Skip to main content

Creating a Mobile Independent Artist Business - Part 3: Creative Software

Creative Software


In the previous post we looked at the less interesting but extremely important business software requirements of a Mobile, Independent, Artist Business. This post we'll look at the creative software that you'll need. This is not a definitive list. You may like a lot more tools at your disposal however I consider it to be the bare minimum.

Note that a lot of creative software is sold bundled with other useful graphics software. It's worth taking a look at these deals to see if you can get the type of software you need, cheaper, as a package deal.



Photo Editing Software

Sometimes referred to as 'raster' or 'bitmap' editing software, a good photo editor is a must, even if you only ever plan to create artwork by traditional methods (i.e. not digitally on a computer).

In order to sell your work you will be photographing it and putting those pictures online. Whilst you want to get the best photo possible with your camera, photo editing software will allow you to do things like color correct, adjust brightness and contrast and it'll let you resize your images to make them more suitable for placement on websites (a raw camera image, digital file is generally too big to upload as a web page image).

Chances are you'll be using your phone camera to take pictures of your art, as most phone cameras, these days, take 3-5 megapixel plus images (which is actually over kill for screen display and only necessary if you intend to print physical copies of your images). Most phones include apps that can do a lot of the basic image adjustments you'll need to make your art look fantastic however if you want even more control you may want to purchase something a little more substantial.

Adobe Photoshop is the go to, industry standard, in this field. These days it's more than just a photo editor as many artists use it to create their digital art illustrations too (it has great support for graphic tablets).

There are many other options though so if Photoshop looks a bit pricey shop around. Some alternatives include:




Vector Illustration Software

If you want your artwork to look good at any scale then becoming proficient with vector illustration software is a great idea. Digital photographic images pixelate once you start enlarging them beyond their original size. Vector art stays sharp even if you scale it up to billboard or greater size.

Vector art is not for photos but any other kind of 2D artwork that can be created with lines and shapes is a great fit. For example comic book art, logos, stylized illustration etc. Vector art keeps its image quality because it uses points and mathematical equations to map out your illustration instead of a grid of pixels (as per raster/bitmap images). Lines and shapes always look good because the software simply recalculates their appearance for whatever the current display size is.

Vector illustration software can especially be good for traditional artists who create black and white line art illustrations with pen and ink. Once you've photographed your drawing, bring it into a vector program and either use the automatic trace function (or trace it in the software yourself) and suddenly your art is now able to be scaled for any application with no loss in quality of the line work. You can also use the software to color your art too.

Adobe Illustrator is the heavy hitter in this field but others you might consider include:




Creative Software for your Phone or Tablet

Phone and Tablet apps are becoming more and more capable. I've already mentioned that there are many phone apps for enhancing your photos but increasingly the apps for illustration are giving desktop and notebook software a real run for their money.

I don't have a definitive list but three apps on Android that I've been very impressed with are:




You could probably find equivalent software on iOS and Windows phones. At the time of writing there was quite a wide variety of Android apps for raster/bitmap illustration with really good vector illustration software being a little bit of a rarity.

---o ---o--- o---

Clip Studio Paint (Manga Studio)
One software I haven't listed above but use quite a bit is Clip Studio Paint (formerly known as Manga Studio). Clip Studio Paint, although promoted as a comic and animation software, is actually a real rival to Adobe Photoshop in many ways. It can handle both Raster/Bitmap and Vector illustration, has dedicated tools specifically for publishing comics and graphic novels as well as everything you need for general illustration. It recently added hand drawn animation to the mix as well.

I wouldn't particularly recommend it as a photo editor but as an all purpose illustration tool it could be the only software you need.

As I said, my suggestions are not definitive. However they're a good starting place if this is your first foray into the world of digital photo editing and illustration.

Next post we'll take a look at software you'll need to familiarize yourself with to get your work out into the world for your buyers.

Comments

Buy Gifts and Apparel featuring art by TET.

Popular posts from this blog

Movie Review: Captain America: Brave New World (2025) *No Spoilers*

I  decided not see Captain America: Brave New World in a cinema because everything I heard about the film pointed to a disjointed mess, from testing poorly, to whole characters being added in during reshoots. The trailers looked okay but, since they featured Red Hulk, quite a bit, it felt like there wasn't much left as a drawcard for seeing the film in a cinema. Having now seen the film on Disney+ I feel it was a good decision. While the big budget effects no doubt would've looked better on a big screen, the story wasn't particularly complex or intriguing enough to make the film stand out. If anything, it's a straight forward action movie with a hero who is just kind of... there. The story revolves around a plot to kill the newly elected US President, former General Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford). Captain America (Anthony Mackie) must find who is the real mastermind in order to clear his friend and the original Super Solider, Isaiah Bradley's (Carl Lumbly), name. I...

I'm Confused About Why People Prefer to Say Discombobulated?

