Good Freeware Image Programs

[rock_chick]

I know there's GIMP and the like around but what kind of programs do people actually generally use to for AGS games, I just want to get some ideas about it and how on earth I'd go about getting some decent images or whether I should just give up and enlist a designer. Any help would be much appreciated and I'm sorry if this isn't the correct forum for this.
Kat

[PsychicHeart]

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=5644.0
Hope this helps!