Learn All the Tools in One Spot

Krita is a free painting tool designed for concept artists, illustrators, matte and texture artists, and the VFX industry. It has been in development for over 10 years and has had an explosion in growth recently. It offers many common and innovative features to help the amateur and professional alike.

The book is 230 pages jam-packed with content, tips, and information on how Krita works. At times the content is more of a technical manual while other times it feels like an art instruction book.

• Discover how assistants can speed up your creative process.
• Understand how to use the powerful brush engines.
• Master the user interface.

The content focuses on creating art, but many of the explanations and concepts can be carried over to other fields. I thought it would be helpful to have a single author that could focus on writing and explain all the latest features that Krita offers from end-to-end. You will learn many things including the following:

• See how to select and transform your artwork to fix common mistakes.
• Learn more about managing colors in your image.
• Countless tips and shortcuts that will speed up your work flow.
• Many illustrations to help you understand concepts.
• Has the most up-to-date instructions for version 2.9.7

There are a lot of wiki articles and YouTube videos, but many of them are old and incomplete. The people that maintain the Krita documentation are also developers, so their time is torn between documentation and programming.

An Art Tool that All Artists Need to Try

Krita is an award-winning and FREE painting tool designed for the following people in mind:

• Concept artists
• Illustrators
• Matte and Texture artists
• VFX industry

Krita has been in development for over 10 years and has had an explosion in growth recently. It offers many common and innovative features to help the amateur and professional alike.

Checkout the Krita website to learn more about it and download a copy.

See artist David Revoy working on his web comic Pepper & Carrot.

Why Krita is Being Well-Received

I have spent a lot of time talking with developers, listening to the common issues that people have, and have studied all of the training material that exists. After spending so much time in Krita, I have learned a few things:

1. This application is amazing for creating artwork: I previously used other “industry standard” software before I found Krita. After learning more about the features, flexibility, and community that surround Krita, I think it is a tool that needs to be on every artists’ computer.
2. This project is heavily driven by artists: Almost all of the programmers that improve the application are artists as well.
3. This application doesn’t exist to satisfy share holders or get a good “return on investment”. It is sincerely a labor of love. Krita can be used by every artist—from hobbyist to professional.
4. There is an abundance of work done by volunteers that you don’t hear much about. Campaigns like Kickstarter really help the main developers have food on the table, but that is only a slice of the work that goes into this project. To get an idea, compare the Krita 2.9 release notes with the Krita 2.9 Kickstarter goals.

This is a large reason why I decided that a percentage of the profits will be donated to the Krita Foundation. This will mean more features, bug fixes, and help make Krita even better.

Who Am I?

I have been using Krita since 2013. I originally found out about it through the Blender (3-D modeling) community. In 2014, I heard a “call for help” in redesigning and managing the website. I contacted Boudewjin Rempt (main Krita developer) and spent a lot of time in the next months gathering feedback and eventually coming up with the current krita.org website. I still actively manage and make improvements to the site as needed.

During the website process, I began to talk frequently with the Krita developers and volunteers. I saw they also needed some occasional guidance in the user interface department, so I assisted with that (design and C++ coding). While assisting with these aspects, I found that Krita needed more time spent toward education and training. The developers continue to push forward at a remarkable pace, but there was not enough time to document and show-off everything Krita had to offer. That is what started my journey with writing this book.

Where Do I Get the Book?

This book is available in two formats: print and e-book format. The book is in full color and contains a lot of artwork along the way. The ebook is also in color and is a good alternative if you have a tighter budget. The images and illustrations are a lower quality because of the requirements for ebooks, but all of the information is still there.

• The retail price for the book is $39.99
• The retail price for the ebook is $9.99

You can find the books and ebooks on Amazon, Barnes and Nobles, etc.

Still Can’t Afford It?

I know for some of you $10 is still quite a bit of money. You might have tried out Krita because it is free. You cannot afford stuff like books and that is just how it is right now. Maybe that $10 or $40 might be an entire month or year of your allowance that you cannot part with.

So where can you get free books at any time? A magical place where you can just walk in and almost everything in your view can be rented for free?

Your local library! Did you know that a lot of libraries will get you a book for free if you just ask them for it? Every country works differently so I cannot guarantee that this will always work. I know this method will at least work in the U.S.A. Give it a shot.