Expertises: Painting, Art, Drawing, Pastel
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Free painting softwares are the bread and butter for a lot of the professional digital painters out there.
From Photoshop to Corel Draw to the FireAlpaca, there are a lot of easy to use applications that help artists digitize their inspirations and concepts amazingly well.
However, out of all of them, Krita is the one that has been growing in popularity off-late.
And though the software is incredibly versatile and user-friendly, there are some aspects of its features which tend to have a strict learning curve.
A lot of beginners and even some professionals do struggle here, and this is precisely where video tutorials come in clutch.
The guides that we have listed out for you today are incredible, to say the least, and will help you grasp the various facets of Krita in no time at all.
Free Krita Tutorials and How to Use Them
1. Krita Basics by Phil Waclawski
For a lot of the digital painting beginners, when it comes to Krita tutorials, the more detailed the lessons, the better. And in our experience, we are yet to find a more immersive guide than what Phil Waclawski provides in his Krita Basics.
A professor as well as a master of the Linux OS, Phil Waclawski in this hour-long guide (more like a presentation in front of the ‘Phoenix Linux Users Group’) talks about the various advantages and functions of Krita.
As Krita is primarily a Linux based software (one of the very few painting apps that work outside Mac and Windows) not many artists are all that familiar with it, and neither with the OS.
So, even if you’re not all that used to Linux, you can still learn a lot about the Krita applications as Phil Waclawski provides a very thorough guide on it.
He covers almost everything about the Krita from brushes, to strokes, to color management as well as providing a short tutorial on how to create and manage open documents.
However, the presentation doesn’t just cover Krita, but also digital painting in general. It’s an amazing tutorial for budding artists, especially for those who are familiar with Linux.
2. ‘What Brushes to Use in Kirita’ by Mart’s Struggle with Drawing
There is a very popular YouTube channel called Mart’s Struggle with Drawing, which primarily deals with making easy to follow and interactive tutorial videos on digital painting for beginner and amateur artists.
Learning a new painting software from scratch is never as easy as it sounds. From learning how to use the new brush features, as well as the coloring and the stroke textures, a lot of time goes behind just familiarising oneself with the basics.
And when it comes to brushes, digital painting is absolutely pointless without the right kind. Hence, to help out the beginners with their brush struggles, this youtube channel has created a 10-minute long video on all the Krita basics and brush applications.
However, one amazing aspect of this tutorial is that it doesn’t cater to beginners alone. There are certain facets of it, which can be very appealing to a lot of the adept users and artists.
So, even if you’re familiar with or rather proficient with the Krita painting software, there are few new things that you can pick up from this tutorial.
3. Krita Layers Tutorial by GDquest
Image special effects and layering are perhaps one of the hardest features to grasp on any digital painting software.
Now, Photoshop’s layer panel was not only the most-used feature but also the bread and butter for a lot of the professional graphic designers and artists out there. Being able to create a lot of effects while either editing a particular photo or painting an illustration is essential for any commissioned art job.
Krita has its own versatile, and fantastic range of layering and effects features as well. And this tutorial video from GDquest will help both the amateur and professional get up to speed with Krita’s layering tools and applications.
And though the video is just 6 minutes long, it’s incredibly detailed and will be able to help you to work through the material considerably fast. It will also provide you with an idea on the complete concept of layering and which kind of combinations will bring about the desired effect.
For intricate and detailed art pieces learning how to accurately layer on effects is vital in achieving the desired results. And the sooner you learn the basics of layering, the faster you can pick up Krita.
4. How to Paint in Krita by Jenna Drawing
This is another amazing Krita tutorial video for beginners. This ‘how to get started’ guide is kind of like a personalized lesson from the YouTuber who makes this otherwise complicated drawing software look and feel as easy to use and as user-friendly as possible.
She will teach you every single basic of Krita and help you dive into it right away and inspire you to experiment with the brushes and strokes and help you to learn them the more you use them.
However, experimenting with brush strokes are one thing, and having complete control over the application is another. The next phase of Jenna’s video is on how to get a complete grasp of Krita and its various applications.
From helping you to learn how to create documents to managing your brushes and alter the layering settings along with the opacity, her tutorial covers a lot and teaches them rather effectively.
The video is 15 minutes long but does an amazing job in instilling the right amount of inspiration within all budding artists.
Additionally, do keep in mind that even though her video is on the Windows-based Krita, the lessons are applicable to all platforms.
5. Painting Hair in Krita by Johnnybevo
Human anatomical features, especially the human hair, is one of the hardest things to accurately represent on any digital painting software.
This fact is also true for Krita, and this is precisely where this tutorial from Johnnybevo comes in.
The video deals with certain tricks one can use and the basic concept behind representing human hair digitally. One such amazing trick is to not look at human hair as individual strands but more as a complete object.
However, even if you’re considering it to be a single object, the final representation should not look bland. It must feel realistic, and that is one of the things that Johnnybevo tackles in this video.
