8 Best Drawing Software For Beginners in 2024! (Free And Paid)

Whether you’re looking for paid drawing software or a free drawing software alternative, I have the solution for you!

I’ve ranked a bunch of different drawing software for beginners (but that many professional artists use) and made a list for you. From more complex to simpler software, there’s something for everyone.

So here are the best drawing software for beginners!

Best Paid Drawing Software

A lot of the time, paid drawing software tends to have more features, is more robust, and is usually updated more often with new features and bug fixing.

Even though back in the day, these tended to be more costly, nowadays, they’re much more affordable.

They’re also very popular in the art and animation industry, so if you’re planning on working in these areas, it’s good to get used to some of them!

And of course, don’t forget that you’ll need a great drawing tablet to pair with the drawing software below.

Clip Studio Paint Pro

I’ve been using Clip Studio Paint for a really long time, and it’s definitely my favorite drawing software.

I use it for most of my freelance work, drawing courses, and even Youtube videos.

If I need to create some work-related art, then this is the software I turn to.

For that reason, it’s my first recommendation when it comes to paid drawing software. Clip Studio Paint is very affordable software that will let you do all kinds of illustration and animation work!

Be it illustration, comics, webtoons, or animation, you’ll have the necessary tools for it.

Over time Clip Studio Paint keeps updating with new and more accessible tools to make your work easier and faster.

Not only that, but it also provides tons of resources, a lot of them for free! If you need even more brushes, textures, patterns, screen tones, backgrounds, effects, and even pose references there’s a whole Material app/store to look at.

It’s a very complete drawing software that has a very reasonable learning curve. Although it’s filled with features, you can slowly get to them and it’s all very intuitive to use!

Price: $49.99 one-time purchase for the PC/macOS.

You also have monthly plans, where you can use the software on several different devices (including iPad and Android). You can check the different plans right here.

Features: 5/5 ⭐

Ease of Use: 3/5 ⭐

Who’s it for: this is a great art software for illustrators, comic/webtoon creators, and animators. Even though it needs some time for adaptation, it’s very beginner-friendly as well, so it’s perfect for artists at any level!

Procreate

Even though Procreate is a software available only for the iPad and iPhone I think it’s worth mentioning.

Nowadays there are already quite a lot of options for more portable devices, so you can draw on the go. However, I feel a lot of them can still be too simple, missing quite a lot of useful features.

The great thing about Procreate is that it’s very easy to use, and has the most essential tools and features to create beautiful artwork at a very affordable price!

It’s a one-time purchase of $9.99 for the iPad or $4.99 for the iPhone.

Taking into account all the updates Procreate has provided, adding more and more features to enhance our drawing experience, I feel it’s a great price, even if you are on a budget.

Procreate has a very clean interface, but it’s also really simple and intuitive to use.

Price: $9.99 iPad version or $4.99 for Procreate Pocket, the iPhone version.

Features: 4/5 ⭐

Ease of Use: 5/5 ⭐

Who’s it for: this is a very straightforward drawing software for both artists and animators. With it, you can create both very minimalistic and detailed artwork. Due to its simplistic and intuitive interface, it’s great for both beginner and veteran artists!

Adobe Fresco

If you’re a fan of Adobe, in general, Adobe Fresco is a nice option. First released on more portable devices like the iPad and the iPhone, you can also get it for desktop nowadays.

If you’re familiar with software like Photoshop, you won’t have much trouble with the transition from one to the other.

Not only that but since they belong to the same company, you can start your work in one software and then move it to another, if you need more specific features.

Its design is, similarly to Procreate, very clean and easy to use. However, due to being more complete, with extra tools and features, it needs some more time to learn and know where everything is.

Price: $9.99 per month after a 30-day trial

Features: 5/5 ⭐

Ease of Use: 3/5 ⭐

Who’s it for: A great app for someone who works a lot with Adobe products, either for work or personal use. You can easily work on the same artwork on different devices, but also on different Adobe software if you need any specific tool.

Corel Painter 2022

Corel Painter is definitely on the more professional level and I think it’s worth considering it if you’re really invested in your art career.

However a bit more pricy, it sure delivers quite a lot of features and tools and it’s a really good drawing software if you do more painterly artworks.

Over time Corel Painter developed more and more features for artists to be able to customize their tools, to create the perfect texture for their artworks.

If you tend to create or customize your brushes a lot, to make your work more unique and personal, then Corel Painter is perfect for you.

One of the best new features is the ability to customize a brush, without losing its original settings! This way, you can explore and change the brushes at will while still maintaining their original feeling.

Not only that but there are lots of resources in the software itself, but you can also buy even more packs on their website.

There’s even a 15-day trial option so you can test it out before committing.

Price: $235.95 or a $124 annual subscription

Features: 5/5 ⭐

Ease of Use: 2/5 ⭐

Who’s it for: for with some more experience or just wants to try something more professional. It’s also good for artists with more of a painterly style who prefer to have more control and customization over their tools.

