Digital painting with Krita 5.0 for beginners

Compare raster and vector images, their formats, resolution, file size, and editability. See how Krita's raster-based core now includes vector features for flexible digital painting.

Explore RGB and HSV color models in Krita, learning how light-based RGB channels and hue-saturation-value parameters define colors from white to black and vibrant hues.

Explore pigment-based and light-based color models in Krita, including RGB, HSV, CMYK, LAB, YCrCb, and XYZ, and learn why RGB remains the recommended workflow for digital painting.

Learn how each pixel uses red, green, blue channels and an alpha channel for transparency, including 8 bits per channel and 24-bit versus 32-bit formats.

Explore high-range images and the shift beyond 8 bits per channel, including tone mapping and the HDRI/EXR formats. Learn RAW capture and multi-exposure techniques for Krita workflows.

Discover how hexadecimal color codes encode rgb data using three two-digit parts for red, green, and blue, including web-safe color, and learn to transfer colors across apps like Krita.

Create a new Krita document via templates or custom size, set width, height, and resolution, save a full hd preset, and configure color model, ICC profile, and initial layers.

Create a new document from clipboard data in Krita. Understand common file formats, including native .kra, tiff, psd, jpg, png, webp, and gif.

Learn to navigate Krita's user interface, including the menu, toolbar, toolbox, canvas, status bar, and dockers, and customize layouts with workspace presets or reset settings.

Explore advanced ui settings in Krita 5.0, including instant preview mode, color selector options, pop-up palette customization, and canvas display preferences to improve the drawing experience.

Master Krita 5.0 canvas navigation by panning, zooming, and rotating the canvas with mouse, spacebar, and the pop-up palette, while understanding that navigation changes view, not the image data.

Master Krita 5.0's alternative navigation methods, including keyboard shortcuts for zoom and rotation, pan and zoom tools, scrollbars, status bar, and touch gestures.

Master Krita's freehand brush tool (B) and manage presets with search, filter, tags, and the pop-up palette; create custom tags and assign presets for faster access (F6).

Master brush size, opacity, and eraser mode in Krita 5.0 for beginners using sliders, palettes, keyboard shortcuts, and the quick settings docker.

Compare flow and opacity in Krita to see how they affect brush strokes, and learn how dirty presets mark changes and how to reset to defaults.

Explore color selection methods in Krita, including advanced color selector, color history, color list, color palette, and pop-up palette, and manage foreground and background colors by hue, saturation, and value.

Master color offsetting and sampling in Krita 5.0 for beginners, using k and l to darken or lighten and the sampler tool to pick precise foreground or background colors.

Discover how to use krita's color palette to store permanent swatches, save palettes as .kpl in the resource folder or inside .kra files, and organize groups for efficient color management.

Learn to locate Krita’s resource folder with the manage resources window, browse the palettes folder, understand .kpl and .gpl formats, and share the latest color palettes by copy or import.

discover how the krita line tool uses the brush engine to create lines with pen pressure, sensor for uniform thickness, and shift or alt for snapping and moving while drawing.

Use Krita's brush engine with the rectangle and ellipse tools to create and fill shapes. Control fill with foreground or background colors, opacity, and ratio for circles and centered shapes.

Learn to use the polygon and polyline tools in Krita's brush engine to create connected lines with auto loop. End with shift-click or enter, and fill shapes, including open ones.

Learn to use Krita's mirror tools to duplicate brush strokes horizontally and vertically, and explore the multibrush modes—symmetry, mirror, translate, snowflake, and copy translate—with an origin point.

Master selection basics in Krita 5.0 to confine edits to a region. Use rectangular and elliptical tools, shortcuts, and commands like Ctrl+A and Ctrl+Shift+I.

Explore custom-shaped selections in Krita using polygonal and freehand tools, learn through vector basics, and master a Ctrl-assisted technique to blend selection borders with crisp results.

Learn how layers work in Krita 5.0, stack images, and draw on transparent layers above the background; organize with layer order and names.

Learn how Krita handles the background layer and canvas color, including erasing behavior on the background, the white fill on delete, and canvas background color display.

Explore basic layer properties in Krita 5.0, including visibility, locking, alpha locking, and layer colors; learn practical techniques for managing layers in a new document.

Learn how to organize layers in Krita using group layers, either manually or with Ctrl+G, manage nested groups, and ungroup to move member layers back to the main level.

Explore Krita’s inherit alpha feature, which uses the visible lower layers’ alpha for brush visibility, enabling non-destructive compositions and requiring group layers for isolation.

