Sketching Software Recommendations

[dadgumLee]

I'm looking to get back into some sketching and cartooning (not to say that I'm a remotely any good, but it's an outlet, and I fear I'm going to need a good outlet in the coming months).

My iPad Pro from 2015 has largely given into its geriatric malaise and barely functions anymore. Instead of dropping that kinda of cash for a new one and new pencil, I got myself a newer low-end Wacom tablet with a screen. Not that it wasn't great, but this feels much more natural to me than the iPad ever did.

I don't do as much graphic work as I used to, so I canned my Adobe subscription when I saw the inevitability of the hoisting some well-branded petards were about to engage in and chose to steer clear. I've since purchased and now use Affinity suite, which I like a lot on the big screen, but it's a little cumbersome on my new Wacom tablet.

All that said, does anyone have a recommendation for a good sketching/drawing software for cartooning? I'm been looking into Clip Studio Paint Pro and will probably try the trial this weekend. I really just want something with a clean interface since I'll be on that small tablet, but would like for it to have some power under the hood overall.

Any input would be appreciated! Thanks in advance!

[classicbri]

I'd be curious for recs on this as well. Funny enough, about this time last year I fell head-over-heels in love with sketching again on paper. I switched to sketching with a ballpoint pen and I don't know if it was the pen or just trying anything different, but it unlocked something and I 've gone back and forth with paper and Procreate/iPad ever since.

Someday hopefully Procreate will bring their magic to desktops! Especially now that they've made a very public "anti-AI" stance, but until then, we need something for sketching!

Let me dig around—I'll try to get a list going.

Make sure to share some of your sketches! Do you block out time for it or is it more random?