Author: dpugh007

Digital art has become the norm, with a wide range of software programs available to allow drawing and painting on a virtual canvas. Often these programs will focus on a particular aspect, such as design, illustration, or photo-manipulation.

Design programs can be use for CAD, such as 3D structure for architecture, or else focus on graphic design such as shapes, banners, and logos. General design software will focus on one or the other. Illustration programs can often include elements of graphic design in their interface, but will also feature a number of additional options for working with color and shading.

Photo-manipulation software was originally for just manipulating images for digital photography, but often these also now incorporate elements key to illustration options. There are also dedicated programs that aim to emulate the experience of painting.

Different design, drawing, and paint programs have their different strengths and focus, and although all can be operated with a mouse, often it’s better to work with a digital pen/design tablet such as a Wacom, in order to get fine details as accurate as possible.

Whatever you’re looking for in design, illustration, or photo-manipulation software, here we’ll look at the best to help you make your choice.

• We’ve also highlighted the best free painting software

• Want your company or services to be added to this buyer’s guide? Please email your request to desire.athow@futurenet.com with the URL of the buying guide in the subject line. 

When it comes to creative software, Adobe has dominated the scene for decades, and Photoshop CC (CC stands for Creative Cloud) is loved by artists and designers across the world. It provides creative types with a plethora of cloud-based tools to create and enhance photos, illustrations and 3D visuals.

This software isn’t just about editing photos. If you’re a professional designer, you can use it to create packaging, banners, websites, logos and icons. Not only can you come up with your own creations, but you’re also able to make use of intuitive templates if you’re more of a beginner, or you’re working to a tight deadline.

You can design your own illustrations and turn images into paintings as well, with the option of switching between animate and print-style options. When you’ve created a piece, you can enhance it with a range of built-in effects. 

There are multiple pricing tiers, depending on which other apps and features you’d like bundled with Photshop CC. The cheapest is the Photography level at $9.99 per month and also comes with Adobe Lightroom CC, as well as 20GB of cloud storage. Up from that is the Single App plan at $20.99 per month and comes with 100GB of cloud storage, as well as Adobe Portfolio, Adobe Fonts, and Adobe Spark. For the All-Apps plan you get access to all Adobe creative desktop and mobile apps as well, and that costs $52.99 per month.

• You can download Adobe Photoshop CC here

Autodesk SketchBook is a drawing app targeted specifically at designers, architects, concept artists and other creative professionals. If you fit into any of these categories, the software will give you the tools to sketch and create stunning illustrations easily and quickly.

It sports a minimalist interface that works across Windows, Mac, iOS and Android devices, as well as 140 pre-designed brushes. Should you not be able to find the brush you need amongst that lot, you have the option to tweak them and import your own. Another neat feature is the ability to add an unlimited amount of layers to your creations, all of which come with blending nodes and grouping abilities.

The software costs $16 monthly or $126 yearly, but whichever package you choose, there’s a lot of support on offer. For instance, you can schedule a call with Autodesk’s customer support team if you have any questions about the software, or indeed chat online or via email. You also get access to the company’s knowledgebase, which contains extensive documentation, tutorials and training videos.

• You can download Autodesk SketchBook here

Corel offers a host of creative software packages, one of which is a drawing app called Painter. Aimed at designers, artists and students, this cross-platform application provides you with the likes of ‘thick paint’ which you can daub onto your digital canvas, and then scrape around or blend to create some highly realistic looking masterpieces.

There’s a large selection of brushes, with the ability to create custom brushes and palettes – plus you can import these, too. Painter is a downloadable app which is available on both Windows and Mac. It’s compatible with third-party software like Photoshop and drawing tablets from companies such as Wacom, as well.

As for the price, for the latest version of Corel Painter is available for around $400, though there are special rates for an education edition for students and learning centers.

• You can download Corel Painter here

Developed by artist Peter Blaskovic, Rebelle 3 is another highly versatile drawing and painting application. Described as “one-of-a-kind paint software”, it’s been designed for creatives working on watercolor, acrylic, wet and dry media artwork.

Blaskovic created the app as part of his experimental drawing projects and wanted an easy-to-use program to access natural painting tools on-the-go. The app uses realistic color blending, wet diffusion and drying techniques, and offers a plethora of watercolors, acrylics, inks and pastels.

