I use both Photoshop and Painter. I also use Corel's Photo-paint. Each program has things it does best that the others don't do as well. I use painter when I REALLY want to paint. It gives me more controls over the color and the mixing of colors. Plus, I seem to work better with my Wacom in Painter than I do Photoshop. In Photo-paint, there are special effects and tweaks that I like. Most of my images aren't finished until they've gone through Photoshop and Painter, and often Photo-paint. For example I'm working on a cover for my B-movie book at the moment. I'm putting the image together in Photoshop. But because I need a particular style, I'll paint it in Painter where I can get that style. Then do the final tweaking in Photoshop. Most artists I know who do illustration use both programs. It's not about which program is best, but about expanding the tools you have to work with. I don't use Illustrator, but when I got the Corel graphics suite, it also gave me CorelDraw, which is essentially the same thing as Illustrator. The more tools I have to work with, the better the job I can do.

Talent is God's gift to you. Using it is your gift to God.