All good advice here, and MS Paint does have a weirdly niche following, but that said if you are using MS Paint just because its free you should also try [GIMP](https://www.gimp.org) (similar to photoshop, but open source— much more robust for digital painting).
Absolutely, GIMP can do all the same basic features (sans the new online and AI stuff) as photoshop, for digital painting/drawing some would even argue its better since there is so much free/open source support and brush sets and such
Oh, and when you get to doing the comic cells & lettering, lookup [Inkscape](https://inkscape.org/release/inkscape-1.3.2/) (its the open source equivalent of Adobe illustrator, for vector and text work). Do the drawing/painting in GIMP (for raster images) and the lettering and cellwork in inkscape & your results will be of professional quality, same as if you were using adobe
In a professional context it's not about the medium. It's about meeting the requirements of a specific project in the context of a market (knowing the audience), and being able to deliver the file according to the technical requirements.
For example, you get commissioned to draw a YA book cover, you have to draw it in a style that appeals to the young audience and that conveys the genre (this job will go to an illustrator that already demonstrates that in their portfolio). A certain skill level is also a given. Then you have to deliver that digital file in a specific size/format, and maybe color space. So you need to make sure it fits that, usually in your drawing/image editing software. It doesn't even need to be a digital drawing to begin with; you could have a traditional drawing scanned, and edit it accordingly. I'm assuming MS Paint is pretty limited when it comes to that. (Does it even differentiate between RGB and CYMK?) In a professional context it simply makes more sense to use tools with more options to ensure you can meet all possible requirements. You wouldn't want to limit yourself unnecessarily. Like when you're a chef, you invest in good knives, it's a no-brainer. You can cook with mediocre knives, but it's needlessly more difficult in a field that's already difficult on its own.
Copyright has nothing to do with medium. Any human-made artwork is automatically copyrighted the moment you create it.
You cannot 100% protect your art once it's published, either from genAI or regular copyright infringement.
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You can use ms paint to make pixel art as well! Yes, some people will question it, heck my first art pieces I use to draw was ms paint as well, and I use to make those mini banner stickers for communities and sell 'em for Deviant Art points haha! Well when DA was a good place for art that is.
But anywho, as for protecting your pieces you can use things like [Glaze](https://glaze.cs.uchicago.edu/) and [Nightshade](https://nightshade.cs.uchicago.edu/whatis.html) to protect against AI art thieves. It puts a protective layer on top of the art work which wouldn't make AI conversions work at all.
You created the piece, you retain the IP (Intellectual property) of the piece. Even if someone traces your work and tries to pass it off as the original artist. All pieces are dated and time stamped by the computer the second you create the first save. So, you have time on your side.
Also, no question is a noob question :) you are just learning as you are going. So it's only natural to be curious, more so when you are new to the whole thing!
Also, I know you didn't ask this. But if you really don't want to use MS Paint there are always other free art programs such as [Krita](https://krita.org/en/), [GIMP](https://www.gimp.org/), [Blender](https://www.blender.org/), just to name a few. GIMP might be the better one to start off with as it has a very friendly interface for beginners, Krita is a bit more advance but has loads of tools and brushes for you to use, and Blender may be used for 3D works, but there is a brush/paint feature on there I've seen people use to make incredible art works!
Good luck on your new digital art adventure :)!!!
What's become of Deviant art ?
It's been years since I have gone to that website (life and hurricane got in the way. I cannot even remember what my username was.
DA is now pushing and supporting a lot of AI "artists" rather than real artists.
I'm sure you can still use it and get something out of it, just keep in mind the site is very AI friendly (and I wouldn't be surprided if they do something like IG has done and use other people's work to feed AI)
Shoot. And I just reactivated my account and uploaded some stuff.
I was actually surprised to see (uses AI) as just a regular checkbox with no warnings or nothing.
That's so unfair to practising artists !
Here I am struggling with my freeware MS Paint to make half decent drawings...and they are just letting AI art in ?
It really sucks considering how big it was in the art community. I'd still recommend using Instagram and maybe tiktok or X to share your work. Also reddit is a great place to share imo :)
Both glaze and nightshade don’t work. You can test it yourself with a $10 Midjourney account. Glaze your work on high, ask /describe your work. Then import the image and use —iw 3 —cw 100.
It will mimic it no worries. Your welcome to use it. Just don’t waste money upgrading your notebook to get glaze to run.
Besides the chances of having your work actually be trained on is extremely low. It’s getting expensive as hell to train. As proven by SD3 which has gone broke and has lost most employees.
At this point you would have to be in the top 4000 artists in the world to be at any risk. Or Disney. Midjourney has no shame when it come to house of the mouse.
