digital painting is fundamentally very simple; if you put the right shapes of color in the right places, you can create a visual representation of anything. robh rupple's process is a good visual representation of this idea imo >http://graphicla.tumblr.com/post/68284245282/ive-been-rethin... the underlying knowledge as to what makes pleasing shapes and the interactions between colors is the source of complexity. many brilliant pieces are created with oekaki programs far more limited and simplistic than ms paint, pixiv and 2ch are full of artists that are a testament to this. anything that can make shapes and colors of some description is capable of producing great art, good software simply reduces the number of necessary headaches required to do so.