i always use paint but i've been using fire alpaca a lot, too! it's a lot to take in at first but it's a good program that's easy to use and nice for when you're starting out with layers (i'm not very comfortable with them still ahaha)!

i use paint, pixlr, firealpaca, and gimp. they're all free and Quality. B)

I didn't pay for my PS monthly, I just paid for the download plus got a student discount all at once.
I don't know much about Pixlr or how good it is, but I know Photoshop works excellently for my renders.
But I don't really know what they want- so I'll just leave that up to them of course. It all depends on what you want to spend and get out of the program I guess

I don't know much about Chrome OS, so I don't know what it can and can't support, but I don't think Photoshop would be the best suggestion since you have to pay for it monthly (I'm not saying they can't pay for Photoshop, I'm just saying I don't think it would be the most practical solution). I think they would be better off with a free alternative that has layer support (and yes, I'm aware it's possible to render without the use of layers).

Ok thanks!

Actually with the new version of Adobe creative cloud- you can...
It can stream from the google server.
Although, I've never used it that way so I don't know how well it works. I think it was released earlier this year.

I did a quick search on Chrome OS, and neither of the programs listed bellow are compatible with it since it's a online-based OS (meaning, you can't install programs to it). I would suggest that you use Pixlr, which is an online program.

http://apps.pixlr.com/editor/

I would use, Gimp, Photoshop or Sai. They should all work on any standard laptop.
There is also a lot of info on this right here: http://www.animationsource.org/board/balto-fan-art-f13.html