There are also ‘dry’ tools like pencils, markers and erasers, so you don’t have to stick to paintbrushes. The app also boasts some interesting capabilities like the ability to tilt the canvas you’re working on. What’s more, Rebelle works with Photoshop, allowing you to tap into 23 additional blending nodes. It currently costs $89.99, but you can give the app a spin via a free trial.

• You can download Rebelle 3 here

Artweaver is one of the oldest painting tools out there, and the software is now on its sixth edition. The application provides you with a diverse set of predefined brushes and pencils that can be used to create amazing pieces of art.

Not only does Artweaver offer an intuitive and easy-to-use interface which makes it suitable for novices, but it also boasts an impressively configurable brush system. So while you can choose from a variety of predefined brushes, you can also tweak them to suit your exact needs.

Furthermore, Artweaver has another strong suit when it comes to working on joint art projects, because you can use the app to collaborate with other folks on the same document. Of course, you’ll need to be online to do so.

Want to get a better idea of your artistic process and exactly how it flows? Then you can get the application to record your work. That way, you can review, evaluate and improve your abilities (hopefully). Currently, Artweaver is only available on Windows, but it’s temptingly cheap at $47 – and there’s also a free version available though it has limited functionality compared to the paid version.

• You can download Artweaver 6 here

Other drawing and painting software to consider

While we’ve covered some of the big hitters when it comes to drawing and painting software, there are some good lower-level programs worth considering if you’d prefer for not to pay out for a big program. Here we’ll look at some of the other alternatives you might want to consider, especially if looking for something more entry-level, or simply competent when it comes to art and design.

PaintShop Pro is a neat little art program. Although not as full-featured as some of the above it’s still very competent software for many aspects of art and design. Whether it’s photo editing, drawing, or creating/designing graphics, there are a lot of tools and additional plugins available to get the effect you want. Originally developed by Jasc, it’s now part of the Corel stable of creative programs and is available for around $80. 

Adobe Illustrator can sometimes be thought of as being the little brother to the more powerful Photoshop, but don’t overlook its possibilities. While Photoshop was originally built for photo editing, Adobe Illustrator has always been designed around illustration and drawing. You don’t need to choose between one or the other, however, as if you subscribe to even the basic level Adobe creative apps plan, you can have both Photoshop and Illustrator together.

Sketchup is more focused on 3D design rather than general painting and drawing, but is worth considering if that’s the main reason you need software for drawing. Even better is that there’s a free version, but even the paid-for versions are relatively cheap by comparison to some of the above, with an annual cost of $119 or $299 according to how many features you want to unlock. 

GIMP is a dedicated art program specifically built to run on Linux operating systems. While it may not be as powerful as some of the software listed, it makes a big effort to do a lot of things, from photo editing to sketching to design. Anyone who already works with Linux has probably heard of it and even has a copy, but if you were thinking of moving to Linux but weren’t sure what creative software was available, you could do a lot worse than try out GIMP.

Microsoft Paint is a basic art package that comes with every Windows install, and has done so since at least Windows 3.x. The release of Windows 10 has seen 3D editing tools added to it, but let’s be fair-it’s still a simple program that isn’t going to rival anything else on this list. However, because of the easy availability of MS Paint it’s worth mentioning – if nothing else because it does have a basic toolkit that is expanded on by other software.

• We’ve also picked out the best VPN for creative users

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Screens are everywhere now. Taking into account mobile phones, tablets, laptops, desktops and televisions – not to mention smart displays – it’s no longer surprising to have several screen-based devices in your home, making the classic television a harder proposition than ever. So how does a TV maker compete in such a flooded market?

We spoke to the Kevin Wang, CEO of Chinese electronics brand TCL Multimedia, about the challenges facing TV makers today – even for one like TCL, which recently became the second-largest TV manufacturer in the world by units shipped.

Wang, who has held the chief executive position since 2017, admitted concern on the growth of the TV market, and the need to keep up amidst intense competition to get TVs into people’s homes:

“The whole market has big growth now. So you need big innovation… We have 8K coming, all on bigger screens, and a lot more panels [being produced].

“When I was a boy, I only had a 29-inch CRT. 29 inches was a big deal! But 20 years later, it’s a totally different experience.”

With so many devices competing for viewers’ attention – we only have so many eyes, after all – it’s only natural that televisions have had to aggressively target their core proposition: offering a larger and more cinematic viewing experience than the other screens that you own.

