> Quoting peter sikking's weblog:
>
(http://www.mmiworks.net/eng/publications/2007/05/lgm-gimp-project-overview.html)
> 
> "ALSO NOT PAINTER
>      the focus for GIMP is to work with ?found? images;"
> 
> I do not understand the reason for this restriction. Myself, I am not  
> a painter. I do not use the GIMP for painting but I recognize that  
> there are many who do. It seems such a short stretch for the GIMP to  
> extend its already powerful paintbox toolset to incorporate other  
> painting concepts that I fail to see why development in this direction  
> should not be encouraged.

Well, I'm among those who would like to use GIMP for painting, and I have
tried in the past. But having seen that blog recently, I can accept that
the developers would like to concentrate their efforts in a particular
direction, so recently I've been looking to other open source programs
such as Inkscape instead. They have limited resources as is, so you can't
blame them to want to do one thing Well, even if it means setting aside
others for now.

I think the best alternative as a result would be to create a separate,
painting program, based on Gimp, but with more emphasis on painting
options and less on filters and tools mostly used for photo manipulation.
Maybe it could incorporate Martin Renold's Mypaint and Levien's Wet Dream
for example.

This could result in at least one major interface change: when you're
manipulating photos, you're more likely to have several files open at the
same time as you go from one to another. However, with painting, you're
more likely to use only one file. So an interface like (in my opinion, in
any case) Inkscape's would be more suitable. As said, I've been using
Inkscape recently, and I'm simply in love with its interface: you barely
ever need to access dialogs, you can access layers and palettes from a
non-intrusive bar at the bottom, and tool options from a non-intrusive bar
at the top.

Add to that a shortcut system specifically designed around manipulating
paths: I've never been so in love with an interface. Something similar
could be achieved for an open-source painting tool, this time with all the
interface centered around painting as easily as possible while cluttering
the window as little as possible.

So an Open Source painting program would center around things different
than a photo manipulation program. I can imagine being able to easily
access brush presets from a non-intrusive bar at the bottom, brush
parameters from a non-intrusive bar from the top, with user-friendly brush
categories such as "watercolor, oil, etc," (as opposed to "multiply,
divide, and other terms that leave the average person completely lost :P
), with easy access to textures and the likes, and shortcuts set
accordingly.

Of course, as with everything, this would require developers that probably
aren't available at the moment. Ah well. Maybe in the very long term.


 
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