maybe this?
http://firealpaca.com/en

I tried it, but the features really aren't up to par with what I need. I still have it on my computer but it's not seeing any use.

Thanks anyway! c:

sorry ;_;

i've also used manga studio with good results, if youhavent checked on that one yet

I'll give it a shot! I haven't really tried it in a lot of years, and I remember it being a tad limited, because it was really geared towards B&W comic work, but I have been meaning to give it another chance. c: Thanks!

If you make a canvas the size you want it in MS Paint and save it, you can use that as a blank for everything and just crop it to the size you want. :3 That's what I do. c:
Firealpaca is also good. c:

I don't really understand what you mean...

I used to use MS paint for drawing etc. before I heard of SAI. SAI can open most image file types like JPEG and PNG which is what MS paint works with. I take it the file size relates to the size of the image, yes?

Nope. It's a memory issue. SAI can only use up to 4GB of RAM.

Ohhh. XD lol I know nothing about RAM. ^^;

I'd say Firealpaca is good and I think CS2 is offered free on the Adobe site now. At least I got for free off their site code and all. The whole CS2 suite was offered a while ago.

Photoshop is okay, but not really the best for illustration. I might still fall back on it, though. Thanks!

Apparently that was a mistake and they took it down, the links and cereal numbers in the google document still work though.

Yeah, I'm getting this when I go to download, and for business reasons I'm not really cool with it:

Adobe has disabled the activation server for CS2 products, including Acrobat 7, because of a technical issue. These products were released more than seven years ago, do not run on many modern operating systems, and are no longer supported.

Adobe strongly advises against running unsupported and outdated software. The serial numbers provided as a part of the download may only be used by customers who legitimately purchased CS2 or Acrobat 7 and need to maintain their current use of these products.

Wow that's pretty lame. I hate the new way you have to have their stuff can't even just buy it anymore and $50 a month for a program that a lot of artists use is pretty crazy.

Yeah.

and adobe is really surprised why people pirate the shit out of them. I am graphic designer, so most of my work pretty much DEPENDS on adobe products, like Illustrator, Photoshop the whole stuff they offer. Its a standart in our job. Yet, they go on with this cloud stuff forcing it on us, not that I have any problem at all with this cloud thing, but why do it in such a way? Where you pay 20 or 50 or what ever they charge from you per month to use their software? Eh ...

There's still that cs2 thing..

http://mypaint.intilinux.com/?page_id=6
try this

This might be solid, man! I'll give it a shot, thanks! c:

np

Yeah, mypaint is really cool.
It has I think, an infinite canvas and the tools are really great.
They used to be more like traditional media but they changed some of that.
Still good though

I know the feeling about lack of money. Still paying for repairs on my car after I hit a deer. :/ Hope it wasn't my giant wang that kept crashing SAI. >3>

That wang is pretty big.
It's not really a lack of money, I have the money to buy Corel Painter if I really decide I want it, I've just been trying to minimize my business expenses and I've had a lot of necessary computer hardware upgrades and my accountant is starting to give me a dirty look when I hand her my expense receipts. Ahaha~

I've been having the same problem and I thought it was just me being technically retarded.

I use a combination of SAI and PSE.

Try artweaver http://www.artweaverteam.com/

I haven't had time to properly try it out but it seems good, the free version works well and paid is cheap 29euro.

Bonus, it works as a replacement for OC1.1.
- With the free version you can joint the site above and share a canvas [but anything you draw is autouploaded to the public gallery and you then have to hide it if you don't want it there.... dunno the rules about age ratings.]
- With the paid version you can truely host your own just like in OC1.1

I'm not sure that this is really on par with the quality I need out of a program... I'll look into it further though! c:

*Nods* I'm not that knowledgeable about this stuff so no idea if it's enough for you but thought I'd offer it just in case [plus people used to love doing OC's before streaming became the thing XD]

It'll be great for little doodle sessions, no doubt! :D

*Nods* I need to try to do those again sometime so I can get back into drawing.

