MyPaint and ArtWeaver
Needed to post this.
I was terribly disappointed with Painter when when I finally got to try it with a graphics tablet at home. In retrospect I think there might have been three reasons for this: a horrible learning curve (Painter isn't exactly equivalent to either PaintShop Pro or Photoshop); I had the wrong graphics tablet (a huge A3 thing from ALDI); and the wrong PC (a desktop).
This morning I tested my newer graphics tablet (A4, also from ALDI) with my laptop and it works great! I've been able to get decent results with GIMP, ArtWeaver and MyPaint:
The image above was done in 5 minutes using MyPaint, a "fast and easy open-source graphics application for digital painters". It uses the graphics pen (right hand) and keyboard commands (left hand) to work, and I like that combination (one reason I like PaintShop Pro), And it was FUN. I've also looked at something called ArtWeaver, which looks like it's trying to be an open-source version of Painter. I like that too, and both seem to be more responsive than GIMP, which I had installed as I don't have Photoshop on the laptop (yet, though I can ask them to install it for the duration of the course).
Very important that all the software on the Laptop is above board and not cracked or warez, so two open-source programs like these are real finds for me (everything else I've installed so far is freeware and/or open-source). I shall probably use the pad to draw outlines and thumbnails for the novels, but even so it's nice to know that I can do just that.