I love to draw and paint. I want to create my own art but have a hard time using the digital tools.
Are there any classes or assistance I could get in creating my own designs? I need someone to show me how to use the web apps (e.g. Adobe), what they recommend I try, and how to troubleshoot.
How do you like to learn? Print or video? There are lots of resources out there. In fact everything you need to know about running your Glowforge and making designs is actually right here in this forum if you know where to look.
I’ll go find a few links to get you started. In the meantime I bet you’ll get a lot out of this post:
Deciding which software to use is a blend of understanding what you’re trying to do and also choosing which software feels the most natural for you to use. For example I use Inkscape for almost everything, But some people just don’t like the interface of that program. There is an element of personal preference in that decision.
Here’s a link discussing various software options:
Once you’ve made a choice about which software you want to use or at least narrow it down, then you can start looking for webpages or videos that are about that software. As I said before there are so many resources out there, the first to decide what you want to know and then it’s just a matter of finding the person that’s taken the time to write it up or make videos about it.
All of the tools have steep learning curves, and it’s really hard to decide which path to follow when you don’t understand them. I had used the most common ones for vector design before the Glowforge came into existence, but not as heavily as I have since. I chose the free option not simply because it was free, but also because it’s the most intuitive for me.
A big difference between hand work and computers is that on paper a line is a line, a wide line is different from a thin line and you can draw it light or dark. A filled in area is like a line but shaded you don’t have to think of the math involved.
I think one of the best ways to start would be with Gimp and a scanner. If you make a drawing and scan it in, then play with it in Gimp you can develop the tools to accomplish what you do hand drawing.
The biggest jump for the brain it that there are two destinct ways of doing an image. One is an array of tiny squares (pixels) that each can have only one color/shade and while you can see lines, the computer only has pixels. If the pixels are big all you see is jaggy squares, If they are small and you double the size the number of pixels jumps 4 times and that can get really rediculous.
The other way an image can exist is vectors where specific points are connected to other points. You can fill a closed loop but there are many issues. One big advantage is that you can scale vectors without having file size issues but typical nuances in hand painting cannot be matched.
It is for this reason I use both Gimp and Inkscape almost as if they were a single program. Gimp has amazing powers in pixels and even creating vectors, but it is very poor at manipulating vectors. While Inkscape can be much stronger when dealing with vectors but other than showing a pixel image is extremely lame at manipulating the pixels.
There are also things like tablets that you can draw on directly. While pricey they can have a very natural feel to work on.
Yeah, I agree generally on tablets - I have one, and it can accurately trace stroke weight, but to be honest, for the stuff I do with the GF, I very rarely use it. My laptop trackpad is more than sufficient, and for more detailed stuff I have a larger BT trackpad, but I could probably count on one hand how many times I’ve needed it. Just like the software, it comes down to what works best for you.
I’m gonna be that guy and turn up my nose at Gimp and Inkscape. They are powerful, free tools but they are wildly different than the commercial apps and I find the UI of both to be obtuse.
For better or worse, players like Adobe have defined the way that graphics apps work. Unless a user is determined to spend as little money as possible, I think most people are better served with software that operates in the standard way, because the skills you develop are more portable.
If a person is a pro artist looking to go digital, bite the bullet and buy something like the Affinity suite, or Adobe, or Corel. (Corel is still around, right? Haha.)
Normally I am the cheapest guy around and the first to find the free alternative, but I have tried the free stuff, and I sincerely hated it.
Since you can try everything for free, that is what OP should do, but a rank beginner is going to have a hard time making a wise decision since everything is gonna feel weird.
I did say it was a matter of opinion. 
out of curiosity, when was the last time you took a serious look at Inkscape? They had a pretty major UI overhaul over the past couple of versions, and a new version just dropped (v1.4, on 10/13).
I wonder if you would still have the same opinion of the interface if it’s been a while since you looked at it.
as little money as possible
Aren’t we all? $720/year for Adobe is significant. That would have been over $5,000 across the life of my Glowforge.
It’s the same argument against using a filter. The lifetime cost is just too high.
One thing I have learned from using both expensive and open-source software is the difference in the motivations involved in each case. In big-name software, the focus is on new users. Only new users are going to start out with the software. While folks who have been using it for years will continue. Thus for folks writing the software, that is their main job, not actually using it. Thus the main focus is easing the new user, often choosing a decision tree as the user refines the definition of what they want.
In open-source software, the folks writing the software have used it as their primary goal and want the end of the decision tree in one command. This is harder for the newcomer to learn but once learned is very much faster. For the user, nobody is a newcomer for long. That divide is not as big as it used to be but it is still there.
I was using Blender when I needed to go back to Autocad which I had used for many years and was astonished at how many times more I was just hitting the return button. I had used LISP to flatten the decision trees but the more “I want this…yes I’m sure I want that” return on everything was horrid, coming from Blender, where before I hadn’t noticed.
Don’t get decision paralysis about picking software. I have used Corel Draw, Adobe Illustrator, Affinity Designer and, Inkscape. They all do essentially the same things. After becoming familiar with one of them, using a different one was not a whole new major learning curve. I was able to intuit that the new software likely had a way to do whatever I was familiar with doing in the old software. Then, I could look for it in the interface or, search the web on the name of the new software plus the descriptor to get instructions (e.g., “Inkscape align objects”).
