Good drawing/sketching software??

[jamers8]

Hey all.

I work at a sign company in Illinois and do all the graphics.

We do a large amount of sign work but I have issue. I do not have a decent program that I can do nice sketches and drawings with.

For example, I'll get a digital photo of a building who wants a sign on the front of their building. All of our sketch we give to clients look like the sign has been pasted right on top of a photo.

Any suggestions???

Please Help!

[Fred Weiss]

I would recommend Adobe PhotoShop. It will do what you're not liking or it will allow you to work on a layer or layers to sketch what you like with it's many tools, textures, filters and plugins.

[Lorraine]

Have a look at corel Painter 8, I've just seen it on their web site today and it looks just like what you looking for.

Corel (http://www.corel.com)

[giantsfan1951]

Corel Draw would also be a viable alternative... and more economical than Adobe

[OldPaint]

ok you need to clarify what you call a sketch......sound more like you need a produced object overlayed on an photo. thats easy with a digital camera and corel draw. you can take a jpeg of the building and lay it on the page, do the lettering on same page, put it anywhere on the jpeg you want it and print!!!!
now if you accually want to draw to you computer screen, you will need a WACOM tablet. it comes with a teaser version of PAINTER.
now this is where the drawing meets the monitor!!!!!! i got a 4x5 at SAM"S for $50 and its USB connective. older tablets were a pain, you had to find a DMA, IRQ, COMM PORT for them. this one is truely PLUG AND WORK!!!! larger versions can be had for mo-money.....and you can look at them at wacom web page.

[Rick]

Are you looking for photo realistic? First you need to ask yourself, is it really neccessary to add another hour or 2 doing sketches? If the client cant visualize it with a photo already, will it make it that much better? Does your company get paid for design?
These are important factors, most sign companies will do quick photo rendereings to aid in the visualization, but this isn't nessesary in a lot of cases.
With that said, Corel Photopaint is adequeate-though I am a Photoshop User, if you are not famiiliar with either program, expect a learning curve. You also might need Illustratoor or Corel to draw the sign with "depth" to make it even more photoorealistic, which adds another layer of difficulty.

[Greg]

I use a Wacom tablet (or a Microsoft Trackball Optical) and Corel Draw to sketch/trace with. Gives me good results for the kind of things I work with.

[freeportsign]

What model of the wacom do you use and what is the best size to get

[Greg]

I have the Wacom Graphire 3 I believe. It has about a 3 x 4 drawing area. Not sure what the latest model is but this one was about $99 when I bought it.

You don't need a huge one. Mine occupies the floor most of the time, so small is good. When I need it on my crowded desk I just get it.