Re drawing programs ...

I'm using CorelDRAW because I started with it many years ago when it was "king", now Illustrator is generally acknowledged as the industry standard - however Illustrator is way outside my price range.
CorelDRAW is considerably cheaper and the learning curve isn't as steep as Illustrator's, but I suspect that Corel's bitmap program (Corel PHOTO-PAINT) is not as sophisticated as it's competitors, it seems to be mainly a photo editing tool.

Years ago drawing (vector) graphics programs were completely separate from bitmap graphics programs, now the distinction is blurred and bitmaps are the way to go.

My graphics are simple and usually based on line drawings (as opposed to "brush-on-the-paint" style) so I do them in CorelDRAW and export to a bitmap file when I've finished.

All the graphics on my site except for the photos are done in DRAW, even the image of the girl tearing up an L-plate (yes it's a photo, but I cropped it by drawing a precise line round the image and getting DRAW to discard anything outside the line).

I've been wondering how Spinny came by the main graphic on his front page - very cool.
Time-delay shot of a spinning torch?
Or is the secret so arcane that Spinny will have to shoot me after telling me?

This one has dropped down the pile, but I just wanted to say that I actually did a photography course which taught me a lot about using image editing software. So you might see if there is anything locally/online/in the library about using a "digital darkroom" as well as the various tutorials suggested in here.

When I was in the Flickr community ( http://www.flickr.com/ ) I noticed several groups which dealt with getting to grips with this kind of editing, and some of them also had "contests" to put the group members to the test and compare notes.

You could start out with Lightroom and see if it works for you. I think it is a light version for Photoshop. Watch Kijiji and Craig's list for CS2 CS3 versions of photoshop for around $100 - $200. They may suit your needs as is, or use them to upgrade to the latest version.

It is snowing here in Calgary. It may have been a mild winter but it could last till the end of June.

Regards
Raj

Hi
Photoshop Lightroom is a software for processing digital photography. I use it to process from RAW to JPG.
The light version of Photoshop is Photoshop Elements, I have version 2.0 but actual is 8.0

Lightroom came from Rawshooter from Pixamantec. Adobe bought Pixmantec and integrated the engine to his Photoshop Lightroom

Regards

Have a look at Xara Xtreme. I recently purchased this and loving it. Easy to use, lots of help and movie tutorials. Very reasonably priced too. But does not have the free upgrades like Coffee Cup. Good on Ya CC....... Just get the Pro Shop finished and online.................

My old favorite,..and sometimes still is... photoimpact 3x,,it's kind of the mother of all low cost programs, Corel has stopped supporting it(they sell it), but you can still get support from a couple of really good forums, and the cost is a whopping 19 bucks or something. Was like $130 or ?? not too many years ago, but guess they had trouble marketing the product, but is good stuff.

I use Elements , Photo Impact, Paint Shop. I still find myself going to MS Digital image because it is so quick and easy. No longer supported but you may find it on ebay or somewhere. Just very intuitive and simple to use. Have been using PhotoPlus X2 lately and have been liking it's simplicity as well.