I started drawing more recently and realized most people’s first introduction to digital art is drawings but they don’t know that digital art isn’t limited to talented artists with drawing skills.
In middle school, I found drawing difficult but that didn’t stop me from working full time as a digital designer today.
You do NOT have to be good at drawing to make digital art. Being good at drawing from the start will of course help you make beautiful digital art. You can learn how to draw digitally without any traditional experience. There are certain types of digital art that don’t require drawing at all.
In this post, I will go into depth about how to start digital art that doesn’t require you to be good at drawing as well as how you can get started learning to draw digitally.
How to Make Digital Art Without Being Good at Drawing
Now going off the original answer it seems pretty simple, just make digital art that doesn’t require drawing. I will cover this later in regards to different types of digital art that don’t need drawing at all but for some of you I am betting that is not why you came here.
Are you interested in making digital art that includes illustrations or drawings but are afraid because you’ve never used a digital drawing tablet?
Maybe drawing tablets seem exclusive to professional artists so you might be afraid of making the investment in buying one?
That is completely fine and logical. However, as I have made the investment myself years ago, multiple times at this point I can tell you happily that you have nothing to worry about.
Digital art and drawing is actually easier and more forgiving than traditional art! All you need is a PC with some type of art software and you’re ready to get started!
Now I still don’t consider myself the best at drawing but I do professional drawings and digital artwork that I get paid for regularly. All because I do it digitally.
Drawing tablets along with art and design software enables anyone to create beautiful drawings with smooth clean lines, shapes, forms, lighting, and colors. You can do all these things without having the perfect mechanical techniques to be able to do it traditionally drawing with a pencil on paper.
This is because the software in these tablets and programs actually do a lot of the work for you.
You can automatically create curves, lines, and different shapes with buttons. Or draw them using a tablet where they can automatically be smoothed out so you don’t worry about the perfect stroke.
Fill out colors with a single click, add lighting, shading, and texture effects with a couple more clicks.
Some of the greatest benefits is the ability to undo, copy, and paste, just like any other program.
You can only erase a physical drawing so many times only if it’s big enough for your eraser. Copying and pasting anything on paper is impossible on the other hand.
Unless… you’re a wizard Harry!
The efficiency from these shortcuts along with the ability to make mistakes without permanent consequence allows you to focus on the drawing and take away the stress. You are able to instantly learn from your mistakes and correct them on the spot.
Now I will most likely be making a post in the future on digital vs traditional art to describe ALL the pros and cons and I will link it here.
Using art and design software along with drawing tablets you can start creating digital art immediately without being good at drawing.
Digital Art Programs & Tablets To Create Digital Art For Beginners
This is just a short list of programs and tablets you can use to get started to create digital art exactly as I’ve described and shown.
These are all very popular options and as such have resources, tutorials, and forums all over the internet for beginners to learn.
Digital art has so much variety and as artists, we ourselves have a variety of workflows, likes, and dislikes. For that reason, please do your own research on all of these list items and test them using trials before you buy them.
I will do an in-depth post in the future on tablets and software in the future so you can compare all the features. That way I will do a lot of the work for you and link it here when I do.
Adobe Illustrator
https://www.adobe.com/products/illustrator.html
Absolute best program in my opinion for creating digital vector art especially for beginners as Adobe has a ton of resources and tutorials to learn from.
With Illustrator you can create different types of art without having to draw at all.
Combine Illustrator with a tablet and you can get yourself started drawing digitally and skip the pains of traditional art that we mentioned before.
Inkscape
Free alternative to Illustrator, Inkscape can create digital vector art just as well as Illustrator without costing you a penny!
Inkscape being free makes it a great start for beginners who are not ready to invest at the start.
Notice I said alternative, it’s not equivalent to Illustrator in my opinion but some people think it’s even better. It’s free so check it out and judge it for yourself.
Wacom Cintiq 16 Drawing Tablet
https://www.amazon.com/Wacom-Cintiq-Drawing-Tablet-DTK1660K0A/dp/B07L77GTTY
The most popular highly rated & reviewed drawing tablet with a screen made specifically for artists.
Ipad Pro
https://www.amazon.com/Apple-iPad-12-9-inch-Wi-Fi-128GB/dp/B0863D15R6/
Apple portable tablet that is used by professional artists all around the world for their work.
Procreate
https://apps.apple.com/app/procreate/id425073498
Apple’s most popular app of choice by afore mentioned artists to create their art.
Samsung Galaxy Tab S7+
https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Galaxy-Wi-Fi-Mystic-Black/dp/B08FBPRY3N
Android tablet, not as good as the iPad Pro for the purpose of a mobile drawing tablet but just the same is used by professional artists to make professional work.
ibis Paint X
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jp.ne.ibis.ibispaintx.app
Android’s most popular drawing app with over 80 million downloads.
Types of Digital Art That Do NOT Need Drawing Skills
Digital art takes advantage of digital technology, meaning you can use it to help you create any art you’d like.
Minimal art, abstract art, 3d models, 3d animations, pixel art, fractal/geometric art, photo edits/collages, programmed art, etc. These are just some of the many possibilities out there that I myself have had experience with.
1. Photo Editing & Manipulation
To get yourself started something like photo editing and manipulation will allow you to explore your creativity as much as you’d like with the endless library of images on the internet.
Using photo-editing alone there are many artists who have developed huge followings on platforms like Instagram but also work professionally on commercial projects.
2. Geometric/Fractal
These are two different types of art however they both do not require drawing as digital art because of their foundation on lines and shapes.
Lines alone allow you to create some truly magnificent pieces. Every program I know of can create a perfectly straight line, all you have to do is pick the points or click and drag.
Adding shapes into the mix you can go even further with beautiful patterns and designs.
Digital programs allow you to do these types of artworks in minutes to hours whereas in real life some of these would take you days and even weeks!
3.Pixel Art
Pixel art is a fun unique type of art that has risen in popularity with games like Minecraft and more indie titles like Undertale and Stardew Valley.
Luckily this nostalgic genre of art is based on being blocky with pixels. This makes pixel art more easy and forgiving for beginners to create.
4. 3D Modeling & Animation
3D Modeling while seemingly more intimidating than drawing because of the third dimension is actually easier in regards to mechanical ability as it does not require any drawing skill either.
Since 3d models are based on using existing 3d objects and modifying them in a program everything is exact. You don’t have to worry about manually drawing, shading, and lighting the shapes correctly it’s all done through settings
3D as art, especially animation, can definitely be more time-consuming than a drawing. The benefits of having things like shapes and lighting computerized make up for that extra time investment as you get it all done automatically.
5. Programmed Art
Using coding and certain programs like Processing which I used in college you can actually automate art.
Now it sounds funny and at a basic level may seem like just plugging in different random variables but if you learn just a little coding you can actually use this to create some beautiful art.
Not only that but depending on your code this can be code that has an infinite number of resulting art pieces without drawing any.
Some programmed art would actually take a ridiculous amount of time to recreate by drawing even with the result as reference.
You don’t have to be good at drawing to make digital art so go get started!
