The Best FREE Digital Art Software That is Worth Using (Windows, Mac, Android & Linux)🎨

[@aaronrutten]

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[@Rakurri]

As a previous Photoshop user, I can wholeheartedly say that Krita did everything I could do with Photoshop and more! Like perspective tools, a more creative brush engine, hotkeyable brushes and much more! The more I used it the more I noticed that it basically had everything I liked in Photoshop, especially considering the many free plugins! And it crashes way less! I easily ditched the Adobe subscription and I haven't looked back ever since! 😍 Thank you for shedding light on Krita and showing it to more people ❤

[@Mishishiy]

Girl im in love with your brushes its really good

[@Rakurri]

​@@Mishishiy Thank you very much Rixza, that means a lot!! 😊

[@Navarro_Ojuára]

could you recommend me a decent airbrush please. I can't make my paintings like in photoshop because krita's brushes overlap what was painted, and it doesn't arminize like photoshop's air brush did. I'm very angry when I'm going to do a face I have to change the app because I can't do the skin right with krita's brushes.

[@Rakurri]

​@@Navarro_Ojuára I personally really like the airbrushes in "Rakurri Brush Set V2" and "Airbrushes 2021". I think my previous comment wasn't sent because I had links, but the latter is found in a KZbin comment in the video "Real Airbrushes for Krita in 2021" by Krita. I recommend choosing the brush that is closest to what you want, and press f5 to bring up the Brush Editor. There Brush tip, Flow and Opacity are the most important settings to play with, it takes some tweaking but you should end up with something that you like if you explore the options in the Brush Editor! When done press "Create New Brush Preset" to save the brush as a new one!

[@Aduah]

Im in the same boat, I ditched photoshop probably 8+ years ago. I was looking for a program where I could paint tiled textures. Someone directed me to krita. I was blown away by the wrap around mode. I've been using Krita professionally ever since. There are only a few things about krita I'm not thrilled with, that being the text tools, and I still wish krita had the thing where you can squish and manipulate brushtips on the fly. But other than that, I really have no complaints.

[@ArtbyGalen]

This is a great video, sir! Admittedly I'm a photoshop guy, but Krita is always the one that I recommend to people who ask about easy-entry art software. Thank you for the in depth video!

[@aaronrutten]

Thanks, Galen! I like your new channel avatar!

[@RUNNEARS]

I'm strugling with my pantab when used krita 😂. And i think Krita is good free app, but hard to use for newbie like me 😱😁. I love krita ♥️♥️♥️

[@paulj505]

I agree that Krita is the best free drawing software, but I unfortunately needed to use Medibang, when I started drawing digitally. The reason was that Krita is very resource demanding. It was lagging constantly, both while painting and even creating new, empty document. So to make my painting process more comfortable than in Medibang, I needed to buy Clip Studio Paint. Update: I switched to Linux, because Windows irritated me and Krita works much better. So I am now using Krita.

[@chervoviytuz]

I just got very used to Medibang, so when I tried to switch, it was too much of a pain.

[@hypernekoninja]

As somebody who been using medibang for years, I can say you can do a lot more than you think. I Like it since it more simple and I'm not overwhelmed all the time. Plus I found you can do realistic and can have a paintly-like style if you know how to use the brushes. So it's not just for comics and simple drawings. Just play around with the brushes and settings. Sure the program can add a lot more. However, it's a nice smaller program that does have a lot of features if you try things out and not just brush it off. I Like your videos, however, I felt should say something after you just brushed off the program as you did. I did plenty of realistic drawings in the program with no issues in the past.

[@TheDruone]

Agreed I use Medibang for all my comic work and find no issues. It works and it’s free and you don’t need the paid stuff for it to function well. Disagree with him and under some modifications, for painterly styles, which I don’t do, I’m sure it could work but it’s designed for comics so yeah.

[@TheyAreCesar]

One more pro for Medibang is, that it requires less power compared to Krita. Back when I used Krita it would often crash as my computer is old and not that powerful. After I switched to medibang, I have had way, way, way less crashes.

