Humorously, I make a lot of SARP art using the ancient graphics software Jasc Paint Shop Pro 7 from 2001. Of course, I don't have it installed at work and I needed something to make art with. Yesterday, thanks to a friend on DeviantArt, I discovered a new, free painting program called FireAlpaca. I just downloaded it and tried it out. I really like it. It's got a somewhat modern looking tool set that vaguely reminds me of Photoshop, stuff is fairly intuitive, certainly less obtuse of a UI than GIMP. I'm not sure if it supports layers or the clone brush yet since I am only starting out with it, but for your basic 2D painting, it's quite nice. I would definitely recommend this as a free alternative to (but not replacement for) Paint Tool SAI. If all you have is MS Paint, get this thing, it's free and there's a Windows and a Mac version.
Also, it's ad-supported but all the ads are Japanese manga ads that only appear at startup, and they're super cute. Screenshot:
Also, it's ad-supported but all the ads are Japanese manga ads that only appear at startup, and they're super cute. Screenshot: