How do I get started as a computer artist?

While I have a lot of computer related skills and expertise, any sort of art is definitely excluded, so when I received this question, I instead turned to a computer artist friend of mine, Tom Vilot, to get his opinion on how you can proceed. Here's his response:

"Macintosh systems are very good, and I would highly recommend one. The paint software that is currently available for Linux is, unfortunately, not as diverse or as powerful as what you will find on both Macintosh and Windows. There are some interesting packages, however, such as Gimp and Blender.

"My only problems with Gimp surround the user interface, and the fact that I don't find its performance for large files to be very good. That may not matter for you, as you are just getting started. You probably will not be working on very large files at first.

"My personal favorite is DeepPaint, which is now available as a free download. However, it is a Windows-only program, which is truly unfortunate.

"Your options on Mac OS X include Painter, which is about the best thing out there. I have stopped upgrading my copy of Painter simply because I am tired of the feature bloat and the new bugs each version introduces.

"Another interesting application is ZBrush. This program actually allows you to paint in three dimensions. This program is available for Windows and Macintosh.

"Open Source painting is something I am very interested in. I wrote a short series about that on my Web site too, split into Open Source Painting part 1, part 2 and part 3.

You can learn a lot more about Tom by viewing his portfolio, though even with computer-based art, seeing it on a small screen doesn't really do his work justice. Nonetheless, check out PaintedSnapshot and you'll also want to read his blog, Art & Software.