As a schoolkid I actually made money flogging my poster paint and acrylic paint seascapes and still life to teachers and friend's parents. I'd like to say that girls would queue for nude portraits but they must have realized that the human form wasn't my strongest skills.
Anyway, while my story and novel selling is in a nadir I thought I ought to catch up with graphics. I have paintshop pro v9 but although it's OK for touching up photos, removing redeye, turning rectangle pictures into spheres and other funny stuff, it is as user-friendly as a bike with no handlebars for free hand drawing, and my favourite activity, colouring in.
Whenever I ask professional artists what they use, it is often Adobe Photoshop. When I look it up I find there is CS3, Elements, Extended, Lightoom, etc arrgggh! I also find that some folk reckon its not much different to Paint Shop Pro.
Then I discover Corel Painter, which is much cheaper, but also a nearer simulator to real life painting.
What I'm hoping for is to design book cover art for my science fiction and fantasy novels and stories.
I'd be very obliged for any advce.
Geoff