[Alan]

I remember seeing a thread like this on another forum awhile back, but don't remember where/when. Basically it was different sketches and paintings of the same thing done in different graphics programs. I always thought that would be an interesting experiment so I tried it too.

Very fast sketches to test pencil, speedpaints to test color. Variations probably have more to do with me getting bored with the same apple again and again

[eyewoo]

and the five programs were... ???
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[Alan]

Mentioning the five programs would help, eh? Although, it's kind of neat to try and guess.

1-Photoshop
2-GIMP
3-Sketchbook Pro
4-Painter Essentials
5-MyPaint

[rockstar30]

Very interesting...I totally love Photoshop and now I have proof on why it is the best

[Quintus Dias]

Eventhough I like the idea of an experiment like this it doesn't really give justice to the software used. Because, it actually depends on how comfortable you are with the software used, I believe if you were used to use Gimp for example you could actually achieve realism just as much as with Photoshop.
I would choose Gimp over Photoshop anytime of the day.

[Alan]

Thanks for the replies.

Yeah, the idea behind the experiment wasn't "what software is best" but just to test out tools.

And the results are open, some people have liked the GIMP apple the best, others the Painter apple because it looks more painterly

Comfort level/familiarity with tools is important. To be fair, I'd never painted in GIMP before. Ever. But after awhile I could see how it's a very fine program and has all the tools I'd need to paint in it.

And when using Painter I used the real-media based brushes to have fun with them.

The only thing that can be definitively said Photoshop leads in is price, it's by far the most expensive

One discovery from this test was MyPaint, I'd never used that software before either, and for another free/opensource package it has a very nice feel and seems very good for quick concepts.