I agree, Painter is definitly unfriendly (I still can't make a decent mask with it), but you can't beat it for certain things (like making paint strokes look like real paint strokes). If you are using Windows, there's a plugin for PhotoShop that's supposed to do some of what Painter does -- it's called "Deep Paint" by Right Hemisphere and costs $219. It will also work as a stand alone application. I have no idea of whether or not it lives up to it's promises as I use a Mac. -Jim