The tutorial will help you gain a complete grasp of the different layering and special effect tools that will help you make hair, which is incredibly detailed and aesthetically pleasing.
The 18-minute long step by step guidance will get you up and going at trying your hand at representing this human anatomy as accurately as possible.
Digital work on such genres are a bit different than the rest of the subjects out there. So, if you ever feel like getting into drawing the human anatomy, this tutorial is a must watch.
6. Graphic Designing Game Assets my Douglas Lopes
Now, looking at Douglas Lopes’ channel and some of his more popular videos, not many will be able to readily believe the fact that he is quite new to graphic designing.
With just a few software tips and tricks, Douglas is able to conjure up some of the most intricately designed and detailed game assets and stock images which can capture anyone’s attention in an instant.
There are a lot of such tutorial videos on his channel; however, this 25-minute long guide is the one which we absolutely adore.
This video shows him painting a rock from scratch which has a kind of a sigil inscribed atop it. Such stock imagery is important when it comes to creating the perfect aesthetic element for RPG games, which has a somewhat medieval and fantasy setting.
The Witcher, Divinity, Dragon Age, etc., all these games depend on such stock accessories to help provide the gamer with an incredibly immersive experience.
Douglas in the video does the complete designing in Krita and explains the entire method of creation from using the toolbars to the brush settings and stroke modes to make it as easy to understand as possible.
7. ‘How to turn pencil sketches into digital art?’ by Mart’s Struggle with Drawing
This video from Mart’s Struggle with Drawing is just amazing when it comes to teaching one how to effectively deal with the various documents once scanned onto Krita.
A lot of beginners don’t know this, but Krita is an amazing platform where you can import your scanned drawing and very easily digitize them, with the help of the various toolkits.
However, one problem many users have is that after they get their art scanned, they often don’t know what to do next, and which necessary steps to follow to perfectly digitize their work. And this is precisely where this video guide comes in.
It charts out a detailed guide for those who still don’t have the hang of using Krita and creating artworks there from scratch.
Mart in the video will teach you how to efficiently work on top of a scanned drawing. The video is very detailed for a 6-minute tutorial, where he will also be showing you how to use this line of work as a sort of a template.
This type of digital painting can come handy for those who still prefer traditional painting over digital.
8. Let’s Animate a Ball in Krita by Borodante
This video tutorial is more for the adept Krita users who already have a solid grasp on making art images on Krita and want to try their hand in animation.
For those of you who didn’t know, Krita isn’t just a simple painting program; it supports a lot of 2D animation making features which you can utilize to really show off your skills.
When you first learn to animate something, it’s always best to start with something that is very simple.
The YouTuber in this video shows a very easy animation, which is honestly not all that hard to replicate. In this 22 minute long video, he goes onto animate a ball and goes through the entire process of it in an easy to follow manner.
So, all he does in the animation is to make the ball bounce a couple of times. And across the entire guide, he will teach you not only the entire formatting process but also how to start a new document and create frames as well as the position along the way.
The resulting bounce motion is actually very smooth, and you will have the opportunity to learn a lot from this very simple guide.
9. Making a Self Portrait in Krita by Sycra
Making a self-portrait is honestly a very fun activity, and there are many digital painters out there who try to make a digitized copy of their face for recreational purposes.
So, when it comes to learning how to make a graphic painting of your face, this video from Sycra does more than just cover all the basics.
Sycra has been publishing Krita based digital painting tutorials for some time now, and in this guide, he goes over some fun and exciting ways to make a self-portrait from scratch.
However, the video is not as detailed as one might like it to be. Sycra doesn’t show the step by step process of the painting method, but he does explain all the methods along the way and talks about everything that he is doing.
And as the video is in real time and narrated, you can indeed learn a lot from it. The tutorial is also very easy to follow, but you will have to practice all the steps on your own and experiment with the techniques which he shows so that you can make the most out of what he is trying to teach you.
10. Grasping Krita’s Blending modes by GDquest
Blending modes is another fantastic feature in Krita that will allow you to do a lot of cool and unique things to make your art stand out from the rest of the crowd.
Often times, when people hear the word ‘blending’ and ‘digital art’ in close succession, they think of Photoshop and photo editing.
What they don’t realize is that with certain blending modes artists can do a whole lot more than edit a particular image. However, learning how to blend accurately is not all that easy a task, and for that very reason, GDQuest has a guide which teaches blending from scratch.
The 12-minute video shows that if you’re feeling adventurous with your art, you can do so much with Krita blending and make something very unique and spectacular.
Blending might not be ideal for everyday use; however, the basics that GDquest goes over is easy to grasp and implement, and it’s a skill we believe would be helpful in the long run.
There are certain real-world scenario sketches that would look just magnificent with the perfect amount of blending.
11. A Comic Page from A to Z by David Revoy
Not all digital painting software will help you make a comic book page as easily or even as effectively as Krita would.
So, if you want to start your very own webtoon series or even a manga for that matter on Krita, then this tutorial video from David Reboy will help you get started on the right foot.