As @evansd2 suggests, Inkscape has improved dramatically over the last few years. Pre-1.0, it was crashy as heck on MacOS. Crashes with current versions are infrequent. The current UI doesn’t seem any less intuitive than the commercial alternatives.
I love the Affinity suite. It’s a one-time fee and often on sale. They also have a 6-month free trial, so you have lots of time to decide how you feel. I personally find Affinity Designer to be more intuitive than Inkscape, although there are still a few small things I can’t do in AD and need Inkscape or Silhouette Studio for. I simply can’t justify the ongoing cost of Adobe.
Speaking of Silhouette Studio, it’s free to use, although you can’t save SVGs without upgrading to a Business license (usually ~$99). I bring it up because it’s another option that’s designed for a brand-new user. It might help you get started with vector work.
It has been a long time, but the trauma seems like yesterday. 
Oh I agree. And if I was a professional artist I would also prefer to spend that $720 compared to using Inkscape for free – at least, the Inkscape I remember, which was appalling. I grant it may be much improved as I have not looked at it in ages.
I don’t notice the seasoned illustration professionals I have worked with bypassing the company-provided Adobe apps in order to use Inkscape and Gimp. And as a person that works hard to make the commercial software to which I contribute a quality product, I take offense to the idea that the best quality can only possibly come from free software.
I get leery of platform lock-in.
Silhouette is aimed at the crafter market, I don’t want to get hooked into it only to get the rug yoinked out from under me.
My experience is with Autocad and not Adobe, but that is quite deep. At that point there were several cases of better competition for Autocad but the made the “stealing” easier to alllow folks to break in and learn how to use their stuff, while those with strict barriers had ever smaller numbers of skilled users. One in particular you had to travel to Texas and pay to learn how to use the software, and sign an agreement to not teach anyone else. They went belly up and in the end only sold computers.
There was also a very “gray” deal with Microsoft that where their software had been available in Apple, Linux, and Windows, Autodesk made a deal and dropped Apple and Linux support overnight, leaving those folks with niothing. Corel was also developing a nice 3d system and dropped that with no warning too. There was a legal effort to reign in some of the worst games, but all was mostly danced away from. It was that gaming of the system that sparked the Open-Source movement in the first place.
I understand all of that but it doesn’t really have anything to do with the pretty radical statement that only free software can be the most “efficient.”
Anyway we are off OP’s topic and I am not helping by arguing.
OP should pick something and try it.
I also transitioned from physical to digital art, and program aside I found the way that got my brain on schedule was to draw something, then scan it, load it into a program (I use getpaint.net and Inkscape.org) and then edit it in the graphics program. You get used to how things work on a style of art you are familiar with that way.
Now, it was much harder to transition to vector art (which is what Inkscape does) as it’s math based. The ability to (for example) draw a weighted line just isn’t there because it either tries to follow you too exactly and your line will have every tremor you didn’t know you had in your hand - or it’ll smooth it out so much it misses the point. That being said, using the Glowforge sped up my learning of vectors considerably. In a similar sort of way I would go find a vector piece of work (all the free box generators download vectors) and then play with them.
With either vectors or rasters, when you run across a “I can’t make this work” you can come back here and use the search function, or ask a new question. No matter which program you end up using there will be an expert here
Oh, and if you decide to go through a series of videos to learn a software, double check they are using the same version as you have. I had so much frustration trying to learn Fusion 360 because every video I found was using the Pro version, and the free hobbiest version doesn’t have all the same menus!
yeah, that doesn’t apply to adobe in any way.
a) adobe is subscription based, so they need to keep convincing people to stay to maintain their cashflow.
b) they have the money and resources to do far more than a free program does. they’re the 900 lb gorilla in the room. and yet they’ve avoided the stagnation of an Autocad (back in the day) or Quark. every year there are new features that are really cool with the next release at max.
Gimp has nowhere near the manipulation capability of Inkscape for vectors but you can make a mask around a common shade or color and turn that into a vector in Gimp and import that into Inkscape getting much nicer and more useful vectors.
We’re talking in the Glowforge forum, so that ship seems to have sailed.
You’ve been pretty clear on your opinions about it for a long time, so I know that you’re not interested in it. But the company has been around for more than 10 years and they’re still releasing new tools and updating the software. And you’re not locked into anything by using it. You can export the same types of files any of the other vector software packages offer. I continue to bring it up because I think it offers an easier transition from working with rasters to vectors. The language is more familiar and the tools are simpler - they have the tools that many of us use most. Once you understand how vectors work, you can take that knowledge and apply it elsewhere if you need more specialized tools. I teach workshops at my makerspace and it’s the software I use to get people up and running quickly for stickers and other cutouts (not on a laser, although the designs would work there, too) on our Roland BN20 Ecosolvent print/cut.
Honestly, I find the resistance to it kind of funny. Silhouette tools are aimed at the same people as the Glowforge and they offer many of the same benefits to those who are either just getting started or who don’t have a need to delve into complex software.
i think if it’s a tool you’re already using and comfortable with, it does what you need, and it works with GF, then there’s no reason to consider switching (unless and until you need some feature that it doesn’t have).
but i’m with Dave that if you are starting from scratch, I wouldn’t recommend anything but a full-fledged design program (free or paid, doesn’t matter).