I recently bought a small wacom tablet and I'm looking for some information about the graphic software artists use. I'm creating a 2d game with a friend of mine and I wanted to draw some concept artwork and game sprites. I've been using photoshop for years but it feels a bit clunky when I'm using the tablet, what alternatives are there?

Vector capabilities is a plus, but not a requirement.
Preferably free, but feel free to mention commercial software as well as I can get good student discounts on software.

Only free vector program I know:

http://inkscape.org/

Of course, Gimp:

http://www.gimp.org/

Paint.net (never used it myself)

http://www.paint.net/


Those are the only ones I can think of at the moment.

I use Inkscape for vector graphics. I'm pretty sure it supports tablets.

I find Corel Painter is incredible for 'traditional' style art - it costs quite a lot and there's only a 30 day trial though.

You should be drawing in Illustrator or InDesign.

Thanks for the replies


I already have photoshop so I don't think I'll be looking into Gimp or Paint.net (although Gimp is pretty awesome tbh, I used it a lot before I got my photoshop license)

Inkscape looks interesting, I'll download it and try it out.


We'll see in a few seconds when the download completes



Corel Painter looks amazing... the price tag, not so much. I'll keep it in mind next time I get paid, like I said I can get pretty awesome student discounts for software at a local store.



1. I hate Illustrator with a passion. Or well I hate Illustrator fan boys, I had to work with one once. He worked in the advertising department for the store I was working at and he asked me to send me a few photos of the store for advertising, and then he spent 20 minutes telling me how I should really be using a Mac + Illustrator + Photoshop since I was into graphics, and how there was "really no other way to do professional graphic design" blargh

2. Both are extremely expensive and for some reason I don't get much of a discount on Adobe products :/