We especially like the real world colour pigment mixing and the brilliant watercolour and oil simulation as well as the new AI-based Warp and Liquify tools. In our review, we found the latest edition of this impressive natural media painting app offers plenty of useful upgrades, including new stabilisation and texture features, natural RYB colour mixing, layer groups and colour management.

It's one of the best digital art software options for creating realistic-looking watercolours or oils with plenty of thick impasto effects. Featuring more than 240 brush presets, it's designed to mimic the way that paint behaves in the real world. If Corel Painter is a little too expensive, Rebelle 6 could be your best alternative. If you're torn between the Affinity and Adobe offerings, take a look at our guide to Affinity Photo vs Photoshop. In our Affinity Photo review, we particularly liked how, unlike Photoshop, the tool isn't dependent on current OS and hardware – it runs equally well on older machines. And if you prefer to draw on an iPad, Affinity Photo for iPad is also available. It also has enough power even to cope with 100+ megapixel images, so you don't have to worry about working with super-high-resolution files. If you've already used Photoshop but want to move away from the subscription model, then Affinity Photo is certainly one of the best options since it offers full compatibility with PSD files, making it effortless to migrate projects over. In terms of power and performance, it's pretty much on a par with Photoshop, though it lacks some of Adobe's most advanced features like content-aware fill. It's a one-time purchase, so once you've paid the initial cost of the software, you're set. If that's you, Affinity Photo is probably your best alternative to Photoshop.

Not everyone wants to commit to a monthly subscription.

Mediband paint