I'm in similar situation, and I have been doing digital painting since the 90s. I found out about Krita about a year and a half ago. Maybe I had heard about it

I'm in similar situation, and I have been doing digital painting since the 90s. I found out about Krita about a year and a half ago. Maybe I had heard about it before and forgot or ignored it. It is definitely a formidable alternative to Photoshop for painters and some may find it better at certain tasks and workflows. I haven't used Blender in a long time, but from what I've seen they've progressed by leaps and bounds too, and many prefer artists prefer it to the commercial alternatives. Solid evidence that open source software can rival or exceed commercial projects for the things that require user friendly UXs.