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Need a distraction-free art application on Linux? Try out MyPaint

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If you have a Wacom-style graphic tablet and you need a simple and distraction-free painting program, MyPaint seems like it could be a really good fit.

The developer, Martin Renold, says it's a "fast and dead-simple painting app for artists" and I can certainly appreciate the ease of use to it. Very handy for doing any kind of art really. Perhaps if you're in the mood for some sketching, mockups or you're designing art for a game it's pretty sweet.

A big new version is currently in testing, with a Beta that was released back in December. This brings with it great AppImage support to run it (hopefully) out of the box on any modern Linux distribution, along with tons of new features for artists like Spectral Paint/Pigment layer and brush mode, Linear blending for non-pigment layers and brush modes, Smudge enhancements, Fullscreen improvements, "fake inputs" for pressure and barrel rotation (allowing on-the-fly expressive adjustments to your brush even while using a mouse) and loads more.

Artwork: "Pinguins" by Yumemi-chan

MyPaint Feature Highlight:

  • Infinite canvas
  • Extremely configurable brushes
  • Distraction-free fullscreen mode
  • Extensive graphic tablet support
  • Speed, simplicity, and expressiveness
  • Realistic paint-like pigment model
  • 15 bit Rec 709 linear RGB colorspace
  • Brush settings stored with each stroke on the canvas
  • Layers, various modes, and layer groups

Free and open source, so you can enjoy creating with it as much as you want without the worries of any time-trial nonsense. Check it out on GitHub and the official site.

Hat tip to dpanter.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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Nanobang Jan 21, 2020
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I love MyPaint! As a consummate doodler and sometimes illustrator/cartoonist over the better part of 50 years, I can tell you that MyPaint is the closest thing I've found to working on paper, to grabbing a pencil or pen and a piece of paper. I can pretty much just open it and and begin. It really is a different beast altogether.


Last edited by Nanobang on 23 January 2020 at 12:35 pm UTC
Projectile Vomit Jan 21, 2020
Cool! Thank you for introducing this to us!

(edit: The FlatPack failed. I'll have to try again, later)


Last edited by Projectile Vomit on 21 January 2020 at 5:00 pm UTC
no_information_here Jan 21, 2020
Quoting: NanobangI love MyPaint! As a consumate doodler and sometimes illustrator/cartoonist over the better part of 50 years, I can tell you that MyPaint is the closest thing I've found to working on paper, to grabbing a pencil or pen and a piece of paper. I can pretty much just open it and and begin. It really is a different beast altogether.
I have a friend who uses MyPaint quite a bit. She says similar things.

Great to see it getting a big update.
Liam Dawe Jan 21, 2020
Quoting: GuestWhy the hell are you even writing about it on a gaming site?
I write about what ever the hell I want.

If it interests me, I write about it. If I think it might help others, I write about it. You know what games are made from right? Art.


Last edited by Liam Dawe on 21 January 2020 at 10:49 pm UTC
Purple Library Guy Jan 22, 2020
Quoting: GuestI don't need a distraction free painting application. What I need is an actually good painting application. Close to working on paper? Is there something special about paper that I missed?
Probably.
If a whole lot of people, some of them talented, think there's something special about something, and you don't see what it could possibly be, then either they're all morons or there's something you missed. There's certainly a chance you're a genius and they're all morons who just haven't realized that they're actually getting nothing from whatever it is . . . but I know where my money would go.
Quoting: GuestI've always found artists who strap a piece of paper to their tablets to get that paper texture feel when they draw pretty sad to look at.
My, aren't we judgemental.
Shmerl Jan 22, 2020
For drawing, try Krita. It's a lot better than Gimp for that. The later is a good raster image processing editor.


Last edited by Shmerl on 22 January 2020 at 6:37 am UTC
Shmerl Jan 22, 2020
Quoting: GuestThe other day I literally just threw my hands up and gave up on this. After 5 years of trying to learn digital art on linux I'm just quitting, going to windows and using photoshop, because fuck this shit I'm not dealing with it while I'm learning. Nobody should. Do you know how many years this bullshit has potentially held me back for because I didn't know any better?

Did you file Krita bugs about all the above? Would be interesting to follow (performance, banding and etc.).
Purple Library Guy Jan 22, 2020
Quoting: ShmerlFor drawing, try Krita. It's a lot better than Gimp for that. The later is a good raster image processing editor.
So where does Inkscape come into all this?
Shmerl Jan 22, 2020
Quoting: Purple Library Guy
Quoting: ShmerlFor drawing, try Krita. It's a lot better than Gimp for that. The later is a good raster image processing editor.
So where does Inkscape come into all this?

Vector graphics - the third use case.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vector_graphics
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raster_graphics


Last edited by Shmerl on 22 January 2020 at 4:54 pm UTC
tuubi Jan 22, 2020
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Quoting: Purple Library Guy
Quoting: ShmerlFor drawing, try Krita. It's a lot better than Gimp for that. The later is a good raster image processing editor.
So where does Inkscape come into all this?
It's an awesome vector graphics editor.
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