#all i'm creating for now is sketches since i'm still adjusting to the drawing tablet

[sealovinq]

drew some of my girls today :]

[mikkjournal]

I guess to start, I'm going to list out the programs I like to use. I'm going to put half this post under the cut to spare your dashboards.

For 2D art, I use Clip Studio Paint EX. I probably didn't need to upgrade to EX (since I don't use any of the animation tools nor do I utilize the 3D functions), but I'm not exactly upset about that; I bought CSP back when it was still Manga Studio and upgrading when it was on sale wasn't too costly.

I used to use Paint Tool Sai, and I switched because Sai just wasn't beefy enough for me (I used obscenely large canvases back then; now I restrict myself to canvases 4096 pixels wide). I also found myself hopping into Photoshop to play with adjustment layers, which CSP has. I swear by it, at least for computer artists; I'm not sure how the mobile/tablet versions compare.

I mainly use brushes from Frenden's gigantic brush pack; particularly the Graph-FIGHT pencils for sketching and lining, and the equine recline brush for rendering (though I will use the oil and comfort food sets from the pack on occasion). I've also got a plethora of free brushes from the Clip Studio assets store, though I hardly use them; my art style isn't super demanding when it comes to what brushes I need.

When it comes to 3D art, I use:

Daz Studio (forgive the horrid fucking NFT banner at the top; unfortunately they're shills, but the program itself is very useful). It's free, but the catch is a lot of the addons you'll want are paid products. If you know what you want/are internet savvy/can make your own assets, then you can get away without spending much money. It's got a learning curve, but when it comes to 3D art, it's very beginner friendly and most products for it are designed to work out of the box. It's been my gateway into 3D art.

I use Daz to make models of the characters I draw, and to create reference images so I don't have to fiddle with sketching out anatomy or composition over and over again from scratch. I'll be sharing some of the renders I take on this blog as part of my process documentation. When I started out, I wanted to spend as little time in Daz as possible, but now I spend just as much time in Daz as I do in Clip Studio; it's quite fun to work with, especially once you learn how to use all the features.

ZBrush is the program I use to make/edit my own morphs for Daz, using the GoZ plugin to make my life easier. It's got one hell of a learning curve, and as a beginner to 3D I found the interface really unintuitive, but like Daz, it's a lot of fun to work with once you have an idea what you're doing. I plan on using Zbrush as part of my workflow once I start making more 3D art and my own Daz assets in earnest.

(Also no I did not pay full price for this, I'm too poor for that LMAO)

Blender is another program I like, though I don't use it nearly as much as Zbrush—and unlike Zbrush, it's completely free and open source. It can be used to make morphs for Daz, but I found using Zbrush with the GoZ plugin to be a lot more intuitive. I use Blender when I want to create something from scratch, like the first iteration of Soap's sword from Call of Honor (which I really, really need to update).