I'm going to be putting up a sort of step by step. But first, here are the tools I use. I have an Apple G4, 2x1.42 processor with 2 gigs of RAM and a 120 gig hard drive. The monitor is the Apple 23" cinema display and the most imortant part is the Wacom 21"Cintiq monitor that allows you to use a stylus directly on the screen instead of a tablet. This has brought the whole digital thing right back to drawing on paper, or painting on canvas. If you're an artist working digitally, I can;t say enough about the Cintiq.