Krita on Raghukamath – Digital Painter and Freelance Illustrator from India

Morning Ride

Sun, 22 Sep 2024 13:10:48 +0000

Today was a beautiful sunny day. I saw this on my way to get groceries. It was such a relaxing ride.

The license is CC-BY-SA , feel free to use it as a wallpaper or anything. Here is the high resolution file

Fishermen on the beach

Sat, 16 Dec 2023 12:41:18 +0000

I went to nearby beach last week, it was really a pristine and calm place. The beach is Padubidri Blue Flag beach. It is in the Pudubidri town in coastal Karnataka India. The beach was less crowded and the fishermen were enjoying their work. Some a group of small fishermen were getting ready to depart for fishing and were having some fun moment during inspecting their boat.

I tried to capture this moment along with the scene.

Digital painting of fishermen on padubidri beach India

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I am trying more to put down minimal strokes but make sure it is in right place with right colour so that when you zoom in you can see the raw strokes.

Here is the process video that I recorded while painting this in Krita with the recorder feature of Krita.

Automatically updating nightly builds of Krita on Linux

Wed, 16 Nov 2022 03:39:23 +0000

When chatting on Krita IRC deevad mentioned that he uses a script to automatically download Krita nightly update and manage the launcher icons etc. So I thought that it is a cool idea to use script to automate the update process. Usually I used to click on the update button and then manually adjust the filename of the Appimage etc. I rename the files of appimage to stable and nightly respectively so that it becomes each to point them to a shortcut and there is no need to change the desktop shortcut file always. I already have two different desktop files to launch the nightly and stable Appimage version of Krita. The update done from the Krita’s welcome screen downloads a file with new file name and we have to either adjust the name in desktop file or rename the downloaded file.

When searching for a solution to automate this I found out about appimageupdatetool I believe this is the same tool that Krita uses in back-end to fetch the update. This tool has a GUI version and also a CLI version. I downloaded the CLI version which is named appimageupdatetool.

wget https://github.com/AppImage/AppImageUpdate/releases/download/continuous/appimageupdatetool-x86_64.AppImage -O ~/.local/bin/appimageupdatetool

The above command downloads the binary file of the tool to my computer’s local/bin folder. Make sure you have ~/.local/bin folder in your $PATH variable. I then mark it as executable with the following command.

A Swan in a lake

Sat, 05 Feb 2022 15:34:50 +0000

A quick daily personal piece. This was meant to be a practice sketch for a different personal illustration which has a swan in it, but this took its own direction. I am trying to explore lines and new textures for this series.

By print from here.

A swan in a lake

Weekly Graphic - Offerings

Sun, 30 Jan 2022 12:37:15 +0000

आज रविवार का दिन है, तो धरती पर जीवन चक्र के स्त्रोत सूर्य को नमन । - translation - Since it is the day of the sun we bow to the sun which is the source of all life on earth. I am enjoying this simple graphic series, I need to simplify a bit more. Right now I am doing this in Krita but I am also looking to include inkscape in the process. Print is available from my society6 shop

graphic illustration showing offering to sun

How to use Smart Objects in Krita?

Tue, 25 Jan 2022 16:54:18 +0000

Greetings Everyone 🙏🏼

This is the first quick tip tutorial post of this year. Today we are going learn about File Layers in Krita, for those who are coming from Photoshop “Smart Objects” may be a familiar term.

Let us learn about file layers in krita

In my recent advertising illustration project, I had to paint lots of small elements on a page. The page size was huge and the final layout was not fixed yet. The illustration was also going to be adapted to web and print media, that meant that the elements would be resized and moved around a lot across many files. Painting in groups and layers adding transform masks and transparency masks helps but once I changed an element in the main layout I would need to copy this group and layer to all others. Not a good thing when you are on the clock. And advertising tends to involve lots and lots of iterations.

So here comes the “File Layers” feature in Krita to my rescue. It basically helps us to add a file as a linked reference into a document, and when the external file changes it also updates the instances of this file inside all of our .kra file when we open them. We can also convert any group or layer into a file layer on the fly while working. This makes it really easy for us to break down the illustration elements of a project into multiple separate containers linked to a main file. We can then open these containers or file layers in Krita and work on them separately. This also becomes a boon if your file dimension is really huge. The file dimension of this project was 12k x 5k pixels. So this made total sense.

