Artists with unpopular art programs , show yourself!

[Skykristal]

The majority of people use the same known software to draw, as it shows in the(art-)internet community as a whole. But I especially want a thread for artists who aren't using the most popular programs out there. Doesn't matter if you draw on your phone, tablet, computer, laptop or a gaming console. "unpopular" is everything not everyone knows, and software with barely any downloads. I also asked this on another forum but almost nobody posted anything unpopular. ;n;
PS: not something you tested out once or twice. Most of us test out art programs, but I especially mean those of us who use unpopular software as their actual every day drawing program. (๑˃̵　ᴗ　˂̵)و (you can also talk about software you used to use for a long time)



My whole (digital) art journey is kinda niche software. Started with Colors!3D, since 2015-2025 it's LayerpaintHD . Right now I know 0 people personally who use my current art program and the fact that it is no longer in the Play Store is not helping rip. You can get the apk if you google. I'm soon also getting back to colors (but on the switch) and man, I'm so excited for that.

[Tommie ΘΔ]

I'm not sure how unpopular this really is, but everyone who I've spoken to always asks "wait, that's a thing?" so I thought I should mention anyways. At the beginning of my art career, I used Google Canvas. I didn't have access to any other drawing programs and that was the only one I could find for free, online, that was unblocked by my school's network. There's limited layers, no real options for blending, and it just in general kind of sucks, but it was all I had so I still hold it dear.

I was able to make some decent art despite the limited tools! Before I switched to Ibis in high school, I only used Canvas. So basically all my art from before circa 2021 was done on Canvas. Nowadays, I use Flipanim when at school, which is also pretty limited since it's just an online flipbook maker.

[94673]

there was a time that firealpaca (my favorite program) had stopped working on my pc, so for years I used autodesk sketchbook instead (it's still my go-to on my phone. very solid program!). most people seem to never have heard of it or act like it's bad because it's free...even if they've never used it :/

I also like using ms paint a lot, but that one's pretty popular so I guess it doesn't count.

oh, also! wigglypaint, for little moving gifs, and magma for drawing together :)

[WynnDawnstrider]

Honestly Colors 3D is valid because Pokemon Art Academy is what got me really back into digital art at all!

I don't currently use something particularly out of the ordinary but I really wish Disney's magic artist worked better on new computers because I would probably use it unironically, but I can't really get it to boot without the CD and I don't have a CD drive in this laptop....

[kestrel]

im not sure how unpopular it and it isnt as cool as some others in this topic but i use leonardo on my computer

[Y2KStardust]

I use Krita, and from what I know it's one of the lesser-known ones? But I like it for drawing. And paint.net is great for image manip stuff/meme-ing :3

[Skykristal]

im not sure how unpopular it and it isnt as cool as some others in this topic but i use leonardo on my computer

Cool, never heard of that one before

[TheFrugalGamer]

Sometimes I feel like everything besides Photoshop and Krita are unknown because Adobe has such a stranglehold on the art space, but there are a ton of programs that are great for creating art (no hate to Krita--it's open source and popular for a reason, and I do love it for painting in).

Back when I used Windows, ArtRage was a great painting simulator program that I loved. I still use it on Android, but I wish they'd come up with a Linux version.

I also love Infinite Painter and Infinite Design (both on Android) for being simple to use and great at what they do. Graphics Gale is a pixel art editor for desktop that is initially difficult to get used to, but it's got some great tools meant specifically for pixel art.

Also, I know Gimp, the Art Program With The Terrible Name, is well known, but I feel like the overhaul plugin PhotoGIMP makes it a million times easier to use. It's my alternative to PhotoPea when I need to do Photoshop-like stuff locally.

[candycanearter07]

I use REXpaint for my ascii art, it might be cheating since its a program for a specific TYPE of art, but I feel like even then it would be superceded by other programs that are more popular.

[HalfOfBilly]

Not necessarily unpopular in terms of "nobody has downloaded it", moreso in terms of "nobody uses it casually": I use GameMaker Studio's built-in sprite editor for all my pixel/semi-pixel art, even for things that have nothing to do with games.

Sure, its kinda limited in features, and booting up a whole game-making engine just to do a couple of drawing probably isn't the best use of my computer's resources, but it has a very specific, indescribable feel to it that I haven't replicated in any other pixel-art programs.


Also, I have Libresprite for the sole purpose of converting GameMaker's sprite sheets into png/gif. It's a messy setup :/

[CATBYTE]

@WynnDawnstrider
i was so happy to see pokemon art academy mentioned here! while i've been making digital art since i had access to a computer, pokemon art academy was a really special for me, particularly it's miiverse integration. it was a lot of fun having an easy way to access digital art on the go, and drawing with the ds/3ds stylus honestly didn't feel too bad even if the canvas space was rather confined. i still have a copy of it so perhaps i'll revisit it soon!

i use sai2 for my regular digital art, which while being somewhat of a well known program, it is seemingly an unpopular pick as photoshop and clip studio paint continue to hold dominance. a lot of other digital artists i've spoken to have moved from sai/sai2 to clip studio, while i've done the reverse, which i find sort of funny.
though for pixel art i use aseprite which is becoming one if not the most popular pick among pixel art enthusiasts, but in all fairness i do believe it's dominance is very well deserved in this case.

[sorrowshowers]

It's so cool to see all the obscure art programs in this thread!  Especially the ones in video games. I used to use Splatoon 2's drawing tool back when the game came out. I'm so sad I lost a lot of my art on there... Also that I missed when Miiverse integration was still supported.

I used to use MSPaint as well, which I know is very well-known, but I actually used it for serious art pieces at one point. I think I still have pieces made in MSPaint in my portfolio! I also used to make pixel art by zooming in and using the smallest pen size. It was a pretty tedious process lol. I don't do pixel art anymore, but I do have aesprite and have tinkered around with it. Echoing what CATBYTE said, it's earned its spot as a pillar in the pixel art creator space. Super cool program!

[Allie]

When I draw on PC I normally use GIMP, because that's the one my dad downloaded for me (I don't have my own pc so we share it). It may not be super obscure but I mention it because I haven't seen a lot of artists drawing with and some think
it's not really good, wich I can understand since even I get confused with it sometimes lol

Other art programs I used to draw with were MyPaint, ArtRage and Sai, wich are pretty decent imo. I still use the MyPaint brushes in GIMP because some are just SO GOOD

[PALEOKNIGHT]

 Normally, for digital art I use Procreate, which is pretty standard choice. There are times tho where I enjoy using JS Paint, “classic MS Paint in the browser” as they say it.

 On even rarer occasions I like drawing on the Animal Jam art studio. I used to play that game lots when I was younger, and even tho it’s pretty dead nowadays, I still like revisiting it from time to time.

[yusha]

Back when I first got into digital art, I was using online programs like Deviantart Muro (sadly they pumped AI gen nonsense into it) and Webchemy (like a web version of the alchemy program. pretty interesting shapes). Kleki is made by the same guy and I have seen it used in some oekaki boards.

I also managed to get Shi-Painter working offline on my computer, though its a lot of trial and error. Trying to get java applets working today is a pain.


I'm always collecting creative programs, so I'm gonna watch this thread like a hawk. If you want to check out more obscure software, here are some links of links.

Paint Tool List from Pixiv Dictionary: A bunch of paint tools that have tags on Pixiv. Pretty obscure stuff here when you scroll down

Flat2D: Abandonware programs with Eng/Fra patches

Also I personally love Yumeiro which is an old watercolor simulation program. It's in Japanese, but its easy to use.