I'm no artist, but I have to use graphic arts programs for work preparation...I've always found the learning curve of Adobe products to be steep, though they are clearly powerful and the industry standard. For example, I have both Adobe Illustrator and Corel Draw at work and I'd have to say that Corel is more intuitive for a layman such as myself. And Corel is no doubt cheaper (if you are trying to get a legit copy). However, since most every in the biz uses Adobe there is some merit in forcing yourself to learn it, since that will likely be more applicable in the job market...

Hmm, guess my help is no help at all - could go either way with this

Looks to me that many people use both Painter and Photoshop in their work. Painter is regarded by some as a superior tool for replicating the actual painting process via a digital tablet, whereas Photoshop (or Corel PhotoPaint for that matter) are positioned as digital photo manipulative tools. The lines are blurred by the fact that all of these products and other similar ones share many of the same capabilities and it seems to become a matter of personal preference. However, Corel definitely has an academic pricing edge with Painter listing for $99.00 versus the $299.00 Adobe is asking for Photoshop. Both commercial programs are available as free trial downloads

Trial download of Painter X:
http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satell.....3#tabview=tab6

Trial download of Photoshop CS3 Extended:
https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/tdrc/.....duct=photoshop

Academic purchase of Painter X direct from Corel:
http://store.corel.com/webapp/wcs/s.....p;amp;langId=-1

Academic purchase of Photoshop CS3 Extended direct from Adobe:
https://store1.adobe.com/cfusion/st.....toshopExtended

Big list of Adobe's recommended academic retailers:
http://partners.adobe.com/resellerf...../education.jsp

Although they are slightly less powerful than Photoshop and might be non-intuitive when you first start, both Paint.net and the GIMP have the added benefit of being completely free software.

http://paint.net/

http://www.gimp.org/

still say you should experiment more with OC4 jah. :X you can always come to me and ask for help you know.