What's a good design, drawing program for the Mac that's high quality, but not impossible to use?

Do you have a tablet that you intend to use with it?

well, let’s start by what you already tried, i mean, there’s a lot of stuff ranging from artrage to illustrator

I’m interested as well. How much is a good tablet? Is this the way to go?

depends, personaly i realy like the wacom series with a screen in the tablet, makes the drawing a whole lot easier, even used it to draw in lines in Logic Express. but they’re a tad on the expensive side for just a hobby

@peedub: The best consumer tablets in the market are the Wacom Tablets. They start off at around $ 55 and can go upto thousands of dollars depending on your needs. You can get them alot cheaper on ebay though.

As for the tablets in general, initially most people (or atleast me) tend to find that drawing on paper is easier. But you get used to drawing on a tablet after a week or so.

It also depends on the type of drawing or design. If it is meant to replicate freehand sketch then a tablet, but there are lots of illustration styles that can be achieved with out needing a drawing tablet.

Illustrator is my pet program. I love it because it can be as simple or as complex as you need it to be.

Wacom actually has a new line of tablets. Its not a professional line, but its still totally up to par. If you want to get a cheap, but still wonderful, tablet….. Check out Bamboo

(I have a large wacom intuos that I swear by. IMHOP if you are in a more professional area with your art there’s nothing better.)

I have corel painter. How easy to use do you want the program?

I use pixelmator.

I illustrate in photoshop most of the day every day and the place I work has the 4by5 wacom tablets from several years ago. I had the more expensive 6 by 8 intuos 2. I was skeptical at first but the smaller one is just as good. I think it may depend on the length of stroke you generally use. Illustration programs allow you to zoom in and out, so you are constantly adjusting to the new sizes but it only takes some getting used to. In general drawing/sketching is way easier on paper(as mirza said) but the flexibility of photoshop or a like program to colorize and really work up an illustration is indespensible. What you need definitely depends on what you plan on creating.

When you ask for software that’s “not impossible to use”, what do you mean? I use Adobe’s Creative Suite CS3 and it isn’t impossible to use.

What is the end goal of the projects you are creating? Do you need to share files with other users?

When you refer to design/drawing software, I think those two are mutually exclusive. One can design in Photoshop or Illustrator, but InDesign is my choice, and is a must for multi-page projects.

Also, one can sketch/draw in Photoshop or Illustrator, but there are also many other software choices more tailored specifically for sketching, such as Alias Sketchpad Pro, and lots of vector-based alternatives if you are looking for that sort of “drawing”.

If you just want something inexpensive to doodle and perhaps do some small image manipulation, I think Pixelmator is the way to go. If you are looking for a vector drawing app, check out these search results on MacUpdate.

Photoshop and Illustrator. Maybe Painter. With great power comes great responsibility, so expect some learning curve.

This is a repost from another question, and probably outdated since the question was dated 2008, but for anyone who cares to stumble to this question like I have…

I use sketchbook pro with a graphics tablet, pretty simple but effective. It’s not free though.
Also, check out ArtRage . I haven’t tried it yet, but it looks promising.