Believe you will be like most of us... and find that the more apps the better. Poser I think you will find usefull, and it's fairly easy to use. Bryce for the current price would be handy for landscapes as well as a renderer, though it does a good job, as a raytracer, it's slow though.

Other ideas as well as wings which is a polygon modeler, is Rhino - which is a nurbs modeler. The demo is full featured and allows 25 saves. Has a different approach to modeling then a poly modeler, but for some of us is more intuitive and logical...

Another idea is zbrush, which is on my "to buy" list. It has some capabilities that no other has, though the learning curve is suppose to be steep.

Cinema4d, max, lightwave, soft image, maya - - - are higher priced, but allow animation and particle effects.

A good image editing program, like photoshop, paintshop pro, or painter, is another essential - for texture creation, compositing, etc. UVmapper classic is good and free, there's a pro version, and then there's the high priced body paint and deep paint for texturing...

Still Poser, Bryce, Paintshop Pro, and Wings will take you a long ways for minimum outlay of cash - especially if you are a student (or know one) student discounts can save you a lot, and in most cases, the academic versions is the same as the pro market....

Have patience, and have fun experimenting, and gaining technique and skills. Being a traditional artist will be a great asset as well moving to 3d.

Best, hewsan