Now that Adobe is celebrating its 25th year anniversary of Photoshop, it came to my attention that a new generation has grown up to simply painting on the computer. That means this individual has always used a photo for reference and never sniffed linseed oil.
The painting process is still the same, the artist starts off with a black and white image and adds color tints with the use of layers, to give it depth. Using layers did not start with Photoshop but it is a painting technique that began as far back as the Renaissance.
Learning how to paint in Photoshop is a great start because you can pick up color, light and shade, and brush techniques much faster than you would starting out on canvas. The problem is returning to mixing paint with turpentine and waiting several days to allow the paint to dry between layers. This will soon be the death of traditional painting forever.