Artist software?

I have this friend that is a very good artist, and he wants to start doing his work on the computer but he doesn’t know what is out there in the way of software. He wants the best software for artist, but at the same time he doesn’t want to mortgage his home either.

Does anyone know what software he should be using? It has to be something that will work for him, he has the computer, now he just needs the software.

I don't know exactly what he wants the program to do but I would recommend Adobe Photoshop.

Photoshop, Illustrator, Corel Painter.... These are commonly used among digital artists.

Basically he could use anything in the adobe suite.. Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, etc.. But then again there is programs that can be a little lighter on the wallet.. Such as Paint Shop Pro 8, really its up to one he wants to use it for.. lol

Tell him to try out all the standard programs, there are demos for all of them, and also look through the shareware offerings. There are a lot of cheap/free software that someone whose not used computer for graphics could use. Try going through Tucows and Softpedia.

Edit: Then released today is free powerful image editing app, Paint.net 2.5
http://www.eecs.wsu.edu/paint.net/

Painting? I would probably say look into Coral or Photoshop. Adobe Photoshop is the industry standard image editing software but it's pretty expensive. Also if he is going to be doing drawings how about looking into a tablet? It's like a pen that you can use to draw on the computer with...much easier than a mouse!

Originally Posted by Robson Painting? I would probably say look into Coral or Photoshop. Adobe Photoshop is the industry standard image editing software but it's pretty expensive. Also if he is going to be doing drawings how about looking into a tablet? It's like a pen that you can use to draw on the computer with...much easier than a mouse!

I am pretty familiar with Photoshop that is all I use, and I even use a tablet myself. This guy is really into design, and I just thought that there was something out there that he could use, but I guess my first guess was right; I will give the kid a shot, and let him use one of my old copies of Photoshop and see where it takes him. Thanks for all the feedback.

I started with ACDsee and trials of PSP.