[@ashishhembrom3905]

@@TheDruone don't listen to him. He does the same with graphics tablet recommendations.

[@wraeeee]

I am new to medibang since you guys seem experienced can you tell me how to free rotate the canvas instead of the 30° rotation

[@TheDruone]

@@wraeeee above the navigator window is a bar that you can slide left and right to rotate the canvas

[@bazyt1]

Yay, Krita! I agree, its only negative is the interface for beginners starting out. Tutorial vids were a big help to me too, and I soon got the hang of everything I needed.

[@onishogun15]

Medibang isn't that bad though, it's been 3 yrs I started digital and surely can say Medibang is good enough for beginners and also they brought time lapse feature recently so can post some speedpaints now :P

[@deenadoesstuff3696]

i agree but the time laps feature may make you unable to do fast strokes or not it'll turn into a dot

[@localkate]

I literally use it for portrait painting :')!! And I'm really not too shabby

[@produsultana]

same.. medibang doesnt deserve the shade

[@ame_vagabonde]

I didn't known about the time-lapse feature! That's cool!

[@matchahctam2921]

When I first started digital art 4 years ago I started with Medibang and Firealpaca which are great for beginners for their simplicity. The ones that you need to pay for are for mobile but if you're on the computer those are free. Well, except for the custom made brushes, but you can make your own brush. Last year I discovered Krita so now I use it with Medibang and Firealpaca since I mostly draw anime and manga and Krita for realistic practice or for cool brushes and effects(but my pc is such a potato the latest version 5.0.2 crashes on me 15 minutes in haha).

[@alexparraparra4484]

Thanks.

[@marshmallowmountains4636]

When I first started drawing on the computer, I used GIMP (after MS Paint of course lol). I thought it was fine for a while, but then one of the updates made it extremely frustrating to use with a tablet. So I started trying to learn Krita at the recommendation of one of my friends. I really struggled with it because it made me angry I couldn't do things I knew how to do instantly in GIMP, but my art was better once I figured it out. There's so many little things that are much better than GIMP. If you don't want to move to Krita because it's hard, do it anyway. It's SO worth it.

[@nekomi_ch]

6:39 I first tried kirita when I first starting to draw anime on my computer. It is too overwhelming for me so I turned into medibang paint pro. It is actually not that bad as this video suggest and it is so good that I have been using it for months. However you made me wanted to reconsider my options and maybe switch back to kirita again.

[@minicared8811]

I started with Krita last year and I'm completely in love. The aspect that fishes me was the animation tools and I started studying some weeks ago. I tried for many years to draw in Photoshop and hate it, but had some motor memory that I could change the commands in krita for similar work. I even tried clip/manga studio, but the fact that you can use it free but can't save your work is so fucked that I give up for now, until I am able to have money to pay for it and try one more time.

[@Crocady1]

Really want to get into digital illuystration and for the last decade I've been struggling in photoshop thinking maybe I'm not good enough after all. Thank you so much for this video! I cannot properly express the weight that has been lifted off of me after watching this golden nugget of a video. You're a Godsend, man. You really are.💜

[@mackmorrison3528]

Ok medibang is not terrible, it's good for beginners. as a beginner you don't need All the fancy gadgets, not like you'd even know how to use them. so the free part of it would be good enough for beginners; if I didn't start using medibang I probably wouldn't have gotten into digital art

[@madam_star_rise]

I've honestly, been using that for years. And honestly, I actually like it. I mean yes you have to pay, but its not really a free trial unlike Sai.

[@produsultana]

its also good fr advanced, i think so

[@madam_star_rise]

@@produsultana Agree

[@Jovviial]

not even just good for beginners, also just great for people with art styles on the more cartoon or anime side, we don't need crazy brushes for hyper-realistic paintings. plus medibang is not nearly as demanding for your computer as krita is

[@mackmorrison3528]

@@JovviialYeah I have both Krita and medibang on my tablet and I like using medibang much more. I'm more comfortable with its interface.

