So yeah,  grrrwolf posted this question in his journal, asking what art programs people used for to do the digital part of their submissions here, and he got a lot of interesting responses.

So I thought I'd do the same and see what everyone who watches me uses. If any of you actually read my journals that is.

Me, I start with a blue-line sketch(okay, technically it doesn't have to be blue, but I like the traditional feel of it) in GIMP using a junky $50 tablet I bought long ago.

Save that to a .gif and import to Macromedia Flash pro 8, run through WINE, where I abuse Macromedia's vector graphics combined with my tablet to do black line art and "ink" it. Then it's save as a .png and back to GIMP.

Using magic wand with the sample merged option and about a bazillion layers, I do blocks of color, then eventually shading, most of which I use my tablet for. A bit of touch up work and some highlights, slap on my sigfile and then it's done.