Painting programs for mac

[steam_pilot]

I'm having a lot of trouble finding a good painting program for macs. I guess maybe I should really learn to use painter, but I'm really not a fan of photoshop.

Are there any mac users out there? What program do you use?

Comments

[inquisitory]

Fellow Mac user here, high five! o/ I bought Painter 11 last year and I'm getting used to it now. It has a lot more brush options than Photoshop which are great to play around with, and you can emulate the kind of blending seen in programs like Paint Tool Sai and Open Canvas pretty well. I'm still more comfortable with Photoshop for color touch-ups, but Painter may be worth a shot :)

[steam_pilot]

hm! O:
Do you have any tips or suggestions for tutorials, or anything like that for someone who is super overwhelmed? x__x

[inquisitory]

Sure thing! The Painter site has some decent tips for taking advantage of the Painter workspace, especially the one for users of Photoshop. These three tutorials suggest some different brushes to try using and show how they look, which I think is really helpful. It's all about playing around and seeing what works for you. Personally, the three brush categories I frequent the most are pens (Flat Color for laying down flats, as you might imagine), tinting (Basic Round on really low opacity is great for the kind of blending I mentioned) and blenders (Grainy Blender gives a nice subtle texture). I'm no expert, but I hope those help, and feel free to ask if you have any specific questions :)

[steam_pilot]

Thank-you! Those tutorials are really helpful! I'll give you a holler if I have any questions. :D

[steam_pilot]

I have a quick question x__x
Do you have any idea how to make a truly transparent brush? Like just like in photoshop, a brush that is transparent and that I can layer? Because adjusting the opacity of the pen tool doesn't seem to do anything.

[inquisitory]

Hmm... I don't know exactly how to do that, since I've never done the same in Photoshop, unfortunately. This is the closest I could find to what you're describing; perhaps it has something to do with the Gel or Liquid Ink type layers? Sorry I can't be of more help there ;;

[steam_pilot]

Hm... I'm not sure that that's what I'm looking for, but thanks for the help! ; w ;