…corel painter 12

the above image isn’t my first foray into corel painter. i’ve utilized it in the past as a very viable alternate to photoshop when creativity required a specialist software for a truly painterly look and feel. i started off as an illustrator dabbling in my first oil painting at the tender age of four (paint by numbers!) and my education in liquid art ran the gamut with gouaches, watercolors, acrylics, inks and the like. the one thing they all had in common was the mess! thankfully painter put an end to all of the misery and brought with it the ease of being able work across multiple platforms.

corel painter still possesses a clunky interface but i can’t deny the instant gratification of being able to bang out an “oil painting” in one day. inspired by vintage big eye art of the 70′s, i was able to recreate and modernize the look for my client via corel’s impressive array of brushes and blenders. easy to use and powerful for such an inexpensive program, i would recommend downloading the trial version and taking it on a test spin. i have to confess that i don’t utilize painter very much in my line of work. much of what i do is relegated to vector based software which allows for greater control of color and separation, and as of yet, i’m unable to justify my purchase of painter. still, the reasonable price of $429.00 makes it affordable for artists looking for significant flexibility in digital creativity.