Critters in Krita Depot Dogs Digital paintings

Digital paintings done in Krita. Text follows images.

After a few different attempts to harness the Krita power for the forces of good in the world of the bicho art, I finally stumbled onto something that worked a treat. The series isn’t finished but there are a few that are, so what the hell hey.

You will see that a few have alternative backgrounds, not too sure about that, yet. It’s mind-bending trying to deal with some of the implications of changing to this system, but at the same time, I really feel a strong affinity for the results.

I really started from the process of trying to film a reasonable quality timelapse video. In the end it turned out that the best quality comes from working straight into the digital space, and the technique suits my strengths, but even more importantly, my weaknesses.

The program I have chosen to use is called Krita, and it is open source software. This is not the place to go into what is open source software, but one of the most important distinctions is that it is generally free to use, free to update and there are no commercial or other restrictions on what can be done with the products of that use.

You can download Krita at www.krita.org and try it for yourself. I recommend that you consult the list of graphic tablets that are known to work with Krita, before you buy one.

A graphics tablet is the way that one inputs the drawing process to the computer. It is a slab of electronic plastic, which responds to the input of a pressure sensitive pen that you use on it. The technology is now familiar to most people, as being like the apple pen or similar, although in the case of the lower end tablets, there is no screen there, you manipulate the tablet while seeing the results on the computer screen.

There are graphics tablets with the screen built in, but they are still rather expensive, and I am unsure if it is the best way to go or not. I nearly bought one this time round, but instead decided to stick with the ‘blank’ tablet. One reason being that I think that as my eyesight ages, it seems to be a liabilty to have to look closer, but I am not really at that point yet. Later on I may try one.