Corel Painter Essentials 4 (Win/Mac)

Let me preface this review with "I used this software with a Wacom tablet".

Corel advertises Wacom tablets not only when I visited their page to research this software, but also in their video tutorials about this software. I used a Wacom Bamboo Pen (model: MTE-450A).

This software starts up with an introduction page inviting you to learn the software by watching videos or reading manuals or beginning a new project. The two types of projects are roughly 'from scratch' and 'from a photo'.

The 'from scratch' lets you set the size of your document and the dpi(also known as dots per inch) of your document. The video tutorials suggest 150dpi as a perfect place. I agree that somehow, however mystically, this program looks great when creating something new at 150 dpi. For example, in painter essentials 4, a 640pixel by 480pixel at 150dpi looks good. 300dpi is usually your lowest common print setting, and near there is where programs usually perform well.

The layering system is simple... yet organic. The organic part is the confusing part. The layers are organic in Painter Essentials 4 because the coloring strengthens when more layers beneath are shown even when the opacity is low. This is like real sheets of paper, which most programs do not emulate. There is a canvas layer... your first layer.. this is locked and can't be deleted. You make new layers above your canvas layer. You can draw or paint on the canvas layer, but I'd suggest you draw and paint on new layers. These new layers can have their name adjusted, notes written about them, and opacity adjusted. Moving the layers above or below other layers occurs by just dragging and dropping, and there is no separate sign the layer is being moved. It just appears in another location quickly which is confusing until you get used to it. Layers maintain the same properties as the canvas.

Painter Essentials 4 is exceptional in Canvas, Drawing Tools, and Painting Tools appearance and response. The photo painting is mostly useful on a practicing brush strokes scenario. If you don't want to concern yourself with color selection, and just want to practice digitally applying a brush stroke, I can't think of a better tool than the photo painting tool in Painter Essentials 4. If you are looking for something other than what I've mentioned, such as drafting tools and tones, I might suggest Manga Studio 4 Debut. For what Painter Essentials does well, I don't think there is much competition for it. Also, the training on Painter Essentials 4 is better than any other program I've tried... the manual and videos are first rate. Please don't compare this to ArtRage... you can't practice digital brush strokes without worrying about color in ArtRage. They are different programs with different strengths. Choose the strengths you need.

I personally found this software useful for playing with animation on Mac(10.5 leopard)... merely knowing the OS and how to make screenshots, resaving screenshots as bmps through Preview, and importing them into Pencil animation software, I was able to create animations very quickly with an organic flavor.

This program is created by the makers of Corel Painter, which many consider to be the best painting and illustration software on the market. This software is a kind of Corel Painter Lite, and as such is a nice way to gain some initial exposure to digital art.

I'm not a particularly sophisticated software user myself, so I was happy to discover that this program is relatively easy to use. I installed it on my laptop, which has Vista, with few problems. The written manual is well done, and the video tutorials are especially helpful.

If you have even a mild interest in art, crafts or photography, this program will give you endless hours of pleasure. You can add special touches to your photos. You can create greeting cards. And if you are a fan of scrapbooking, you should see what you can do with it using this program!

I recommend this program to people of all ages, and it is especially fun for families to use together.

Out of the box, it flat-out was mediocre, even though the autopainter was good. The paints felt gimmicky and didn't work well. This is especially true for a mouse.

However, once I had my tablet set up right, it felt incredible. It wasn't exactly like using pencils and brushes, but it is VERY close. Basically you go to edit, then brush tracking. The automatic settings didn't work for me at all. After toying with it manually, which didn't take much time, I hit the sweet spot.

I couldn't review the item ordered because the vendor shipped me the WRONG item. Now, before those of you all-knowing, omniscient readers tell me that this is NOT a review of the item, let me say that I think a review should WARN as well as provide *good* info. Amazon has known for SOME TIME that their vendor sends the wrong item (specifically: "Corel Painterphoto Essentials 4") which they should OBVIOUSLY correct. Now, because I read that in other reviews (thank you reviewers) I KNEW what to look for and sure enough - my order had the "Corel Painterphoto Essentials 4" which is NOT what I ordered but was, indeed, what others said they'd received - IN ERROR. It is an inferior product to what was ordered - and ordered through a "Today's Deals" item. Of course I returned the package - without removing the shrink-wrapping and Amazon credited my card account for the full amount. I hope this review provides info for inspection by any *new* buyers. BUYER BEWARE!!!
Corel Painter Essentials 4 (Win/Mac)

The product had a glitch in loading; only by visiting the forum could I find the (simple) fix, since Corel Support had a completely unusable solution. Now that it is working, I find it simple and fun to use, with many interesting variations.