Adobe Photoshop, Image Maker, and Freehand are big ones… i took graphic design classes, and we used all of those and more.

It depends on what type of character art you’re talking about.

If you’re talking about 3-D rendered characters, then that is made using 3-D modeling software such as 3-D Studio Max or Maya and then skinned with PhotoShop.

For regular drawing, quite often artists first draw out the characters by hand, scan the drawing into a computer, then clean and edit it through a drawing program such as PhotoShop, Illustrators, Paint, or FreeHand.

As for drawing by mouse, most artists use something called a Waccom tablet, which lets you draw with a pen tool on a tablet so that it simulates drawing by hand. If you are a real professional and afford $2000 you could upgrade to the Cintiq, which is a Waccom tablet with an LCD screen so that you “draw” directly onto the artwork via a screen.

This is probably going to sound incredible tedious, but with a little practice (okay, I’ve had over a decade, but only as a hobby) it gets easier.

1. I draw the drawing freehand on paper. There’s really no replacement for this as far as I’m concerned. I can’t look away from my hand to draw.

2. I scan the drawing at a decent resolution (usually 300dpi, just ’cause it’s my favorite dpi – 400 is obnoxious and 600 eats all my Doritos and doesn’t pick up the crumbs, metaphorically speaking)

3. I place the drawing in Adobe Illustrator (nice if you can get it, but not the cheapest thing on the market – worth every penny in my book)

4. I make a new layer, lock the layer with the drawing on it, and proceed to outline over the original drawing, making sure of course not to draw with a fill, which would only cover up the drawing.

5. I apply my choice of colors and effects and tweak the heck out of it for the next couple of hours until I feel satisfied.

6. Then I delete the original drawing, naturally.

This is really tedious depending on a.) how much experience you have with the program you’re using (Illustrator’s my fave, but Freehand is okay, and I hear they still make CorelDraw, which I guess might do some of the same things) and b.) how detailed the drawing is.

I had a heck of a long chore putting scales on a couple of dragons using this method, but the end effect was pretty nice. For small cartoons and spot illustrations, it works pretty well once you get used to it.

There are a couple things I can think of. One is to scan your original drawing into your computer then using whatever your program is, use or abuse the image you have imported as a coloring-type book page. The other is something I’ve just starting to experiment with, a PC tablet. They’re available at most electronic stores, I presume. There is a certain learning curve, getting your hand-eye coordination to work together, and you do work with a stylus, but if you make the most of it, hopefully it will fun.

yep!
it’s called a tablet!
here’s a cheap one!

Based on whether it’s 2D or 3D, here are what I use:

Corel Painter for 2D Character Design
ZBrush for 3D Character Design.

People say 3ds max and Maya are the best for modeling. But the fact is, they can be frustratingly tedious for quick design and prototyping. Manipulating polygons intelligently is an art acquired over seasoned sessions at the PC… but with the recommendations above, character modeling is pretty easy. It also let’s me do texturing right on the models, so the workflow is innovative.

I draw in Photoshop CS2/CS3 with a Wacom Tablet.