Photoshop or Illustrator for drawing??

[Cloudy0w0]

I do a lot of digital painting/drawing, I read somewhere on here that illustrator is good for lineart and photoshop is good for colouring, I just want ONE program, colouring is obviously the most important part of the two for me so which should I get? A fellow artist's opinion would be highly valued.

[Trevor.Dennis]

Definitely Photoshop.  It's a no brainer.  You can achieve most of what Illustrator can do with Photoshop, but it might take a bit longer, but Illustrator can't paint with a raster brush.  Even if digital art was not your primary use, if you could only have one, then Photoshop is usually the best choice.  There is also the significant issue of price.  Photoshop and Lightroom can be had for just $10/month, whereas Illustrator has no special offers, and would cost twice that.

There some excellent digital art communities like this one on Deviant art

http://forum.deviantart.com/art/digital/

And flickr has some good groups, but it is a while since I have been active on flickr, so I may be a bit out of touch

https://www.flickr.com/groups/itsanaddiction/pool/

https://www.flickr.com/groups/mmmasterpieces/

https://www.flickr.com/groups/fantasy/pool/

What sort of thing are you into?

[Cloudy0w0]

Mmm, I thought photoshop would be the way to go as I've never heard anyone talk about illustrator before, I've never even heard of it until I got to this site. : P So I just had to ask first you know, in case it was better or something.

Anyways I'll check that DA one out, I don't have a flickr account though lol.

Thanks a bunch.

[Trevor.Dennis · Accepted solution]

They are all free nowadays, and you can still browse without registering.  Do you feel like saying what sort of stuff you like to create?

[Cloudy0w0]

I am a freelance illustrator but mostly just a hobbyist so I do a lot of comics in my free time and just pictures of whatever my mind can think up. Manga Studio isn't really any good for doing backgrounds and realistic-looking pictures so I have turned to photoshop. >.>

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Thank you, Terry, what is the main difference between the two? I mean for drawing? Because colouring is really my main concern. :3

[Aly22653787o1d8]

Where might they be free??

[terry_blackwell]

If you want drawing good, i advise you use illustrator

[Trevor.Dennis]

Terry, I still think Photoshop, although method and workflow are important.  Plus tools like Lazy Nezumi Pro make creating super clean Photoshop art a lot easier.  A lot of people start with pencil paper, clean up with tracing paper, and scan into Photoshop to trace the line work with help from LNP.  I know Bert Monroy routinely draws with the Pen tool, but he does so in Photoshop because he needs the flexibility of raster based tools for colouring and shading.  And don't forget, Cloudy has said he only wants the one app.  That fact makes it a no brainer IMO.  Cloudy can always move to a full CC subscription down the road when finances, job requirements etc. allow.

[Theresa J · Accepted solution]

Cloudy,

Illustrator is a vector based application and Photoshop is an image editor. That means Photoshop works with pixels and Illustrator does not. Illustrator drawings can be scaled and printed at any size without loss of image quality. The lines are very clean and sharp, which is great for logo design and illustration. Photoshop drawings can be more similar to drawing with traditional media like pencils, or chalk, or paint, if that's what you want.

If you draw in Photoshop it is important to plan ahead for final output size. If you want to eventually print your drawing at 16" x 20", then you need to start with a document that big, at a resolution of at least 150 ppi (depending on how it will be printed). When you draw in Illustrator you don't have to worry about any of that in the beginning.

What kind of drawing are you trying to create? What's the final intent for the drawing? Do you want a super sharp clean edge drawing, or something more organic? You have to answer those questions before you can get the correct answer.

IF you decide that Photoshop is perfect for your drawing needs, then you MUST get a pressure sensitive table. Wacom makes the best ones.

http://www.wacom.com/en-us/products/pen-tablets?gclid=CjwKEAjwwZmsBRDOh7C6rKO8zkcSJABCusnbVTFt8032zF...

I combine drawing and photography for my composite art. I start the old fashion way with pencil on paper, then color it in Photoshop. The final look is much different then something created in Illustrator. Here's my most recent drawing composite. The link includes some of the process steps. Behance

Von Glitschka is the best Illustrator artist I know. His work has a completely different look and style. He primarily works in Illustrator and has written several books and recorded several Lynda.com courses about his workflow. Behance

Patrick Lamontagne is a cartoon artist who does all of his work in Photoshop, including the line drawing part. He also does photo realistic paintings completely with Photoshop. Cartoons - Cartoon Ink

I hope you find this helpful. Let us know.

[Cloudy0w0]

Hey Theresa, I have a cintiq. I prolly should have mentioned I am a digital artist. : P

Thank you so much, that was very helpful, awesome arts by the way. ^u^

[Theresa J]

If you are still curious about Illustrator you should definitely check out some of Von's tutorials, but it sounds like Photoshop is probably your best single app solution.

[Cloudy0w0]

Yes, it does sound like photoshop is the better choice. Thank you everyone for all your help, I guess photoshop it is! : D

[Trevor.Dennis]

Cloudy0w0 wrote:

Hey Theresa, I have a cintiq. I prolly should have mentioned I am a digital artist. : P

Thank you so much, that was very helpful, awesome arts by the way. ^u^

Ahhh...  Do you use Lazy Nezumi Pro?  No tablet user should be without it IMHO.  Sometimes I spends ages making the beautiful swirling smooth lines it allows, just for the pleasure of seeing them on the screen! 

Lazy Nezumi Pro - Mouse and Pen Smoothing for PhotoShop and other Apps

[Theresa J]

Now that almost makes me wish I worked on a PC.

[duox69387769]

If you're coming from traditional drawing / painting, you're going to want to go with Photoshop.

Illustrator is better suited for when you need vector graphics - images that can be scaled to any size and look crisp (logos, graphic art, website assets usually require this kind of treatment).

I have a XP-Pen Artist 15.6 Pro Pen Tablet Monitor for drawing and sketching in Photoshop and Illustrator and I love it, but I never use it for apps like AE or InDesign. It's not worth the inconsistent interaction.

Most of the time, tablets and digitizers age very well. There's not a lot of wear.

[lrdalucard]

Honestly Photoshop is terrible for Line Art, specially if u have a low quality Tablet display that jaggers ur lines, photshop will pick up all those jaggys and you will get a wavy line instead straight ones... just use something else like ClipStudio or a free program like PaintTolls Sai or Medibang cause these have a Line/trace correction" on the tool you use to make the lines. They will always come out straight without any jaggers.

After that, you can use w/e u like for paiting, I use Phtoshop. 

[Mohit Goyal]

Hi all,

Take a look at the following article to move designs between Photoshop and Illustrator for different workflow that suits your design objectives: https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/move-designs-between-photoshop-illustrator.html

Also, if you are looking to work with Illustrator design in Photoshop? See this: https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/use-illustrator-artwork-in-photoshop.html

Hope it helps.

Thanks,

Mohit