Hi All,

Been around a little while but this is my first post. :)

Can anyone suggest a painting application that provides a greater flexibility than The GIMP but isn't as highly priced as Photoshop?

I recently discovered digital art/illustration and I'm having real fun with my new hobby, but I'm beginning to find that my current app. of choice (The GIMP) doesn't quite offer the flexibility I need so I was thinking that it might be time to get serious about my tools. I was thinking that Photoshop Elements might fit the bill but there are soooo many art apps. I really am a bit lost and would appreciate a little guidance (I have a budget of £75 btw). I don't need to worry about CMYK as it's not like my stuff is being published, but perhaps there's another app. that I have overlooked.

Anyway, thank you so much for any help or advice you can give (even if the advice is 'well, it sounds like you're not using The GIMP properly' lol).

Cheers,

HAL.

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"What are you doing, Dave?"

I've not used Gimp so I don't know its flexibility. If you can beg, borrow or steal a little more dosh then you would be able to take advantage of Corel's latest offer of 50% off Painter X - £128.99 (Go to Corel website). Otherwise look at Dogwaffle, Twisted Brush and ArtRage, amongst others, I'm sure.

PS Don't steal. 

I agree with JoeParis. 
There are a lot of programs out there.  I've played around with GIMP a bit, and it has almost as much versatility as Photoshop, but it can be a bit frustrating to figure it out.  I know that GIMP as well as other open source projects have a rather large community base, so if there's something that you want to do, don't be afraid to ask in the appropriate forums.  I know that IGB over at cgpad.org uses GIMP, and he might be good to seek out.

As for programs: Artrage is amazing for the $25 that it costs (in any other currency, probably the cost of a pack of gum )

I used dogwaffle on and off for a while, and as a program it packs a decent punch and you can test drive it through a demo or it's free version.  It also plays very well with Artweaver (free last time I checked) via a plugin.  

You can also try: paint.net

Hope that helps.

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Please check out my Colors! Gallery when you get a chance. -
http://colors.collectingsmiles.com/author.php?page=1&id=3427

Well I might think that perhaps you should do more research in a GIMP forum because just from what little I have tried it has proven it just about on level with Photoshop. So yeah...."perhaps you're not using it correctly" might apply.
 
Along with ArtRage and Artweaver I can also strongly recommend openCanvas....particularly version 1.b72. It's fast and small....and just works. Oh yeah....and it's free. 
 
http://opencanvas.informe.com/get-oc-1b72-here-dt16.html
 
Out of curiosity....what sort of things do you need to be flexible?

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Wizard's First Rule

Well, I have to admit I probably haven't done quite as much research into GIMP's capabilities as I should so perhaps I need to go to one of the GIMP forums and find out a bit more before I go any further. *blush* I am a bit of a technojunkie and I love new software so this is probably not helping me be faithful to GIMP...lol.

Although as far as limitations are concerned, my main gripe is the limited use of the pressure levels on my Wacom Bamboo tablet. The tablet supports 512 levels of pressure but GIMP seems to only support about 6 or 7. I always thought it was a bit suspicious but when I had a go at the Photoshop CS3 trial yesterday (free for 30 days so should be just long enough for me to wish I had the money :) I noticed that the full 512 levels were supported and the lines I could create were fantastic...made me realise just what I was missing.

Perhaps only a little thing, and I'm certainly not complaining as GIMP is free and very awesome to boot, but this kind of thing leaves me wondering if something else would be more appropriate.

Oh, and thanks all for the quick responses. I'll check out the suggested apps.

Cheers,

HAL.

 

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"What are you doing, Dave?"

A couple weeks late to this, but you may want to check out this thread over at the GIMP Talk forums: Install guide: Getting Wacom drawing tablets to work in GIMP

There are several posts there about the Bamboo tablet and the version of the GTK libraries that GIMP requires. Some of the suggestions are pretty hardcore (hex editing the DLL file) but some of them are a bit more down to earth.

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All things are possible, if we lose our minds to them.

Hey Hal As Gix quite rightly said, I do use GIMP and also Sketchbook Pro2. GIMP is one of those apps that you really need to explore - putting aside any expectations of it being like photoshop. Its does a lot of things that are very similar but a lot of things that are very different. Photoshop and Wacom tablets are designed to work with each other I too had issues with a wacom some time ago with GIMP, not with pressure levels they were fine, but with smoothing - instead of drawing a smooth, circlular shaped line, I got a jagged one. But a later version of the program sorted that. It could be that it just doesn't support Bamboo tablets yet, of that the preferences aren't set up quite right. Keep an eye out for updated versions of GIMP at http://www.GIMP.org - its heading for another big update. I would say its very much like Ps CS in its current state. Artweaver is also a good Painter style app to try - although be warned, you'll need a fair amount of RAM for it to play nicely. Hope you get something sorted, or at least strike a balance. Give me a shout at cgpad.org if you need more help. Ian aka IGB

HAL:

Well, I have to admit I probably haven't done quite as much research into GIMP's capabilities as I should so perhaps I need to go to one of the GIMP forums and find out a bit more before I go any further. *blush* I am a bit of a technojunkie and I love new software so this is probably not helping me be faithful to GIMP...lol.

Although as far as limitations are concerned, my main gripe is the limited use of the pressure levels on my Wacom Bamboo tablet. The tablet supports 512 levels of pressure but GIMP seems to only support about 6 or 7. I always thought it was a bit suspicious but when I had a go at the Photoshop CS3 trial yesterday (free for 30 days so should be just long enough for me to wish I had the money :) I noticed that the full 512 levels were supported and the lines I could create were fantastic...made me realise just what I was missing.

Perhaps only a little thing, and I'm certainly not complaining as GIMP is free and very awesome to boot, but this kind of thing leaves me wondering if something else would be more appropriate.

Oh, and thanks all for the quick responses. I'll check out the suggested apps.

Cheers,

HAL.

 

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After all my griping, I've stuck with GIMP anyway. *lol* I tried both Artweaver and PS (trial version) and the interface was waaay to different for me to get to grips with. I started out my digital painting hobby on GIMP so I never had the issues many people report about it being difficult to do stuff...in fact, I have the exact same problem when trying PS! :-) Anyway, my intention is to stick with GIMP after all. It's comfortable to use, and if that (minor really) issue with my tablet gets resolved then all the better.

Thanks again all for the good ideas though. Great input.

Cheers,

HAL.

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"What are you doing, Dave?"