Who the Hell Is Ghost Malone?

It’s as fair a question as any that could be asked of me. Here I am, some random internet stranger who thinks they know a thing or two about free software and sticking it to the Capitalist Man™. But who exactly am I? Why should anybody listen to what I have to say?

I’m not sure I can fairly answer that second question. But I’d like to use this week’s post to attempt to answer the first.

Who am I?

My pen name is Ghost Malone. I’m 27 years old and I was born¹ and bred in the Youngstown, Ohio area of the United States, where I still live. I like books, video games, and most types of tea (including and especially iced). I was/am an almost textbook definition of a hikikomori, and self-identify as such. I have a Bachelor of Arts in Professional and Technical Writing with a minor in Italian, which I acquired last year. I speak fairly good Italian, abysmal Spanish, and am currently learning Japanese. Language is a fundamental part of who I am.

I’m a broke-ass bitch who still lives with their mom (who I love! Hi Mom!). My sole source of income is a freelance writing gig with a tech startup. I write their blog, which focuses on personal development and behavioral economics, and have been doing so for a little over a year now.

I’m a disaster bi and a depressed mess. I’m fat and clumsy, a dangerous combination. I’m the child of an Irish immigrant. I think I’m autistic but have no diagnostic proof (thanks America). My greatest joys in life are making people laugh and making people learn. I sleep a lot and I am never not thinking about food. My two favorite places on earth are libraries and college campuses.

The act of creating has been a key part of my life for as far back as my (admittedly shitty) memory stretches. I’ve been writing stories and drawing pictures since my discovery of the pencil. For my entire developing life, I thought I’d be an artist. Studying animation quickly taught me otherwise, but I consider art just as important to my life and happiness as it was when it was my anticipated career.

Why Start a Blog?

I started this blog without any real vision for what I wanted it to look like or the things I wanted to write about. Despite wanting to for years, I’ve never run my own blog before, so I’m keeping the bar fairly low. My goal is to publish a post once a week. It can be about whatever I want and any length I want. A running theme may better present itself as time goes on--in fact, I already see that happening on my end--but by and large it doesn’t matter what I do as long as I get behind the keyboard and have something to show for my efforts every Friday.

It's planned spontaneity. My favorite kind.

My now-famous (can I call it famous? I’m calling it famous) first post laid the foundation for what I think I’d like to accomplish. The act of creation has been fundamental to my life and happiness but it has never been easy to do. Money, illness, and a general lack of respect for creative people in our modern, Westernized world have been major stumbling blocks keeping me from being exactly who I am. Time, research, and trial and error (mostly error) have taught me a lot about how to create despite the circumstances. Life has pushed me hard and the older I get the less inclined I feel to lie back and let it happen. I’d rather push back.

This blog is a way of pushing back.

Where do we go from here?

You and I are on this journey together, my dear readers. I don’t have a plan. I don’t have promises. I’m flying by the seat of my pants here. But knowing who I am and what I like to do, I feel confident that we’re on staring down the horizon of something exciting. I expect you and I will both learn a lot from this experience.

When I was a kid my mom had this clock that had a plaque with a quote on it. That clock is long gone but the quote stuck with me forever. While writing this, I was reminded of it and looked up where it came from. Turns out, it was the name of a song written around World War I about a soldier getting called overseas.

Though my situation couldn’t be any more different, this soldier and I share the same feelings of trepidation about the path that’s been laid out for us. Unlike him, perhaps, I’m excited for what’s to come.

I don’t know where I’m going. But I’m on my way.

See you next week. Be good. Make art.

FOOTNOTES:

1. Technically I was born in Lowell, Massachusetts and lived in New Hampshire for a whopping six months, but I don’t really count it since I don’t remember it, being an infant and all.

Stop Using Photoshop You Broke, Beautiful Bastard

Once upon a time (last week), a moment of anger got away from me and I wrote a blog post featuring dozens of free websites and software people could use instead of the Adobe suite. I did this because Adobe was raising their prices, which was rightfully terrifying my fellow broke-as-shit creative people. I also have an extremely personal vendetta against Adobe. I hate them.

As it turns out, so do thousands of other people! The post blew up in a way I could have never imagined. It was a wonderful and humbling surprise. Actually, it was the complete opposite of humbling. My ego's never been bigger. I'm still waiting for my Buzzfeed feature.

