Digital painting has grown rapidly in recent years, thanks to the accessibility of tools for both beginner and experienced digital artists.

You want to get started making digital paintings too, but you don’t know where to start? In this article I will show you how to get started with digital art. The great thing is that making digital art doesn’t have to be expensive, it could be you already have most of the equipment you need!

First thing you’ll need when you want to get started making digital paintings, is hardware. such as graphic tablet or pen display.

Graphic Tablet

A drawing art tablet works a bit like a mouse and needs to be attached to your PC or laptop. You can draw on the surface of the graphic tablet using a special stylus (some variants need to be charged, others don’t). The surface of the graphic tablet reflect your screen. So when you put your stylus in the upper right corner of the surface, you will find your cursor in the upper right corner of your screen.

They are relatively cheap, actually you can get a decent graphic tablet for around $50 – $100. Wacom graphic tablets are seen as the industry standard, but when you get started with digital art, I would advise getting a low budget graphic tablet, they can do a great job.

I’d recommend getting a XP-Pen Brand graphics tablet . it's affordable.

Pros:

Cheap option (depending on the brand you choose).

Doesn’t need batteries or charging.

Not very susceptble to damage (since it doesn’t have a vulnerable screen).

It’s also very handy to use in stead of a mouse, to prevend RSI.

Cons:

You need a PC or laptop.

Takes some time to get used to, since you need to watch the screen and can’t look at your hand while drawing.

Drawing Display:

If you want to make digital art on your computer, but don’t want to use a graphic tablet, then a graphic display might be an option for you. They are more expensive than a graphic tablet, but let you draw and paint directly on a screen. Perhaps this will feel more intuitive to you.

Pros:

Drawing directly on a screen feels more natural than drawing on a graphic tablet.

It takes less time to get used to than drawing on a graphic tablet.

Cons:

You need a PC or laptop.

They are more expensive.

Low budget models might have some lag.

You might experience parallax/offset.

The stylus needs charging (for some models).

Digital Painting software

Another thing you’ll need when getting started with digital painting, is software or an app on your phone or tablet. Prices for digital painting software range from totally free to super expensive. When getting started with digital art, my advice would be to start off with some free (or low budget) software, just to see if you enjoy making digital art.

Also, the choice of digital art software depends on your hardware, because not all software is compatible with all devices. Procreate for instance, can only run on iPads and Photoshop runs on a PC or a Microsoft Surface Pro for instance.

There are quite some free digital painting programs out there. Perhaps you want to try out one of these programs before you invest in a more expensive program or subscription Such as Krita , Medibang Paint Pro , Autodesk Sketchbook .......

Next there are some digital painting programs and apps for which you need to pay. such as Photoshop , Corel Painter ,Clip Studio Paint, Paint Tool SAI, Artrage...... Some of these programs or apps are very low budget and some are super expensive! However, in my opinion you really don’t need to spend a lot of money.

Get started!

So if you’re really passionate about drawing and making art, perhaps it is worth it to save up money and invest in a drawing tablet. I think Krita is a great app for beginners and you can find a lot of tutorials online.

I hope you found this article useful and that it has helped you with your first steps to get started with digital art. Finally, I would like to wish you a lot of fun creating digital paintings! Above all I’m very curious to see your creations of course! So be sure to share them.