[@CrescentMond]

I have first used Krita back when it was in version two but I couldn't get into it, because of the complexity of the program... And because I was still very new to digital art programs. I've been using it again since last December and version 5 it's great! They made it that much easier to use, from someone coming from photoshop and currently owning (and loving too) both painter and clip studio paint. The only thing I could say against it is that it's still somewhat ram and cpu intensive, but even with my (admittedly old) setup and 16gb of ram I still encounter very few problems, aside from when I try to use something like liquify... Which is understandable really

[@loiswolf9942]

Used medibang for years and honestly is it the best? no but damn do i love it and i've made some drawings im really proud of on there. Plus a good chunk of free brushes people have made. I've found it easy to use and enjoyable. Plus im a creature of comfort

[@inuakatsuki]

Lol same. I've used Medibang since almost it's release and i love it, even if it's not the best. It's simple, easy to use and actually can do pretty cool things (i really love Jyundee's works). I've tried krita before, and even tough i use it for animation, i'm not a fan of it.

[@toceeno874]

yee, he didn't have to go that hard on medibang

[@galina_lis]

@@inuakatsukisame, I'm love Jyundee's works (and tutorials :)) ) too!

[@produsultana]

@@galina_lis oh god yes.. she do be inspiring me so much... i love her art

[@NMalteC]

​@@toceeno874bear in mind that next to no reviews are 100% balanced or unbiased.

[@TheVirakahScale]

I loved Krita, but there were a lot (what felt like) glitches that ended up ruining some of my art pieces, and I ended up abandoning it. I may take another go at it after a few versions/updates.

[@nnalehg]

It really worked for me after I look and try some tutorials, yours is the one that worked. Owe you a lot.

[@tonyshaw13]

love the fact, that I can do the same kind of art on both my main Linux tower system as I can on my Windows tablet, with out trying to learn anything new shortcut or tools wise

[@scroptels]

I never encountered the issues you had with MyPaint, though the main issue is that many brushes experience huge slowdown when drawing, making them a pain to use, this is because of how the brush engine works and the natural effect they have. Even though Krita implemented the MyPaint engine, there are still some features unique to MyPaint that could be very interesting for the right users. I'm not a MyPaint user but I still find it very valuable to explore it's technology, every software is unique and different, Krita isn't MyPaint and MyPaint isn't Krita.

[@LuLa_41]

Personally, I found no issues drawing more complex and realistic paintings in Medibang. Now I agree that it lacks some advanced tools. But with a graphic tablet and some stylized brushes downloaded from their store, I found that Medibang can do much much more than you gave it credit for in this video. Now I agree with Krita ranking higher for the toolsets similar to photoshop, just wanted to give Medibang the (imo) deserved credit.

[@williamperkins4279]

To me Krita isn't hard to use just never got into the flow of it. For digital art I mostly use Clip Studio I got when on sale for $15. Krita has a lot of cool features. Not a fan of it's stabilizer, or using for inking. Since it uses .png image's as brushes like a lot of raster based brush engines, as brushes scales larger to smaller the crispness of line and opacity can vary. If using I would use with large resolution sharp brushes without any anti aliasing built into brush image, because as it scales so will the softness and crispness of line instead of it being applied uniformly. Line will be darker sharper when smaller and fuzzier softer when larger.

[@ViktorsJournal]

Perhaps the sharpness feature would help you there, I think you can even set it up with pressure curves, size curves, ... But I don't know it's just an idea. Did you not like all the stabilizers or just some of them? CSP is certainly nice too, I have it on tablet for now, I just wish it was a little bit more tablet friendly xD.

[@audraminor6416]

This was EXACTLY what I was looking for! Thanks!!!

[@ztenff7066]

Wow, so well done! Thanks for posting, man! Very helpful.

[@s-o-o-z]

Thank you for all the research you put into this video.

