OOM, yep, Photoshop and Sketchbook are my absolute favorites! I have Corel Painter as well, and use it occasionally. But Painter differs from Sketchbook in that Painter is much, much more adapted to creating digital art that mimics traditional paints and painting techniques. Whereas Sketchbook is more of a general drawing and painting program. I use Painter when I need to put certain effects, such as flames, smoke, water textures, etc. into my artwork. Painter is TOP NOTCH when it comes to effects and paint brush variety. Seriously, nothing else even comes close! But if you don’t need all that, it’s not worth it.
I get what you’re saying about the Bamboo vs. the Intuos. I guess whatever you feel most comfortable using is the best option for you. Have you taken some art/ digital manipulation classes? I’m curious about what you’ve learned, since it’s always interesting to hear another person’s thoughts on a particular subject ^_^. By the way, have you thought about learning animation besides art? Because that could expand your career options, since many things that require artists also require animators,(for example, advertisements) so it’d be good to know both.
repharim, thanks for your info about game development. I’ve heard that before, as well as that it is a very competitive field. I chose not to go into that when I first got my BA, though I really wanted to. I also wanted to be a car designer, which is not practical at all.
QB, maybe OOM and I could split the artwork -).