Have you tried Krita?

No. I might. I've heard good things about it.

Not a photo artist myself but scoping out for others, it seems extremely nice.

I used Krita until I bought an Android YogaBook - there were some minor niggles, but by and large it was very useable.

I was about to suggest Krita, too. XD

Take a look at clip studio paint, great price designed to do art! adding new things, inexpensive, some youtube videos on why I use clip studio vs ps. I saw there little device called tabulate. You can catch the EX on sale sometimes not as much now the the are moving to digital purchase but there are some smith micro discs still on amazon, download the free trial of it from clipstudio.com, take a look at Brian Allen flydesign and his youtube he takes a piece from skitch to inked to color , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfw.....asgV0&t=3s. the other two and many others are in his youtube channel. also here is a little simple sample https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KB4o3zG8NiI. inking coloring a short one way how to

Now Patrick brown of Patrick brown comics does use photoshop and has a course on skill share his site is here http://www.patrickbrownart.com/home/ but everything done3 in there you can gauge yourself against the clip studio above. https://www.skillshare.com/classes/.....ital/738218535

on the Brian Allen link above in the description has a nice link to their website with an outline for each of the 3 videos

I agree with this! It's what I use and I LOVE how the pens feel. They actually feel right. I'd recommend Clip Studio Paint.

I'd say go investigate it. Then hold off a day or so, if you have facebook you'll probably get a targeted ad for a discount~ ;3

I use FireAlpaca personally, but I'm not the best artist out there~

If you're able to, give the program I use a try, Autodesk Sketchbook. I started using it long ago because my Surface couldn't handle Photoshop and SAI was too complicated for me. It's streamlined, Photoshop file compatible, and free to use. Should be able to find it on the windows app store.

I solved the "circle around the cursor" issue on my machine because it was driving me crazy too. Poke me and I can tell you what I did

I have tricks that fix all those issues with Photoshop. There is also an incredible program called LazyNezumi that helps so much. I have hand wobbles from an injury. The circle is actually a setting you have to go in and fix, I have to figure out how to again, but yeah it's super annoying!

As flr the brushes, adjust the spacing, and I have a nice brush set that works great! I have been using strictly Photoshop for a bit over a year now. It was a learning curve, but with learning the settings and how they work, it is far, far less annoying now :3