Anyway, I've since updated that post based on tons of suggestions from people like you, and I'll continue updating that post as I learn more. People continue to come out of the woodwork to offer suggestions and insights beyond what I'm capable of on my own. Your love and feedback sustain me. My sincerest thanks.

For my second post on our adventure together, I want to take a deeper look at one particular section of those free Adobe alternatives I suggested last week: Art programs. Specifically, alternatives to Photoshop. The grandaddy of Asshole Programs.

I do this for two reasons. The first, and more important, is that the overwhelming majority of people who shared my original post appeared to be digital artists. Because the blogger-reader relationship is just that, I want to meet your needs just as much as I meet my own. Plus, by catering to my largest audience, I maximize my chances of being able to monetize this shit to help fund my planned escape to Canada.

The second reason--and somehow also the less noble one--is that of all those Adobe alternatives, art programs are the ones I'm most familiar with. My academic and professional background is in writing but before that, I was an art student. For like, six whole months. And art is still an important part of my life. It seemed like a fitting place to pick up.

So, my artistically-inclined readers, this post is for you. Here is a round-up of three free and three relatively inexpensive art programs to help you wean yourselves from the Photoshop titty.

FREE TIER

Autodesk Sketchbook (FREE)¹

I downloaded all six programs and doodled in them to get a better understanding of how they work.

RATING: 👻👻👻👻
GOOD FOR: Beginners, Cross-Platform Usage, Hobbyists
BAD FOR: Super Serious Professionals

Autodesk Sketchbook, or just Sketchbook, wasn't always free. It recently became free across all platforms for individuals, though there is a paid "Enterprise" subscription. All you need is an account, which handily syncs your work across your devices if you create from a computer and a tablet or phone.

Sketchbook is not complicated. Its minimalistic interface is a breath of fresh air if you find yourself overwhelmed by all the bits and bobs in Photoshop or other Grown-Ass Art Programs. It draws cleanly and offers a lot of neato features like rulers and guides, a Copic color library, and a hell of a brush library. There's even some animation functionality.

However, if you're looking to make the big bucks, you might find Sketchbook falls short when it comes to editing, polishing, and publishing. If you care about CMYK/RGB colors and other stuff I'm too amateur to know about, keep reading.

As an aside, I've also used the Android version of Sketchbook and as far as I can recall, it's identical to the desktop version. I'm quite fond of it, though lately, I've been using ibisPaint X for phone doodling.

Krita (FREE) (ACCEPTS DONATIONS | VOLUNTEER)

This was my first time having access to manga textures! That was exciting.

RATING: 👻👻👻👻👻

GOOD FOR: Adobe Refugees, Comic Artists

BAD FOR: Text Editing, People Who Need Mobile Versions

Of all the recommendations people sent me for my anti-Adobe free software roundup, two programs stood out. One wasn't free so I couldn't include it. The other was Krita.

Krita has a hell of a story. It's designed by artists and is specifically for digital art, rather than being an image manipulator moonlighting as an art program (LIKE A CERTAIN SOMEONE WE KNOW). I knew vaguely of Krita from downloading and playing with it once maybe a year or two ago. For whatever reason, I wasn't impressed then, but I sure as hell am now. There is a wealth of tools and brush presets. There are guides and perspective assistants. You can change the layout of your workspace based on what you're doing. It does vectors. It does animations. If Krita could talk, it'd tell you how nice you look and that it's rooting for you every time you make something with it.

Truthfully, I didn't see anything worth hating. So, I went to r/Krita to see what other people hated about Krita. The answer was almost unanimously text editing. This feature is admittedly clunky.

Note: The Krita Foundation is a non-profit organization that was made for Krita's development. It is staffed with two full-time employees and dozens of volunteers. If have any to spare, consider donating some of your money or time to the Krita Foundation.

Medibang Paint Pro (FREE)

I was nearing the end of my software testing (and my sanity) at this point.

RATING: 👻👻👻

GOOD FOR: Cross-Platform Users, Adobe Refugees (Who Aren't Quite Art Experts Yet)

BAD FOR: Ads, Ugly-Ass Interface and Website

Medibang Paint Pro was another program that's only recently entered my circle of awareness. It's another program whose major selling points are that it's cross-platform and free as hell. UNLIKE Sketchbook, however, the desktop version seems to have more features than its mobile counterpart (or perhaps I'm just not finding them).

