Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic, the world has transitioned to and gradually grown accustomed to a digital lifestyle. Social media has become an inseparable part of our lives–browsing and absorbing content is as natural as breathing to us. Amongst the most popular content shared online, digital art doubtlessly ranks high. Since 2020, there has been a significant increase in the market value of digital art by 29%, not to mention the NFT boom that is still going strong, projected to grow at an amazing 35.27% annually in the next 4 years.
The large demand for digital art has encouraged both amateur digital artists and traditional artists to join the fray. Currently, most professional digital art software like Corel Painter, Procreate and Adobe Fresco are, though extremely useful and good to use, quite a financial burden for many individual artists and small companies in the digital art industry. This is where Krita comes in.
Q: What is Krita?
First released as part of KOffice 1.4 in 2005, Krita is a graphics editor that provides an OpenGL-based canvas as well as an unaccelerated canvas. It runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and Chrome OS. Although Krita is a free, open source software, it offers both basic and advanced drawing functions and tools that put it on par with other paid digital art software. Designed for frequent, prolonged and focused use, users can utilize its various functions in making illustrations, concept art, matte painting, textures, comics and animations.
Currently, the software is supported by the Krita Foundation, which continuously conducts bug fixes and performance improvements to Krita. Updates roll out quite regularly at one update every 2 months or so. As of the writing of this piece, Krita is on its 5.1 version.
Q: What functions does Krita have?
Not only does Krita offer over 100 brushes, but it also has over 9 unique brush engines and 8 layer types, in addition to other features like brush stabilizers, vector & text that make it an excellent software for digital painting and 2D animation in particular. Moreover, it supports 10 file formats, allowing you to make image edits on other files through Krita.
Q: Why should I learn to use Krita?
Krita is arguably the best, affordable digital art software in the market. It is easy to learn and use as well thanks to its clean interface and multiple customizable shortcuts. Whether you are a digital artist or hobbyist, Krita’s diverse functions will surely satisfy all your drawing needs and speed up your workflow. If you are interested in making NFTs, Krita is regarded by the artist community as one of the best software for the purpose.
If you still want to know more about Krita before trying it out, check out its website for more information. For detailed step-by-step guides and courses, you can have a look at the "DECT Career Program - My Slasher Life: Starting With Computer Graphics" Online Seminar offered by Krystal Institute.
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