I'm using Painter 5 for some of my images. Having started with Photoshop,
I'm finding Painter a little difficult to learn (I've heard that's not
unusual), but I really love working with it. Very artsy brushes, giving
nice painterly effects. I can bring work into Photoshop and tweak it if
necessary. My struggles are with the floaters etc., and I'm wearing out the
manual trying to get it. Yes, I believe that Painter can produce good
oil-painting backgrounds with practice.
I have a couple (a few, actually) of Painter-based images on my site but I'm
a long way from being expert with it.
Debbie
http://www.compuads.com/rda