How to draw a sunset painting - Easy step by step Krita tutorial

Sat, 25 Dec 2021 06:11:39 +0000

Krita sunset tutorial - completed image

Greetings everyone. This is the second post in the step-by-step tutorial series and today you and I are going to draw a sea-side sunset painting in Krita. If you need a quick tour of the interface of Krita then you can watch my earlier videos about it.

Step 1

We start with a new document in Krita. Open Krita and click on the New File button, the shortcut is Ctrl + N. In the new file dialog let us keep the canvas in landscape mode. From the predefined preset drop-down choose “Film 16:9 4k” document preset. The dimensions will be 3840px X 2160 px. Click on the Create button.

New file dialog in Krita

First let us save the document, press Ctrl + S and add a nice name for the document and save it somewhere on your computer.

Step 2

I have prepared a colour palette for us, you can use this as a guide but feel free to choose your colours as you like. This is just for guiding us we may also tweak the colours as we paint. To use my palette we can use the reference image tool of Krita. Simply copy the palette image below and go to the Edit menu and click on Paste as Reference image [Ctrl + Shift +R] .

How to create a seamless pattern in Krita?

Sat, 27 Nov 2021 20:29:34 +0000

Gone are the days when you had to manually arrange the edges of a texture or pattern. No more copy-pasting, aligning, and offsetting the tiles. There is an easy and user-friendly mode in Krita that makes the tedious task of creating a seamless texture or pattern a piece of cake.

Game developers and textile artists will find this feature immensely helpful and time-saving. I was blown away by this feature when I first tried Krita. It has existed in Krita for ages and only recently did Photoshop get an inferior version of this feature.

I am assuming you have already downloaded and installed Krita from the official website. So without further ado let us see how it is done.

Step 1 - Create a Document

We will create a new document in Krita. Most seamless patterns are squares but in Krita, you can create rectangular tile too. Open Krita and you will be greeted by a welcome screen. Click on the New File link in the Start section. Or you can also press the shortcut CTRL + N . A new file dialog will open.

Krita’s new file dialog

In the Image Size section marked are number 1 in the image above fill in the dimension of the seamless tile we want. Here I fill in 512px by 512px. We can also choose a ready-made texture template from the template section marked as number 2 in the image. After choosing and filling in the detail click on Create button.

Sunset - landscape painting warm-up

Sun, 14 Nov 2021 08:01:49 +0000

A quick weekend warm-up painting in Krita. I forgot to record a time-lapse now. But I thinking of doing a draw-along tutorial for this. Buy a print of this painting here .

final painting

Night - Time-lapse Painting in Krita

Sun, 31 Oct 2021 15:48:00 +0530

I tried to paint a personification of the night. Beautiful calm and romantic yet sometimes eerie and daunting. I think the beautiful side won in this painting. Here is the process. May be next time I’ll move more towards the fear aspect. You can buy the print for this painting on my INPRNT page.

Here is the final image

Credits

Artwork by raghukamath licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
Background Music - music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

One With Nature - Time-lapse Painting in Krita

Mon, 11 Oct 2021 15:48:00 +0530

It is Friday again and I went on a small hike with my friend yesterday, as we were walking amidst the forest on a small trail, the calmness of the surrounding nature seemed almost meditative to me. It instantly drained all my stress built up during the week. This painting is inspired by one of the spots we encountered while walking in the forest.

Here is the final image

Credits

Artwork by raghukamath licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
Background Music - Meditative Space by MaxKoMusic | https://maxkomusic.com/ Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Nature sound effects from chosic.com | License - Public domain

Virtual plienair from streetview - somewhere in Tokushima Japan

Fri, 01 Oct 2021 18:48:00 +0530

It’s friday and what is a better way to wind up the weekend than painting a landscape in Krita. Did a quick 2½ hr session. Fullscreen mode in krita with all desktop notifications off, mobile switched to do not disturb mode and some soothing music along with it, just pure bliss. Do you paint like this for relaxing yourself?

