Which programs should I get?

[Syle]

I currently own Photoshop CS2. Is there a need for me to upgrade to a newer version of PS? I am planning on doing some serious digital painting in the very near future; I also own a digital tablet already.

Any other programs I should look into? Painter? Illustrator?

[Metsys]

Aside from the ability to rotate the canvas and a slightly improved interface, I don't think CS4 has anything else that will make digital painting easier (aside from a few bug fixes). Painter might be something to look into, and there's a free trial if you want to give it a whirl. A cheap substitute for Painter (if you just want the rotating canvas and oil painting effects) is ArtRage which is $25 right now. Illustrator is only a must if you plan on doing vector art.

Other than that, CS2 will do just fine.

What I will strongly recommend is learning a 3D software package like Blender (free and powerful) so you can create quick mock ups to paint on top of. I use it all the time for architecture and vehicles. It helps me to get accurate perspective and lighting in my paintings very quickly.

[Syle]

can you link me to Blender so that I know for sure I am downloading the right version, etc?

knowing me, i would somehow snag the wrong thing and then dump tons of time into the wrong piece of software :)

I am confused, I can rotate a canvas already in CS2...? Are you talking about a diff. rotate function?

Thanks for the feedback Metsys, I really appreciate it.

[Syle]

PS: What version of Painter should I go for?

[Metsys]

You can download Blender at http://www.blender.org/download/get-blender/
I have some introductory video tutorials at http://showmedo.com/videos/series?name=blenderMoyesSeries001 and the official documentation is at http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Main_Page The Guerrilla CG Project at http://www.guerrillacg.org/ is a good video introduction to 3D in general.

In CS4 your can rotate the canvas in real time as if your drawing was on an animators disc, so it's like rotating a piece of paper slightly when sketching so it's easier to draw certain curves.

If you are going to buy it for serious use get Painter X. Painter Essentials is a watered down version so I wouldn't bother with it. But be sure you try the demo out first because Painter is an expensive investment and you may like Photoshop better—I do.

I will add that the software really won't make your art better. Sure, Painter may generate more realistic brush strokes, but that may not be a big deal, or even what you need. Knowing the software extremely well will help you work faster, but it takes a lot of experience to get to that power user level, experience that you can just as easily get with Photoshop CS2. When it comes to professional concept art I usually can't tell if they used Photoshop, Painter, Sketchbook Pro, or even The GIMP.

I like using Photoshop because of the photo editing tools that I can use to quickly create concept art and the very flexible brush system. If it were me, I'd stick with CS2 unless it's crashing on me too often, in which case I'd upgrade to CS4. Try out a demo of Painter and ArtRage to play around with it. I bought ArtRage because the only thing I missed in Painter was the oil painting brush effects. And Blender is free because you can't go wrong there.

So that's my triad of art software: Blender, Photoshop CS3, and ArtRage 2 (rarely).

[joeparis]

Yeah, I'd go along with what Metsys says; PS, Painter and a 3d program - and I would also highly recommend Google Sketchup for knocking up architectural scenes for reference, it's free too.

[aliencraft]

Check out paint.NET - it's free and seems to be gaining some popularity and accolades.

http://paint.net/

[GaussianRaider]

What I will strongly recommend is learning a 3D software package like Blender (free and powerful) so you can create quick mock ups to paint on top of. I use it all the time for architecture and vehicles. It helps me to get accurate perspective and lighting in my paintings very quickly.

I don't quite agree with this procedure, it seems it defeats the purpose of making mistakes...that is, learning.

[Syle]

i am not going to even touch that program for a long while. i am going to be working hard on my figure/form penmanship for the coming months. in fact, i am going to commit 75% of my time towards just pencil and paper exercises, and the other 25% to getting a handle on photoshop and painter x.

thanks all for the great responses, this answered a lot of my questions.