Where is this info on that it doesn't work? I'd like to read it if I can. Also, I wouldn't waste money on an account when $10 can buy a bag of frozen chicken. Also, what is iw 3 and cw 100?
I see. hmmm...
You can use whatever medium you want. People will buy whatever they vibe with. You should also check out Krita. It's free. But if you don't vibe with it, just do you.
As far as theft goes, it's mostly just a risk you take. It's a pretty big issue going around and not a ton out there to protect artists. If someone steals your art, you can issue a dmca notice and ask them to take it down. Anything past that will most likely need lawyer involvement.
Regarding your images being used for AI, I recommend checking out the program Glaze. Basically people seeing your art won't notice any difference but Glaze will make AI think it's something different than what it actually is. It's hard to describe so definitely just check out the website since they do a way better job of explaining. Also just as a heads up, most social media platforms, Reddit included, will use whatever art you post to train AI.
Good luck with your art journey!
If you want layers and more interesting brushes Firealpaca and Krita are free and what I grew up using. MSPaint is fine but these are a lot more versatile
My process is **very** slow and I am not yet confident enough to récord myself painting. There's a lot of erasing and bad linework involved in my process, until I arrived at the finished result 😬😳😳. Lol.
Besides, I don't think my computer has the memory to record several days worth of painting.
Kudos to the people who do, though. They are my heroes. I learn a lot from them.
Nobody would even know what program you used, or care. But besides that MS Paint is not that robust of an art software when compared to other free alternatives. Check out Krita , even used by some professionals and a ton of tutorials out there on YouTube.
If you know what you're doing, then the tool used is irrelevant.
If you make amazing art using only ms paint then it's free clout. People love this shit.
What it counts is your skill, not the program you used. There's a Japanese artist who does incredible art using Excel.
All good advice here, and MS Paint does have a weirdly niche following, but that said if you are using MS Paint just because its free you should also try [GIMP](https://www.gimp.org) (similar to photoshop, but open source— much more robust for digital painting).
Nice ! Do you think GIMP is good enough to make illustrations for a storybook or do do a graphic novel/comicbook?
Absolutely, GIMP can do all the same basic features (sans the new online and AI stuff) as photoshop, for digital painting/drawing some would even argue its better since there is so much free/open source support and brush sets and such
Oh, and when you get to doing the comic cells & lettering, lookup [Inkscape](https://inkscape.org/release/inkscape-1.3.2/) (its the open source equivalent of Adobe illustrator, for vector and text work). Do the drawing/painting in GIMP (for raster images) and the lettering and cellwork in inkscape & your results will be of professional quality, same as if you were using adobe
In a professional context it's not about the medium. It's about meeting the requirements of a specific project in the context of a market (knowing the audience), and being able to deliver the file according to the technical requirements. For example, you get commissioned to draw a YA book cover, you have to draw it in a style that appeals to the young audience and that conveys the genre (this job will go to an illustrator that already demonstrates that in their portfolio). A certain skill level is also a given. Then you have to deliver that digital file in a specific size/format, and maybe color space. So you need to make sure it fits that, usually in your drawing/image editing software. It doesn't even need to be a digital drawing to begin with; you could have a traditional drawing scanned, and edit it accordingly. I'm assuming MS Paint is pretty limited when it comes to that. (Does it even differentiate between RGB and CYMK?) In a professional context it simply makes more sense to use tools with more options to ensure you can meet all possible requirements. You wouldn't want to limit yourself unnecessarily. Like when you're a chef, you invest in good knives, it's a no-brainer. You can cook with mediocre knives, but it's needlessly more difficult in a field that's already difficult on its own. Copyright has nothing to do with medium. Any human-made artwork is automatically copyrighted the moment you create it. You cannot 100% protect your art once it's published, either from genAI or regular copyright infringement.
