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 third part of this series, Alina Manolache guides us through some of the alternatives.

I would like to present a few of the popular options out there and hopefully spark your interest towards some 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, and if it supports CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow & Key). 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. My absolute favorite software and the topic of today's article:

Procreate: the most famous drawing and painting software for iPad.

Developer: Savage Interactive

Price: 12.99 GBP one time purchase.

Platforms: iPad only.

Free trial: No

Blend modes: Procreate has a variety of blend modes. A list of all of them can be found here.

CMYK support: You can start working directly in CMYK or RGB, but once you start there is no easy way to switch back and forth between the two within Procreate. There are work arounds that will allow you to change the color profile of your illustration, but they are more time consuming or they require you to flatten all the layers into one layer.

Learning resources: Procreate has a great beginner series on their official website and other creators have made tutorials for it too.

Speciality: Procreate is one of the best applications for drawing and painting on the iPad. It has a vast number of features, but it is not overly complicated to use. It has great default brushes as well as a variety of options made by other creators, allowing you to both draw and paint easily and with as much texture as you would like. It also has a robust perspective tool as well as the option to animate your work.

* Header image: Collaboration by Ell Rose & Tita Berredo

*

Alina Manolache's love for fairy tales, watercolour 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.

*

Tita Berredo is the Illustrator Coordinator of SCBWI British Isles and the Art Director of Words & Pictures. 

Follow her on Instagram and X/Twitter or www.titaberredo.com.

Contact her at: britishisles-ic@scbwi.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