Medibang looks and feels like a Photoshop Lite and that's kind of a compliment. It's got some layout tools for comics and, if you're willing to brave the butt-ugly website, the community is massive enough to support tons of tutorials, brushes, and other resources. One thing that sets it apart from Sketchbook is the Reference tool, which lets you keep a reference image right on your workspace while you're drawing, either as its own window or in one of the sidebars.

Personally, Medibang was my least favorite of the three free contenders. While it's better-suited for serious artists than Sketchbook, I found the workspace ugly and difficult to navigate, especially compared to Krita. I think I would only recommend Medibang if you need Krita but are stuck on a phone or tablet. But I'd also nudge you to try Sketchbook first. Just in case.

"STILL CHEAPER THAN PHOTOSHOP" TIER

ArtRage ($79 USD)

World's Okayest Art Program

RATING: 👻👻

GOOD FOR: Novelty, People Who Don't Mind Spending Actual Money For A Shittier Version of Sketchbook, Which Is Free

BAD FOR: Poor People, Art, People Living in 64-Bit

ArtRage was something I vaguely remembered from the past and downloaded the trial just to see what it was like. I was very tempted by the promise that drawing with ArtRage would feel like drawing traditionally, which is my preferred drawing method. For me, digital art is something I only do because I can't afford a traditional art hobby. Also because there's no undo button in real life.

At first blush, ArtRage actually quite promising. The canvas texture is visible and nice and the pencil tool was sinfully delightful to use. The program also features a Tracing tool, which places a reference image beneath your canvas to trace over. It's basically a semi-transparent layer beneath your layers. You can also put reference images on your canvas, which look like pinned photos. It's charming.

"Charming" is really the word I'd use to describe ArtRage. It was a fun plaything that I thought might have been worth the investment for me personally. I was even seriously considering buying it. Then I checked the price.

Seventy-Nine Fucking Dollars.

Y'all, I'm just gonna come out and say it. ArtRage is not worth 79 fucking dollars. Just use Sketchbook instead.

Paint Tool SAI (¥5400 JPY / $50 USD)

This is the program I know best and have used the longest.

RATING: 👻👻👻👻
GOOD FOR: Professional Digital Illustrators, Brush Customization, Textures
BAD FOR: Comics, Animation, Printing (probably), Tablet Compatibility

My digital art journey started when I was almost out of high school. I'd saved up for a 7" x 8" Wacom Bamboo that had an eraser function on the back of the pen and that I loved more than 90% of people I've known. Back then, I struggled to make GIMP work as a budding illustrator and usually just stuck to MS Paint, where my notoriously shaky hands struggled to produce anything clean.

For the record, if you think GIMP is ugly now, You should have seen GIMP in 2008. You kids don't know how good you got it.

Fast forward two years, when I took my first wobbly steps into the world of Tumblr, and with it the biggest art community I'd ever seen.² With that came an embarrassment of resources, including one that everyone seemed to be using at the time: Paint Tool SAI.

Being painfully easy to pirate, I got a copy, and promptly fell in love. SAI is elegant and simple but POWERFUL and you can do incredible things with it artistically.

But it's not without flaws. Big projects can cause it to crash and it's notoriously fussy about tablet compatibility. All that said, this is the one art program I thought was worth paying for. I stand by that, though I admit it was before getting to know my next and final entry...

Clip Studio Paint ($49.99 USD Pro | $219 USD for Paint Ex)

RATING: 👻👻👻👻👻
GOOD FOR: Illustration, Animation, Adobe Refugees, Customization
BAD FOR: Nothing. NOTHING, OKAY? IT'S GREAT. YOU WERE ALL RIGHT. ARE YOU HAPPY???

Remember earlier in the post when I mentioned there were two programs that stood out among the tidal wave of recommendations I got following my Fuck Adobe Post Heard Round the World? Remember how I mentioned one of them wasn't free and therefore didn't meet the single criteria needed to qualify for a spot in that round-up?

I promise I actually appreciate it. I love all of you.

Yeah. This was that one.