D iscombobulated. Is a word that I think someone rediscovered about three or four years ago (maybe more because the pandemic years have thrown out my sense of time) and now I hear it a lot. It's not a new word by any means, but when I started hearing multiple celebrities using it in everyday sentences, I actively had to look up what it meant. Define it with as many synonyms as you like but essentially it's just another word meaning 'confused'. Seinfeld Quotes: Quotes.net The words are pretty much interchangeable. He was discombobulated by too many choices. He was confused by too many choices.  My confusion is the length of the word. It's unnecessarily long with too many syllables. There are many other words that mean confused, and therefore also mean discombobulated. Most of them are shorter and easier to say. So why not just say 'confused'? Perhaps discombobulated sounds more intelligent, maybe?  Hawaii Five-0 Quotes: Quotes.net I've noticed it gets us...

Resident Dragon: Checking In with My Daily Gag Cartoon/Comic About a Fire Dragon Living in the Suburbs

A t the beginning of the year I introduced you to my latest cartoon/comic series, Resident Dragon (because a dragon's got to live somewhere).  A daily - well, week-day-ly - gag cartoon about Red the Fire Dragon, living in a shared house in the suburbs, with his human friend, TET and his two pets, Grrr Dog and Cool Froyd the cat. Back then I had about 100 cartoons sketched out, with eleven completely digitally inked and coloured.  As of writing this, I haven't yet skipped a day of my schedule, and am seven toons short of an even 200 sketched out, with 31 fully inked and coloured. Actually, it's 33 but I only publish one full colour toon each week, so I have two in the wings. I'm not planning on doing daily toons forever. My goal is to hit 366 so I have enough to fill a daily desk calendar, should I decide to sell one. Currently you can buy individual prints of my finished toons in my Resident Dragon Store . When I have enough finished toons I will be compiling them into...

Australian Federal Election 2025 - World's Most Boring Government Re-elected by Landside - We're Even More Fine!

Anthony Albanese Victory by ChatGPT and TET. W hen I started writing about the 2025 Federal election the polls were suggesting the world's most boring government was crusing to a defeat . As it turns out, boring is good, and Australia wants more of it, handing the current government a landslide win with a majority vote. Anthony Albanese became the first PM since John Howard to win a consecutive term, and the first Labor PM since Bob Hawke to do so. Some of that comes down to the leadership revolving door both major parties had through the mid 2000s. Although Anthony is my preferred PM over Dutton the irony is Dutton sounds more like a leader with a fairly commanding voice and an ability to speak well, without sounding like he's waffling and dodging questions, even if he is. Anthony, on the other hand, does have the ability (and speech writer) to say a lot of inspiring things but it gets lost in the delivery. He doesn't seem to know when to emphasise a point for effect. In h...

TV Series Review: Star Wars: Andor - Season 2 (2025, Disney+) *No Spoilers*

D isney+'s Star Wars: Andor  the first season is widely regarded as some of the best Star Wars since the original trilogy, and I don't disagree in my  Andor Season 1  review. Despite that, it does have its problems, mainly a lot of space between action pieces. That's not to say nothing is happening in those spaces, but I do remember being frustrated how long season one took to get to a promised heist scene, going from conversation to conversation over several episodes. However, when Andor does have action, it usually delivers, with action that serves the story rather than action because 'it's time for some action now'. Unfortunately that gave Andor the reputation for being Star Wars 'for grown ups'. People who understand how tension and intrigue can come just as much from character interaction, who is talking to who, and what they're saying. That lead to low viewership and the show's proposed number of seasons being reduced to just two (I believe...

TV Series Review: Humans (2015-2018, 3 Seasons) *No Spoilers*

Colin Morgan, Katherine Parkinson, Ivanno Jeremiah, Gemma Chan, and Emily Berrington in Humans (2015) W hile it may seem late to be reviewing Humans now, nearly seven years after the show wrapped, the only thing that's really aged about it is the opening titles... and even then, not that much. I think I caught the first season on Netflix back in 2015, and then kind of dropped off waiting for a new season to appear. As of writing this, all three seasons are on Amazon Prime. Humans is set in a parallel world that looks much like ours except humanoid robot helpers, that look just like real humans, called 'Synths', are now common place. Season one begins at the point where the first synths go from being subservient machines to gaining consciousness, and explores not only how humanity reacts to that but how the synths react to humanity's perceptions as well. Initially it follows a group of OG synths, already given consciousness by their creator, and just trying to survive i...

Second Sunday Skateboard Session Episode 6, 7, and 8 - Shuv-its On Lock (Pretty Much)

TET - Heel Flip attempt Episode 8. A s I near the end of filming my ten part series, Second Sundy Skateboard Sessions, I'm feeling pretty good about my skating generally. Filming the series has given me a focus, schedule, and a goal, so that when I do skate I'm not randomly riding around doing not much... and getting bored, or just half arsing attempting to learn my tricks. If you're a solo skater like me - especially if you're learning or relearning - I'd recommend this approach. Even filming your progress. Though you don't have to publicly bore the internet like me if you've got the same 'resting lack of enthusiasm' demeanor I have. Just having the video footage to compare, and to watch in slow mo to see what you're doing wrong or right is useful.  If you're not familiar with me or my ten part series of Second Sunday Skateboard sessions , I'm attempting to master all seven basic skateboarding tricks in Braille Skateboarding's Skateb...