Originally Posted by Mister Coaster

I have been using Illustrator both as a student and professionally for over 10 years. Yeah, the basics of the pen tool do seem rather stupid at first, but with practice, the sky is the limit.

I highly reccomend getting Illustrator and learing the pen tool. It may be cumbersome and tedious at first, but in the end you'll be glad you did it. I have a gallery on deviant art, most of which is 100% vector art, drawn with a mouse not a drawing pad, and colored in AI as well. Check it out... http://mister-jp.deviantart.com/gallery/