Excuse me? 32-bit editions are not abandoned. If a distribution is still providing them, and many do, that means it's supported. Try a version with a graphical installer, newer ones like Calamares are as friendly as anything I've seen from any other operating system. Where are you getting this idea that you have to work in a terminal, in text mode? As for Inkscape, try it! I made excellent art with it, for several games and other purposes. And for other kinds of art there are alternatives. E.g. GIMP isn't going to cut it for painting or pixel art, but there's always Krita and Aseprite. That's not even going into game engines: Godot is even included in the Debian 10 repos!
Dunno if you'll get along with free software and migrate to it entirely. That's personal. It's not for everyone. But a lot of people are doing a great job that way.