[@simplesimon755]

As a very new person to digital art I really appreciate this video. A couple months ago I bought the Wacom One after watching your review on it. It's not perfect but at the same time your review did mention all the potential shortcomings so I wasn't surprised by anything. Since then I have searched for good free art software but couldn't find any that I liked. I use Photoshop but I'm not crazy about it. I haven't tried Krita yet but I will give it a go. I also appreciate the comments in your comments section because they help me to get a sense of what to expect. Thanks for showing some of the less capable software too. It helps to see a bit of contrast to compare against.

[@zencibalina2926]

you explained. Thank you so much.

[@swoo_27]

I am so glad that i found krita from this video. I have been searching for a good free art software for a while so i can make good digital art with my wacom and now ive finally got one i can see working for me. thank you.

[@sinsitysinderella790]

Thanks for posting this. You did a great job of hitting all of the important points clearly and concisely. I remember the days when Photoshop cost as much as a semester of classes at community college. Like it was nuts. Purchasing an older version is great advice, and something I've done multiple times, especially when it's already a feature rich program, vs getting the latest edition, where you're paying full price for additional tools you'll never use. It Is really important to help keep these free apps free, like even if it's just $5 or $10. I personally try to do a minimum of $25 for something I use a lot. I subscribed and I'll be checking out your other videos. Cheers.

[@stxr.._]

im getting a digital table tmrr and was trying to find a free program, thanks!

[@hazelnubs]

I use IBS Paint with my phone and it's really good

[@801Baker]

A A Aron you are a gift to the world. 💜

[@rascon5379]

This video really helped me. Thank you very much!

[@riesigtee1139]

This works. Recommended to try this out. Thanks a lot for your help

[@katherinesilvestre4044]

It´s working great. Thank you so much for sharing the information

[@muhammadmauludy3235]

Installed, everything works, thanks!

[@MissMolly3377]

I use Ibis Paint, you just have to watch an ad occasionally, and it is free, but it is only like $3.95/month. I use Rita on the computer and ibis paint on the iPad. Ibis paint has tons of brushes, and they are all free, you just have to watch a 30 second ad to unlock them for 18 hours, and then there is an ad sporadically placed, here and there, throughout using it. I love Krita, since my daughter has a drawing pad for the computer.

[@quickclothing6036]

Thanks for this review - I had stumbled across Krita and was looking to see whether it was as good as it seemed, so your video helped a lot to crystalise that. Cheers man!

[@CreativeExpress87]

Thank you Aaron! Photoshop is giving me a headache and I only want to doodle a little bit and be able to find my brush again lol.

[@aj_cipher]

Thank you for the review!! It’s helped me out!

[@gettriggered_ian3269]

It's great that the best free raster digital art program and one of the best digital are programs period is open source.

[@darlinevan]

ive been looking for art programs since i edit photos and tend to make textures for games im thinking about krita and im planning on getting a art tablet thanks for making this easier for me

[@MageThief]

Yeah Krita is so damn good, use it on my Windows computer and Android tablet. I use Krita almost more than I use Clip Studio Pro (i bought that one). Krita means chalk in Swedish 😁

[@dalaibrahim]

this was an extremely helpful review, thank you!

[@mdnazimuddin13]

Absolute legend. Nice one

[@peluchin6923]

Great video! Thanks 😊

[@ame_vagabonde]

When I started drawing digitally for the first time I tried a bunch of free softwares and Medibang was definitely the easiest one! So instinctive! I still use it to draw, and I use Krita for animation.

[@qluinn]

I'm so glad i got krita in the first place. I was really thinking about buying photoshop but i realised later on this one is similar to it so i ended up getting krita!

[@davidcongleton3372]

really good job! thorough and comprehensive. solved all my problems trying to improve on Word's pathetic graph inserts

[@sandrap9639]

As someone who has used Photoshop, Medibang and Krita, I can say that for free options Medibang is just better, Krita was an absolute hell to work with (specially animating with it was like pulling teeth). And for making comics I enjoyed the free part of Medibang a 100 times more than photoshop.

