We’ve already discussed tons of mobile applications for designers who prefer to work on the move. However, if you are looking for some top-notch digital art software for drawing, illustrating, painting, sketching & more for amateur designers and professionals. Here are ten of our favorite utilities for artists!
These wide range of art applications come with their own USP (Unique Selling Point), some excel in vector drawings while some are unbeatable at making illustrations. You can find dedicated designing programs for Photo manipulation, 3D Modelling, Free-hand drawing, and many more in our list of Best Digital Art Apps & Programs (2021) for multiple platforms, including Windows, Mac, Web, and Smartphones.
What Are Digital Art Software?
Digital Art Programs are dedicated utilities designed for artists to work on emerging art forms, in which several traditional painting and drawing techniques are utilized. This includes watercolor painting, hands-free drawing, oil impasto, and so on. Additionally, these tools are equipped with advanced functionalities as well to create flawless and futuristic designs.
Best Digital Art Software For Drawing, Painting, Illustration (2022)
Whatever you are hunting for in the category of drawing, painting, or illustrating, here are the best bunch of options to help you make a suitable choice!
1. Adobe Photoshop
PRICE: $9.99 per month in Creative Cloud | $20.99 per month as a standalone app
COMPATIBILITY: Windows, Mac & iOS
FILE SIZE: 12.8 MB
Adobe Photoshop is a household name and all credit goes to its simplicity and effectiveness. The digital art software is undoubtedly one of the most resourceful solutions when it comes to world-class graphic editing and photograph enhancement. Photoshop isn’t purely designed for photos, you can utilize the tool for creating illustrations, do packaging designing, make banners, logos, websites, icons, and a lot more. You can make use of fabulous preloaded templates and plugins for professional-looking output.
Pros
- Stood out for years & treated as a go-to app for creating digital art.
- Tons of plugins for better productivity.
- A wide range of effects, filters & designing tools.
- Reliable & best digital art software for fulfilling all designing necessities.
Cons
- Complex subscription-based models.
Our Verdict: Get Adobe Photoshop as it
- Gets a complementary iOS application.
- Is continuously updated with new features and improvements.
- Has an impressive library of plugins to add more functionalities to the tool.
Must-Read: Top 10 Best Mockup Software And Wireframe Tools Of 2022
2. Corel Painter
Corel Painter brings a perfect blend of tools and features to make both traditional paintings and futuristic designs in one place. Corel Painter is a renowned application used mostly for making Canvas Art, Book Covers, Illustrations, and many more. It even allows you to save your personalized collection of brushes, pencils and presets for applying the same strokes. The digital art program has a unique ‘Movie’ feature that lets you merge multiple drawings and paintings for creating storyboards. Cool, right? Let’s know what makes Corel Painter one of the best digital art software in the market.
Pros
- An extensive collection of effects.
- Ability to change the texture of the canvas.
- Save presets for batch painting.
- Excellent cloning feature to transform snapshots into impressive art.
Cons
- Expensive digital art software.
Our Verdict: You should get Corel Painter as it:
- Receives frequent performance updates to optimize the overall workflow.
- Uses accelerated brush technology for creating compelling graphics.
- Gives amateur artists to get started with traditional tools with a blank canvas.
3. Rebelle 4
PRICE: One-time purchase – $89.99 | Discounts for Students, Educators & Educational Institutions
COMPATIBILITY: Windows & Mac
FILE SIZE: 149.4 MB
Rebelle 4 is a powerful digital painting application that comes with a great package of drawing tools, glamorous effects, and lots of natural painting tools to enhance your artistic skills. For amateur artists, Rebelle 4 offers an Intro Tutorial to help users better understand digital art software. It has an amazing collection of brushes, pencils, ink pens, watercolor paints, acrylic paints, markers, airbrushes, and a powerful eraser. Now, let’s check out what makes Rebelle 4 the best digital art application:
Pros
- Clean & versatile workspace.
- Powerful painting app with a multitude of drawing tools.
- Pack of brushes, pencil tools, ink pen, marker, airbrush & more.
- Offers different types of papers to develop your artistic skills.
Cons
- Digital art software uses a lot of system resources.
Our Verdict: Get Rebelle 4 As It
- Has new features frequently added like watercolor diffusion, blend mode for smudge painting, and more?