Oh dang, I didn't know you could do that with art weaver! That's sweet

Yep, if it works as well as it seems and my short test worked it should be fun as hell.

I agree with you on GIMP, i have NO idea how people manage to use that hunk of crap

I use it, but in an extremely limited capacity. I'm not an artist, but it can be useful for retouching photos if you know the different commands.

Yeah, I use it for making animated gifs but that's about it. I use a bootleg copy of CS3 for photo editing and putting text into things because I almost never have to do those things so I'm not worried about attracting too much attention.

Would this work for you? I saw it on tumblr but don't remember if it was from you
http://www.madewithmischief.com/

SON, YOU ARE A GOD, THIS LOOKS REALLY PROMISING WHOA.

I WILL TRY THE FUCK OUT OF THIS.

Holy crap that looks cool, too bad my PC sucks and I only have a bamboo [really want a screen-tablet someday in the far future for art like that.]

I have a bamboo too, didn't know you could only strictly use it with a screen tablet.

I doubt that is a restriction, I just really wanna be able to draw directly not as distanced as you are with a normal tablet.

I feel ya. I've spent $800 already on trying to achieve that, and now I'm saving up for a Cintiq 24HD.

Ouch, if only you could use a wacom pen with a normal tablet [the app running variety] that would kick ass.

I came pretty close to that effect with a Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet, the ntrig stylus that you can buy for that tablet, and Sketchbook Pro. I've actually done some pretty decent sketches with that, and even a fully rendered bust. But anything outside of sketching is just really slow work. So I still use it for sketching and doodling, but it's not quite at the level I would need for doing finished work.

Cool, wonder if there's anything like that for the Arnovo 10D G3...

What does it run? If it's android, you can get Sketchbook Pro for next to nothing, and I have a Jaja stylus that is practically unused and still in the original packaging that I would send you for like $40, shipping included. I have two of them I'm not using right now, and they work, I just like my Lenovo's built-in stylus better.

It runs android [icecream I think, not very knowledgable about android stuff.] I'll have to test that programme and see how well it runs.

Heh, looks like Jaja know their audience http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/01.....ja-13.jpg?1227

I only have a cheap stylus with a soft rubber tip right now as it didn't come with any.

The jaja looks like this cheaper one http://www.amazon.co.uk/Adonit-Jot-.....im_computers_4 might have to get that as I doubt mine will work with a pressure sensitive pen anyway [it was pretty cheap.]

Anything with a microphone built in will work with the Jaja, but it's totally your call. If you decide later that you want one, I'll probably still have mine here, and I'm not doing anything with them. Ahaha~

That's way too confusing a concept to not be intrigued but it.... how does the microphone tie in to pressure sensitivity and drawing?

The stylus emits a high-frequency sound that varies in tones that correspond with various levels of pressure. The microphone picks up on that, and relays the information to your drawing software as x level of pressure. It's REALLY cool, and it actually works quite well! If I didn't already have a pressure sensitive tablet stylus, I'd be using one of the Jaja styluses.

Very cool ^_^

OKAY SO, I sketched with it and I was like "HHHHAAAAAWWWWW YESSSSS" but then I got to inking and I was like "No this is terrible." and then I could not rotate appropriately while inking and I was like "No it cannot be."

So I might end up using Kawaii Desu Mochi Mochi Manga Studio 5 after all.

THE SKETCHES IN MISCHIEF WERE DELICIOUS THOUGH, MIGHTY CHRIST.

Hahah that's cool! Glad you finally found a good alternative dude! <:
I've yet to try both programs tbh.

Holy this looks genius, thanks for sharing! I can't wait to try it out!

No problem! Glad to share it <:

So, I see that Adobe has moved to cloud-based distribution for their photo-editing products now. I don't know how that affects useability in the real world, but have you tried it? It seems like you could get a month of Photoshop for $20 and just play with it and see if it will work. If it's ok, then that would be better than plunking down $500 for Corel.