Create a simple digital painting in Krita 5.0 using paint layers, a group layer, and inherit alpha. Build sky, soil, grass, and a rock with shading and texture.

Learn how to use Krita's move tool to reposition layers, groups, and selections, with modes for moving current layers, entire groups, and pixel-accurate moves via click-drag or arrow keys.

Master layer opacity and blending modes in Krita 5.0 using the layers docker or layer properties. Explore six modes—normal, multiply, screen, overlay, color dodge, lighten—for non-destructive brush blending modes.

Start with a neutral gray background, create a sketch layer, and draw an ax with metal, wood, fabric, and a gemstone using Krita 5.0; practice tools and colors.

Learn how to use Krita 5.0 brush smoothing for beginners, including basic, weighted, stabilizer modes, and the dynamic brush tool for smooth line art and inking.

Learn to use Krita's assistant tool to create and manipulate ruler-based guides that snap brush strokes, control magnetism, and manage visibility and limits for precise drawing.

Explore Krita's advanced assistant tool to create perspective with 2 point perspective, vanishing point, and perspective planes, plus circular and spline assistants, color customization, and saving/loading assistant layouts.

Create a clean outline for an ax weapon illustration in Krita 5.0 by using an outline layer, adjustable brush smoothing, and mirror and assistant tools for precise curves.

Learn basic coloring techniques in Krita 5.0, including brush, fill, shapes fill, polygon tool, and colorize mask, with a non-destructive color layer workflow.

Explore selection-based coloring in Krita 5.0, using polygonal and contiguous selections, fill and brush blends, hue variations, and alpha lock to create shaded, gradient-like areas.

Attach a colorize mask to a layer, edit with the colorize mask editing tool, and color inside outlines with brush strokes in a non-destructive workflow.

Master shading in Krita 5.0 by darkening colors with HSV adjustments, masking selections, and building a shading layer constrained by alpha to add shadows and gemstone highlights.

Master highlight colors on a Krita 5.0 ax weapon illustration by using multiply blending, airbrush, and alpha lock, with selections and highlight layers to simulate backlight and specular effects.

Learn how to prepare seven Krita 5.0 brush presets for beginners, covering sketching, blocking, shading, smearing, blurring, detailing, and erasing; adapt to your unique style and workflow.

Learn to speed up your Krita workflow by creating custom shortcuts, such as q for deselect and z for the freehand selection tool, and save or load them across devices.

Discover how light direction, value, and shadow borders shape digital forms in Krita, and practice depth perception with a downloadable Krita file in a guided light study.

Practice three shading methods in Krita 5.0 for beginners—blurring, airbrush, and tradigital—to turn a flat circle into a 3d ball using separate layers, alpha lock, and brush presets.

Sketch a stylized skull in Krita, then apply base color and build a non-destructive layer composition. Use shading with selection and blending modes like multiply to add texture and highlights.

Shading with selection demonstrates global skull shading in Krita 5.0 using blurring and a tilted light source, then adds detail through selection-based airbrush shading.

Learn to add highlight colors on a new 'h' layer with alpha inheritance and screen blending, refine shading and textures on the skull in Krita 5.0 using brush presets.

Learn the Krita workflow for a tree on a cliff: reference images, sketching, composition with layers and groups, base color palette, ambient occlusion, global shading, highlighting, and texture techniques.

Learn to use the reference images tool in Krita to import, arrange, and trace from photos, adjust opacity and grayscale, keep aspect ratio, and save embedded or linked references.

Begin sketching a stylized tree on a cliff inside a circular frame in Krita 5.0, using blue rough sketch on frame layer and a black refined sketch on a layer.

Organize layers into background and midground, create subgroups for grass, leaves, bark, and cliff, then apply base colors with selected fills. Prepare the sky layer and set up for shading.

Learn local shading, or ambient occlusion, in Krita 5. Create a new 'L' layer with alpha inheritance and multiply blending, using airbrush to add subtle shadows.

Learn to apply global shading with a dedicated shading layer in Krita 5.0, using alpha inheritance and multiply blending to create large shadows across multiple areas and between objects.

Learn to finalize a tree on a cliff in Krita 5.0 by adding details, color variations, and textures, while managing shading, highlights, moss, and rock textures across multiple layers.

Discover a non-destructive Krita 5.0 workflow, using base color layers, alpha lock, and color history to recolor, add snow, and apply backlighting and rim lights.

Take the next step to master Krita beyond the basics by joining the intermediate-level course, expanding your digital painting and illustration skills with Krita 5.0.