Krita 4.4.3 was released recently, and the Android version fixed the biggest show-stopper for me to be able to use it: customizations to the app configuration are now restored on startup, so you can rearrange and modify settings and they are preserved between app uses.
This means I was able to set up Krita so I could minimize the time needed to go into the main menu, and not need to use my Samsung Galaxy Tab S7+’s keyboard, while supporting a workflow similar to the one I came up with for Clip Studio Paint:
- The addition of Clear and Deselect to the top bar lets me use Lasso Select for manipulation and erasing much faster.
- Adding Show Dockers lets me hide most of the UI without having to go into full-blown Full Screen mode.
- I added Mirror View to the toolbar as well so I can quickly flip the canvas to check my drawings for errors.
- I moved Tool Options to the navigation and out of a docker since I don’t use it too often. Mainly for Reference Art.
- I moved the Toolbox docker to the top of the screen so all the tools are laid out in a row. Having them in the side docker meant I had to scroll up and down a bunch in the docker to find things.
- Everything else on the screen covers my usual CSP workflow.
There are a few things that are missing
- I want to be able to lock transforms to aspect ratio as a tool option to Transform. Without a keyboard, it’s not locked at all so you have to be precise when manipulating selections.
- There’s no right-click support on the canvas at all, even with a keyboard
or with a Bluetooth mouse, so vector operations are more difficult.
I went back to drawing balloons by hand like I did in the
Autodesk Sketchbook days of
The Industrious Rabbit.
- More robust balloon handling in general would be great. I don’t care as much abuot text handling on Android since dealing with fonts is a total mess.
- I don’t seem to be able to save tags on brushes to be able to group them. I’ll have to experiment with this more.
I plan on doing all the art for the next The Industrious Rabbit post in Krita to give it a real good workout. So far, so good!