Have you tried Corel's Painter IX ? It's pretty good if you're into digital that mimic's traditional media.

Microsoft also has a free beta on their graphics proggie, which is a combination of pixal based with a traditional analogue feel and also support for Illustrator type vector manipulation. Should be interesting, haven't yet given it much of a test run.

Art Rage is a BLAST! I don't use it for my art here but I've spent hours upon hours playing with the trace option, turning my photographs into oil paintings.

It really is great.. Art Rage 2.0 is even better than 1, of course..you can now rotate the canvas, etc. I like it. :)

I haven't tried 2.0 yet, I'll have to check it out. :)