Digital illustration is just one of the many subtypes of digital art or new media art. Digital illustrations are created on a computer with the use of either a mouse or a graphics tablet in conjunction with a computer program designed to create illustrations. Some of these well known programs include Adobe Photoshop, Clip Studio Paint Pro, Clip Studio Paint EX, Corel Painter (I believe now just known as Painter), and Paint Tool Sai.

If you wanted to buy a program, my suggestion would be either Clip Studio Paint Pro (listed on their website as a one time buy for $49.99 or a monthly fee of $0.99), Clip Studio Paint EX (listed on their website as a one time buy for $219.00 or a monthly fee of $2.49) or Paint Tool Sai (listed as 5500 JPY or roughly $51.74 USD with sales tax included).

A quick note: The difference between Clip Studio Paint Pro and Clip Studio Paint EX is that the former is listed as mainly used for illustration while the later is used or includes features for comic and animation creation. Both Clip Studio Paint Pro & Clip Studio Paint EX are offered by the same company.

However I know for many people buying a software is not a commitment they want to make, whether it be for financial reasons or other personal reasons. Below I list digital illustration programs The I personally recommend that can be downloaded and used for free.

• Medibang Paint Pro – A lightweight illustration and comic creation program. It comes with a load of resources such as brushes, fonts, backgrounds, tones and patterns. The website for Medibang Paint Pro also has numerous tutorials and articles to help you on your art journey. It is possible to download/add in/create brushes in Medibang. The user interface is easy to get the hang of while being clean and efficient.
• FireAlpaca – The sister program to Medibang Paint Pro. Created by the same people that created Medibang Paint Pro, FireAlpaca has many of the same features as Medibang Paint. The look of the two is very similar with very slight changes. Like Medibang Paint, FireAlpaca gives you the resources to create comics easily along with the ability to add in/customize your brushes. But the biggest difference is that FireAlpaca has an animation feature. For a more indepth look at the differences between FireAlpaca and Medibang Paint Pro, I recommend this article by CosbyArt.
• Krita – Krita is free professional and open source program made for artists by artists. Krita has a smooth and easy to navigate user interface and is packed features! It comes preloaded with close to, if not more than, 100 brushes, has a brush stabilizer to help with shaky hands, vector & text options, wrap around mode and so much more! With the brushes, like many other programs, it is possible to add in new ones. On top of all the other features, Krita gives you the tools to create animations such as audio import support, customizable onion skinning, an easy way to organize & color code your frames, and the ability to export to video. The website for Krita also features numerous tutorials to get you started!
• Gimp – If you’re looking for a program with diverse features outside of just illustration, animation and comics, Gimp might be the program for you. Gimp is a free and open source program that has elements for graphic design, photo editing and of course creating works of art. In my opinion the user interface may be a bit harder to get use to than the other programs, especially if you’ve never touched a digital art program. Otherwise, Gimp is a very versatile program.

There are handfuls of other digital art programs other there. These listed are just my personal suggestions that I know are free to download and use. The best thing about these free programs is that if you don’t like one, then all you have to do is uninstall it and pick a different one without having put money into it. But at the same time don’t feel like you just have to limit yourself to just one of these programs. There’s nothing wrong with working with multiple programs. Perhaps you like one just illustration but you have another for doing animations. The best way to decide what works for you is just trying the program out. Watching video tutorials or speedpaints can also assist in your decision.

Just know that it is possible to get into digital art/illustration without having to break the bank. Using these affordable options does not make you any less of an artist.

The world is your oyster, so get out there and start creating some art!