is paint shop pro 4 good enough?

[potato hunter]

  so far ive drawn all my art with paint shop pro 4, it seems ok for characters, but i can't even get close to producing a half decent background with it, ive got paint shop pro 8, but im quite unfamiliar with it and im more comfortable using paintshop pro 4 at the moment , any advice?

[SSH]

Learn where your shift-key is, that's my advice.

[big brother]

It looks like you're on to a good start. For technique, I would try to clean up the outlines. Watch out for double pixels! Also, try to keep it consistent. If you want a black outline, use it around the outside of the whole figure.
As for anatomy, you should move the feet a little closer together. Right now, it looks like his left leg (our right) is longer than the other one. Try moving his head back a few pixels so it makes his stance more dynamic.
Don't be afraid to play with your colors a little. Vary the hues on the shadows.

[scotch]

PSP 4 is ancient... I was using 5 when I still used a 486, but I think it was "good enough" to make backgrounds, sure. Ã, I would encourage people to look at finding the best tools for the stuff they do though... unless you're a really slow learner it saves so much time over making do with what you have. Ã, So give a newer version of PSP (or Photoshop if you can get it) a try for a few days, I expect you won't regret it.

Ability to draw backgrounds in these programs depends entirely on your knowledge of how do draw and shade and compose nice images, and how well you can use your tools... unfortunately these require study and practice.

[potato hunter]

thanks for the advice, for the past hour ive been trying out psp8 and wow :o is that thing more advanced, you can achive lighting affects quickly and there is loads more tools, i find scanning characters and then sizing them down works  well,  so i think im gonna play around with those tecniques some more. 

[Khris]

So you are the guy who created psp4?
That's cool. I'm using version 7, and it's pretty good, too.

Oh...wait, I've misunderstood this thread's title.
Heh, I've thought you'd finally posted something we can actually critisise this time. Since this is the critics lounge.

My fault.

[potato hunter]

your right, sorry :'(