Since my last post, I’ve lost Photoshop. Turns out it was just a trial. And I don’t have another $650 to shell out for a program of which I’ll probably only ever use about 20%. So I’ve been on yet another quest to find a program that suits my needs. I used to use GIMP, but for some reason on my Mac, it’s not registering the pressure sensitivities from my Wacom tablet, which is kind of a big deal. I love the idea of Manga Studio, but until my funds replenish a little from the Mac purchase, even that $50 price tag is a little high.

Enter Krita. It’s a totally free program that has been developed to be more of use to illustrators and painters than photo editors. Love the concept and the feel of it, and that it actually allows me to use all of the features on my Wacom really well.

Self Portrait No. 1

Here’s my first work with Krita. I obviously have a long way to go, but I just wanted to do something quick. I’m excited to keep playing around.

If you’re a Mac user and you’re interested in using Krita, be forewarned. It still has a good number of bugs and the company doesn’t even really promote the Mac version yet because it’s still in beta testing. But I’m having fun trying it and finding bugs so I can report them (even though my technical skill is highly lacking). For instance, I haven’t written this post until now because I was having trouble saving images. It kept telling me my images couldn’t be saved, but with a bit of work, I figured out the problem and reported it. If you’re interested in the issue, leave a comment and I’ll explain.

Hopefully with this development, I’ll be posting little doodles a lot more often!

Beta testing for fun,

Natalie Grace