Computer Art Advice

[Cogswel_Cogs]

I need to get my daughter a present and was thinking about a computer tablet and Photosshop or illustrator. She is amayzing artist and 13. What photoshop or illustrator would allow her to edit pictures she scans in, And does anyone know of a good pen tablet writing pad thing that caters to drawing?

 

[FINFAN]

Our DD is partial to the Wacom Bamboo. She attends college for 3D Computer Animation and even with all their top of line equipment, she likes her Wacom.

 

[Princess_Meghan <3]

I've had a Wacom Bamboo Fun for five years and I love it! I just use it for drawing on the computer using the programs it came with, so nothing really fancy, but it's easy to work with and get the hang of.

 

[jlewisinsyr]

Photoshop is very expensive, just for reference. I think buying her a tablet is great idea and then maybe installing GIMP which is an opensource program similar to Photoshop and it will at least give her an opportunity to start playing with the technology before you invest heavily into Photoshop.

 

[msmayor]

Photoshop is very expensive, just for reference. I think buying her a tablet is great idea and then maybe installing GIMP which is an opensource program similar to Photoshop and it will at least give her an opportunity to start playing with the technology before you invest heavily into Photoshop.

There are significant student discounts available through sites like Academic Superstore. We have used them in the past and saved HUNDREDS.

Most recently, we purchased the entire Adobe Creative Suite for our college-student daughter (studying graphic design) for only $360, while the retail is $1,900.

 

[jlewisinsyr]

There are significant student discounts available through sites like Academic Superstore. We have used them in the past and saved HUNDREDS.

Most recently, we purchased the entire Adobe Creative Suite for our college-student daughter (studying graphic design) for only $360, while the retail is $1,900.

There are many discounts available for college students, in the OP's case, their daughter is in not even in High School yet. Now there are still some discounts out there, but they are not typically as generous as college discounts.

 

[Feralpeg]

Photoshop is not a very user friendly program. I have been using it for several years and there are many things I do not know how to do with it. I had to buy a book and go through it page by page to learn what I currently know. It is not intuitive like Office products.

For a first program, I'd go with something simpler than Photoshop.

 

[Cogswel_Cogs]

Thanks for all the help. I work a student press and might be able to get a discount I will look into. And I am going to check the Bamboo thing you guys are referencing. It works with other software I assume?

 

[Cogswel_Cogs]

Has anybody bought a older version of photoshop from ebay?
Somebody at worked suggested doing that.

 

[Feralpeg]

Has anybody bought a older version of photoshop from ebay?
Somebody at worked suggested doing that.

I bought my first version (Photoshop 5.0) off of ebay. Just make sure that you get the key to it or you will not be able to install it.

The unfortunate part about purchasing an old version of Photoshop will be the lack of books available for that version. I currently have 7.0 and had a hard time finding a book for that version. There are definite differences between the various versions and, as I stated before, this is not an easy program to learn by yourself.

I purchase a magazine called Photoshop Creative. Each issue is full of interesting things to do with Photoshop and a CD containing brushes and such. Unfortunately, I cannot do everything shown in the magazines because I do not have a more current version of the program.