For what it's worth, I'll post some of the things I've done in GIMP while bored.
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o197/egiunte_lora/Anime10_Ava.jpg?t=1167943812This one I did in July. It started out as just a sketch in a spiral notebook with a BIC black ink pen. I took a picture of it with my cell phone, drew a rough outline, and colored it. It was fun trying to figure out how to add background and text (This project was one of my first CGI works) I sent it to friends as a sort of joke greeting card.
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o197/egiunte_lora/Anime13_color_.jpg?t=1167944262I did this one either July or early August. It started out as a sketch on a piece of printer paper; then I took binder clips and affixed another piece over it and traced, holding it against the light so I could see (I had no light box...) after I did this again, I cell-phoned it to email, downloaded it and colored it. Overall, it took me two or three days to finish, but it's one of my more favorite pieces.
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o197/egiunte_lora/BloodStar.jpg?t=1167944495I did this in December for a friend, and while making it I played around with some of the advanced features in my program. This one is different because I still have the original sketch for it (I tend to give hard copies to friends/girls when I make a soft copy) and I did this one in pencil instead of pen. I'm generally pleased with the way this one came out.