I been trying both programs. Both are quite good. When I'm in Painter it seems like some of the brushes smear though. I can't lay down a thick bold stroke of paint with an oil brush. I have to use an Acrylic brush to get a thick strong stroke of color.

With Artrage it appears that they have done a better job of providing brushes that lay down thick bold color. Plus they have the oil tube approach which lays down as thick as you can possibly get color.

Got to say though that I never really like the Artrage interface as much as I like the Painter interface. The Artrage interface has these semi-circles on the lower left and lower right of the screen which I don't like all that much. I wish the developers would have chosen to do more like a Painter interface and just set the brush size by moving a slider or entering a number at the top of the screen.

Can you think of other reasons why Artrage might be a better choice? I only do oil and I like to paint thick and bold. I like impasto too.