Today I am talking about a piece of software that has been a huge hit in my house for a few years now, Krita. This is a free art/painting program that is packed with features and very easy to use. My son currently uses this with his PC and drawing tablet and never once have I heard him complain or even ask if he can get a “better” art program.
How to Download Krita
To download the latest versions of Krita, click on the Download button at the end of the review.
The Program Review
Talking about Krita is actually pretty hard to do as it is so feature-packed that we do not actually use all of the features it offers. That is one of the things that is awesome about this software, each person can use it in a way that suits their needs. In the case of my son, he likes to draw cartoon characters and make his own comic books.
You can start off with just the basics. We started with the basic brushes of which there are many and just selected colors at the side as we needed them. My son would mess around getting comfortable with things and having fun drawing on the computer. Using a mouse is very easy, but with the drawing tablet, it is amazing how in-depth you can get with your drawings.
The amount on offer here is just crazy. My son loves using some of the “special” brushes which can do things like make it look like a painting or that it is a cell-shaded video game. There are many neat little things that you can play around with and that is a huge part of the fun of using Krita.
Being able to customize the interface is really neat. At first, you will probably just keep things the way they are. However, I know that my son now has his favorite brushes and the things he always uses on the screen at all times. Doing this is very easy and actually, the whole program even though it is quite complex is designed with being as easy to use as possible.
One thing that my son has spent hours and hours with is the comic book panels. This makes it so easy to make a comic book. Not only can you have the comic book panels the way you want them, adding text and special effects is very easy and does not ruin the actual drawings you have done in any way at all.
There is a great community behind this and while this is not something, we have dabbled in there is a resource manager that you can use. The idea here is that other people can upload texture packs and brushes that you can then import and use. This sounds great and I am sure if you are a serious artist it would be very handy to have extra brushes, textures, and so on to use.
I can say from firsthand experience that you cannot get a better free-to-use paint program than Krita. My son has been using this for a while now and he has no plans to move onto something else. The way it is so easy to use, but offers so many options for an artist is just fantastic.
