Digital Art Wars - Comparing Drawing Programs

Full Disclosure: My comparison for all of these programs is based on me runing them on a Windows 7 PC with a Wacom Intuous tablet. 

Drawing programs are like asses on couches.  Every person has a different couches fits different asses, it’s all about finding that perfect groove.   Basically it's about comfort. 

So comparing different drawing programs is kind of tough.  Every artist utilizes these software choices for their own specific reasons and in their own styles.  Artists pick software the same way they pick their drawing tools:

A.) What’s affordable

B.) What’s comfortable

Which means the following comparison should be taken with a tiny, miniscule grain of salt.  It’s based on my drawing style, creating the type of art that I like to do.  So if you’re an up and coming young talent with a bright future, you should probably skip this.  Hacks like me who make semi-decent fanart, read on!

PHOTOSHOP

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It’s true what they say, the first girl you fall for you’ll never forget.    Photoshop was the first art software that I learned to use.  She’s a bit more bloated than when I first met her way back in my high school years, but she’s still quite the charmer.  

The great thing about Photoshop is its versatility.  There’s hundreds of ways of achieving the same look, and hundreds of looks you can achieve.  However it’s also immediately obvious what Photoshop’s biggest flaw is.  The entire program is built around digital photography.  The brushes that artist have bastardized for their own purposes were originally designed to be used as touch up tools to paint over unwanted imperfections in a photo.  Because of this the drawing tools are not quite as good as other competing art programs.  The brush tools are not as sharp as other ink brushes or the paint brushes are not quite as responsive.  

Adobe has made huge leap with the last couple of versions of Photoshop by incorporating features like free rotate and customized layouts for painting.  They’ve also updated their brushes to include on canvas color mixing.  While all of these features are great additions they’re a bit taxing on hardware.  Your PC better be up to snuff or be prepared to run into some serious lag.

While Photoshop’s drawing tools are not as amazing as other competitors, they’re still pretty good.  The greatest advantage that Photoshop has is in its editing tools.  Photoshop reigns king with its color and image adjustment tools.  Curves, hue/saturation, and color balance give an artist complete control over color management.  The transform and warp tools allow artists the option to incorporate textures in their illustrations. And Adobe keeps adding features with each version like the puppet warp tool which can be used to completely reposition a sketch with very little redrawing.  They’ve even added an animation feature to created videos or gifs.

While Photoshop may not be as good as its competitors in the brush tools department, it more than makes up for it with its other features.

 

PAINT TOOL SAI

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Sai is the latest program in my life, even though it’s been around for years.  I’ve seen a lot of anime/manga artist list it as their program of choice but for some reason I never made an effort to give it a spin.  I wish I can go back in time, slap my past self across the face and start using Sai a lot earlier.  The program is lean and mean in a good way.  Unlike Autodesk’s Sketchbook which was built for touchscreen users, Sai has a simple and easy to navigate.  It gets rid of all pretenses and doesn’t bother to try to look pretty.  Its toolbars and panels are of the old ugly boxy windows themes of yore.  This is great because the program demands very little resources on your computer’s processor.  I can render a video in Premiere and sketch in Sai at the same time!  

The other plus that Sai has in its corner is it’s brush tools.  The inking pen is fantastic, and responds a lot better than Manga studio. I don’t have to rework lines nearly as much in Sai as I do in other programs.  Creating that particular curve or hatch marking shaded area feels just right in Sai.  It’s that comfort zone I talked about.  The paint brush tool borrows a lot from Corel Painter and allows you to mix the color on your brush with the colors on the layer without having to hit the sample tool every half second.  This is great for my arthritis ridden fingers.

But not all is sunny in Sai land.  Its brushes do not have the same sort of variety that Painter or Autodesk offers.  I find that the customizing options are harder to work with too.  Fortunately the preloaded brushes are more than up to the task of creating the cartoony or comic images I tend to draw but if I ever  felt like experimenting in style or technique Sai is a bit limited.  Another drawback is the color editing.  Whereas Photoshop absolutely sings like Adele in this department, Sai sounds more like Keisha.  Sai’s color management isn’t as powerful or as versatile as Photoshop’s Curves tool or Color Balance.  Hell, anything under the Image Adjustment tab in Photoshop just owns all.

The bottom line is that Sai is a fantastic drawing program that’s easy to use.  While not as versatile as some of its competitors it has the leg up with brushes that feel right and an interface that’s simple to navigate.

