What is the best program for digital painting?

I know that everyone seems to be using Photoshop, but I keep thinking it only has the tools to edit photos. I want a software I can digitally paint using brush tools and all that jazz. Is photoshop really the best option? It's so darn expensive I'm not sure that it's worth it.What is the best program for digital painting?
Photoshop does have paintbrush tools as well as airbrush tools and line/shape tools.





I'd personally go for Paint Shop Pro (I have version 7 but I think the most recent is 11). I'm a bit of an amature graphic artist and I think it does the job wonderfully and its less than half the price of Photoshop and is well worth the money.





As well as photo editing and art/paintbrush tools there are blend tools, layers, great text options and picture tubes.





You might like a graphics pad and pen mouse to go with. most pads will work with PSP and photoshop.





http://www.paintshoppro.com/pspx_offer/i…What is the best program for digital painting?
for painting digital art instead of editing photo images,


Corel Painter X


http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite/u…





portalgraphics openCanvas


http://www.portalgraphics.net/en/


Pixarra : Digital Painting for Artists


http://www.pixarra.com/


Paint tool SAI


http://detstwo.com/pub/saia5-eng/


ArtRage 2


http://www.ambientdesign.com/artragedown…





Main - Fanart Central


http://www.fanart-central.net/


deviantART: where ART meets application!


http://www.deviantart.com/


..
sorry I do not know
Hi


I'm a cartoonist and I use Painter, which is by far the best tool for painting and drawing digitally. I have been doing all my colour up work for strip cartoons with this program for quite some time and it far better for an artist to use that PhotoShop. You do need a graphic tablet to take full use of the tool though. I tend not to do all the drawing in Painter though I pencil up my drawing then ink it up and then at that point scan it into Painter I then tidy it up and then use all the brushes etc to finalize the drawing prior to putting in the colour layers


John
WACOM PAD Comes with pen uses Dabbler program, to do what you want had mine ages its just small but brilliant. They go up in size but you may not necessarily need bother going too big.


I couldn't draw freely with mouse this is ideal.





My partner reckons it was £50 but I thought it may have been more i've had mine about 8 years now, but they should cost so much less these days.





A while back I got an excellent fractal imaging program called something like Bryce II but I haven't played with mine much yet. Quite complex for some one like me who just likes to dabble a bit.
Any software that can create fractals - Coreldraw is one of the best but it is the same cost os Photoshop.


Look on the internet for ';Free fractal software'; or ';Free Painting Software';. You will find them, try them and then do your paintings.
Illustrator is the best for for, er illustrating! Is damned expensive as well but it's definitely worth it if you're quite serious about your artwork. It sounds like that's what you're after! It has endless amounts of effects etc if you're into that sort of thing... Good luck!
Photoshop is an excellent all-around program, you can create some amazing digital paintings in PS but that's not the main purpose it was intended for so you don't have a ton of features for painting.





Corel Painter is designed specifically for digital painting. It has a multitude of features to mimic different real painting styles.





If you're looking for something cheaper, I downloaded a program called ArtRage a while back and I thought it seemed pretty nice. They have a free version of it- it's not a free trial, it's just a limited version of the software so some of the features aren't available like layers. It's still a useful program even at that though, and I don't think the full version is very expensive.