I would like to learn to create my own artwork but I am not even sure what program a lot of these furry artists use. I would imagine it's more advanced than the paint tool that you get for free on basically any PC. What program do a lot of these artists use anyway?

Krita is probably the best free option around for creating artwork, for being free it's a high quality product and I know people who prefer it over other applications they've paid money for.

Other notable programs:

• Clip Studio Paint
• PaintTool SAI
• Photoshop

just use MS Paint; I heard it has layers now.

Paint Tool Sai is the most used one from what I have seen.
And I used to use that one a lot back then. Now I mainly use Clip Studio Paint, sometimes I use Rebelle 6 (this one is rarely used).

Most experienced artists use photoshop usually.

Almost anything but MSPaint (but sometimes that too).

Like, if you have most of these:

• Some easy option for stroke smoothing (which may be in the actual program or could be in the driver for your graphics tablet)
• Layers and layer modes
• Paint modes
• Selection masks
• Simple transform tools like perspective and rotate.
• A color selector that isn't too stupid
• Some degree of brush customization (but not necessarily a whole lot. Honestly just being able to select general brush shape and how fuzzy it is is good)
• A fullscreen/no-dockables mode to help you focus
• Some kind of interactive warping of the image
• Tracking of recently used colors, possibly actual palette management

in the program you're using, then you're not missing much. The ones Faucet mentioned have most of those features, but also, many of the ones Faucet didn't mention have those features too :)

Of course if you want to pursue some specific type or style of art, then one might be better than another, for example I hear Clip Studio Paint has some good tools for making comics.

EDIT: Further comments:

• Of course many artists do their sketching in a traditional medium. It's important to be aware of that since by many accounts digital sketching lacks certain tactile elements that can make traditional media sketching feel easier or nicer. What you like about your favorite artists may have very little to do with the digital side of how they do things.
• Ultimately you are asking a very broad question, intended style and workflow matters a lot here. painting vs cartooning vs pixel art, for example, aside from the general requirement for you to have drawing skills, the features the program should have widely differ.

I use Krita and like it well enough, tried Clip Studio for a bit but did end up going back to Krita like Faucet said, lol

Medibang paint is my go-to! But I've used Paint Tool SAI in the past, and I own a Rebelle 5 Pro license so I also dip into that occasionally. I try to use as many programs as I need, though partially out of spite I just absolutely refuse to use CSP. lol

Was SAI the one with encrypted image files format?

I use Rebelle 5 Pro and Paint Tool SAI. What people use varies by a few factors, but for me I get lost when there are too many options. Too much fucking with settings and trying to figure out where things are, not enough actually working.

GIMP, Krita, FireAlpaca, and Medibang are some free art programs if you have little to no budget. Clip Studio Paint goes on sale pretty often for about $20, usually four times per year. It's a pretty robust program if you need one program that can do a lot of things for relatively cheap if you find yourself not jiving with the free programs.

I use procreate ( one time purchase ) and medibang ( free but has ads) before and now moving to csp ( all of them are ipad version) since it has a lot useful tools and I would like to make some comics

If starting with iPad i think medibang is the best choice

gayfur said:
I would like to learn to create my own artwork but I am not even sure what program a lot of these furry artists use. I would imagine it's more advanced than the paint tool that you get for free on basically any PC. What program do a lot of these artists use anyway?

krita sounds popular

many artists i know use procreate, photoshop, or clip studio paint as an option, sometimes ibispaint x, medibang, or firealpaca. sai is pretty popular as well but krita is kind of uncommon and i dislike it using it for drawing on it haha

a lot of people also use ms paint for bragging and impressionism for how hard it is to use

gayfur said:
I would like to learn to create my own artwork but I am not even sure what program a lot of these furry artists use. I would imagine it's more advanced than the paint tool that you get for free on basically any PC. What program do a lot of these artists use anyway?

Medibang is what I use it's hard at first but any software is when you start

snake-girl said:
many artists i know use procreate, photoshop, or clip studio paint as an option, sometimes ibispaint x, medibang, or firealpaca. sai is pretty popular as well but krita is kind of uncommon and i dislike it using it for drawing on it haha

a lot of people also use ms paint for bragging and impressionism for how hard it is to use

LOL, I used a box of toothpicks and a magnifier to paint this portrait! <--- Why pointillism died a quick death as a human-implemented art style.

I'm tempted to try some of this stuff just to see how it's progressed in 20 years. Adobe and GIMP seem kind of... I don't know how to put it exactly. I mean, I wouldn't want to get stuck with only those two choices. I remember when Adobe was buying up and killing all the reasonably effective tools, and then GIMP was an early response to that sort of business, but then it got surpassed by tons of other good programs. However, by that time, most people were stuck in the Adobe CS ecosystem, because of Microsoft-style shenanigans.