I'm wanting to get into digital painting but I don't wanna spend money on Photoshop or Clip Studio Paint right now. I've seen people talking about Krita and GIMP but I'm not sure which one's better for someone just starting out, you know? Does anyone use either of them and can tell me how they are?
Krita is more straightforward for digital painting, with brushes that look real and an interface designed specifically for drawing, while GIMP is more generic and ends up being better for photo editing. If you're just starting out, go with Krita and it'll feel much more natural for you.
Start with Krita, don't waste time. It's made specifically for digital painting and has a much smoother learning curve than GIMP. The interface is intuitive, the brushes are decent right out of the box, and it has everything you need to get started without overwhelming you with options you won't use. It's not full of weird buttons in random places like GIMP tends to be.
GIMP is more versatile and you can do almost anything with it, but it's basically a photo editing tool that can also do painting. If you're looking for pure digital painting, you're going to get frustrated with confusing menus and workflows that weren't designed for drawing. Krita was built from scratch with artists in mind, and it shows.
Try Krita first. If you then feel like you need different features or more control over certain aspects of editing, then give GIMP a shot. But honestly, most people who start out do just fine with Krita for a long time. It's free, has an active community, and there are tons of tutorials all over the internet.
If you're just starting out, it's worth remembering that Krita has a pretty solid community making tutorials in Portuguese, which makes a huge difference when you hit a wall at 3 AM trying to figure out why your strokes are coming out weird. GIMP is more versatile as a general tool, but honestly for pure digital painting it's like using a hammer when what you need is a brush - it works, but it's not ideal. The truth is that with Krita you can start producing decent work faster without getting frustrated by confusing menus.
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