Corel Painter X Tools Mimic Natural Art Brushes and Media

Sophisticated effects appeal to trained artists, yet can be easily used by anyone.
May 1, 2008

By Dane Clement

One of my favorite programs, and one which I use to create many of the images included in my line of stock artwork, is Corel Painter X.

What I love most about Painter is the degree of control it offers. For example, you can create different looks and textures by changing the digital media from canvas to watercolor. You can make images that look like authentic pastels, not like you simply applied a filter in Adobe Photoshop. Painter lets you control every brush angle, brush pressure and brush tracking. The effects you can achieve simulate a real brush right down to individual bristle marks. Painter allows you to create digital artwork that can look like a watercolor, an oil painting, a pastel or many other types of fine art.

I think it's a great program for anyone who creates designs for decorated apparel. And you don't have to be a trained artist to take advantage of Painter's unique abilities.















If you use Photoshop and want to create fresh "traditional looking" artwork, you have to give Painter shot. It's a really great program and a good value. A full version (boxed) costs $429 MSRP, and $419 downloaded. Upgrades are $229 (or $219 downloaded). A less sophisticated version, called Corel Painter Essentials, costs $79 MSRP for a boxed version, $59 for an upgrade, and it ships free with most Intuos Wacom tablets.

Essentials is a great start-up program for anyone who wants to get into digital art. This scaled-down version can produce great results because it has the same brush engine as the full version — just fewer levels of control.

Dane Clement, well-known for his expertise in computer graphics and color separations, works as an application specialist at SPSI in Minneapolis. Dane also is the founder of Great Dane Graphics, a supplier of high-quality vector artwork. For more information or to comment on this article, e-mail Dane at dane@greatdanegraphics.com.

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