Thank you! Paint Tool SAI is Japanese art program used by beginners to pros in digital art. It has a simple interface and the quality of the outputs really depends on the skill level of the artist. It has all the essentials for digital hobby illustration. Though Adobe Photoshop is in it's own league of advantage my bias is on SAI if one is just doing hobby drawing as mastering Photoshop is best suited for users that aim to enter the industry grade of digital art. A lot of features in Photoshop aren't even needed by the hobby artist. SAI is compact, simple, and easy to use, for me anyway (also not system heavy for my potato laptop). There's also Clip Studio Paint which is a middle of both SAI and Photoshop. More advanced for painting than SAI and more specific than Photoshop.
Any graphics tablet is fine as it's initially just getting used to the tools and the program because bulk of the output is mostly dependent on artist's skill level and making the most of what they have. Her current tools are fine, she just needs to make the conscious effort of practicing drawing on it everyday like most artists as the faster she can memorize the icons, and muscle memory the more time she can focus on the quality of her works. Most of my time a few months ago was just spent on trying to get a feel for the program and tablet rather than focusing on what I am drawing. It's not the tools, just how much quality time she would want to invest to get good at the hobby.
If you think she's invested into the hobby, Wacom One on PC will be the next level of setup (see reviews on Youtube), it's like the borderline setup between wanting to do art for a hobby or now looking forward to making a career out of digital illustration.
Thank you so much for the detailed and thoughtful answer! I'll get her to read this... and to just get practicing. Part of the problem is that her Windows laptop doesn't have an HDMI port, and her Mac Mini only has one... so we're forced to use my old Chromebook. I'm thinking of switching it over to Linux, but I'm just not sure which move will give her the best shot of enjoying it.
I bought her the tablet for her birthday this year because she is a very artistic person... so we'll upgrade later if she really gets into it. I appreciate the input. I'll keep you posted on her progress. 😀
I can't comment on mac and Linux as I never had any experience using those :P
But the answer still remains, no matter what the tools are, the quality will still be dependent on the artist's level. I have seen people master ms paint and blows my mind how they can make the most of the simplest tools. That's where mastery really shows.
Going to be bias on the Wacom products as these are often what I see pros often use, at least the ones I follow often have setup but got 16 inch screens to work with. I think she just needs to "master" her setup first then proceed to do art things like drawing shapes, scribbles, without actually committing to the work because it's more of getting a feel for the routine. Wishing luck to the both of you~
Perfect. I think that's the most sound advice that you could possibly give her. It truly is entirely about how talented and passionate the person is... not the tool. Practice makes (damn near) perfect.
Many thanks, @adamada. She'll be reading all this, and I will get her to follow along and ask questions if she has them. 😄
No problem, she can also ask @ryivhnn if she needs help with art things, ryiv has more wisdom to offer on that regard. Have a good day :)
Thank you! :)