ajandmagnus

Q&A: Can You Recommend Art Tools?

Added 2019-11-10 13:02:15 +0000 UTC

Hello guys! My fiance is an amazing budding graphic artist and I want to encourage him as best as I can. Right now, he is using Gimp to create things on his laptop. For Christmas, I want to get him an art tablet or drawing tool for his computer and an art program so he can really start fine tuning his art. I was wondering if you could give me, and anyone else looking into the art world, some recommendations on where to start and what you use to create your artwork and comics?

With all my love,

Jenna

Hi Jenna!

That's pretty exciting your fiance is pursuing art and fantastic you're so supportive. Well done! We've actually gone through changes in software and hardware over the years. We started off using Photoshop to draw our comics but the monthly costs just add up. After some research we switched to Clip Studio Paint and we haven't looked back. I'm not familiar with Gimp personally, but from what I've heard it's definitely suitable for people who want to illustrate as the hardware is what's most important here. We use Huion tablets for drawing and color. They're inexpensive and great quality. They make many different versions from basic USB tablets to full screen devices. We don't have experience with more advanced Huion devices but the tablet we use, H610 Pro, is great.

Simon uses an old Cintiq tablet but they've very expensive new and we only have one because we were fortunate enough to get one from a friend who sold it to us at a deep discount because the screen was scratched. The down side to Cintiq we've found is even though he loves drawing right onto the tablet surface, after years, the screen has gotten very scratched up. I'm not sure if that's a problem with all surface tablets or just this one but for the price (the original cost was almost five grand!) I wouldn't think this would be an issue. I would do a little research into whatever you're leaning towards before you commit. I definitely would recommend Huion H610 Pro as a great starter though. Our experience has been great and the reviews online seem to back them up as well.

Good luck to you both!