Playing around with photoshop

I make no secret of the fact that I'm a vector artist. Every piece in my portfolio--every single one of them--is a pure vector image, including the textures. I create this way because its what makes sense to me. I was introduced to Illustrator and Photoshop at basically the same time, in the same Intro to Digital Illustration class. I enjoyed Illustrator much more than I did Photoshop, and so I just used it more often. A whole lot more. I can poke my way around Photoshop and create some basic stuff, but Illustrator is my digital art home.

Every once in awhile, however, I see an awesome piece created in Photoshop and think, wow, I should really figure out this whole digital painting thing. Vectors are great, but they just can't do everything.

One of the things holding me back were the brushes. I know, I know--there are some really awesome paintings that have been created with the basic Photoshop brushes. But I just dislike the texture of those brushes SO MUCH that it has kept me from sticking with any painting in Photoshop.

Recently I asked a friend about what brushes she uses in Photoshop, and she said she's been using this brush set a lot lately. I downloaded them and--wow. There are some great brushes here! I did a whole value sketch from imagination using them, and actually enjoyed it and didn't hate the texture or feel of the brush. It isn't a portfolio quality piece, and there are some things I still need to figure out, but I painted in Photoshop and liked it. This is huge, people. I don't think I'll ever convert all the way over to Photoshop--infinite enlargability is something I've become very used to--but it will be nice to have it as an option.