I got notifications about Clip Studio Paint in all caps. People balked that I had not mentioned it. Not in an angry way; it was more like shock. Indignant shock at worst. It was ultimately this reaction--and the recent observation that all my art friends are apparently using this program now--that led me to make this post.

By the time I'd gotten to testing it, I was prepared to be grumpy about it. It was the fourth unfamiliar program I was test-driving, and I haven't regularly made digital art since those early twenty-teens. It was late at night near the end of an uncharacteristically stressful week. I couldn't wait to say all the ways Paint Tool SAI was better than Stupid Clip Paint.

Suffice it to say that is not what will happen. Stupid Clip Paint is incredible. And any artist who has used it will tell you as much. I know this because thousands of them have told me. They told me to tell you. And here I am, telling the fuck out of you, because you need to hear it.

For the same price as Paint Tool SAI, you get all the magic of SAI and more. If you're used to the Photoshop interface, you'll feel right at home. If you're not (like me), you might feel a bit overwhelmed at first. Luckily, there are tons of tutorials and tips built right into the app that will walk you through whatever you want to do and the customization options are endless. You can design for print or digital. It can do vector art and has a (simplistic) animation tool. The damn thing does 3D modeling for God's sake. If it's not as good as Photoshop, it's probably better. If I hadn't just last year purchased a SAI license after pirating it for years, I'd have bought this by now.

For the admittedly much steeper price of $219, however, you get a veritable explosion of other features. The ability to work with multi-page files. Full production animation. Exporting multiple-page documents for print or publication. Conversion of 3D images to 2D, which is apparently a thing.

Even as expensive as that is, however, it's still infinitely cheaper than Photoshop and it does way more. And, most importantly, you only have to pay for it one goddamn time.

I know we're all still reeling from Adobe being assholes. I know it's easy to be angry and talking shit is satisfying. But we've gotta do more than be angry, guys. I can't overstate the necessity of supporting smaller developers, now more than ever. It's all well and good to pump our fists and scream "FUCK ADOBE" but we owe it to the people doing actual work offering solutions to amplify and support them.

I hope this post finds you well. See you guys next week, where I will (hopefully) talk about something that isn't art-related.

Be good.

Bonus Image:

I was also gonna test Paint.NET but it wouldn't work with my tablet lol.

FOOTNOTES

1. I know the entire section is dedicated to free programs and listing each individual program as free was both redundant and silly. I did it anyway though, on the grounds that I really love free shit.

2. I was largely ignorant of Deviantart until it got so big I was terrified of going anywhere near it. My first art community was the much-smaller--and amazingly still active--PaperDemon. I even found my old account, made in 2006, just for you guys, which to my shock and hilarity still exists and features art from, amazingly, as recently as 2013. And I can't remember the login information, so if there's anything problematic buried in that account, I can't really do anything about it but apologize and assure you I've grown. 2006 Me wouldn't recognize 2019 Me. 2019 Me barely recognizes 2019 Me.

Fuck the Adobe Suite. Use These Programs Instead

EDITOR'S NOTES:
WOW!! This blew up on Twitter in the best possible way. I've heard so much great and much-needed feedback and have been pouring through all of your recommendations. I've added many of them to this post, and will likely continue updating this list as I learn more, so please continue sharing and not letting the Adobe bastards grind you down!!

The other day I saw a tweet that ignited a fury in me I still haven’t gotten over.

Goddamn it Adobe.

The tweet, by user @burgerdrome, explained that Adobe is raising the price of their Creative Cloud subscription from $39.99 per month to $48.99 per month. For one person. One person!!! This goes beyond unfair, soars past unjust, and teeters at the edge of criminal.

You see, dear reader, I hate any company that tries to exploit the already poor-as-shit creator community, as I myself am a member of that group. However, I have a particular case of the ass against Adobe. Adobe, to me, symbolizes everything I hate about both capitalism and Western civilization’s complete disregard of the arts and humanities as not just valuable, but necessary parts of life.

But I’m not writing this to preach or complain. Instead, I’m taking a more proactive approach to my frustration. Instead, I’ve scoured the internet and rounded up free or cheap alternatives to every major Adobe CC product, many of which I personally use because I fucking hate Adobe so goddamn much.

In future blog posts, I’ll go through each of these programs and talk about them more in-depth. But I feel a sense of urgency to get this post out to the masses, so for now, here are just names and links.

