ILLUSTRATION KNOWHOW Drawing and Painting software


In this day and age we have a large variety of digital drawing and painting software, but do you know what your options are? In the first of a series, Alina Manolache guides us through some of the alternatives.



I would like to present a few of the more popular options out there and hopefully spark your interest towards one or more of them. All options presented can open a shared file type (psd is the standard) so you can even mix and match different programs for different parts of your illustration process. 



We will look at each software from the perspective of a working illustrator and consider the following factors: The price (as of the time of writing the article), the platforms it’s available on, if it has blend modes, if it supports CMYK. I will also mention what kind of learning resources they have and if there’s anything that makes the software special or different from the rest. Without further ado:



Photoshop: the most famous drawing and painting software. 
Developer: Adobe


Price: Around 32.98 GBP per month if choosing a monthly subscription plan, less if you choose to get billed monthly but agree to a full year. Adobe sometimes has sales that can lower the price.


Platforms: It’s available on macOS, Windows and iPad (the iPad version is still missing some features compared to the Mac / Windows versions).


Free trial: Yes, 7 days free trial but you need to add a valid credit card and create an account with them.


Blend modes: Photoshop has a large variety of these. A list of all of them can be found here


CMYK support: It supports both converting to CMYK and working on CMYK as a base color profile.




Photoshop User Interface


Learning resources: Photoshop is the most well documented program, and you can find tutorials and information online both from Adobe and from other creators.



Speciality: The application is quite complex and it has access to a host of tools for both photo editing and illustration. It’s the fist digital drawing software developed and as such it has all of the features needed to create digital illustrations and other digital drawing programs have used photoshop as a benchmark of useful features to emulate. It’s also one of the best programs that can help you get your art print ready.



Next time we'll take a look at another amazing software Rebelle.



*Header image: collaboration by Ell Rose & Tita Berredo



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Alina Manolache's love for fairy tales, watercolor painting, and animals is readily apparent in her first book "Little Red is making friends", which she wrote, illustrated, and self published. In her debut work, the visually stunning illustrations combined with her storytelling evoke undeniable feelings of joy and compassion.

See more of Alina's work here. Follow her on Instagram and Bluesky.




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Tita Berredo is the Illustrator Coordinator of SCBWI British Isles and the Art Director of Words & Pictures. 
Follow her on Instagram and Twitter or www.titaberredo.com.
Contact her at: illuscoordinator@britishscbwi.org



Ell Rose is the Illustration Features Editor of Words & Pictures.
Find their work at fourfooteleven.com
Follow them on Instagram and X/Twitter
Contact them at illustrators@britishscbwi.org




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