Wanted: free (but good) art program

I spent all night on my computer last night. Until my husband got jealous that the laptop gets more love than him, that is. I was trying in vain to create some simple buttons for my website, and make pretty graphics and logos for all my "friends" on my links page. I only have a basic photo editing program right now and paint, of course. I remembered seeing this guy on the news that did the Mona Lisa, among other things, on paint, though, so I remained determined my crummy programs would do what I wanted, by god! So I spent hours going back and forth between the two, at times "painting" one freakin' pixel at a time. The best I could do was this:

I think now I must have a different MS Paint than that dude, because mine doesn't do anything. Except irritate me. So what do you think, better, worse, or just different than the banner on the top of this blog?

Now, back to the problem at hand: free stuff that does what I want. I refuse to pay hundreds of dollars for Photoshop, even though I LOVE it, and know how to use it, I have a kid to feed, for cryin' out loud. Does anyone know of a decent free (or inexpensive) substitute? I did the best I could with mine, and it is ok...but soooo time consuming. I made new logos and or buttons for the links on my page with it. Maybe you are there now. Go see.

I also searched and searched for decent clip art on the web. I caution anyone brave enough to take on this project not to google free clipart and expect results. All those sites are really unhelpful, and freakishly linked to one another. Finally I found this place. Awesome.

So if you can help me, you rock. If you are in the same boat, good luck. Until later...