Easily Gimp and Krita or painting (you can buy the latter on steam, if you want to support open source).
Photoshop is a round and mature product, but since I don't do any print, I can do everything with Gimp (perhaps you can do print too, no experience here).
Creative cloud or however it is called today is a non-starter for me. Also, I can integrate Gimp in image pipelines more easily. I also use Blender for modelling.
Maybe I am not entirely up to date, but today you can use these tools to make things that were just not possible a few years ago. In a quality that is competitive with high quality media products.
For me it is a hobby and I get the advantages in a professional environment to use the same tools that fit long and complicated pipelines. But if you just want to create high quality art, the tooling is readily available.
It’s not comparable because GIMP has never had the effort put into it to compete with Photoshops most basic features. 15-20 years ago they were arguing that adjustment layers were not needed and they only managed to ship some form of it this year.
Blender vs commercial 3D software is a better example.
Photoshop is a round and mature product, but since I don't do any print, I can do everything with Gimp (perhaps you can do print too, no experience here).
Creative cloud or however it is called today is a non-starter for me. Also, I can integrate Gimp in image pipelines more easily. I also use Blender for modelling.
Maybe I am not entirely up to date, but today you can use these tools to make things that were just not possible a few years ago. In a quality that is competitive with high quality media products.
For me it is a hobby and I get the advantages in a professional environment to use the same tools that fit long and complicated pipelines. But if you just want to create high quality art, the tooling is readily available.