Creating artwork with a computer
 

I have used GIMP and Photoshop to alter photographs and images, but I have never been able to make decent artwork from scratch with them. It does not seem easy or intuitive to do so with a computer. Now, I'm aware of several different paths, but I don't know what I will have the best luck with. There are some people who do their entire artwork from the beginning with a PC, others who scan in their artwork and add color with a program, and some who use special input graphic tablets (which I don't have). What is the most popular route? Which is the best, in your opinion?

Corel Draw 13 ,works well for me.

wacom tablets are pretty good for that kind of thing.

the "scan and color" method also works with wacom's in a way, cuz you just scan and then redraw your lines as well

Wacom Graphire tablet for $99. Done, and done...I've got two. Art with a mouse sucks.

If you're going to start from scratch, I recommend you get painter (although Photoshop is getting more painting-friendly).

However, a lot of artists scan their pencil sketches and color them in photoshop.

Already know about Wacom... but I'd like to know if the limited amount of space is a major problem, and if the transfer of drawings by hand to pixels is accurate.

If you're going to transfer, just scan your paper sketches. Wacoms are for freehanding right into the program.

That's not what I meant. It was a question about the accuracy and level of detail that can be achieved with a graphics tablet.

The accuracy depends soley on the user. It will do whatever you use it to do. Your tablet will almost always be higher resolution than your picture. Anything you can do on paper, you can do on a tablet.

Plus, you can always zoom in on whatever section your focusing on, if you want to layer on extreme detail...a feature significantly lacking in paper.

Okay, I spent some time as a computer artist and still touch on it sometimes. I taught myself photoshop and started drawing in there. The 99 dollar wacom tablet works very well, I actually like it a lot better than having a big tablet.

The program you use kind of depends on the type of work you want to create. IE - Illustrator is the best program to use if you want to make vector artwork, painter is good for the fine art painting type of looks and photoshop is capable of both but not the best for either

I think a good way to learn the concepts is to put an image into it and try to illustrate from it (like tracing). You can use a scan or a photo