Is Krita for you? (II)

Published    23rd June, 2013

Here we are again! This is our second post to increase your love for Krita. Enjoy it and don’t forget that we can resolve your doubts in Krita Forum and #krita channel on IRC.Here we are again! This is our second post to increase your love for Krita. Enjoy it and don’t forget that we can resolve your doubts in Krita Forum and #krita channel on IRC.

Today, we have the pleasure of presenting to you Yafd, he is from EEUU. And here is a little of his art:

– How did you discover Krita?
I can’t remember how I discovered it… probably following another artist. I’m always looking for new art software that brings something unique and interesting to the table.

– What brushes did you use for this image?
For that piece I used the basic ink brush and the eraser for the lines and the block paint brush.

– What is your favourite feature of Krita?
My favorite features of Krita are the natural brushes and mirrored drawing.

– Why would you recommend Krita?
Krita is great because of its fantastic brush engines and the great workflow.

– Why did you started painting in digital painting? Do you still painting on paper?
I’m a beginning artist. I sometimes do work on paper but I prefer digital because of the speed and the cost of materials.

The next artwork was created by Ohnoo, Malaysia, enjoy it!

– How did you discover Krita?
It’s kind of a long story, it hails all the way back to 2010 when I was still dependent on Photoshop and Paint Tool SAI on a Windows platform.

The first time I started my transition into Linux was in 2010, and that was due to my first time getting to know a Unix-based operating system since I was learning it for class. They were using Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) in the computer labs, I had for myself a 9.04 ISO to use. Later on, I began to feel there’s more to know about it and started installing it side by side starting from 10.04.

After comfortably settling with it I began wondering if I can do digital painting on a Linux-based platform. While on the Windows platform, I mostly used Photoshop and later Paint Tool SAI almost extensively, and I was still new to the options available in Linux at that time.

GIMP wasn’t very stellar for that kind of task at that time, plus I didn’t really like how I had to operate with three separate windows (main workspace, toolbox on the left, and layers etc on the right). Inkscape doesn’t really fit the scope of what I wanted to do, but I took note of it regardless, as it was very capable of what it is designed to do.

The earlier versions of Krita at that time was available for me, and I tried it out of curiosity. However, I wasn’t able to get used to it and decided to drop it from my list.

MyPaint became my choice after searching quite a while. Though I was kind of demotivated for a bit that it doesn’t quite feel like the Paint Tool SAI I am used to, but decided it was worth my time trying. I took quite some time getting used to it, and as a result I finally managed to reduce my dependency on the Windows-based platforms I had.

Time passes on and I became a pro-MyPaint user mostly, until later on I caught up on news regarding Krita’s improvement approaching version 2.6… and that was towards the end of 2012. Seeing the news sparked a new interest in me trying it again, because I am very interested at the prospect of… the UI, mostly (heh). Come 2.6, I found myself not having enough patience in wanting to try the latest version and jumped at the opportunity as soon as it became available.

Now? I think it didn’t take long until Krita’s goodness became history with me. I mean, it really “feels natural” to me. If I even know what that means myself.

– What brushes did you use?
On my initial sessions I just kind of settled with the initial default preset brushes. While pondering on a set of brushes to use for an artwork, I decided to try *Deevad‘s brushpack set as can be found here: [link]

But even with that, I kind of thought I still needed for a kind of brush… I think I used one of the brushes in Mr. David’s brushpack to create another brush… or did I? I can’t seem to remember how, but later on I ended up with these “custom” set as seen in this screencap here: [link]

… Sadly I don’t know any method of packaging them if anyone ever wants them (not that I think there’d be anyone interested enough), also the thumbnails for the brushes aren’t pretty, they only serve as rough indicators for what the brushes do at best…

– What is your favourite feature of Krita?
BRUSHES, PERIOD! No, really, while MyPaint’s brush engine is pretty strong on its own, Krita’s own brush engine isn’t any slouch either (in fact, I am not even sure if I should be using “slouch” here). I really like it a lot. Apart from that, Krita’s UI layout looks even more polished than the last time I remembered it, which is a very big usability improvement in my books.

And the blending modes that come with the brushes are a favorite, too: special mention goes to the Addition mode which I have come to love to… err, abuse the more I learn about it… Ehem.

Anyway, that’s pretty much it. Probably there’s more to mention but I’ll let time tell…

– Why would you recommend Krita?
Apart from one of the reasons being a recommendation for users frequenting Linux-based platform, it is one of the digital painting applications that offer the best bang for buck: It’s free, and it is a multi-platform application. From what I recall so far, the Windows builds leave a lot more to be desired, not to mention that OS X builds are still out of the question for the time being. But as soon as that time comes; well… I can only say there’s no other way to go but up.

Also, I’ve heard people saying Krita is quite comparable to what Corel Painter is to a Windows user in the Linux platform. I’ve had plenty of time to get used to Krita (and still have a lot more to know) so I can’t really speak much for others’ experiences, but overall it doesn’t really take much to discover what you can do with it. I’ve had a friend who’s more used towards using the Windows and Mac platforms for digital painting, and this is one of his first attempts at giving Krita on my computer a shot: [link]

Even for a speed-paint, I really admired the fact he can come up with that in a couple of minutes, and also because I have yet to achieve it myself…

So yes, for me Krita is just as good, if not any better, as any other painting program you can find out there. So people out there, give it a try!

– Why would you started on digital painting? Do you still painting on paper?
To begin with, drawing has been one of my favorite hobbies, but recently I started to take it more seriously, especially now that I am studying in a field that requires a proficiency of it to a degree.

I’ve always been impressed with what people can do with computers, and digital painting is one of them. However, my initial attempt on digital painting was far from what you would even pass as okay, I’m more used to traditional media (namedly, paper) during these times. In 2007, I had a very ample amount of time to comprehend digital painting and chose to stick with the mouse as a way to do things.

My first pen tablet, and perhaps the only one I have in possession up to this date; is kaa 4″ x 6″ Wacom Graphire 4, which was bought in 2008. It should be noted that the Wacom Bamboo series was already available in my local IT markets at this time, seeing it was officially released on May 2007. I chose the Graphire 4 out of a budget constraint; even though the Bamboo is present at that time, the former is a much more attractive option simply because of the price; considering I was a student and bought it out of a given budget to buy my own birthday present

I took quite some time to adjust myself to it, but managed nevertheless.

As for paper media, I still do it whenever I feel like it. Although most of what I did these days were mostly out of boredom during class hours or when I finished answering my exam questions before the time was up and felt like there was nothing more I could do while waiting to finish It really is strange we find ourselves working the best on the strangest of occasions…

Thanks to our artists to give to us a little of their time!