You're right that you cant use any of the regular SDL drawing functions with OpenGL - or any other accelarated 3D API. You can work with 2D graphics in OpenGL though, by drawing texture quads. If you wrap that in a simplified interface, then the code doesn't look much different from what you are used to in 2D PyGame.
For such a simplified interface, you might find Lamina useful. http://cheeseshop.python.org/pypi/Lamina/0.1.2 David -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Pitcher's Duel -> pitchersduel.python-hosting.com