[@marushard4974]

What discouraged me from using Krita was when I needed to adjust the size of a drawing, for Krita i had to stop using my drawing pad go to my keyboard hold shift so it wouldn't distort the image while holding down right click next to my mouse pad while adjusting the size with the mouse pad. Where as with medibang I can adjust the size on my drawing pad with the option to toggle if I wanted everything to adjust evenly or just one part. Krita also makes my not so good laptop lag and medibag doesn't so that's also another reason. maybe there is away to fix all that but if there is I sure haven't found a way XD but good video none the less 👍

[@ladywunderkind9390]

i can't get Krita for free on my laptop, so i use Artweaver and i'm very happy with the free version. my tablet won't run Krita correctly. i'm a faithful Autodesk user and have stuck around through every annoying issue and waited (sometimes impatiently) for bug fixes.

[@hugoavila6665]

thank you so much , it worked

[@Freaky._.]

If krita added medibangs stabilisation then it'd be perfect

[@jss3018]

Thanks. I'll give Krita a try.

[@nasdaprince3946]

Thank you for introducing me to krita :)

[@sasyscarborough]

This was a great review, thank you for the information.

[@Cutest1TheGame]

What is that glove he's wearing on his right hand covering mostly only his palms? I think I saw another KZbin digital artist wearing something similar.

[@reidlab]

krita is amazing. i used it for years and years and it is one of the best programs ever. although, i use CSP now.

[@mukiro8407]

Thank you for going straight to the point and being super genuine, I've been searching now I've found rest🛌🛌🛌

[@BennoKushnir]

The issues you mention for MyPaint sound like tablet-driver-issues. Those can screw up any paint program, if they aren't updated and configured correctly.

[@kiara6237]

I love Krita, it is just sad the 5.0 update ruined the software for those who use a lot of brushes. But the previous version is still fine.

[@Silvexatious]

My only issue with Krita is that the fill tool kinda sucks

[@CamxCam.]

First video on this channel I watched... It *does* seem a little like an ad. I expected to at least see some comparisons. Even if they would be overshadowed, let us decide what to use.

[@TrashEater2729]

cool TMNT shelf back there

[@brucebissell7626]

YOU ARE AWESOME GUY. THANKS FOR REALLY GRATE REVIEWS, AND INFO.

[@AM-buddy]

I was unfortunately completely unable to use Krita because I have dual screens. No matter how I calibrated my tablet, it would stretch the draw space to both of my screens. It would also be overly sensitive to my tablet's pen pressure no matter the settings. I love FireAlpaca for a free app choice but I also used to love using Photoshop to paint.

[@mnxenx002]

krita is very good to be honest, but my problem with it was is its navigator. it doesn't have some zooming, flipping, rotating buttons in it. you need to do it by key commands, or perhaps I have missed something in it.

[@SpektrumSketch]

This was actually very informative. As someone who has been using autodesk for about 7 years now, this Is a very well needed upgrade! It'll take a bit for me to learn the fundamentals but I think I can manage. Thanks again for the recommendation :)

[@aaronrutten]

You're very welcome!

[@thelivingparadox6626]

krita is pretty good - however, the animation features needs a pretty great deal of work. it's hard to navigate, and whenever you try to add any sort of audio, it's choppy and distorted to the point of not being able to understand it.

[@BfDelano]

I got my hands on an older tablet (Wacom Bamboo Capture) and finally got it working on Windows 10. It came with Adobe Elements 8. I can't find any info on if it even still works on newer computers. Curious if it actually does work, and if I should use that, or go ahead and get Krita. It's actually my first time doing digital art, and haven't done much drawing since 2000.

[@vince_2621]

Thanks Aaron for your review. I wish I had real talent for drawing ( and time ) because your tutorials and materials are worth investing in.

[@abdelrahmandesouki8894]

Thanks a lot!!

