Hi my friends!

I decided to try this "manga/anime" Japanese underrated software that I heard from my days in DeviantArt community, because I feel that a piece of software is something that takes a lot of work and nowadays some artists use it for one and only specific style. Remember Clipstudio paint in their early days? Or what it was called before on this side of the planet? Yes, Manga Studio, because it's japanese and well, you only can draw or paint manga (?) and now, the artists discover the power behind that software.

I have more than 20 years in the art industry, from comics to videogames, and of course films too. And let me tell you that as an old time user of Adobe Photoshop I tried every piece of software in the market because I'm a horrible nerd, and Paint Tool Sai version 2 is what the artists that need a transition software between Photoshop and ClipStudio needs.

This underrated painting software is what Photoshop should be, is lightweight, fast as a speeding bullet, and cheap. It's easy to understand, the GUI is a perfect balance between Photoshop and Clipstudio, no learning curve here, just painting.
You have the essential tools to make the most beautiful art, the speed is matchless, when you open a hundred layers PSD, it opens in no time and the same file opened in Photoshop gives you time to make your dinner and take your dog to the park.

I love manga and anime of course, even some of the ameri-manga style I found in new artists over the social network but tools are not just for one task, if you don't believe me think of the cavemen painting the walls with their fingers and we can still appreciate their art, tools are just a medium for the artist and we can do whatever our imagination want.

So I recorded a video process of a non prepared or pre-sketched illustration, just opened SAI and I let the imagination fly with you as a viewer.
The full image takes 8 hours, and no plugin or magic filter was applied, just the common HUE/Saturation or Overlay/Multiply needed in some layers. No extra brushes (love you SAI) just the ones you need for paint.
No hundreds of adjustment layers and Channel tricks, no, just my art on a blank canvas.

I invite you to join this ride with me, I'm planning to make in the future a full tutorial of Paint Tool Sai, showing how you can setup or customize some tools for be more productive, but for now I give you a quick preview of me trying this amazing piece of software.

I wish you the best in your career and I hope to see some of your creations with this magnificent painting software. ✌️😊

Carlitos out!