David, in this video, creates a full comic book page from scratch. This video is amazingly detailed as well: it’s about 2 hours long, and he goes over every single facet of what he does in great detail.
However, he provides no narratives with the video, and though there are written texts, he does speed up certain parts of the video to make it shorter and much more engaging.
Even with the lack of the narrative and the sped up parts, the video is not going to be all that difficult for anyone to follow. You can very easily follow David’s process and try and mimic what he is trying to do and customize the workflow and the various brush settings to your liking.
12. Perfect Square in Perspective by LearningByDoodling
Not many Krita tutorial videos will be able to teach you the basic software fundamentals as effectively as this one from LearningByDoodling.
Hence, in that respect, this guide is quite unique and will help you to draw perfect shapes such as squares and circles very easily.
Drawing, solid, and uniform shapes on Krita can be rather difficult without the proper ‘tools and feature’ know how.
Sure, drawing such shapes are a piece of cake with a pencil and paper, but on a digital platform, it’s a completely different ball game altogether.
So if you’re looking to get into some serious digital designing, then this video is going to be able to help you out the most. It will show you not only to create perspective grids on the software, but also to sketch out incredibly accurate shapes in near-perfect perspective.
A 20-minute long video for drawing a box might seem rather excessive to many, but to us, it just goes to show how in depth the creator has gone to help out his audience the best he can.
The video talks extensively about the importance of perspectives and shapes, and how best one can go about representing them.
13. Coloring and Skin by Griatch
This is a very helpful time-lapse video from Griatch, which is just amazing in helping out both amateurs and professionals in getting a complete grasp over the coloring formats of Krita.
Accurately representing the colors of human anatomy such as skin and hair, and making them look realistic on the digital platform can be a rather complicated task to achieve.
And learning to finish a particular drawing, with the right coloring and blends is one of the toughest things for beginner artists.
This time-lapse video doesn’t particularly have a narrative or a detailed description per se; however, you learn the methods by watching and trying to mimic the movements. It will allow you to have a thorough grasp of the various tool choices and learn how to perfectly mix colors for skin tones.
But, if you’re looking for a guide that comes with a narrative, this video will not be able to serve your needs at all. But we still think that you should give it a watch, because the methods are really very easy to follow, and can help provide your art pieces with the much-needed finesse that can capture anyone’s attention.
14. Color Mixing Brushes Tutorial by GDquest
Here is another brush tutorial, but this time it’s by GDquest, and it primarily deals with mixing colors with brushes.
Every digital painting software works a bit differently, especially when it comes to mixing colors. Now, Krita has a lot of ways by which you can mix colors to get the desired shade, and this is precisely why it is so very versatile.
Once you get it down to the workflow and get used to the customizing options, mixing paint with brushes in Krita is as easy as it gets.
But learning how to do it can take a considerable amount of time; however, this detailed tutorial guide will help you to grasp the concepts faster, and inspire you to experiment with the colors and mix them whichever way you want.
The entire video may not be useful to you, as it does deal with the complete coloring method in general and you may need to just discard away the things you will not be working with.
15. Introduction to Krita by Sara Tepes
This tutorial by Sara tepes is a really fun and engaging introductory video to this amazing digital designing platform.
It offers a very brief yeat a surprisingly detailed introduction to Krita, with small explanatory lessons on how the various tools work.
In just 12 minutes the video covers a lot about the platform and can be an excellent follow up guide to those who just got into Krita and trying their hand out at some of its features.
And since you get through this tutorial fast and quick, you can then immediately get to pinpoint some areas of the GUI you have problems grasping and need to lay more emphasis on.
16. Painting With Krita by GDquest
With so many videos on Krita, one might honestly be surprised to know that GDquest is not a Krita only community or channel.
They have a lot of videos on several platforms like FireAlpaca, 3ds Max, Krita, etc. And this 7 minute long video on how to learn painting in Krita is one of the many gems that’s present on their channel and website.
The video shows, how to start a digital painting on the software. It teaches the use of the several Krita brush tools , along with how to swap out colors fast and effectively.
It will all help you learn how to flesh out your ideas immediately or even when traveling, as Krita is a very flexible program and has a variety of user-friendly features which any beginner can take advantage of.
17. Lineart Tips with Krita by David Revoy
David Revoy simplifies the whole process and concept behind lieart amazingly well in this video.
Now, what a lot of beginners and newcomers are not aware of is that, lineart is one of the initial styles and drawing methods that one should learn before venturing further into more complex sketch works.
Practicing lineart gets you more comfortable with the software and you slowly start to become more and more adept with some of the Krita tools which are available to you.
The video shows that the best way to get started on it is by tracing scanned drawings digitally first. And then once you are done scanning the entire image, you then move onto a new layer and then start to paint all on your own.
This creates the much needed confidence which in the long run will help you grow as you experiment.
Final Thoughts
When starting out on a new digital painting software, learning the new tool settings and the brushes are the most challenging part of it. But we hope that our list of tutorials today will help you out with Krita and all its various applications.
Till next time!
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