills is Digital Painting.  Arts is indeed a diverse and huge field that has a lot in it. If you are also interested in colors, shades, sketching, drawing, etc., you must look up to digital painting.  Here we bring you this complete guide for digital painting that will help you learn if you are a beginner and if you are already an expert, you may find something valuable in this guide. Let's have a look.

What is Digital Painting?

The term itself is self-explanatory; conventional style painting with digital technology. You can create anything with the help of software designed to imitate the traditional style of painting. The screen has a giant canvas where you can paint anything in your mind by using brushes. People love digital painting because you can create a masterpiece anywhere, and the mistakes can be undone, providing a great way to learn new techniques and tricks. Those who always wanted to paint, but mistakes and errors spoil it all can enjoy digital painting as you can make as many mistakes as possible without worrying about how to fix them.

Digital painting: as real as stars

For some with the old school might compare it with the traditional painting style. But digital painting is as actual as the conventional one. The only difference is that digital painting allows you to make mistakes and fix them without any inconvenience. It is easily accessible; you can take out your app and start working on your masterpiece if you get bored anywhere. It is all about ideas and creativity; there are many platforms where digital paintings are being recognized and judged, and people have made names in this particular form of art.

How to get started?

Before starting, you first need to know if it is just a hobby or something to pursue your career with. If just as a hobby, you can install it from the apps store, but if otherwise, you can invest your money and time in good arts tablets of a different price range. Here is a list of a few apps that you can install on your phone and other devices.

Digital painting software: easy to install

Various types of digital painting software are available online; they are free of cost, and you can install them easily on your mobiles, tablets, and other devices. Some of this software are listed below, and as per your preference and painting styles, you may choose the one that best suits you.

• GIMP
• Krita
• Autodesk sketchbook
• Drawing Desk
• Adobe Fresco
• Adobe illustrator
• Adobe Photoshop
• Procreate
• Ibis paint X

The software mentioned above is free to download if you don't have enough money to get a heavy tablet, especially for painting purposes; you may start installing it on your smartphone. Let's now have a look at how you can start with this software.

Digital Painting made simple

Select the software you need.

You can choose from the list and other digital painting software that are available online. Almost all the sets of software are free to download.  So as per your requirement, you can opt for the one that suits your style.

Get to know your software

Well, that is very obvious, but before creating your masterpiece, you must know how to use it. Explore as much as you can as this lets you know what is hidden inside those tabs and menu bar. The more you know about your software the easier and handy it gets.  Start a new document and experiment with the tools given in.

Get acquainted with brushes and colors

In front of you is a black canvas to paint your ideas and all that is in your imagination. The next thing you need to do is see what and how many brushes are there. Select your brush and choose a color to try something new and unique. Once you know where to select your tool, it will become easy to do it next time.

Choose the line for the outline

Select a type of line that you would like to use for your drawing. Sketching makes it easier, so outlining gives a proper shape to your illustrations.

Fill them with colors

Finally, beautify your creations and add different colors to your sketch.  Depending on the painting type, you can use different colors to give your picture the digital life it deserves. Some of the basic terms and tools of the software are briefly explained below.

The terms and tools of Digital Painting

There are many tools and terms that you will come across while using digital painting software. Some of them are listed and explained below for your guidance. Brushes You will see many different types of brushes; according to your need, you can change the shape and size of these brushes. From tiny details to creating a big picture, these brushes are used. You can add texture to your image and can experiment with many different things using these brushes. 

Colors Most of the digital painting software allows you to create any shade that you want or imagine. All you need is to know how to use the color palette that is given. You can save those colors for later use and can add in any image or background you wish. Layers It is an important point, and you need to understand it carefully.  

There are layers on which the artist works; these layers are of great help as they protect the image on every point. The concept of a layer is to keep an image saved, and if you want to make any change, you can do I without disturbing the other features. Symmetry is the tool that lets you create a mirror effect of an image; when you activate this tool, a line appears that helps you create the same thing on the other half of your canvas without being concerned about the shades, sizes, and alignments. 

Text box You can keep your artwork and the text in the same space. It allows you to use different fonts according to your image. Working through layers, you can add text or create a story for your piece of artwork. The major components are covered in this guide to give you a fair idea about working on different digital painting software. Slowly you will excel in the skill of digital painting.