Side note: Because I only have a PC, I’ve only looked at PC apps. While many of these programs may also have Mac versions, I didn’t make a point of confirming, because frankly if you can afford a Mac computer, you probably don’t need this article anyway.

All of these apps are free to use. Italicized apps are free but have premium versions. Bolded apps are what I have used and can personally vouch for, at least within the scope of my own work.

IF YOU DRAW OR DESIGN

Instead of PHOTOSHOP, try GIMP, KRITA, FIRE ALPACA, AUTODESK SKETCHBOOK, or MEDIBANG PAINT

Instead of LIGHTROOM, try PAINT.NET or DARKTABLE

Instead of ILLUSTRATOR, try INKSCAPE

Instead of INDESIGN, try CANVA or SCRIBUS

IF YOU MAKE PICTURES MOVE

Instead of PREMIERE, try DAVINCI RESOLVE or HITFILM EXPRESS

Instead of ANIMATE/FLASH, try OPENTOONZ, PLASTIC ANIMATION PAPER, EASYTOON, or BLENDER

Instead of AFTER EFFECTS, try WAX, BLENDER, or FUSION

IF YOU BUILD WEBSITES OR SOFTWARE

Instead of DREAMWEAVER, SPARK, or XD, try NOTEPAD++, WIX, WEEBLY, or WORDPRESS.COM

IF YOU DO STUFF THAT REQUIRES THESE OTHER PROGRAMS

Instead of AUDITION, try AUDACITY, WAVEPAD, OCENAUDIO, or LMMS

Instead of ACROBAT PRO, try FOXIT READER, PDFMATE, or PDF ESCAPE

Instead of INCOPY, try LOVING YOURSELF AND USING LITERALLY ANYTHING ELSE (WHO USES THIS???)

IF YOU NEED STOCK PHOTOS OR FONTS

Instead of ADOBE STOCK, try PEXELS, UNSPLASH, or PIXABAY

Instead of ADOBE FONTS, try GOOGLE FONTS or FONT SQUIRREL

BONUS: If you need FREE MUSIC OR SOUND EFFECTS, try YOUTUBE AUDIO LIBRARY, INCOMPETECH, or SOUNDBIBLE
If you need CLIP ART, try OPENCLIPART
If you need TEXTURES, try TEXTURES.COM

FINAL THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND

Because all of these programs are free, and most of them are open-source, their functionality is going to feel limited in places where the Adobe programs do not. For beginners or people looking for a no-frills approach to creation, this could actually be a good thing. For hard-boiled professionals, however, the limitations might hurt more.

There are also more than plenty of other, non-free alternatives that might better suit the needs of hardcore users. Clip Studio Paint has become an overnight sensation for artists and there are tons of InDesign clones out there that, while not exactly cheap, are still cheaper than Adobe’s absurd $50 a month. Plus, many of these alternatives are a simple, one-time payment. As software should be.

But please don’t discount the power of these free programs! While there might be limitations, open-source programs like Paint.NET offer TONS of customization through plug-ins, and it’s entirely possible to build yourself a powerful program using the scaffolding of these basic free ones this way. The reason I don’t use GIMP is that I’ve beefed Paint.NET up so much I don’t need it. Also, GIMP takes 900 years to open and Paint.NET does not. Priorities.

In the wake of this price hike crisis, creators feel rightfully attacked. People want to know: What is it going to take to show Adobe that this kind of behavior isn’t okay?

The answer is short and simple: They need to lose money over it. The only time a company as big as Adobe cares about their customers is when they’re hemorrhaging funds and can’t figure out why. As my late uncle always used to say: Money talks. Bullshit walks.

Using these free or cheaper programs and encouraging other people—especially professionals—to also use them will hit Adobe right where they’ll feel it most: In the wallet. Plus, it’ll help support small-time developers, which increases competition, which might make room for something better than Adobe to emerge. Or it’ll at least pressure Adobe into keeping their prices fair.

The only way to fix the system is to tear it down by its foundations. Scurry from Adobe like cockroaches in the light. Go download free programs. Create in spite of Adobe saying you can’t without ponying up your life savings first. Take immense satisfaction in knowing that, every time you open Blender or DaVinci Resolve, you’re giving Adobe a big fat finger to their greedy faces.

Now get out there and create, you lovely bastards.