For drawing/painting try the free version of Project Dogwaffle. For image manipulation try GIMP. Also check out the freeware venues for illustration programs.
heres a list i found of comparatives of windows and linux programs for image manipulation, i think you dont need the windows programs heh, all you need is the free ones, after all, you gotta just join the sourceforge site and look for the windows version there
SVG viewer 1) Squiggle
2) X-Smiles
3) SVG support in Mozilla
1) Squiggle.
2) X-Smiles.
3) SVG support in Mozilla.
4) SVG support in Konqueror.
Program for text decoration Wordart, OpenOffice Draw OpenOffice Draw.
Program for ASCII-drawing ANSI DRAW, Mazaika 1) CanvASCII.
2) Jave.
3) ANSI Draw.
4) EDASCII.
Converting the graphic files in pseudographics ??? aalib.
Flash playing Flash Player 1) SWF Macromedia Flash Player.
2) Flash Player. [Prop]
3) Plugin for Netscape/Mozilla (download here or here).
Flash creation Macromedia Flash 1) DrawSWF.
2) Ming. (Creating flash swf output from programming languages)