The release of Corel Painter IX last month is being met with enthusiastic praise from professional and amateur artists alike. With its many performance improvements and new features, Painter IX has given artists plenty of reasons to welcome the upgrade, but the praise goes far beyond new features and performance.
“I have never seen such interactivity between the canvas and pixels,” Andrew Jones, one of Nintendo’s lead concept artists, told MacCentral.
Jones began his career in films working for Industrial Light and Magic before moving to Nintendo. He is also the founder of ConceptArt.org and is an instructor of art, teaching workshops throughout the U.S. and around the world.
“No program strives as hard as Painter to merge the traditional with the new media,” said Jones.
And that is where Jones sees the biggest difference with the new version of Painter. Corel has managed to maintain the look and feel of traditional art while allowing artists to experiment in the digital world.
According to Jones, some artists’ best work comes from “happy accidents,” things they didn’t do intentionally, but become an important part of the artwork.
“Painter let’s you paint with your imagination,” said Jones.
Amateurs agree
Toronto, Ontario-based amateur artist Marg Montgomery agrees with Jones’ assessment of Painter IX. An experienced traditional canvas painter and user of Corel Painter, Montgomery lauded the speed improvements in the application, but what impressed her the most was the realism of Painter IX.
“The paints seem to flow much better on the canvas,” said Montgomery. “As far as I know there is nothing that simulates the feeling of ‘painting’ like Painter IX does.”
Montgomery also feels that Corel did a good job in providing tutorials for those new to the application or upgrading to the latest version. For those that plan to showcase their work on the Internet, “the basics for doing this are easily understood with little or no training,” she said.
“I guess my point is you don’t have to be a computer guru to be able to create something wonderful. All you need is imagination,” said Montgomery.