- This digital art application allows you to redo the entire process & start all over again in no time.
- Comes with traditional tools & uses ultra-realistic paint effects such as blurring, diffusion, blending & many more.
Must-Read: GIMP Photo Editor Alternatives For Mac Users Other Than Photoshop
4. Krita
Krita is one of the best digital art software designed for artists to create comprehensive and realistic illustrations and artistic drawings with the help of a wide range of drawing and painting tools. The application has a modern-looking black-themed user interface with an extensive feature set available on the main window. With Krita, you get CMYK support, the ability to do HDR Painting, and effects to smudge, add texture, spray, duplicate, deform, and many more.
Pros
- Straightforward & intuitive dashboard.
- Offers over 100 professional brushes.
- Brush stabilizer to perfectly smooth lines.
- Customizable interface to maximize workflow.
Cons
- Not a lot of support.
Our Verdict: Reasons To Get Krita
- A completely free, open-source drawing software, equipped with all kinds of drawings & illustration tools.
- A plethora of customizable brushes you can save and reuse as soon as required.
- Excellent digital art software for newbies & creative people.
5. Affinity Designer
Affinity Designer is a phenomenal choice for intermediate and advanced users to create masterpieces digitally. Using this drawing and illustration software, you get an assortment of tools, such as Pencils, Brushes, Pixel-Editing options, Photo-retouching features, and more. Additionally, this digital art software gives you the ability to do layer manipulation and control alignment, arrange objects, rotate, flip and more.
Pros
- Amazing stabilization options.
- Extreme zoom power for detailed painting.
- Complete package of tools for vector art.
- Tons of photo editing features, making it the best digital art software.
Cons
- Needs a high learning curve, not suitable for beginners.
Our Verdict: Reasons To Get Affinity Designer
- Significant performance improvements when working with large documents.
- A multitude of effects to transform your photo and enhance overall appearance.
- The digital art software comes with a bundle of generous collections of Raster tools to create realistic artwork.
Must-Read: Every Artist Must Have These Drawing Apps For iPad
6. Adobe Illustrator
PRICE: Free Trial | Starting from $20.99 per month
COMPATIBILITY: Windows & Mac
FILE SIZE: 3.1 MB
You must already be familiar with this popular & professional vector graphics application to design illustrations, digital graphics and develop compelling web/video/mobile content. Adobe Illustrator is the best digital art software that comes with features like Live distortion, adding 3D effects, symbols, blend shapes & more. Unlike most of the digital art utilities, Adobe Illustrator supports cross-media design. Hence, the layout adapts itself according to the preferences, no matter if it is for printing, publishing digitally, or for proper mobile view. Quite useful, right?
Pros
- High-end vector graphics creation tools.
- Produces scalable illustrations.
- Super integration is possible.
- Special discounts are available for Students & Teachers.
Cons
- Sometimes it crashes
Our Verdict: Reasons To Get Adobe Illustrator
- Support for cross-media design, useful while printing, publishing, or for mobile development.
- Ability to collaborate and edit documents on the Cloud.
- A new feature – Snap to Japanese Glyph is added to this digital art software.
Must-Read: 6 Best Free Adobe Illustrator Alternatives For Designers
7. CorelDRAW
PRICE: Free Trial | $249 per year
COMPATIBILITY: Windows, Mac, web, iPad, and other mobile devices
FILE SIZE: 1.9 MB
CorelDRAW is a leading graphics suite used by professional and advanced designers all over the globe. The digital art tool is quite popular in the market for creating compelling logos, advertisement banners, and entire websites. Apart from being an expert in the vector graphics software category, CorelDRAW also excels in Page Layout Programs, so that you can effortlessly design complete stationery such as business cards, logos, letterhead, catalog, and more. Let’s check out some of the major advantages & downsides that comes with this digital art solution (2022).
Pros
- Draw objects or illustrated scenes in perspective.
- Manage all your project’s digital assets in one view.
- Enhanced color replacement tool.
- Next-level collaboration tools.
Cons
- A freehand brush is difficult to use.
Our Verdict: Reasons To Get CorelDRAW
- Intuitive dashboard for managing, organizing & sharing files on Cloud.
- True cross-platform experience across Windows, Mac, web, iPad, and more.
- Powerful vector illustration tools to turn basic stuff into complex masterpieces make it the best digital art software.
