I turn photos into paintings using the brush and painting capabilities of Photoshop (I rarely use filters). I'd enjoy hearing opinions about the best (most realistic, most versatile, most intuitive, etc) program for creating digital paintings from photos. Thanks!

PS is good (but again the "tool" is only part of the equation)

Painter is also great for replicating "traditional" media effects (ie. paint brush strokes, pencil, chalk...)

there is also a really cool free app called ArtRage, and i hear Microsoft aquired CreatureHouse's Expression

others may have different opinions ;)

:)
retrocity

Yep - MS have a download for a Beta/Preview of Expression 3 though when I looked the terms and duration of the licence were not at all clear. I think there may be a link in the 2D forum here.

how can PS emulate "traditional" effects without filters? is art history brush an option?

I also would like to turn my photos into more artistic renditions. ie. more beautiful, unique, moody, artsy, using various filters, painting effects. I don't know anything about brushes, but the idea of creating a brush texture and repainting my photos sounds good to me. Do any of you do this, and what is the best program to use to achieve the effect.

I use the pattern stamp extensively (and art history sometimes, but that is much harder to control) And LOTS of practice!

RandyFocht , you can even experiment with the clone tool, with a fancy brush tip with scatter dynamics on it, sample close to where you paint, large images look like a custom filter after you spay over it all.

MS was/is giving away a free full version of the Creature House Expression program version 3.3 for the Mac. Not sure what the url is. Painter is a better program for digital painting, Expression is primarilly vector-based art.