Art of Illusion

I've been reading up on the pros and cons of AOI vs Blender and, at this point, feel that the easier learning curve and more intuitive interface of AOI would suit me better. In the long term I would like to move into animation but for the moment I just need to create some simple scenery type images. However most of the images in the gallery for AOI are of 'things'. I am hoping to use AOI for something like in this link: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Noob_to_Pro/Landscape_Modeling_I:_Basic_Terrain
(Also check out the following page in that link: 'Landscape Modeling II: Texture Stenciling')
How easy is this to do using AOI and are there any tutorials to get me started in this area?

Thanks.