Quicksand Fans

Hi,

The best one I know if is Adobe Illustrator. It's a good program for drawing, but is expensive. Also, Adobe does not really sell a lot of their software anymore. They've gone with a rental model. I suggest going to E-Bay and getting an older version so you can actually buy it and keep it forever.

Otherwise, try an "Alternative to Illustrator" search on google, like this...

http://www.onextrapixel.com/2011/03/15/10-best-alternatives-to-adobe-illustrator/

Good luck!

Jumpoff_Joe wrote: Yes, I am not a fan of the Adobe model. It may make more money for them, but I would rather buy something once and own it as opposed to having it buying it over and over.

Hey Joe,

Maybe not. Word is a lot of companies bought up the last disk version of various Adobe packages and say they are going to keep them for a long long time, so it may actually end losing them money in the long run. That, and the hack they had not too long ago where somebody stole the credit card info for thousands of their customers, plus Adobe's well known reputation for arrogance, bad customer service, and even hostility towards their own customers, may cost them even more.

Was the above list any help?

Firs of all, Adobe Illustrator is a vector graphics program. I don't think it is good for sketching.

There are several cheap or free programs that one may want to test for sketching.
Among free programs there are:
Pencil Project (I hadn't tried it yet)
Artweaver http://www.artweaver.de/en/download (I recommend)

The relatively inexpensive and very good programs are
Paint Tool SAI
Open Canvas

You can have 'heavy artillery' for free, too. It's GIMP. There are several plugins for the GIMP that make its interface more similar to Photoshop's one.

I would recommend to get a graphic tablet. But if you don't have experience with them, don't start with Wacom Intuos. You don't need it. Start from the cheap things, like Wacom Bamboo Fun or models by Genius. They are not bad at all. If you like it - then you may consider buying more expensive model in future.