I'm interested in finding out about this program. I personally love SAI, but there's some things SAI does not do as well as Photoshop. Actually some of my friends use Clip Studio which was just on sale, but that's more animating stuff and also comic-oriented tools, though it does have drawing/painting features too.

I use SAI as well but I bought it years ago and cant even afford to even spend $5 now for anything new ><

I recently installed GIMP but haven't used it yet... I have used Windows Paint and FireAlpaca so far....

I just recently gave up on Corel Painter and shelled out the $100 for Photoshop. I lost one too many WIP's because they saved as the wrong type of file (it defaults to saving as the original file type even if you add layers and other things to it, so if you're not paying attention.. Oh guess what, you just ruined hours of work because it smushed everything together on one layer for you as a jpeg and didn't save another copy), and I found it to be pretty un-intuitive in terms of how to do things and find certain functions.

To be fair, I "grew up" as a digital artist with Photoshop CS and took a 10+ year hiatus before getting back into it last year.. So it could just be that I learned the "photoshop way" to start with and had trouble adapting, but I tell ya.. I enjoy Photoshop so much more.

BUT if you're just trying to get into art, it's definitely a nice, cheap option to go for. It still functions just fine, but it's just not quite as user-friendly IMHO.

Arts Below

^This was done in Corel Painter Essentials 5... Here is a big ol' WIP with layers and stuff visible.

^This was done in Photoshop

Art-wise, they both produce things at the same quality. I find blending to be easier in Photoshop, but $15 is a damn good deal for Corel. I think I paid at least $30 last year.

OH gosh, thank you for telling me your experience with the program! I would be devastated if that happened to something I was working on. I once went to college online for media arts and animation of game design, so photoshop and all the siblings it has was given to us as a student copy CS5 it was... so I had a full license copy of that and enjoyed using it but I've since then had to wipe the laptop I was using when it stopped working and the new laptop I have I want photoshop on BUT have misplaced the disks for CS5 for over a year now because I moved and don't know what I did with it when packing >.<

In school we worked with dreamweaver and some other siblings to Photoshop so I can definitely see "growing up the photoshop way" 😂 it's just been so long and I've forgotten everything... trying to relearn Photoshop and knowing there's way to accomplish what I want to do but too chicken to try for long for fear of failure.

I love that ram headshot you made! Really stunning ❤

I know what you mean, 15$ doesn't seem much but that's why I can't get it myself either even at that price. I really need to locate my Photoshop disks >.<

I hear about SAI but never seen that first hand myself either, I always thought Photoshop was the easy way out and that others were better programs only I guess since I knew so many who used others and didn't use Photoshop but it looks like others programs were peoples way of getting something like Photoshop without paying the expense of Photoshop.... I had it backwards 😂

I have gimp! downloaded at least, lol. It was too odd looking or something for me and the screen always was sensitive with covering my whole screen when I didn't want it too or something... I don't know what my deal was with it.

ahhhh how frustrating! I -cough-downloaded-cough- Photoshop CS6 (torrents we’re all the rage and I was poor, what can I say?), so I feel ya about losing a full copy! That’s why I went cheap when I started to get back into art!

It makes me feel a little better about my pirating ways that I did finally make my way to buying a copy though. LOL.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned and forgotten and learned again.. it’s that you’ve got to try. Even if it sucks, it’s the suckage that makes you better. Each time you do it, the movement becomes more natural and it gets easier and you get better, but it’s like everything— you’ve got to practice or you’ll stay at the same level forever (or get worse. I totally got worse. LOL)

So did you use SAI for yourself?

I never have, Photoshop when I had it and GIMP for two seconds till its' layout frustrated me XD

thjat owl. I love that owl.

Sai I thought was missing some options, and certainly it feels like it takes a more painterly approach than photoshops manipulation approach -- although I found some tools I thought were missing buried in menus. I've used both, but done far more with SAI as I own a copy gifted me by a friend, whereas I only had PS for like a year or two in a class.

A friend I know that has and uses both extensively and makes amazing art tends to prefer SAI for most things, but goes into photoshop for a few different stamp and design tools. In terms of brushes and layers, SAI is superb.

Granted, if you have no money (as it sounds a number of us do not) then it doesn't much matter. I've played with Gimp but I found it very unintuitive. But SAI sometimes gives me issues with certain files, especially ones I've converted from jpg to png (especially if I used a certain shortcut to do it). Still, I love the program. Gimp kinda drives me nuts.

I have Photoshop CS5 and Corel Painter 2015 but haven't used the latter much. AFAIK Corel Painter Essentials is a lighter/cheaper version of Corel Painter with less features, though I don't know what features are missing. I personally prefer Photoshop, but Painter is better at replicating traditional art and $15 is a good deal.

I'd also like to say that if anyone's interested in music/audio, Humble Bundle's selling this bundle right now too.