Which art programs do you use? Which don't you like? Why?
I use mostly Flash and Illustrator. I occasionally use Photoshop. These are listed in order of preference/how often they are used. For pixel art, Paint+ (I think that's what it's called? I could be confused on that. It might just be regular paint on Win7) because it's basically a hybrid of paint and some very limited photoshop-like operations such as layering and transparency, and more brush options. Essentially, almost anything I would need to do with pixel art in photoshop I can do in Paint+, but then again I don't do a terrible amount of pixel art.

I hate GIMP. For me, it's crap. It's frustrating and not worth my time to dig around the internet looking for how to configure it to my liking.

What are the pros and cons of each of them?
Flash- I like the smoothness, things come out looking the same as if I had hand-drawn them with a marker. Also, I can turn anything into a .swf at my pleasing.
Illustrator - Eh, a lot like flash, I haven't used it too terribly much so I haven't noticed a lot of differences other than the pen tool.
Photoshop - It's Photoshop. It's the work horse of graphics programs. Everything in PS is absolutely what it is, no fudging or bending or smoothing. For me I find it makes some of my pieces come out a bit more jagged than I'd like, but meh. The filters are good. It's easier to make brushes in PS than Flash depending on what you are turning into a brush.

What do you use to mimic traditional styles? Pixel? CG in general?
If I want traditional style, I just use traditional mediums. It's a pretty clear difference between digital and traditional for me. I have to be able to physically feel the medium in my hands for traditional.


What are some techniques or tricks you use?
Autosave. For the love of all that is good, AUTOSAVE. Don't be crying at 4AM when Flash decides it's going to hiccup.
Make a color pallet.
Explore different levels of opacity for shading with an overlay vs. a darker color at 100% opacity.
Find out what everything does. Experiment with all the different buttons.
Put on some music and just doodle.
Doodle more.
Doodle things without caring about finishing them. Give yourself a timer, like five minutes. When it's done, move on to something else. At the end of doodle time, if you like something, develop it further.
Make sure to take breaks and get away from the computer. Stand back and look at the work. Things look different when you're 4 feet back vs 1 foot away.


/cease ramble

Worth noting, Adobe recently put the download for CS2 up with the serial numbers. It doesn't include flash, but it has plenty of other things to poke around with. Here.
*This does not work on some Macs. Google your OS to see if you are compatible. Or surf the Adobe site and hope they have it somewhere.

Finally-

Want a tablet but think you can't afford one? Check here.

My boyfriend bought me the tablet with the hot keys (6814) for Christmas to replace my old Wacom I'd had since high school that was starting to go by the wayside. Personally, I love this tablet and I can't recommend it enough. It's sturdy, the drawing surface is a bit more grippy than my old wacom (I like this because it feels like I'm drawing on paper vs. sliding around on plastic), the hotkey buttons and stylus are easy to program to your liking, and windows auto updates the drivers for you.

-- Word of caution, if you use it on a computer that also/has previously used another tablet, you might have to disable some of the drivers or you'll freak out the drawing programs. Flash had a hard time until I deleted the old wacom drivers. --