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Underground > Creation >

Physical and "e-" Tools for Drawing

18:54 / 23.02.06

hey so i'm feeling an itch to move my cartoon doodles from edge of paper to something more, and i'm wondering if anyone out there has ideas for getting started. particularly in terms of pen/ink/paper tools, scanners and illustrator-type applications for compiling, enhancing, etc. i'm on a weak, sorry-ass budget and use a mac.

can i sketch, scan, then color? and does that work, for instance? what to look for in scanners? are there open source applications for illustration like there are for office suites? stuff like that. throw it all at me.

22:20 / 23.02.06

Many illustrators these days do their coloring via computer rather than on paper.

Some freeware to play with-
Expression 3 is good if you can get it. Microsoft bought it and released it as a public beta, then rolled it into their new line of design tools. You may be able to still get it via the link above, but no promises. It is used for vector illustrtions and is comparable to Adobe Illustrator. For Mac and PC.

ArtRage tries to emulate traditional media, such as paint, pencil, charcoal, and crayon. It's a lot of fun, but I think it really requires a Wacom (or similar) tablet to really shine. Freeware version available. Mac and PC.

Somebody's going to bring it up eventually, so here's the GIMP, Mac version. My last experience with the GIMP was painful, but it was also about five years ago. Maybe they've worked out some of the bugs.

18:42 / 02.03.06

Have you tried a tablet, like this one?

My friend has one, it's nifty. She just doodles on the 'mousepad'.

18:18 / 03.03.06

art rage is really cool. it's a unique piece of software. thanks for that lead.

yeah, i think i'm going to get a tablet. i guess it's either a tablet first or a scanner first, and then coloring and cleaning up in an application. tablets are cool, but scanners are multi-purpose, but i have a digital camera anyway so i'd only be using it for art. or i could get both. or something.