I am a 2 D artist, drawing painting. I know nothing about digital art. I would like to learn. I am seeking a mentor in this area. Someone who can even introduce me to the best software platform to begin with.
There enough video online for free to start by your own but a mentor is generally someone who would see potential in you right now if you don't show anything to a potential mentor it unlikely to happen for you.So get yourself a sketchbook thread and maybe maybe someone will take a risk.If you serious about getting a mentor it probably better to think about investing but the problem is that it not gonna be a mentor but a teacher.There a difference in that a mentor usualy as a personal relation with you it a more 1 to 1 format but a teacher as a class to teacher. So the gain are more on your shoulder since he cannot only focus on your improvement you have to get the best out of an art class you would take.
First you have to show passion that really key if you want any kind of potential mentor to come your way.That mean draw alot and show you just need a bit of support to progress.You have to show that you can be an hard worker and a fast learner but it more important to show hard work.
If you want free software (which makes sense as a beginner), you can try Krita. Industry standard is Adobe Photoshop, Krita is (arguably) in some ways even better for drawing and painting, the only issue for me with Krita is that I sometimes work with text and huge files (which are not exacly art), plus PS is handier if you want to do photobashing. And there are way way more tutorials online for Photoshop. Many illustrators (not so much concept artists) use Clip Studio paint Pro which is also a solid alternative and cheaper, or if your tool is Ipad Pro, Procreate or Infinite painter
For a start, you can check out Ctrl+Paint, lots of tutorials for beginners in digital art (the author uses Photoshop).
I don't think that mentors just come your way, you need either to contact professtional who have mentorships available on their websites/Patreon etc. (many of them welcome newbies too), or to contact directly artists that you like and ask them whether they would like to teach you and how much they would charge for that. And sure, they are going to be curious what you've done before, to evaluate your current level (even if it's traditional art, since skills transfer)
Or you can check out classes like Schoolism, CGMA etc.
Hope to see your thread in Sketchbooks soon :)
I used to use photoshop, tried Krita and decided to switch when I realized it did pretty much everything I needed for free. like neopatogen says, It doesn't have all of the capabilities of Photoshop . Photo editing tools and text design and other stuff are pretty much nonexistent, but for drawing and painting it's good. A plus is that it has a nice animation mode as well.