Krita

Krita is by far my second favorite program after GIMP. Besides drawing, it also allows you to edit images, which is perfect for non-professionals like me who need basic and some advanced editing tools for everyday tasks.

I started to use Krita in 2013 or 2015 when it was still poorly optimized for me to work with. At first, I went back to Paint Tool Sai or Photoshop, but in 2016, I went back on it and I never gave it up again since. I made all my drawings using it, on Windows as well as on Linux, and in both case, it's become a really great software. And even if it's more illustration-oriented, I used it a few time for image-editing because I still find it's a better choice than Gimp for that.

This is the only graphics editor for Linux that I know of that has proven to be truly useful for working with graphics, including on computers not connected to the Internet.

In regards of the Android tablet version, while remaining very powerful, it's a 1:1 porting of the Desktop version.

The issue is, sadly, that makes the experience clunky for new users. Sure, it gets better after getting used to it (like everything after all), but I think this software would enjoy a proper UI conceived for Android tablets.

That said, if you manage to overcome this, you'll have in your hands the option to carry your art around and (almost) seamlessly edit it from PC to tablet and vice-versa at zero costs.

For me, Krita is the best 2D graphics software currently available.

It is quite lightweight and not system demanding - the lightest 2D graphics software I've ever seen.

The downside is that... the interaction with the program's interface is... a bit not user-friendly. But personally, it was limited only to the initial customization of the interface for my own needs, and after that I don't have to interact with it much. So this disadvantage can hardly be called a disadvantage - it's a very insignificant drawback. The second minus for me are the Brush Engines. There are a lot of them, and when you switch to Krita, you have to spend a lot of time to read the information on each Brush Engine and try it. And in the end it turns out that all Brush Engines, except, it seems, Pixel Engine, are rather... unfinished, raw, unnecessary. And one could limit oneself to just the Pixel Engine, and invest time in refining it, instead of creating this mess with more Brush Engines.

I would like to see more focus on the foundational tools, and less on all the “digital trickery”. That perhaps a material-based Brush Engine could be implemented, where the tools are materials with their own properties and behaviors, just like in the traditional format. Perhaps add three-dimensionality to the canvas, so that the strokes applied are a bit three-dimensional, just like in traditional painting. Enhanced color mixing, like the one introduced not too long ago in Clip Studio Paint.

Unlike Photoshop, Krita is lightweight, open source, free, and created geared towards artists and only artists - where you don't have to damn well create petitions for Adobe to change the mechanics of how the Smudge Tool works. Compared to Clip Studio Paint, Krita has all the same advantages, only the artist-centricity is replaced by more advanced functionality (when you need it) and the lack of cluttering the program with pre-installed resources and auxiliary 3d garbage, implemented very poorly. Comparing it to Rebelle seems a bit of a misnomer, as Rebelle has a focus on mimicking the traditional drawing and painting format. I can't compare it to the Procreate, but being tied to one device that no serious work can be done on seems absurd. And I would still like to avoid Apple.