Recent reviews by Spooky Detective Lucario Foos

Amazing piece of software for art purposes. The UI is rather simple, but not too simple, which I think is a very good thing, considering that other art software tend to over complicate the UI unnecessarily. The default brushes are all pretty great too, doubly so if you use any of the stabilizer function, and triple if you use an Art Tablet. I haven't used all of FireAlpaca's functions (or necessarily understand them, such as 1 and 8 bit layers, Protect Alpha, etc.), but even if you don't use masks or anything like that, you can get a lot done.

The biggest downside, if you were to ask me, is the Animation Mode, which is extremely primitive. Virtually no timeline to speak of, no ability to play the animation back from said timeline, you have to go up to the animation tab in order to playback the animation, not necessarily at the frame rate you're hoping for, etc. If the animation mode gets a major update in the future that modernizes the whole process, I'd say that this is one of the best creative software choices out there, hands down, free or otherwise.

Another downside to it is that, for some bizarre reason, you cannot import an image from File Explorer. There's import options for various tools and brushes, sure. But importing an image into an existing file is strangely absent from this. I hope that changes in the future, because it can be a bit of an inconvenience.