Draw Partner...
 

Does anyone have a good recommendation for drawing software for the budge conscience consumer? I looked at Adobe Illustrator but it's a bit pricey. It's not really my field so I could use some help here...

Thanks

How about paper and pencil?

Macromedia Freehand MX is also a good program but runs about $400 for a full install version.

You might consider checking www.download.com. They have a number of programs that might better fit your price range.

What are you specifically planning on using it for?

Edited to add: Corel Draw is a decent program and runs about $299

How about this? :)

Do you want to do vector drawing or something more naturalistic? Illustrator is no fun for regular artists (IMHO). Painter is okay once you get used to it. I still find drawing on paper and scanning into Photoshop for cleanup/editing/coloring is the way to go. Otherwise I wouldn't bother with using a computer for actual art. I've only met a handful of people who can use it as a tool well (and I work with artists, professionally). Also remember that if you create art digitally, there is no actual "original" piece...but that's so pomo some might dig it...

Hmmmm, my profession requires me to dispute that claim. The "original" is just in a different media. One that while easily replicated also provides certain challenges to preserve - but let's not derail this into debates about file formats, raster verus vector, and digital preservation.

One thing to keep in mind is what is being done with the artwork after it is created. If this is going to be printed (in a book/magazine/brochure/etc.) you want to stay away from raster based graphics (which I believe Paint works strictly in - though I may be wrong).

Also, if this is going to print (again - I am not talking about your ink-jet printer; I am talking about offset litho printing), try to work in a CMYK color space, not RGB. You want to make sure that what you are creating can be reproduced!

Well, that might be just the info he needs, though! :p As to originals, I'm speaking from the point of view of someone who sells original art. Prints have their own value as representations of art of course (which is why I digitally watermark art I put online), but the collectors I work with really want to see that thick paint or those pencil grooves one finds on an original. Even the best giclee can't provide that. And if the piece is created digitally only that first file is original; other than the time-stamp, and correct me if I'm wrong here, aren't all subsequent copies of that file identical to the original?

I realize that not everyone cares, but I work with art collectors who do care.

Finally, I'm not arguing that digitally-created art is a lesser form of art, and I'm not saying that replications don't contain everything important that any given digital piece might possess, and I will acknowledge that endless replicability appeals to my politics-and-art aesthetic.

Ultimately Kevy is right, and whether originals will be scanned and manipulated, or whether the art will be 100% digital, the paramount concern with regard to tools should be the desired outcome: file or print.

Anyway I got this at SIGGRAPH last year: sketch program. Pretty fun and free to try...$175 to buy.

Thanks for all the information. Based on Kevy's comments, I went looking for a reasonably priced vector based drawing program that does CMYK. After an exhaustive 10 min search I came up with Xara Extreme at $79.00

Thanks for all the pointers.

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