Looking for good graphics program
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As someone who went down that route...Graphic Design - Illustration (yes, that avatar's a self-portrait), I'd advise that you're careful to avoid anything that might detract or distract from his current enthusiasm for natural media. The general attitude of most design courses would be "Just give me someone with imagination and creativity who can draw...we'll do the rest." I'd imagine the same could probably be said about architecture, plus a decent grasp of mathematics and physics.
There are a multitude of programs (cheap or free) that are very fun to use and can turn out (superficially) very impressive results. You just have to be careful not to encourage style over substance.
It depends very much on the age of your nephew. Younger kids can get a lot of fun from playing about with such programs; and it makes a nice break from traditional media. As they get older and still have a desire to follow the graphic design route it probably makes more sense to start using programs which are roughly comparable to the industry standards of Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator...although personally I always preferred CorelDraw to Illustrator.The closest free alternative to these would be (for raster images) The Gimp; and for vector images, Inkscape. Some experience with these would at least provide a grounding in the basic concepts of the software likely to be used at college level.
As to the proggies which actually cost serious money, CorelDraw actually comes as a suite, which also includes Photopaint, which is also akin to Photoshop. As such it works out much cheaper than buying the two separate Adobe products.
Quite a few people at the illustration end of graphics (as opposed to maybe typography at the other end) have also moved over to digital media. Corel Painter is a popular choice. http://www.painterartist.com/en/pages/masters/Krita is an excellent free alternative
https://krita.org/en/features/highlights/ -
As you said, he likes drawing.
Get him a Wacom tablet to start off with, the UI will give him an intro to simple computer graphics, and he will still enjoy the hand-eye coordination.
I'm pretty sure all the best illustrators use them and the smaller tablets are quite inexpensive. -
Autodesk Sketchbook is a drawing & painting app that works on all devices, PC's Mobiles, Tablets etc. This might appeal to the young. AutoDesk is following the lead of Adobe by creating a subscription model for SketchBook. The app is free to download, but you'll need a paid membership to unlock more features.
There are multiple tiers of membership. Starter members can create basic drawings using the app's core tools for free without creating an account. When you create a free account, you upgrade to the Essentials membership, which includes layer management, full color palette, basic brush customization, and more. Purchasing a Pro membership for $2.99 per month or $24.99 per year gives you access to all of SketchBook Pro's tools. You can purchase a perpetual license, but when I checked Amazon it was listed as "Currently unavailable". So I'm not sure if that option is still available.
Still he might like to play the free version and see how it goes...
http://www.autodesk.com/products/sketchbook-pro/overview -
Good points Alan. My nephew is 12 and still has a lot to learn, but he has some very good intuition and skill for his age. I just want to help him in supportive way. It is still up to him where he takes it. All you guys thank you for the tips, I think we (my nephew and I) will have to check out all of them and see what he wants.
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Put ArtRage (https://www.artrage.com/)on your list as well. Available on desktop (PC and Mac) as well as iPad and some Android (Galaxy Notes). I got a desktop copy with my Wacom and I bought a copy for my Galaxy Note 10.1. I am no artist but it seemed to me one of the better digital painters put there.
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Get him to know Krita. It's a painting software, opensource project, very robust, wich I also use for photo edition.
Digital Painting. Creative Freedom.
Krita is a professional FREE and open source painting program. It is made by artists that want to see affordable art tools for everyone.
Krita (krita.org)
Basically it's for painters, but I use it as any other people use Gimp or Photoshop so I have no doubt as to advice it as one of the best choices he could make.
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Ok we'll check those out too!!!
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If you are going the route of a PC with something like a Wacom tablet, you might also give
Xara Photo Graphic Designer a look. I have used it for several years now. The also have a very good and friendly forum at Talk Graphics with may people who are willing to give you lots of help. -
Might want to checkout Xara. http://Www.Xara.com. I gave up on Corel.
It has a good core of basic drawing tools which, when combined, can produce cool results. The tools are interactive (Corel attempted to copy most of Xara's interactive tools with v7 but couldn't replicate Xara's ease of use and speed). Can do a multitude of things. There are different products from the less expensive to the full blown Pro Designer.Originally developed in the UK for Acorn computer in 1981, by Charles Moir ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xara ) one of the very first vector graphics apps, no MAC version. I started using it on my 386 PC's and haven't stopped since.
Lots of movie-tutorials on their website and at Gary Pristers' XaraXone
http://site.xaraxone.com/gary-w-priester/What some artist's have produced with it: http://www.xara.com/us/gallery/
Some examples of Xara illustrations of stuff I did a long time ago (not necessarily "high-end"
) but does show it can be an all in one app.
https://goo.gl/photos/4EvjmEd2RhWoiP1s5 -
Also check out Affinity Designer. $39.99
https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/designer/MAC and Windows versions.
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I would recommend "MediBang Paint" -
"it's a FREE lightweight digital painting and comic creation program that comes loaded with brushes, fonts, pre-made backgrounds, and other resources." - and not to forget - Layers!
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