Whereas 40-inch TVs used to be seen as market-leading (let alone the 29-inch CRTs of Wang’s childhood) buyers today are largely opting for 55-inch TVs, with 65-inch TVs being the fastest growing size category. Even larger than that, the 75-inch televisions out there are appearing more and more, even if the compact homes of Europe and the UK are somewhat resistant to the trend.

Wang himself says he needs a TV to be “as big as possible”, and prefers watching on an 85-inch television – something we assume isn’t too hard to get hold of when you run one of the world’s largest TV makers.

But it’s clear that televisions have had to fight furiously against the tide of smaller-screen media – what with all those distracting social media apps and ‘friends’ – with Wang saying the products available today have to compensate by being “much, much more beautiful than five years ago.”

The need to improve visual performance to compete with smartphone screens is a sentiment echoed by Jiangyue Wang, PR Manager for TCL Electronics Europe – who added that the picture processing in TCL’s latest televisions utilizes “the same color and effect to make a selfie look better, or more pretty.”

Kevin Wang: “In China, a lot of customers have a TV, but they don’t have much time to watch TV… They’re just too busy on their phones.”

If you can’t beat ’em, phone ’em

The comments are even more interesting in the runup to TCL’s first own-brand smartphone. While TCL technically manufactures mobile screens through its subsidiary CSOT, it has yet to release a smartphone model under its own name.

While Wang states that TV will remain “our major business”, it makes sense to leverage its current manufacturing facilities to diversify the products under the TCL brand – adding the smartphone to a host of new audio and lifestyle ranges including headphones, soundbars, and even smart mirrors and toothbrushes.

The mobile market isn’t easy to enter, though, with even Apple reporting smaller iPhone sales YoY amidst fierce competition. But TCL’s hand in smartphone production should help somewhat.

While details are currently scant, we expect the model to land before the year is out, around September or October. Release in Europe is confirmed, but not whether that will include the UK. We’re told by a TCL spokesperson that it will be “high quality”, but TCL’s aggressive pricing makes us think it won’t be a model to break the bank.

We’ll be sure to keep you updated when we know more on pricing, specs, and where exactly we can expect the smartphone to land.

• TCL 2019: every television coming from the TV make this year

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Nintendo had a very strong showing at E3 2019 – somehow without even being at the expo. Thanks to its hugely popular Nintendo Direct livestreams, the house of Mario has managed to continue gripping gamers and gaming press alike with its joyful and nostalgic roster of titles – and this year it really knocked it out of the park.

Two years into the Nintendo Switch‘s lifespan, there are still massive mainline franchises pulling out the stops. We may not have got more details about the rumored Switch console upgrades coming later in the year, but there was still plenty for us to chew on: fantastic-looking new games, significant updates to existing favorites, smart ports and remakes, as well as at least one bombshell sequel.

So what did Nintendo have on show? We’ve collated all of the most exciting game trailers and new announcements below – from Luigi’s Mansion 3 and Pokemon Sword and Shield to a whole load of Zelda titles in the works. 

There’s plenty we didn’t see, to be far: no sign of the delayed Metroid Prime 4, or the soon-to-be-released Mario Maker 2. But for an expo that largely exists to create hype around new and upcoming releases, we’re certainly excited about what we saw.

• As for a Nintendo Switch 2? That’ll have to wait, it seems…

An (unnamed) Zelda: Breath of the Wild sequel

It was the final mic-drop moment of Nintendo’s E3 live stream, but what a moment it was. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild isn’t getting more DLC – it’s getting a whole new sequel.

At this stage, there’s no name or release date to go on (we’ll just have to call it The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 for now), just a momentary clip instead. It showed Zelda and Link exploring beneath Hyrule Castle, before encountering a resurrected warrior foe – potentially an undead Gannondorf. The camera cuts to a view of Hyrule Castle from a distant location. There’s a ground-shaking quake, Hyrule Castle is engulfed in dust. And that’s it.

Very much looking to be in keeping with the new Zelda formula laid down by Breath of the Wild, this could be this generation’s Majora’s Mask.

Luigi’s Mansion 3

You may not be afraid of no ghost, but Luigi still is. We got an extended look at Luigi’s Mansion 3 during the Nintendo livestream, which introduced us to a few new mechanics for the game. Namely, it’s looking like it’ll be a much more kinetic outing for the scaredy-cat plumber, who will be able to use his ghost-catching vacuum cleaner thing to slam spectors against walls, while also doing an area-of-effect air blast. On the floor at E3 we got to play through tons of content from the trailer (seen below) and made it to our first boss battle with the King Ghost. 

