Buying software can be expensive right? A budding artist planning to wet her feet in the realm of the digital arts should be aware of all the options available. Getting the right sketching software is very important.

A good sketching software will use RAM and hardware resources efficiently. It will sync your cursor to your stylus to provide adequate sensitivity. Most importantly, they won’t lag and you’ll be able to draw, paint, edit or sketch however and whenever you want. There is also the image quality and export factor. You want to make sure you get ample file export format options.

Here are the top two sketching software for artists and designers.

Paint Tool Sai:  Paint Tool Sai is relatively light on the hardware, consumes the least amount of RAM and is an ultra portable software package. It’s affordable and offers an exhaustive list of customizable features. You get brush tools, ink pens, water pens, blur tools, and so much more. There is a stabilizer option too which lets you decide how fluid the linework will be or how sensitive your stylus pen pressure will be. This can help reduce the lag and over usage of RAM which most digital artists experience.

Additionally, it is lightweight and has a low file size. It won’t consume a lot of disk space either and does not require continual updates or buying yearly subscriptions. Just buy once and you own it outright unlike Photoshop that needs yearly subscriptions in order to continue using its services. Paint Tool Sai is also friendly to those who aren’t tech-savvy.

Photoshop CC 2017:  Photoshop CC 2017 is the industry standard for all digital artists. Photoshop comes packed with all the tools you need in order to venture out into the digital arts careers. A seasoned expert or a student will find this software adding depth to their skills.

Photoshop is not just restricted to digital illustration and sketching. It can be used as an image editing software. Photoshop nowadays comes with a frame-by-frame animation timeline. If you want to try your hands on animating, you can do so by using this.

Photoshop can even be used for video editing, although it’s a bit slow compared to other video editing packages. The only downside is that it consumes a lot of the hardware resources. It also requires a bit of tech savviness and studying up in order to use its wide plethora of features. If you look at the big picture, it offers the complete package.
As an artist, your offerings can be hugely influenced by the software you choose to work with. Each software has its own strengths and weaknesses. Try out a few to know which one best suits your needs.