Ack, I don't know anything about GIMP, or I'd be able to offer some help. CS6 isn't much different from CS3. They might've moved a couple of things around or renamed some stuff, but it's like 98% the same otherwise. I don't know about any like...new features on it, though, since I usually just try to color and do most things manually (definitely not helping my inability to color well...). GIMP I think is more versatile in ways that Photoshop isn't, though, so it'd probably be pretty cool to learn it.
Maikeru (who has now been named Mael, in an effort to break away from naming things in Japanese...), though not Vox (though there is a "character" named that, that doesn't exist visually yet). There's the princess who's blonde, and Lux who's also blonde.
;]
Really, I only ever draw Mael and Nox nowadays. Any time I actually attempt to draw, it's usually with the intent of trying to improve, so I stick with drawing a character that I already know very well, so I can focus on other things, and not drawing something new.