8. YouiDraw Drawing
PRICE: $9.99 per month
COMPATIBILITY: Web | Supports Chrome, Opera Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer & more
FILE SIZE: –
Don’t want to install any additional software on your device? Choose none other than YouiDraw. A phenomenal web application to create gorgeous art around vector graphics. It offers a complete package of essential utilities to turn your imagination into reality. It has a powerful image editor, ready-to-use templates, and the ability to merge and adjust separate components in one place. Additionally, you can utilize the extensive shape library for creating top-notch logos and icons.
Pros
- Minimalistic interface.
- Lots of tools like Crayons, Brushes & Effects.
- Ability to export your work in PNG, JPEF, SVG & more file formats.
- Supports interactive grid & layer interaction.
Cons
- Doesn’t receive frequent updates.
Our Verdict: Reasons To Get YouiDraw Drawing
- Ready-made templates and slides for use.
- Ideal starter pack for emerging artists who want to get used to digital drawing, painting, and illustration,
- Free digital art software with all the standard tools, brushes, pencils & more.
9. Paint 3D
Get the ability to create, customize, print, or share your drawings, paintings, and illustrations using Paint 3D. It is a suitable choice for beginners, intermediate and advanced users, all thanks to the interface’s straightforwardness and support for a variety of photo editing and doodling features. It even supports popular file formats and the fact that it is an upgraded version of default MS Paint, you can definitely count on the reliability factor, it makes it one of the best digital art software to use in 2022.
Pros
- Suitable choice for age groups.
- A great package of tools for drawing, painting, and finishing.
- Best for 3D Modelling & Animation.
- Make realistic textures.
Cons
- Doesn’t extrude 2D objects.
Our Verdict: Reasons To Get Paint 3D
- A great starter pack to inspire beginners and youngsters who incline digital painting.
- Rejuvenated UI with a modern and intuitive layout.
- Flawless transition effects, backdrop controls, and canvases.
10. ArtWeaver
PRICE: Free for Personal Use | €34 one-time purchase
COMPATIBILITY: Windows
FILE SIZE: 14.6 MB
Get creative with Art Weaver digital art software, which offers amazing compilation tools for drawing and painting. The application is really easy to get started with, you can apply a variety of functionalities in one go. With ArtWeaver, you can customize brushes and save them for later use. Apart from some stability issues, you can utilize the digital art tool in two flavors, such as the Free version and premium program version. You can check out the comparison chart to know the differences between both versions. Some of the major advantages & disadvantages of the tool is listed below:
Pros
- Feature-packed painting & drawing tools.
- Easy-to-use & user-friendly interface.
- Customizable brushes.
- Amazing collaboration features.
Cons
- The digital art program seems to lag sometimes.
Our Verdict: Reasons To Get ArtWeaver
- Top-notch digital art utility for all ages, including children.
- Availability of free version, along with an affordable Plus version as compared to other digital art applications.
- Great collaboration functionalities allow numerous people to work on the same artwork at the same time.
Our Personal Favorites: WeTheGeek’s Recommendation
Well, we have covered some of the ‘Super-Hit’ choices in the category of Best Digital Software 2022. Some of them are good for amateur designers and individuals inclined towards creating digital art, while some are comprehensive solutions to create compelling graphics.
Photoshop is a neat designing solution with tons of functionalities to create both basic and complex artwork. All thanks to its ability for integrating plugins and more. On the other hand, if you are looking for a 3D designing tool, rather than just general painting, Paint 3D is worth the consideration. In case you are hunting for a professional designing utility, you can go for Affinity Designer which has a robust dashboard & a multitude of features, that the sky seems to be the limit on what can be created.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. What Are Some Examples Of Digital Art?
Well, there are multiple types of digital art such as: Data moshing, Dynamic painting, Pixel art, 3D/2D computer graphics, Fractal art, Photo painting, and many more.
Q2. Which Software Is Mostly Used By Digital Artists?
The majority of the designers and artists rely on Adobe Creative Cloud to create compelling graphics and top-notch designs for professional needs.
Q3. Which Tablets Do Digital Artists Use?
Samsung Galaxy Tab 4, XP-Pen Artists, Microsoft Surface Book 3, Huion H610, iPad Pro are becoming the go-to devices for digital artists around the globe.