coloration program needed!

[Sausehuhn]

Hey everybody!

I'm searching for a program to color my drawings. Photoshop truely isn't the real tool to do these things. I need something that is more or less easy to handle, features light effects and - if this is possible - is also available in German.
And it wouldn't be that bad if it's for free ;)

Hope somebody can help me :)

[Drakkenmensch]

Have you tried GIMP?

[Sausehuhn]

Thanks, Drakk,
no, I don't know any cloration program, that's the reason I asked :)
Erm... GIMP looks like it is a programm to modify pictures, take them togehter and so on.

But what I need is a program for coloration. So I've just textures and want to fill them with colors, make effects and so on.
I know that this is also possible in PhotoShop, but the program normally is not made for such things, so it won't look realistic/good/what ever.

[Drakkenmensch]

Aaah, but GIMP can be used for coloration!

www.sexylosers.com (WARNING: not work safe!)

This webcomic is entirely colored using GIMP.

[eLhabib]

Actually, Photoshop is pretty ideal for that kind of stuff. But maybe you want to try it with a vector program, like Freehand or Illustrator. that way you can basically build a vectorskeleton, and then color it.

[kaiotheforsaken]

illustrator is good depending on what your doing, just be prepared for long hours in fron of your PC drawing out all the vectors and picking colors and so forth. as eL said photoshop is pretty ideal for such a task. theres alot of blending modes and all kinds of things you can do. photoshop is extremely powerful so perhaps take another whack at it.

[Sausehuhn]

thanks for your comments.
I've only Photoshop ELEMENTS, so maybe I talked about somthing I don't know.
I will try it again, and I will watch out for more programs.

More comments welcomed :)

[kaiotheforsaken]

ahhh yes photoshop elements. well then ya there probably are better things than that, if you could get yourself a copy of the new photoshop CS2 or photoshop CS you'd be in really good shape, sorry i dont know any inexpensive programs to help you out.

[syckls]

My friend is the coloring freak and can probably help you out there. Once I can get a hold of her I'll tell you what she has to say.

EDIT: OK, here goes. My friend says that GIMP sucks. She suggests Open Canvas 3 or 4, or Smooth Draw for the freebies. Specifically, Smooth Draw is good for making it look traditional, and Open Canvas is good for the newbies. (When I say freebie, I mean download the free demo and push the Print Screen button.) For the more costly ones, Photoshop 7 or CS will do.

[Sausehuhn]

I use Photoshop CS2 now... well... the 30-days-demo version. But that's better than nothing ;)
Have to say, it worked pretty well, after I had a few starting problems (searched for tools that were on different places in Elements - or totaly new to me) I learned how to use the program the right way.

Thanks for all the advices, now I think I've found what I was searching for :)