What's the next step up from MS Paint?

Painting software (raster graphics) gets complicated and expensive really fast.

A good $49 option is Painter Essentials 8

LINK /

Not only is GIMp free, it has a massive library of tutorials and walk throughs.

All the same principals as photoshop

GIMP is so many steps above MS Paint. Not that OP should avoid it, but the learning curve is steep.

You can get the full version of Painter 2023 on Humble Bundle right now for $30.

Price from Corel is $429. It works best with a drawing tablet such as a Wacom or Huion.

Humble Bundle - Corel Painter

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He brought up "Procreate". Whats the TigerDroppings opinion of this?

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I believe the consensus is to avoid it because you will incur expenses annually for at least 18 years

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Buy him Procreate. It's not a subscription and it's cheap. I use it and I am a professional illustrator. There are other more advanced programs I use as well, but Procreate would be perfect for him.

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Thanks. His ipad (my old one) is like 7 years old. Do you think it would still work? The FAQ is sort of vague and doesn't list minimum requirements, but says the older your ipad is, the less features will work. He does have a badass gaming PC that was gifted to him by a family member which is a whole other story, so also open to illustrating software that is Windows PC based.

For quick and simple things, I still use Picasa 3 even though it's supposed to be retired. I fought tooth and nail to keep the old Microsoft Picture It.

I have Gimp but sometimes get lost in all the masks and stuff.