by Kessie Carroll

Created on: August 28, 2008

Say you have a tablet, and you want to get started drawing on the computer. What software do you use?

There are many different art programs, from OpenCanvas to The Gimp to Paint Shop Pro. The top of the line programs, however, are Adobe Photoshop and Corel Painter.

Adobe Photoshop is technically an image manipulation program, allowing you to retouch photos, change elements, and add filter effects. But after almost 20 years of being retooled, it is also a powerful paint program. Adobe Photoshop CS3, the newest version as of this article's release, is equipped with enough brushes and tools to make any illustrator drool. Its layer system is intuitive and easy to use, and if you are familiar with real media, using the different brushes to create art is simple and easy.

Using Photoshop, you can create fantastic text effects, layer effects, recolors, or anything else that you can imagine. But if you are a beginner, it is better to start with one of the cheaper art programs first, like OpenCanvas, or The Gimp. Photoshop CS3 is a pricey $649. Tryout versions of Photoshop are available at Adobe.com.

Adobe Photoshop Elements is a lightweight version of Photoshop. It includes many of the brushes, but it lacks the more advanced features. It is good for a beginner, and is about $80.

If you are just looking for something to draw with, you might try Adobe Illustrator. It is a vector imaging program, which means that instead of pixels, you are drawing with points and angles. Illustrator is great for creating graphics and text effects, but not so great for painting. A tryout version is available at Adobe.com.

Another excellent art program is Corel Painter 9. Unlike Photoshop, which focuses a lot of its power on image manipulation, Painter's strength is in its brushes and paint effects. Painter has more than 30 categories of brushes, and each category contains anywhere from five to twenty brushes. Just a little experimenting with the brushes shows that the impasto brushes really look like they are leaving big blobs of smeared paint on the canvas. The ink pens respond to pressure on the tablet by drawing thick or thin lines. The oil and acrylic paint brushes smear, blend, and dilute almost as well as actual paint. If you are familiar with physical media, you will enjoy working with Corel Painter. It is about $380, and a tryout version is available at Corel.com.

Paint Shop Pro is a lightweight image-editing program. Its brushes and filters are basic, but good for a beginning digital painter. Paint Shop Pro's price tag is also a bit easier on the wallet at $80. Paint Shop Pro's brushes are as good as the ones in older versions of Photoshop. If you are looking for a program to practice digital painting and drawing, Paint Shop Pro is a nice place to start.

There are many programs to aid the artist in crossing over from real media to digital media. If you are just starting out, try out Photoshop Elements or Paint Shop Pro. If you are painting commercially and need more depth, try Painter or Photoshop.

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