Questions about making pony graphic art!

[Princess Lala]

*hopes this is in the right place, mods feel free to move if not!* 

I have questions! So I'm interested...like really interested in doing my own pony art digitally! I enjoy using my hands to draw instead of a mouse cursor so I stuck with freehand but as most people know it can be a pain to reline and color in freestyle traditional art. Lately it's been very time-consuming for me to make hand drawn art of my ponysona, fursona, and just other cute doodles. I always thought people used gimp to draw art (like with a mouse!) which was too hard for me to get used to. However I have been watching people on YouTube use these graphic tablets with styluses to make digital art!? And you can save it to your computer? I'm intrigued and I want to try digital art this way! I want to make beautiful digital art for my friends of their OC's for Christmas or their birthdays! I don't know how people do it! 

So artists- do you use one of those stylus art tablets? Is it easier to use than drawing with a mouse cursor? What do you guys use to make your beautiful digital art!?

I have a Nexus 7 tablet, is there a program or app I can just get (if anyone knows any) so I don't have to drop $100+ on a tablet used specifically for graphic art?

Thanks for reading! Any help appreciated! I'm sorry if I sound late to the party on digital art, I never learned about any of this kind of stuff!  I've always been to shy and embarrassed to ask but I really want to make this particular ponysona for my friends birthday coming up!

[Baby Sugarberry]

A drawing tablet is much easier to work with than a mouse if you've already got traditional art skills.  It's not, however, a 100% conversion because you will have to learn to look /up/ at the screen instead of down at your hand unless you have a very expensive piece of hardware and not just a standard tablet.  It's somewhat like learning touch typing if you got into the bad habit of looking at the keyboard originally, takes a couple of weeks to get used to for most people.

I use Photoshop CS4, but that's out of the price range for most folks and is serious overkill if all you want is to do some fanart.  SAI gets high marks for cost-to-feature ratio, if you have Windows, GIMP and FireAlpaca may be worth a look too depending on your needs/setup.  No experience with Nexus 7 tablets I'm afraid, only Wacoms. Generally though you can download the drivers for the device for free, and it should work with any tablet-enabled software that accepts pressure sensitivity, which is most good art programs these days.

[Aerora]

Graphics tablets are pretty different from a Nexus type of tablet - but look up Android art programs and see if there are any you like! Styluses for that kind of tablet are pretty reasonably priced, so if you like what you can make with one of those, it's a good idea.

There's a separate skillset attached to your basic entry-level Wacom/Monoprice/etc tablet (I've only used Wacoms and they're... really temperamental in my experience, but if you're gentle with their cords they'll last forever. Most other brands are only a few years old, so it's hard to know how they'll hold up at the moment), because you need to look at the computer screen, not where your pen is. It's not a huge learning curve, but it takes getting used to. (So does the reverse, if you're like me and have barely done traditional in years. ) Definitely, in general, easier than a mouse, even despite that.

GIMP, Paint.NET, FireAlpaca, and Krita are all free art programs - the latter two definitely have some degree of tablet support for sensitivity, and I wouldn't be surprised if the former two did as well. SAI's a good option if you have the money (it's about $60 IIRC), but I've also heard good things about Manga Studio (which sometimes goes on sale for $15ish?). While the program you're using does matter to some degree, your familiarity with it is going to make much more of a difference, so poke around a couple options, find out what you like best. (For example: I hate the way Photoshop handles brush resizing and pen pressure, but it's got a lot more brush customizability than SAI. Conversely, I love SAI's acrylic brush preset, but it does this thing with nonstandard brush shapes when you're drawing tight curves that drives me up the wall.)

[Emerald]

I draw using an old wacom bamboo create tablet. I drew my avatar with it. I'd definitely recommend one, but they're old so you'd probably have to look around to find one.

[Princess Lala]

Thanks for the help you guys!!! Okay, so here is the progress!

I went to Fry's, purchased a Jot Mini Stylus (its a super fine tip with a clear circle on the tip similar to the DAGI P620.  I saw the Wacom ones but they were $30+ so went with the $20 Jot one. I downloaded an app for my tablet! It was Sketchbook Pro I think?  I am playing around with it and its very similar to drawing!Its harder to get the lines perfect and when I test color its hard to keep the colors from bleeding in the lines. Trying to figure out how to blend colors without changing the opacity on the water color.

I might post something I draw later on, I just wanna thank you guys for the help!

EDIT: Okay, I finished my official first piece of graphic art! The tabet is at home, and im out right now so I had to use my phone. Its my ferret but I think it looks pretty good! I spent hours trying to figure out how to draw it and color without ruining the black lines. How does it look?
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Miku my pet ferret by Lala

[CoonhoundBetty]

that is the most darling ferret ever!! 

[Griffin]

How adorable! You got the hang of it really quickly, great job - that looks really good!

Did you have your lineart on a separate layer? That's the trick for keeping the lines clean when you colour.

Have fun playing around with your new stylus, I can't wait to see what you create next!

[Princess Lala]

Thanks guys!!!! 

I did used layers to draw Miku! I did the stick figure with basic shapes, made it opaque, and then drew over it on another layer with the paintbrush tool. Then I deleted the first layer and colored in the drawing- but on the same layer lol! I loved doing her eyes and bow the most! She had pink eyes and she usually does wear this sparkily bow on special occasions when I have friends over. I did my best to make her pink-tipped tail (i dye her tip pale pink with my ion vegetable dye) as light as possible without it looking like shading! I wasn't so sure how to make it sparkily so I used opaque dots and a fade paintbrush tool in white to make sparkles! I needed to draw more stuff including ponies and my pink fox disney fursona!

I just noticed I messed up with her sading on her bust fluff LOL where its shaded it looked like I touched it with the eraser tool by accident when scrolling/zooming LOL xD