Tools &
Resources
Helpful tools and resources that I use for my hobbies! I'm hoping to grow this section over time.
Tools and resources I use
Here's some lists of the programs, art supplies and other resources that I currently use in my website and artwork. Many of the programs that I use are free, or have free alternatives, so if you're interested in making your own website, or getting into digital/pixel art, check out the lists below ^_^
None of these are sponsored or anything, they're things I actually use, or have used in the past. You might have a different experience with some of these things, so definitely do your research into them and find what works best for you!
Website
If you're looking for some of the history, or more info about how I made this site, check out the about section.
Figma for Website Design
I designed my site using Figma, which you can use in browser for free! Occasionally I also draw some assets in GIMP or Krita too - the clouds were drawn in Krita to get the shapes right and then vectored in Figma afterwards. But the circles and gears were all drawn directly in Figma using circles and triangles/stars.
IcoMoon for UI Icons
Has lots of free icon sets (such as Material, Entypo, Font Awesome etc) and you can choose the ones you want instead of downloading ALL of them.
VS Code for Web Development
I switched over to using VS code for most of my web dev now, but previously used to use Sublime Text and good ol' Notepad when I first started. This website is built using Nuxt, but I do tend to try out different things over time.
TinyPNG for Image Optimising
Make your images smaller in file size, so your website loads faster. If I'm exporting things from Figma, they're typically huge in file size and TinyPNG makes it MUCH smaller, but without noticeable changes to the image quality.
Digital & Pixel Art
For details on how I draw some of my work, I have made illustration tutorials and pixel art tutorials.
Krita for Digital Art
While I used to use Photoshop for digital art and some of my website assets, since moving to Linux (which Adobe doesn't support) I now use Krita, which is pretty nice to work with. Bonus is that it's free! For brushes, I literally just use the round brush or the airbrush, nothing fancy.
Aseprite for Pixel Art
Definitely the best app I've used for pixel art. It's not free, but if you can afford to support the developers, it's worth it ^_^ If you can't there's LibreSprite, which is free.
XP Pen Artist 12 2nd Edition Tablet
Such a long name, but that's the drawing tablet that I'm currently using. It has a nice bright screen and has been pleasant to draw/pixel with. I spent so long drawing on tablets without screens though, that I still tend to look UP at my desktop screen anyway xD
GIMP for Picture Editing
I'll be honest, it's been a difficult shift over to GIMP because after using Photoshop for many years, it's just hard to change. But changing some of the shortcuts and things has made that a bit easier. I use GIMP now for some things that I just can't do in Krita or Figma easily, like colour correcting photos/documents.
Traditional Art
These are the materials I've used over the last couple of years. Find some of my process in the illustration tutorials section.
Watercolour Paints
I have a Mungyoo watercolour half pan set that I've had for several years now and it's still wonderful to use! I also have several colours of Dr Ph Martin's concentrated watercolours and they have AMAZING bright colours. I tend to use both in watercolour artworks.
Gouache Paints
Being fairly new to gouache, I haven't tried a huge number of brands, but I have a set of 12 Holbein Gouache paints and a set of 12 Nicker poster colour paints. I love both of these, the colours are SO vibrant and lovely and you can really layer them up.
Paper
My current favourite paper is Arches Hot Pressed 300gsm watercolour paper in a pad. It's fairly pricey, but absolutely worth it - good paper makes a huge difference to the painting experience. For cheaper paper that I like testing things out on, I use Eraldo di Paolo Hot Pressed Watercolour paper - I usually get it from Riot in Australia.
Brushes
I use a generic set of synthetic, round watercolour brushes the most. I need to branch out more with different brushes xD