Here is the final image

Credits

Artwork by raghukamath licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
Background Music - Music - Summer Memories by - extenz (https://soundcloud.com/extenz) License - Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0)

How to Draw a lemon slice - Krita digital painting tutorial - Easy step by step for beginners

Thu, 23 Sep 2021 12:48:00 +0530

In this video we learn how to create a lemon slice in Krita from scratch. I try to explain it in easy step by step manner so that you can draw along with me while watching the video. The goal here is not to make the coolest lemon illustration but to learn krita while creating something along with me. So feel free to draw by pausing the video

Episode Credits

Video recorded by raghukamath - Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License
Background Music - “Groove Grove” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
Made with Krita, Kdenlive & Audacity

Digital Art With Free Software Episode-06

Tue, 14 Sep 2021 12:48:00 +0530

This series is about creating digital art in free software. For those who don’t know what free software is please read this. This is the 6th episode in the series of tutorials for beginners in digital painting as well as Krita.

Episode Notes

In this lesson we explore various masks in Krita and also learn more about Selection Masks and how to use them in digital painting.

Episode Credits

Video recorded by raghukamath - Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License
Music - Haratanaya Sree by Veena Kinhal - via Wikimedia Commons - CC-0 license
Sitar by Kaiho - Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0) license - Freesound.org
Swooshes by Dodgy C - CC-0 license - Freesound.org
Made with Krita, Kdenlive & Audacity

Waiting For Unlock...

Thu, 02 Sep 2021 11:00:00 +0530

Some school buses parked since start of the pandemic near my house. Its been a while since children saw school. Instead of a landscape I thought why not paint some vehicles, so I did this outdoor study.

Here is the final image

Few details

Credits

Artwork by raghukamath licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

Summer Fun - Timelapse

Sun, 29 Aug 2021 11:00:00 +0530

I am sure we all have done this at some point.

Here is the final image

Credits

Artwork by raghukamath licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

Virtual Plein-Air Wandering At Daybreak

Mon, 23 Aug 2021 18:48:00 +0530

Stumbled upon a wonderful street view on mapcrunch, so did a virtual plein-air study with it.

Here is the final image

completed painting

Credits

Artwork by raghukamath licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
Background Music - Chasing Daylight by Scott Buckley - Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

Master Chef Timelapse

Mon, 05 Jul 2021 18:48:00 +0530

Here is the final image

Credits

Artwork by raghukamath licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
Intro Music - Stream Countdown 10s & Background Music - Forest Wak by by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com). Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License
Intro Background Video by Miguel Á. Padriñán. Licensed under Pexels License

How to translate Krita to your own language?

Sun, 04 Apr 2021 12:00:44 +0530

While painting in Krita one day, out of curiosity I switched the application language to Hindi which is one of the major local language in India. Some parts of the UI were translated but most of it was untranslated. I thought about fixing this problem and started to research about how to get started in translating.

While there are many workflows for translating I found Lokalize to be the easiest one of them. I started using Lokalize & svn to work on Hindi translations for KDE. The Lokalize handbook is a good resource, but I felt that I needed more simplified step-by-step guide to set up the work environment and get started. After setting it up for my self, I am sharing it here so that any new Lokalize & svn user will find it easy. This post covers the process in step by step to help others translate Krita or any of the KDE apps in their local language and contribute to the KDE translation team. This guide is made for Linux users, but you can use it for other platforms too except for the step where we install the software. I plan to update these instructions in future to cover how to do this on Windows platform too. So here it goes.

How to auto colorize line art in Krita?

Fri, 28 Aug 2020 18:48:00 +0530

This is the second episode in the quick tip series. Let us check how to add clipping masks in Krita.

How To Add Clipping Masks In Krita?

Mon, 08 Jun 2020 18:48:00 +0530

This is the first episode in the quick tip series. Let us check how to add clipping masks in Krita.

Digital art with foss episode 5

Sat, 02 Mar 2019 20:48:00 +0530

This series is about creating digital art in free software. For those who don’t know what free software is please read this. This is the fifth episode in the series on basics of painting in krita.

