Painter 9.5 is quite the spiffy program. Once you get your head around it i'm sure it will be a tremendous asset. Here are a couple of things i have tried in painter. I am a fan of the pencil tool, it imitates are real one well enough that you can rough out an idea directly into your computer.
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This is a scene from a story i am telling my little brothers. O'connel is about to give into the blood burning in him and the souls whispering to him in his anger. (he is a good guy, but connected to him are a lot of evil souls of creatures he has defeated.)
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Random fighter.