AUTODESK SKETCHBOOK

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I’m a big fan of Robaato.  I really dig the way he handles his lines and his colors always impress.  So when I found out that he almost exclusively used a program called Autodesk Sketchbook I got it for my PC immediately.  

When you open up the program it immediately smacks you in the face that this is a program meant for touch screen or a tablet PC.  Using a Wacom tablet and mouse on this program is just an atrocious experience.  The software forces you to drag select an icon to open up a secondary panel where you can make the selection you were looking for.  This is great if you’re on a touch screen. It minimizes how much of the screen is taken up with panels and toolbars.  However for the rest of us un-hip kids who don’t get to sit at the cool table, it’s a bitch.  Like Wayne Brady is going to have to slap a bitch, bitch. The prime example of this is how the program handles moving around your image.  Zooming, panning, and rotating are all handled in a single menu which is brought up by HOLDING the spacebar, then holding the MOUSE CLICK over the tool you want to use, and THEN dragging the mouse back and forth until you get the pan/zoom/rotate you were looking for.  To say I hate it is an understatement.

This is a huge shame, because the drawing brushes are fantastic in Autodesk.  The pencil tool does an incredible job of creating the feeling that you’re using a lead pencil. It’s easily the best sketching brush I’ve come across in all the programs reviewed in this over written post.  And then there’s the fact that Sketchbook uses OFFICIALLY LICENSED COPIC MARKERS.  There’s a whole selection window that has every single Copic marker color. And you can use each of these colors in a variety of Copic marker tips.  I almost cried when I first beheld the marker panel.

I really, really want to like Autodesk.  But the user interface destroys whatever potential this program has.  If you have a Tablet PC it’s worth checking out the free trial to see if this program is for.  But if you’re using a keyboard, mouse and Wacom setup like me, skip it.  You’ll save yourself the tears.  And the marker envy.

COREL PAINTER

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Remember that gross ass/comfort analogy I made at the beginning of this post?  It comes into play here.  Corel Painter is a fine program.  Many digital artists that I admire swear by this program. 

I hate it.

This is probably the most difficult of all the programs for me to write about, because I can’t pin point why I hate it.  The brush selection is like no other, easily beating out the competition.  Exclusive brushes like the watercolor brush allows you to create wonderful lush images that you could’ve sworn where created traditionally.  Documents allow you to pick what kind of paper you want to simulate your drawing on, giving you all kinds of choices and variety. The layout is even decent, looking very similar to Sai or Photoshop. Despite all of this I don’t use Painter.  The tactile feeling of what my lines look like with their brushes does not work for me.  I feel like my brush is moving through putty.  Because of this I instantly hate my lines which is weird because I usually loathe my work a day after I post it.  

Since I have such difficulty using the software,  I don’t have as much experience with Painter as I do with the other programs.  If you’re an artist that likes to create traditional looking pieces with textures and naturalistic brushes, this is the program for you.  For simple minded hacks like me, try the others first.

MANGA STUDIO

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Before I was seduced by Sai, Manga Studio was my software of choice for digital inking.  A program design specifically for manga and comics, Manga Studio contains features that no other programs offer.  The inking tool is impressive.  Each line tapers out to a thin point giving a sharp look that previously could only be obtained with a calligraphy pen.  Armed with the thick and thin look, Manga Studio does a great job of recreating an inking experience that looks fantastic.  Its best feature in my opinion is its library of comic and manga textures.  I was blown away when I discovered that the program offered comic solutions like speedlines, splashes, and halftone textures.  You can tell that this was a program tailored made for comic and manga geeks.

Unfortunately using those textures are a bit tricky.  It’s a lot like playing a game of operation; you have to spend a lot of time finessing the placement and orientation of the textures.  The pen tool, while it looks fantastic, is a bit un-responsive when you compare it to Sai.  Manga Studio has an auto smooth feature on its ink brushes that causes a delay that’s barely noticeable. Actually it’s wouldn’t have been an issue for me if I hadn’t used Sai and noticed the difference.

Manga Studio is a solid program but I’d still recommend Sai over it. 

THE BOTTOM LINE

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So here we are.  5 widely used programs each with their strengths and flaws.  But I’m going to have to give it up to Photoshop.  While Photoshop may not have as many amazing brushes as some of its competitors it more than makes up for it by being versatile.  It’s really not exaggerating a whole lot by saying that you can do anything in Photoshop.  It’s a one stop shop where you can do all the stages of digital illustration from sketching, inking, flatting colors, shading, texturing, and color adjustment.  If you have to pick one piece of software, Photoshop is definitely the route to go.