Photoshop Vs Illustrator For Drawing: Which is The Best?

As an aspiring artist, it’s common to compare Photoshop vs Illustrator for drawing. Both have their ups and downs when it comes to drawing arts. Further, each one is suitable for a certain art style. Below, we provide you with an in-depth comparison of both software in detail.

Both of the software have plenty of features to draw compelling art. Perhaps both can be the best Adobe program for drawing, but one has better facilities than the others. Let’s explore these software’s features and determine which one is the best of all. You would get the best tool for art within the article. 

Photoshop Vs Illustrator For Drawing(Comparison)

Both Photoshop and Illustrator are premium Adobe products for creating custom graphics. Each of them offers great drawing options altogether. But one of them is more useful for drawing and creating custom drawings and related tasks. So let’s explore these after another.   

Ease of Drawing

When it comes to the ease of drawing, Photoshop provides you with the easiest features. Moreover, it’s much easier for beginners to get into the software and start drawing in. As a result, it might take you a lot less of a learning curve to start drawing on Photoshop. Plus, using a pressure-sensitive Wacom tablet is easy as well.

In Illustrator, the drawing options are a bit advanced to go upon. Further, the tools are for intermediate users as well. Therefore, you need quite some time to understand the workflow of the tools of Illustrator. Further, It needs proper training to master the tools of Illustrator drawing features as well. 

Brushes

Photoshop has a great library of brushes to create fantastic drawings. Plus, you could get better control over brushes as well. The brush customization settings on Photoshop are up to the mark and provide you with greater control. As a result, you get great drawing composition. Further, you could get tons of artistic brush packs over the internet.

On the other hand, illustrators also provide you with great sorts of brushes. But, right on the following software, you get vector brushes. As a result, you could work with intricate brushes. Thus, you could work by creating more detailed drawings without losing their detail as well. In short, both Photoshop and Illustrator have great brushes, but Illustrator brush settings are tricky to learn.

Drawing Quality

As you draw on Photoshop, it would create raster-based graphics or images, which is why your drawings would not be as clear as vector art. Also, even if you draw with a higher-resolution artboard, the drawing can get pixelated when someone zooms into it. For these reasons, simple arts like watercolor painting and drawings would be great to go.

On Illustrator, you get to draw in vector graphics format. As a result, your drawings get higher resolution and don’t get blur effects even when zoomed in to 100% capacity. It’s a plus point for you as your drawings don’t get any quality degradation at all. In drawing quality, Illustrator beats Photoshop.

Colorings

Photoshop has a great coloring ability to shine up any drawing. For example, you could add detailed colorings to your drawings to make the drawing come alive. On the other hand, the features of Photoshop let you play with different sorts of shading techniques. Thus, you could create drawings that grab the attention of the audience.

Illustrators offer you advanced coloring techniques as well. These are gradient colorings, mesh gradients, and other features. As you get advanced options like blending modes, making unique colorings and shading becomes easier. But, for sure, Illustrator coloring techniques are for intermediate users.

Animation Creation

Creating animation out of any drawing is a lot easier with Photoshop because you get a separate drawing panel for creating frame-by-frame animation. This is why you could apply your drawings on each frame to export a smooth animation. In addition, Photoshop has been adding new features for creating animation out of sequences.

On Illustrator, you won’t get a built-in option to create animation. But, as a plus point of having vector-based drawings, you could export them to After Effects or Flash to create custom animations. Yet, it’s often time-consuming to export vector drawings into other animation software. Plus, you need to learn this animation software as well.

Read More: Best Photoshop Plugins For Skin Retouching

Which Is The Best Adobe Program For Drawing?

After in-depth analysis, we could say, Photoshop is the best program for drawing. Cause you get the ease of usage, better brushes, and animation features within Photoshop. This is why we would recommend anyone to start drawing with Photoshop. It’s the easiest to learn drawing as well. 

Plus, you also get great features for coloring and shading in Photoshop. In comparison, Illustrator is a bit hard to crank in for beginners. Further, Illustrator doesn’t support animation features as well. Thus, next time someone asks, is Photoshop good for drawing? The answer would be a big yes.

Is Adobe Illustrator Good For Digital Art?

Are you looking to create in-detail art like in comics? Adobe Illustrator could be a great tool to use. Even though the features and options are slightly advanced, the vector arts provide you with a great advantage. As you are creating art in vector format, it features greater detail and sharpness. 

You could first try to learn the basics of Illustrator and afterward jump into creating digital art. If you face any issues, you could try to switch to Photoshop. Once you master the basics of drawing functions, you can later use Illustrator to create intricate drawings.

Frequently Asked Question

Let’s have a deeper look into whether you should use Photoshop for drawing or Illustrator.

Why Are Vectors So Important for Drawing?

Vectors are important for drawing because they prevent your artwork from degrading. As the vector follows a certain mathematical term, it doesn’t degrade. You could enlarge a tiny piece of art without any sort of degradation at all, which is why the printing press and marketing teams prefer to use vectors over rasterized images.

Which Software Is Easier To Draw In?

Photoshop is the easiest to start drawing on. Because it features easy-to-learn options for beginners eager to learn drawings, it could run on lower-end computers with smoother speeds. As a result, you can get great results on your drawings with a little bit of effort, which is why Photoshop beats all other software for learning drawings.

When Should You Use Each Of The Adobe Software?

When it comes to painting and simpler drawings, Adobe Photoshop would be the best. But, if you are creating complex art or comics, drawing in Illustrator can help you out because the vector form of art doesn’t get blurring effects. In short, you need to use Photoshop and Illustrator depending on your demand for a project. 

Conclusion

Comparing Photoshop vs Illustrator for drawing would provide you with a clear answer. Photoshop provides you with easy and better options to draw artistic drawings. But, if you are going for high-quality drawing production, Illustrator can come into play. Overall, Photoshop won the race this time.

Thus, you must consider your requirements for each project. For example, some drawing projects are more suitable for Photoshop, and others would be great for Illustrator. That’s why you should take some time estimating the requirements of your drawing projects and, afterward, choose the best Adobe software.