[@srali7609]

good review my man Krita is good hard to pick up but but when you eventully do pick it up its awesome

[@d.o.m.e.n.i.c.o_d.e.n.t.i.c.e]

Cool!!! how does that compare to photoshop as a drawing app/software? Thanks!!!

[@keithtarrier4558]

Why didn't you include Deluxe Paint 5 for the AmigaOS????? WHY!!!!!!

[@vistimaz4822]

I personally dislike krita because it doesnt have an eraser and you have to use a regular brush and to me an eraser is one of the most important tools i use

[@CatherineHayford]

I did thanks can't wait to use it

[@inkedfactorytv1982]

thanks for this video.. Very informative and frank..

[@ojmachine9545]

I'd like to know the reason for omitting Fire Alpaca as I've heard it was free and pretty good.

[@Makerkiddo]

rather unfortunate for Firealpaca to not be mentioned, but oh well. Great video!

[@jesse1375_]

I would totally recommend medibang for sketching tho, feels real smooth

[@yadmr3557]

creating a second track to add into the recording as I play through the first tract?

[@D_Tuned]

Thank you for your honest reviews. It would be great to see a full review of Grease Pencil inside Blender. I understand it's drawing in 3D space, but it has some 2D functionality as well.

[@Riku_nkmr]

As a former medibang user who now use krita. I found the mention of medibang amusing. I initially stuck with it thanks to its cloud function. Then i realized I have Dropbox/Drive accounts… But gotta admit Medibang did have a pretty good brush system well suited for comic/manga, plus all those screentones and brushes right at your fingertips. For krita you got to hunt for those yourself(mostly screentones, krita has lots of easy to find resources for brushes and plugins).

[@neonlove1289]

These digital pen nibs are so hard and not pleasant banging against an equally rough screen can you recommend anything to solve this? Can one even find soft nibs? Lord knows I've tried

[@aaronrutten]

There are a variety of specialty nibs offered by Wacom: estore.wacom.com/en-US/stroke-pen-nibs-5-pack-for-intuos-4-5-us-ack20002.html

[@lexiconlover]

Thank you. I needed this kind of frank, teacher-guided review. All other reviews are very hopeful and optimistic to accommodate people who have no money or have a specific lifestyle. I listed to the hype and bought the iphone 9th generation (going broke) when I think I really needed a drawing tablet that plugs into my laptop. Oh well, you don't know what you dont know.

[@nightlight1855]

how do you feel about auto desk sketch book?

[@albaholguin5244]

it work on my pc thx bro vеry much

[@Procras-lh7qs]

Thoughts on Ibis paint???

[@T.LUMC7]

As someone who has used medibang for a few years now It's a good starter for digital artists who are just starting out! I used to use krita before I got my drawing tablet and I say it's much harder to understand in my opinion of course, but it lags a lot for me so I don't use it. I think it's mainly because I have windows 7. But overall medibang is a great starter for people who want to try it out for the first time! :D

[@Rocky-yw1zo]

Can it help straighten lines and symmetry?

[@ryanyamashiro212]

Can you use Krita with no internet connection?

[@arilande2805]

Totally agree! 👍

[@middlevisions204]

My auto sketch book is still working the just changed the Copic marker area into a stupid color wheel but im use to it now

[@Salteep]

Is Krita not free anymore?

[@MelXXBloomXXPrts]

I've tried Krita but I always get back to clip studio paint. Which one is better in your opinion?

[@Dianaranda123]

Curious why GIMP didnt show up, you can paint in that just aswell.

[@aaronrutten]

I explain why right at the beginning.

[@AnthyLoneExoria]

As a heads up, MyPaint is best when used through Linux. I use a Kamvas 20 with it and it's very high quality. The Windows port of it is... lackluster to say the least.

[@HUIANkanae_VT]

how do u open the navagation bar on mediabang?

[@robertjv]

Anyone know how fix when the brush in Krita suddenly just turn into a round vibrant brush, there's none of that smoothness and softness to it.