Idris Kalu

Idris likes opening every menu in a program before deciding what it is good for. He writes about Krita, Clip Studio Paint, file formats, canvas sizes and preparing work for print.

Techniques

Getting canvas size and DPI right for print before you start

How to turn a print size into pixels before you paint: the one formula, worked examples for 8 x 10 and A4, bleed, aspect ratios and what 300 DPI really means.

Idris Kalu · March 17th, 2026Open the piece →

Pen Tablets & Displays

Pressure curves explained, and the mistakes I made with mine

What a pressure curve does, where the driver and app versions live, how to tune one with a simple stroke test, and the mistakes that make a good pen feel bad.

Idris Kalu · September 9th, 2025Open the piece →

Apps & Software

A calm first week in Krita for complete beginners

Krita is free, deep and a little overwhelming on day one. A seven-day plan for the workspace, brushes, pop-up palette, layers, saving and tablet setup.

Idris Kalu · April 22nd, 2025Open the piece →