i've worked with gimp a bit made a few skins and basicly done basic stuff, but my skins always look painty does anyone have tips on making them "nonpainty"?

Use the smudge tool, and the spray tool with the burn/ confetti effects.... Use the burn and dodge tool too... Thats all I used for my skins (take a look on my mappack thread last page)

I use photoshop and D/L many other tools. Are there extra tools availible for Gimp? If so try 'em out.

Layers and filters always work...

YAAAY PARTY WOOHOO

EDIT: Oh wait, painty. *cough* Right, right.

Well I mostly use colorbalance/hue/saturation/brightness/contrast to give stuff different colors rather than using brushes, that way no detail is lost while I can still give stuff whatever color I want. Mostly.

That's basically what I do as well, except I use those settings with the brushes.