So I'm looking for a new art program to use. The one I'm currently using (ArtRage Demo) is doable for the moment, but I recently made a quick sketch painting and it put a copyright in the top and bottom corners that I can't remove without erasing half the picture.

I can't afford to buy an art program. But I was wondering if anyone could suggest a good, free downloadable program I could try out?

Also - lately I've had a lot of art-block and was wondering if anyone had any advice or ways to help get rid of it?

Any suggestions would be highly appreciated! ^^ Thank you!

Adobe Photoshop CS2 was released as freeware. As I'm sure you know, Photoshop is an industry favorite - although unless you need all the bells, whistles and extra control all the little drop down menus give you, it's actually not the best drawing program around (especially as amateur/beginner artists.) While they did release this version for free, there is reasonable debate about whether you can "legally" use the program to create commercial works without a license.

If you're in school, Autodesk allows students to download their programs for free (.edu email); Autodesk Sketchbook is their drawing program. It is especially good for drafting type drawings, you can make very clean linework using this, and it has tools that directly relate to real-life counterparts like marker and paint tools which blend and react like the real media. This is a digital tool based on what Scott Robertson wanted out of digital drawing.

I have never used this program, but I hear promising things about it. Krita is a 100% free digital painting application. From what I understand, it has many tools and control like Photoshop. If you want to deal with heavier programs and higher control/customizability, I would totally check this one out. You can probably do anything you would do in Photoshop in Krita, but without the ridiculous price tag. If you are very interested in pursuing art as a lifelong thing, this is probably a good one to get a handle on.

These are the good ones, so check them out! There are a lot of free drawing programs out there, but many of them are clunky and hard to make work fluidly. These are programs that you should be able to draw in from the get-go, even though there are some tools you'll need to learn about and get used to.

As for art block, the best thing to break it is to get out of your comfort zone. Try drawing something you never tried drawing before, or think about how to draw something in a new way. Drawing is more of a mind game than it is about muscle memory and your hand. If you always draw faces but you're having trouble doing them now or coming up with something interesting, try drawing a face at a new angle. Or draw something like a cute bird instead. Always challenge yourself to draw things that you haven't before, or in new ways, and you will never have art block again. :o Good luck!

EDIT I've downloaded and began using Krita, as I thought it is much like photoshop and a very diverse programs. I have some suggestions that will help you speed your workflow, so hit me up if you decide to use it!

THANK YOU SO MUCH. ;-; OMG. I really wasn't expecting that much help from anyone. ^^; But. Wow. I'm going ahead and getting Krita - it's exactly what I was looking for, and it looks like it has good quality so far. :)

I'd love to hear your suggestions!

Neato!! ALRIGHT, so, I'm assuming because you were using a trial of ArtRage you aren't too versed in digital painting workflows yet. Manually selecting different tools is probably the biggest waste of time, and you can paint/draw much faster by using keyboard shortcuts.

Krita has some default shortcuts set up, but... they're garbage. They're clunkier than Photoshop, which doesn't have great initial shortcuts either. Typical shortcuts are like, "B" for the Brush tool, "E" for the eraser tool, etc. These are nice because they have letter correspondence to the tool, BUT this set-up is not ideal because it occupies a wide and fairly random section of the keyboard. The best/fastest thing to do (especially when you're just learning a new program, it's harder to switch over when you're used to old methods) is to set up the tools you use the most in one section of your keyboard, like a game pad. Assuming you're right-handed, you'll set up the keyboard shortcuts so that they occupy the left-hand portion of your keyboard so that you can draw with your right and control your tools with your left.

Here's the set-up I'm using in Krita:

A - Decrease Brush Size S - Increase Brush Size Z - Freehand Brush Tool X - Select a Color from the Image or Current Layer Caps Lock - Eraser Mode Toggle

Those are the main tools I really concern myself while drawing/painting, so these are the only ones I have set up. If you have other tools you find yourself using frequently, you should set them up in a similar matter. Don't worry about overwriting pre-existing shortcuts, because if you're not using them they don't matter. :O

To customize your shortcuts, open Krita and go to the "Settings" menu, and select "Configure Shortcuts...." You can find these tools by searching the names of the tool, which are a little clunky but they should be like I wrote out above. Don't hit enter while searching, because it will close the dialogue box. :O The search real-time updates. ANYWAY, you can just select the tool, check "custom" and then hit the keystroke you want to control the tool. Try it out!

Shoot me a message if you ever need help with art stuff! UvU