Corel Painter Essentials Review

When I opened my Bamboo that night, I looked at the software that was bundled with it and I must confess that I didn't think much of the programs provided: Adobe Photoshop Elements and Corel Painter Essentials. I already had Photoshop CS2 and "pooh pooh"-ed Corel Painter Essentials (I didn't know much about it).

I decided to try out Corel Painter Essentials today and had to swallow my pride! I am decidedly impressed. The program was easily installed with no fuss (what program is difficult to install these days?). The interface looked similar enough to Photoshop so I decided to plunge straight in. After mucking around a little with the tools, I came up with the painting above. Pretty cool huh?

The program simulates real paint so you can blend and mix to your hearts content on the canvas. It worked so well with my Bamboo that at one point, I was about to move my pen to pick up more paint from the palette (thinking of the pen as a real paint brush)!! The best thing of all is NO PAINT MESS!

I know I have merely scratched the surface of the capability of this program. Having said that, it doesn't replace real paint and real canvas which I can't wait to get my hands on this weekend. I've been carrying an image in my mind for too long. Time for it to materialise.