It actually would be an awful expense in the long term, and on top of that, I don't want to support that idea because I don't feel it's reasonable to force people to "subscribe" to licenses over a long period of time like that. In a couple of years of subscriptions I would have paid the same as I would for Corel Painter anyway, and I don't really find Photoshop to be ideal for illustration.

Ok, fair enough. But unfortunately, I feel like cloud-based models are going to rapidly become the distribution mode for everything that can be run fairly efficiently over broadband. Cutting down on bootlegging is a big part of that. Look at how successful Steam has been with that model. I agree with you though, in the long run it's a net loss for users.

You might be right, and I'm reeeaally hoping you're not. Ahaha~ I hate the idea to death.

There's Illuststudio too, which is a mix of Photoshop, Illustrator and SAI http://www.illuststudio.net/

That sounds fantastic, but I'm totally unable to read the site. I'll have to see if I can either figure it out, or find an english version.

Thanks though! I'll look into it!

Send you a note about the program :)

How about Open Canvas? I like this program a lot, though I haven't tried version 5.5 yet.

openCanvas 5.5

openCanvas 5.5 was released on July 2, 2012.

Windows[7]

OS: Windows XP / Vista / 7
HDD: More than 10MB free capacity
CPU: x86 Compatible Processor corresponding to SSE2
RAM: Recommended Memory Capacity by Operating System
Resolution: More than 1024 × 768 pixel
Color depth: More than 32 bit(16,770,000 colors)
Peripherals: Wacom tablet

Hmmm... Maybe! I'll look into it. I remember OC being a bit limited, but I haven't tried it in ages so maybe it's better now!

I think I still use 4.0 or something lol, but here is the link

http://www.portalgraphics.net/en/oc/

PSSSSSSSSSSSST. *e-mails*

I've heard a lot of good things about Manga Studio 5. To my memory,  pac uses it and claims to really like it in comparision to SAI and Photoshop.

It's meant to be easy-to-use as Sai, has a lot of photoshop's facilities such as customisable brushes (frenden's brush pack v2 is used by industry pros though costs a couple quid), and the EX version, while more expensive, has great facilities for making comics and multi-page documents plus some other stuff.

I ordered the regular version for £50 plus international delivery, which is 80 USD I think. The EX version is about 300 USD. The regular version also has some tools useful for comics, but it's illustration functionality is all there.

Basically it's ease of use, customisability, extra functionality, great lineart (the early versions were exclusively for inking) all rolled into one and stops you from having to resort to using multiple programs for one pic like some people have to. And unlike photoshop, it's made with illustration in mind rather than solely image manipulation with drawing as an afterthought.

Since performance has been your issue lately, I think MS5 would be helpful. I mean it does support multiple-page projects so it can't be very low.

I recently ordered my copy from the website and it's gonna be a long while before it arrives, but d'you want me to let you know how it is? o:

Also I think that if you buy the regular version of MS5 and choose to upgrade to EX later, you get a discount. The site says that if you buy a copy of MS5 for 80 USD, you can upgrade from MS5 to MS5 EX for 100 USD rather than buy the 300 USD MS5 EX package right off the bat.

SCRRREEEEEECH. I just checked out their site and WHOA. MANGA STUDIO GOT PIMPED THE FUCK OUT SINCE THE LAST TIME I TRIED IT. JEEZ.
This sounds like a really REALLY legit option for me, man. THANK YOU. I will see if there is a trial version and TEST IT FOR GLORY.

You can also get CS2 for free from the adobe website!

Check out the comments above, they kind of withdrew that offer or something.

Hm, that's strange. Cuz I just recently got it again ^^;

I haven't really tried out this program myself, but Tumblr is pretty fond of it, it seems. c:
Maybe give it a try?

http://firealpaca.com/

In my opinion, Corel Painter is the best painter. :D
SAI is renown mostly for inking.

I suggest to try illust-studio too. :D
http://www.illuststudio.net/
I believe that someone has made an English patch. :P
I haven't used it yet, but I heard from my friends that the program is really good though.