There’s also a new multiplayer mode announced for the game called ScareScraper, letting you compete for ghost-hunting prowess against your buddies, as well as a co-op mode that introduces a new character called “Gooigi”. Imagine a Flubber-fied version of Luigi, and you’re there, with the green gooey version of Luigi able to walk on spikes and squeeze through fences like a friendly T-1000 terminator. He’ll also be the secondary character couch co-op players get to play as. 

Sadly, there’s still no firm release date for Luigi’s Mansion 3 beyond “2019”. We’ll keep you posted.

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening 

We knew the remake of the GameBoy classic, Link’s Awakening, was going to be at E3 2019 but we didn’t know how much fun we’d have with it. In a 15-minute demo with the game we were able to get our trusty sword from the beach, trudge through the mysterious forest and battle the first dungeon’s mini-boss, Rolling Bones. 

Still keeping to that top-down style that the series was once so famous for (but with a new, modernised, Pixar-like art style), Link’s Awakening for Nintendo Switch has now been revealed to have a build-your-own dungeon mode. Drag-and-drop tiles will let you build new challenges within the game – here’s hoping there’s an online element so that you can share them with your friends.

The Witcher 3 for Nintendo Switch

Someone had better send a demon hunter to Nintendo HQ – there must be some sort of dark magic being cast in order to make The Witcher 3 run on the Nintendo Switch. But monster hunter Geralt is indeed headed to the hybrid console, both in its docked and on-to-go handheld modes.

It’s the complete edition of the game, including all its expansion packs, and while the lengthy, engrossing adventure is perfect for mobile play-anywhere sessions, we’re still stumped as to how they’re going to make it work on relatively underpowered hardware. We can’t wait to see it in action for ourselves.

Pokémon Sword and Shield

We’ve seen a lot about Pokémon Sword and Shield, which is coming to Nintendo Switch November 15, 2019. The hype is high, the release date is soon, but Nintendo doesn’t have much more to show off than it did during its Sword and Shield-dedicated Nintendo Direct presentation released a week before E3 2019.

Our demo at E3 gave us a taste of the Galar region that players will be exploring, and specifically showed off the vaunted ‘Dynamax’ feature that temporarily evolves your Pokémon to colossal size and power. We took on the Water Gym Leader Nessa in a huge arena in front of cheering crowds using an oversized Grookie and, in the end of the demo, got out first badge.

The only thing missing from that demo was a look at the legendary Pokémon that give this generation its name, Zacian (sword) and Zamazenta (shield). But there’s always a chance Nintendo will put out a demo before the game’s launch in November.

Panzer Dragoon

Panzer Dragoon originally came out for the Sega Saturn in 1995, which tells you how iconic the game has become as the only title from that doomed console to be remembered so fondly. The game has been completely remade for a Switch release later in 2019.

The original Panzer Dragoon perched the player on the back of a dragon and gave them a gun. It’s a rail shooter on a dragon. Need we say more? Okay, the game didn’t just make its bones on then-novel 3D gameplay – its vibrant world and lore captured players’ imaginations, too. We knew the game was being remade by Polish publisher Forever Entertainment, but didn’t know the Switch would be included in its release plans.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order

The Marvel’s Avengers game from Square Enix made plenty of waves, sure, but Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: the Black Order deserves plenty of attention too. You’ll be able to play as one of countless characters from across the rich Marvel universe in an interesting-looking action RPG. Plus, we got to see Magneto wielding an Infinity Stone, and we can’t wait to see how that pans out. 

Luckily, we only have to wait until July 19 to get our hands on it… not that it stopped us from playing it at E3 2019. In a short demo three of our editors were able to team up, taking control of Wolverine, Captain America and Storm, while battling through Hand forces in Hell’s Kitchen. 

We didn’t get to see the complete list of characters coming to the game, but if you’re a fan of non-Avengers Marvel lineups like the Fantastic Four and the X-Men, keep an eye out for the Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order season pass that will have tons of cool characters.

Banjo-Kazooie and Dragon Quest’s Hero

Some of the more surprising faces were those added to the roster for Super Smash Bros Ultimate, the Switch entry for Nintendo’s iconic fighting franchise that came out last year. There’s been a steady drip-feed of additional Smash Bros DLC content with new characters like Piranha Plant and Persona 5’s Joker joining the fray – though Nintendo has now revealed the next two fighters for the coming content packs. 

