In Reply To #8
Depends. You can get an extremely painterly feel out of photoshop and painter if you do it all by hand only using brushes, eraser and a blending tool. It's essentially the same as actually painting or drawing. Still using an application device, a manipulation device, and a removal device.
If I wanna get a "designer feel" out of something, I use Illustrator. Otherwise all my digital drawings and paintings are done using Painter.