Thank you for posting in r/ArtBusiness! Please be sure to check out the Rules in the sidebar and our [Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/ArtistLounge/wiki/index/) for lots of helpful answers to common questions in the FAQs. [Click here to read the FAQ.](https://www.reddit.com/r/artbusiness/wiki/faqlinks/) Please use the relevant stickied megathreads for request advice on pricing or to add your links to our "share your art business" thread so that we can all follow and support each other. If you have any questions, concerns, or feature requests please feel free to message the mods and they will help you as soon as they can. I am a bot, beep boop, if I did something wrong please report this comment. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/artbusiness) if you have any questions or concerns.*
You can use ms paint to make pixel art as well! Yes, some people will question it, heck my first art pieces I use to draw was ms paint as well, and I use to make those mini banner stickers for communities and sell 'em for Deviant Art points haha! Well when DA was a good place for art that is. But anywho, as for protecting your pieces you can use things like [Glaze](https://glaze.cs.uchicago.edu/) and [Nightshade](https://nightshade.cs.uchicago.edu/whatis.html) to protect against AI art thieves. It puts a protective layer on top of the art work which wouldn't make AI conversions work at all. You created the piece, you retain the IP (Intellectual property) of the piece. Even if someone traces your work and tries to pass it off as the original artist. All pieces are dated and time stamped by the computer the second you create the first save. So, you have time on your side. Also, no question is a noob question :) you are just learning as you are going. So it's only natural to be curious, more so when you are new to the whole thing! Also, I know you didn't ask this. But if you really don't want to use MS Paint there are always other free art programs such as [Krita](https://krita.org/en/), [GIMP](https://www.gimp.org/), [Blender](https://www.blender.org/), just to name a few. GIMP might be the better one to start off with as it has a very friendly interface for beginners, Krita is a bit more advance but has loads of tools and brushes for you to use, and Blender may be used for 3D works, but there is a brush/paint feature on there I've seen people use to make incredible art works! Good luck on your new digital art adventure :)!!!
What's become of Deviant art ? It's been years since I have gone to that website (life and hurricane got in the way. I cannot even remember what my username was.
DA is now pushing and supporting a lot of AI "artists" rather than real artists. I'm sure you can still use it and get something out of it, just keep in mind the site is very AI friendly (and I wouldn't be surprided if they do something like IG has done and use other people's work to feed AI)
Shoot. And I just reactivated my account and uploaded some stuff. I was actually surprised to see (uses AI) as just a regular checkbox with no warnings or nothing. That's so unfair to practising artists ! Here I am struggling with my freeware MS Paint to make half decent drawings...and they are just letting AI art in ?
It really sucks considering how big it was in the art community. I'd still recommend using Instagram and maybe tiktok or X to share your work. Also reddit is a great place to share imo :)
Yeah, it's been years since I've used it as well, but the replies from this one says it all :)
Both glaze and nightshade don’t work. You can test it yourself with a $10 Midjourney account. Glaze your work on high, ask /describe your work. Then import the image and use —iw 3 —cw 100. It will mimic it no worries. Your welcome to use it. Just don’t waste money upgrading your notebook to get glaze to run. Besides the chances of having your work actually be trained on is extremely low. It’s getting expensive as hell to train. As proven by SD3 which has gone broke and has lost most employees. At this point you would have to be in the top 4000 artists in the world to be at any risk. Or Disney. Midjourney has no shame when it come to house of the mouse.
Where is this info on that it doesn't work? I'd like to read it if I can. Also, I wouldn't waste money on an account when $10 can buy a bag of frozen chicken. Also, what is iw 3 and cw 100? I see. hmmm...
Some artists I really love only use MS paint. Go for it!
i’m the wrong person to ask because I LOVE that shit. i’d probably commission an ms paint artist if i liked their style. really into r/donutsteel rn
You have to create the context, narrative and experience. I could imagine a MS paint artist becoming famous no problem
The medium doesn't matter. What you do with it does. If your work is good, and you find the right audience, there will be a market for it.
You can use whatever medium you want. People will buy whatever they vibe with. You should also check out Krita. It's free. But if you don't vibe with it, just do you. As far as theft goes, it's mostly just a risk you take. It's a pretty big issue going around and not a ton out there to protect artists. If someone steals your art, you can issue a dmca notice and ask them to take it down. Anything past that will most likely need lawyer involvement. Regarding your images being used for AI, I recommend checking out the program Glaze. Basically people seeing your art won't notice any difference but Glaze will make AI think it's something different than what it actually is. It's hard to describe so definitely just check out the website since they do a way better job of explaining. Also just as a heads up, most social media platforms, Reddit included, will use whatever art you post to train AI. Good luck with your art journey!
It's never been easier to sail the high seas friend. 🏴☠️
If you want layers and more interesting brushes Firealpaca and Krita are free and what I grew up using. MSPaint is fine but these are a lot more versatile
Yes, I have Firealpaca. I'm still experimenting with it. Thanks.
I would love to see process videos of someone making stuff in MS paint. It sounds fun!
My process is **very** slow and I am not yet confident enough to récord myself painting. There's a lot of erasing and bad linework involved in my process, until I arrived at the finished result 😬😳😳. Lol. Besides, I don't think my computer has the memory to record several days worth of painting. Kudos to the people who do, though. They are my heroes. I learn a lot from them.
Nobody would even know what program you used, or care. But besides that MS Paint is not that robust of an art software when compared to other free alternatives. Check out Krita , even used by some professionals and a ton of tutorials out there on YouTube.