Best Free Drawing Software

Nowadays it’s very possible to download extremely well-developed drawing software that is regularly updated for free!

So either if you want to test digital art or are on the budget there are quite a lot of options for you.

Even if more convoluted and less intuitive to use at times, the features and resources offered are quite amazing.

If you’re looking for art software for more than digital illustration, such as vector illustration or even animation and 3D I have a list of the 16 Best Free Drawing Software for you!

Krita

Krita is probably one of my favorite free drawing software. It has a whole lot of brushes to explore and overall its interface is very easy to navigate.

I always like to point out Krita’s brushes because they really offer us a great array of mediums and textures. This is especially important if you like to replicate traditional mediums through digital art.

Charcoal, oil, watercolor, graphite pencil… you got it all!

Aside from illustration, Krita also supports animation as well as tools to create your own comics.

I remind you again that this is a free drawing software, that offers new and veteran artists many well-developed tools to create beautiful artworks.

Now, even though Krita is fairly easy to navigate, I feel it needs some time to get fully familiar with it. However, you can find lots of tutorials around including a tutorial page on their website!

There, you’ll find everything you need to know to get started on Krita.

Features: 5/5 ⭐

Ease of Use: 4/5 ⭐

Who’s it for: Krita is great for beginner artists or for someone who wants to simulate traditional mediums while drawing digitally. It has a very friendly interface and there are lots of tutorials to help out when starting.

Autodesk Sketchbook Pro

I’ve mentioned Autodesk Sketchbook Pro before, but it’s a really nice software if you’re looking for something really simple and easy to use!

Even though it offers significantly fewer features than other drawing software, you can still do beautiful artwork with it.

Not only that, but Sketchbook Pro provides quite a lot of brushes with different effects and textures, which gives quite some liberty to work on different art styles.

Since it’s developed with tablets and phones in mind, this app has a very clean look, making it also really intuitive to use.

For that same reason, it’s also quite a lightweight software, meaning you don’t have to have a super-advanced device to use it properly.

Personally, it’s a software I like to have on my phone to sketch ideas on the go, and since it’s free, it’s very handy to have it installed anywhere, even for such a simple task!

Features: 3/5 ⭐

Ease of Use: 5/5 ⭐

Who’s it for: great for artists that are looking for a very simple and easy-to-use app. Due to its simplicity, I think it makes a great sketching app, both at home/office and on the go.

Medibang

Yet another software that you can download on any device. Android, PC, iPad, or iPhone, you choose!

This can be especially useful if you tend to work on different devices and need to move your artwork from one to the next, easily.

Medibang is a free drawing software that offers over 100 brushes to use as well as a whole lot of other free resources such as backgrounds, tones, textures, and even icons!

Medibang is very comic-oriented, meaning you can create your own comics here. It has tools to create and customize your own panels as well as a bunch of free fonts to use.

The only con is that the interface can seem a bit chaotic at first and you might need some help starting out. However, Medibang has quite a lot of helpful tutorials on its website that are worth checking out.

Features: 4/5 ⭐

Ease of Use: 3/5 ⭐

Who’s it for: Medibang is a great drawing software for artists who are looking to create their own comics. Even though it works very well for general illustration work, it has great tools to create your own stories!

FireAlpaca

It has Alpaca in the name, you don’t need any other reason to try it out!

Alright, jokes aside, FireAlpaca is a fairly simple and easy-to-use drawing software available for both Windows and macOS.

With it, you can create illustrations, comics, and even animations. The biggest con of this software, compared to others, is the lack of customization of tools.

This means that you’re a bit more limited in the style you go for, so it’s probably more suitable for simpler styles.

However, the software itself provides a big number of extra materials that you can import into your list of brushes.

These materials can be very useful when creating objects such as ropes, chains, hair, stamps, and many others!

Another thing I really like about FireAlpaca is its grid feature. You can create perspective grids or other types of effects to help you out.

It works both as a perspective tool, and also as an assistant to create more difficult line effects!

Features: 3/5 ⭐

Ease of Use: 4/5 ⭐

Who’s it for: FireAlpaca is really good for beginner artists who want to start simple. Sometimes, less is best, and sometimes, opening a drawing software and seeing so many tools and features can be scary, so this is a good starting place.

What Software Do Most Artists Use?

Most artists nowadays still use Photoshop or other Adobe products.

Their software has been around for a long time and it’s a very feature-filled software option as well as very powerful. 

This is mostly used in a professional setting since the subscription price can be a big downside for casual artists.

With that said, nowadays you can find very good drawing software at a very reasonable price.

For that reason, many artists started making the move from Photoshop to other drawing software like Clip Studio Paint or even Procreate.

All in all, it’s good to try a few different drawing software and choose the option that feels more comfortable to you!

And if you’re looking for open source, here are the best free open source software for artists!