Episode Notes

In this episode we learn about Layers, their types and way to manage them in Krita. We also see a basic and simple setup of layers required to create a drawing in Krita.

Episode Credits

Background Music - Mridangam Jati by - Ajaysm
Licensed under CC-0.

Digital art with foss episode 4

Sun, 29 Apr 2018 22:48:00 +0530

In this video, I am going to talk about digital brushes. In real life brushes, pens, knives are the tools used to apply and manipulate colours on canvas, similarly in digital painting we have a brush tool that helps to add and manipulate pixels. First, we will see what digital brushes are made of, which will help us in tweaking and creating our own brushes in future

Digital brushes in Krita

Episode Credits

Sitar music in the background by Kaiho Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0)

Digital art with foss episode 3

Sun, 29 Apr 2018 21:48:00 +0530

In this episode we will learn how to navigate around the canvas in Krita. This video will have lots of shortcut so for your convenience I have prepared a PDF with list of these shortcuts as a PDF with all the shortcuts mentioned in this video, you can download it from the link here.

Episode Credits

Sitar music in the background by Kaiho Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0)

Digital art with foss episode 2

Sun, 22 Apr 2018 21:48:00 +0530

This series is about creating digital art in free software. For those who don’t know what free software is please read this.

Workspace and Dockers

Episode Notes

Krita’s flexible workspace is really easy to customise according to our needs. In this video we see how to customise and create our own workspace. We also learn about dockers in Krita.

Episode Credits

Swaramandal by luckylittleraven Licensed under CC0.
Sitar music in the background by Kaiho Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0)

Digital art with foss episode 1

Sun, 22 Apr 2018 15:48:00 +0530

This series is about creating digital art in free software. For those who don’t know what free software is please read this. This is the first episode in the series on basics of painting in krita.

Episode Notes

Krita is a free and open source digital painting application. We take a tour of Krita’s interface and learn how to create a new document in Krita.

Brush pack for Krita V2.0

Sat, 12 Nov 2016 00:30:00 +0530

In my previous post, I had shared some of the brushes that I use while painting in Krita. This is the second release of that brush pack. In this release I have added some more presets to the pack and also tweaked some of the brushes to utilise newly added parameter in Krita such asratio. I have also reduced the brush tip images used in the pack and utilised the default auto tips. An example configuration can be seen in the image below.

Brush tip setting in Krita

I also refreshed the brush icons a bit in this release.

Brush previews

You can download the brush pack from here.

To install, just unzip the contents of the zip file, then in Krita go to settings > Manage resources, then click on open resource folder button. A folder will be opened in the file explorer then copy the contents inside the unzipped folder namely folders named - brushes and paintoppresets, then paste and merge the contents to the folders inside the resources folder. Then restart Krita, the brushes are ready to use, just search for pack01 in the brush filter. Go here for more clear instructions.

This time I have also created a bundle file for this pack, you can download the bundle file from here.

Brush Pack for Krita

Thu, 10 Mar 2016 22:17:00 +0530

In my previous post, I mentioned that I switched from Photoshop to Krita. The workflow is much better and, I really enjoy working in this application. The brush engine is very robust and one case lose almost hours playing and experimenting with it. There are in total 16 brush engines in Krita, it can be somewhat overwhelming for a new user at first but you will definitely be surprised the level of customisation it gives.

There is a lot of room for experiments and happy accidents. One thing to note is that in Krita the brush dap is called brush tip and the preset themselves are called paint top presets. I like to keep my brushes to a minimum number, I create brushes on the fly and delete unused brushes. I am sharing the most basic brushes which I use almost daily. Most of them belong to Pixel brush engine and two of them are Bristle brush engines.

Various brushes in the pack

You can download the brush pack from here.

To install, just unzip the contents of the zip file, then in Krita got to settings > Manage resources, then click on open resource folder button. A folder will be opened in the file explorer then copy the contents inside the unzipped folder namely folders named - brushes and paintoppresets, then paste and merge the contents to the folders inside the resources folder. Then restart Krita, the brushes are ready to use, just search for pack01 in the brush filter. Go here for more clear instructions.