Welcome to the greater Hive art community. Some other places you could post to are #onchainart and #sketchbook.
I don't use Adobe. My program of choice is Clip Studio Paint. There's no yearly subscription, it's a 1x $50 price tag for the "lite" Pro version and even that has more tools and features than I know what to do with. They also have 50% off sales constantly. I think a lot of people use it primarily for comic or manga art, but I've used it to do oil paintings and charcoal drawings. Look into it.
Also, I've heard good things about a free program called Krita, but I've never used it.
Thanks for the feedback, I will look into those options before making a final decision. I like the “one time purchase” idea though, rather than a monthly sub.
@sidekickmatt I just looked around on the Clip Studio Paint site and watched a YouTube video on an illustrator’s use. I also looked at Krita. My daughter has created some really interesting adventures for her toys during our playtime, and I’ve compiled many of the stories into a document, and am now thinking it might be fun to illustrate them and see if they lend themselves to a book. I saw there was a free trial with Clip Studio Paint, so will likely look into doing that and playing around with Krita before making a decision. Thank you again for those ideas.