Becoming an Artist for Free

January 6, 2023 - Published

I've always personally been of the belief that anyone can be an artist, if they really want to. While I can't help everyone through their art journeys, I can at least try my best to make the transitions as smooth as possible. One thing people seem to overthink is how to get started with art, and a lot of artists will reply: "Just draw!" While I still stand by that advice (and will talk about that in more detail in another article), this article will answer the question: "What do I draw with?"

This is by far the easiest and best recommendation from me, even if it's a little obvious. There's basically 0 chance that you don't have access to some form of pencil and some form of paper. While ideally you'll have some sort of sketchbook or blank paper, even binder paper can work fine if you're just practicing. You also don't need any sort of fancy pencil, as long as it can make marks fine and ideally erases fine, too. 

I say it's the best recommendation partly because everyone already KNOWS how to use pencils (lower barrier of entry), but also importantly, it's a limited tool. When you're a beginner, you shouldn't have to worry about every single aspect of art, and pencils' lack of color means that you're able to focus more on fundamentals. Without colors, you can express yourself through your shapes, contours, and shading. This is how I learned to draw.

Most artists will probably tell you that you're a masochist for trying to draw with a phone. Luckily for you, I'm a masochist.

There's a high chance that you have a smartphone, and while it's definitely not the ideal place for drawing, that makes it the most likely "cheapest" option for you getting into digital art. You probably don't have a pressure-sensitive stylus, so you'll be using either your fingers or a no-pressure stylus. There's several free art apps, and you'll have to take your pick, but I do have a few suggestions.

If you're not reading this on a phone, you're probably reading this on a computer! If you have access to one, you have a looot of options in terms of drawing programs. 

In terms of actual drawing tools, you have about 2 of them. First is a mouse, including any alternative to a mouse (trackpad, pointing stick, trackball, etc.) -- they're all functionally the same, but I expect the alternatives to be much more painful for drawing, when mouse is already considered painful. However, I did do mouse art for a while just to prove it was possible to learn with, and I'd like to believe I ended up with pretty decent results. 

Second is a tablet! Using a tablet connected to a computer (or using a computer that IS a tablet) is the main way most digital artists draw. There are many tablets that are cheap and totally usable for entry-level -- but that's not free, so that's not what you're here for, is it? 

What if you don't want to draw normally? Drawing with a mouse in a normal art program, even if you use all the tricks, can be a little painful! Well, there's other options:

• Inkscape is how I personally learned digital art, but it's a bit of a learning curve since it uses Vectors and has UI that's a bit funky. However, it's surprisingly powerful once you figure it out. Maybe my guide to Inkscape can help you!

• Piskel is a free web-based program for creating pixel art! I've also used Paint.NET for pixel art despite not being a pixel art program, and I used GraphicsGale a while ago but don't remember how it went... I can't recommend any other free pixel art programs since I haven't used them

  • Vectr could be considered the vector equivalent to Piskel and is worth a mention

• Blender is a free open-source 3D modelling program that's VERY powerful and has many functions

• MagicaVoxel is not commonly brought up, but it's a voxel art program and I used it once and loved it very much

**Despite giving you links, please take care when navigating these sites/downloads! Some of these are rather older programs and may ask you to download unrelated things during the process, or have ad links that aren't actually related to the program. I'm not responsible for anything that happens.

If you ever decide to get an upgrade:

• Clip Studio Paint is the best drawing program I've used for a one-time purchase

• Aseprite is my favorite pixel art program for a one-time purchase

Most big-name tablets are generally worth their price, but I can only personally vouch for Wacom/Huion.

Free tools related to art:

• PureRef is an almost ESSENTIAL program for managing references, and is completely free

• Line-of-Action is a free website that allows you to have timed reference drawings (make sure to turn nudity OFF if you want to keep it SFW)

Hope this helps any aspiring artists! If you think this will help anyone, please send this to them. I also know there's a LOT more to this topic, but these are the only options I can personally vouch for. Feel free to do your own research! 

• Vecderg