The first is Hero! You know, Hero? The (technically unnamed) protagonist from the recent Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age will be slashing his way onto Smash Bros stages later this summer, with a nifty trailer showing off some serious swordplay – and three alternative skins that let you play as the lead characters from Dragon Quest III, Dragon Quest IV, and Dragon Quest VII.

The other is Rare mascot Banjo-Kazooie, who first appeared on the Nintendo 64 back in 1998, and has been at the top of fan’s lists to add to the game, alongside the likes of Dragonball’s Goku or Crash Bandicoot (we’re still holding out hope for the others).

Banjo-Kazooie will be available to download – with additional soundtracks and stages for the game – in Autumn 2019. As a fighter, they’re sure to add a whole load of vertical strategy with that bird strapped to Banjo’s back.

Animal Crossing New Horizons

Our first gameplay footage of Animal Crossing: New Horizons shows the villager farming and crafting new furniture – something that has never been an aspect of the main Animal Crossing games. Some of these features look like they’re lifted from Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, while other aspects are completely new for the series. 

The setup for the game, as was revealed by the trailer, is that Tom Nook is now chartering vacation packages to a deserted island which you, as the villager, must explore and cultivate into a thriving community. It’s a neat spin on the classic formula, and one that we’ll hear more about before it comes out on March 20, 2020.

Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch

This one’s a match made in heaven for Nintendo’s portable machine. Ni no Kuni is, in our humble opinion, one of the most underrated JRPGs of the last decade. 

With art direction helped along by some of the Studio Ghibli team, it combines beautiful anime visuals with a Pokemon-like battle system that has you training up companion monsters for turn-based battles. It’s also got an absolutely heart wrenching story. It’s a long and fairytale-like adventure, making it perfectly suited for on-the-go play.

Doom Eternal

The upcoming latest edition in the Doom series has been confirmed to be making its way to Nintendo Switch, meaning you can transverse the hellscape while on your work commute. A truly terrifying thought.

Unfortunately we don’t know exactly when we’ll be seeing the Doomslayer making his way to Switch – seeing as Doom Eternal doesn’t actually have a release date yet – but we do know it’ll be later this year.

While violent first person shooters don’t exactly have the charm factor that Nintendo is known for, the most recent Doom game went down a treat on Switch and we’re expecting Eternal to do the same. Who said the Nintendo Switch was just for kids?

Alien Isolation

Nintendo’s not known for its horror titles either, but it’s getting one of the best ever made in the shape of a port of Alien Isolation.

Based on the classic sci-fi franchise, you play as Ellen Ripley’s daughter as she’s hunted down by a lone xenomorph aboard an abandoned space station. It’s more survival-horror than action, where hiding and holding your breath is a better bet than going in all guns blazing. And, with the Nintendo Switch being a hybrid handheld, you can bring the game on the toilet to play in case you get so scared that you… well. You get the picture.

Dauntless

Dauntless officially launched in May 2019 with a bang, drawing millions of players to the free-to-play monster hunting game. Sure, it seems to lift a lot from Capcom’s Monster Hunter franchise, but at least F2P makes it accessible to fans who can’t stomach the high price tag of a new game – and lets their friends try it at no cost.

Dauntless exists in a world torn asunder by a cataclysm that releases gigantic monsters, Behemoths, that the players must hunt and destroy. Like Fortnite before it, Dauntless allows cross-platform play, so expect to link up with your buddies on WIndows, PS4 and Xbox One when the game launches on Switch later in 2019.

Collection of Mana

If you’re after some RPG nostalgia on Switch, Nintendo has you covered. The Collection of Mana released in Japan back in 2017, bundling a trilogy of iconic games from the Mana series – and is now available to download from the Switch eShop across the world.

That includes Final Fantasy Adventure (Game Boy, 1991) and its sequel Secret of Mana (SNES, 1993) – as well as the third game in the series, Trials of Mana (Super Famicom, 1995) that until now has never been released outside of Japan. See the trailer below for some wonderful pixel action.

• E3 2019 is the biggest gaming event of the year. TechRadar is reporting live from LA, telling you all about the biggest announcements of the week, from epic game trailers to shocking release date reveals. Follow our expert analysis of the keynotes and what we see on the E3 show floor.

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