My Artist & Illustrator Resources for 2016 (pt. 2 - Tools & Software)

Hello to you! This is the second part of my Artist Resources list for 2016. Check out the first list HERE. It focuses on YouTube channels that I watch for inspiration and information. As for Part 2, these are all things I discovered and found extremely useful to my workflow.  Maybe you have other things you have found or maybe there is something I have forgotten, let me know in the comments!

• Tablet Pro - If you have a Microsoft Surface or any Windows 10 touchscreen device (I have a Sony Vaio Flip laptop which has a digitizer for a pen stylus, the Microsoft Surface Pro Pen 3 and 4 both work with it) you NEED this software. Sometimes I set-up on my desk with my wireless keyboard and really get to work. MOST of the time, however, I am lazy. I always choose the path of least resistance i.e. whatever takes the least amount of effort. Normally, I would do nothing, but the convenience of digital art is that I don’t have to clean-up, or set-up and I can just lay on the couch and draw or paint whenever I feel like it! Or DON'T feel like it! IT’S AMAZING!
  
  This being said, with Table Pro I can easily keep all of my Photoshop shortcuts on-screen where I need them, and work quickly and efficiently.
  
  Starbucks, here I come!  I love being able to work professionally anywhere I want to! It is fully customizable and if you do 3D work in Maya or wherever, they just updated it to help solve specific needs of 3D artists. The developers are really nice and responded to me personally on a number of occasions. 
  
  (Click HERE to see a short video of it in action)
• ArtRage 4.5 - This came pre-installed on my laptop, although I had to upgrade a few times to the newest version. It was a nice preview of the possibilities of digital art for me. It is very intuitive, I had my niece and nephew drawing on it without my help in just a few minutes. It is good at replicating traditional art and I especially like to be able to have a finished illustration (in a sketchy style) in just a couple hours. (Ehhh… maybe more!) It also exports to Photoshop with layers so I can do a more “finished” illustration if I want to.
  
  It is perfect for whenever I get the itch to draw something right away.
• Photoshop CC/Lightroom CC -
  
  It’s only $10 a month!
  
  Come on, man, how could you NOT at that price? I never really used Photoshop to “make” art. I fixed things up here and there but using the CS4 version of Photoshop never really suited me. Do I know of any specific tools or reasons why the CC version is better? No. I guess when you pay for something it kinda makes you want to use it. That brings me to my next artist resource.
• Kyle Brushes - I bought the Megapack of Kyle Brushes for something like $15. It has literally changed how I make art. I really never understood how you could use Photoshop from beginning to end on an illustration until I got these brushes. It’s a bit overwhelming considering the Megapack comes with well over 100 brushes to choose from but it’s much easier than trying to make your own and spend hours fiddling with tiny adjustments here and there just to get 1 brush that barely does what I want it to. I have barely even touched the surface of what's capable with them!
• Coolorus 2 Color Wheel - As I said before, I never found Photoshop to be very intuitive as a painting program and one of those reasons why is because of their Color Picker. The swatches are tiny and I hate the way the slider is. Coolorus is more like Corel Painter’s color picker. It is circular, (well, it's actually a triangle, but you know what I mean) and contains features like Gamut Lock which lets you limit your color palette easily by only having a certain part of the picker available to choose colors from.
  
  This has always been a problem for me in all digital painting programs.
  
  Painting traditionally you can easily limit your palette by mixing your colors yourself from just red, blue, and yellow.  (This takes time and is self-limiting as I would never want to mix a thousand different colors!) Also, once colors are mixed, you can just stick with those colors throughout the painting and even if you do mix new colors, some of the original color is usually mixed in, too. The Gamut Lock is a great tool to replicate this. It is also simpler to save colors, and has sliders to change the hue and value of the color you’ve already chosen.  This is a huge time-saver. Oh, and it has a Color History so if you like a color you used 10 minutes ago and forgot to save it, NOW it’s right there in front of you!
  (I do that ALL the time)
  

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Well, that is about it for this list. Well. Almost.

Let me just quickly mention that I use the Microsoft Surface Pro Pen 3 and 4 Stylus for my digital drawings. The new nibs on the 4 are nice and I use the middle one most of the time (I think it is "H") and if I am painting loosely I may use the softest nib (B), which replicates that feeling a little bit better. The fact that it is also magnetic is nice because I can stick it on any of the various metal surfaces around my desk and find it quickly. I can't tell you how many times I went searching for the Pro 3 Stylus throughout the house... finding it under a pillow in my bed, down the crack in the couch, etc., etc.

Next time I will have my list of favorite artist podcasts.