They have 50% off sales on occassion, and I highly recommend the EX version if you can get it, it has features you didn't even know you needed in your life! Also it is a one time buy, you don't need a subscription.

It feels the nicest and has a lot of the tools Photoshop does, but is just more intuitive for the average artist. Out of everything I've tried, Clip Studio Paint is easily the best.

Ive also seen Blender used for 2d art with the grease pencil plugin but that is a more intermediate/preferential method of digital painting. Solid free options that I know of are Krita and Autodesk sketchbook. In the end, its not like any other digital program doesn't have the basic brush styles, or are limited in the colors they can offer, in comparison. That being said, it pretty much never matters what software you actually use and most prefer photoshop simply because its synonymous with digital painting along with the expanse and depth of the application. but can be used to also achieve certain results and means to an end for digital art techniques. The advantage photoshop has over the competing software, aside from being the pioneer in this space, is that with Photoshop is bundled all of the tools that are traditionally for photography, etc. If you're on ipad then procreate has the majority market share for being superior but thats another post. Advanced digital artists who work on desktop almost completely prefer photoshop.

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