Review by Kristine Hale

I’m an interior designer, so the in which I use this program is different than an artist, so take this review with a grain of salt. I’ve been really putting the program through its paces over the last month or so.

I am an experienced Photoshopper and Sketchbook Pro user and I really wasn’t expecting to love Corel Painter as much as those two programs. And admittedly, Corel isn’t quite as versatile as PS, though I think it is actually better for straight art/drawing/painting applications than PS and certainly better than SBP. So if you need an art program and not an art/rendering/photo editing program, this is your guy.

Corel Painter has some features that I absolutely can’t live without. The perspective tool is invaluable for making renderings that look proportional (and I imagine super handy for artists) and the brush search tool is so nice. The Watercolor and Flow maps are, as far as I know, unique to CP and make amazing works of art. They help your image really go from digital to real-world.

I use a Mac and CP has a feature that adjust the memory usage of your computer to optimize your program use, which is so clever and works perfect. Working in CP becomes quick. And CP is much more user friendly and intuitive than PS, perhaps in part due to the limited capabilities (compared to PS), but also because it is well designed. And if you just can’t live without your PS, CP is actually compatible with PS and even share some plug-ins.

CP has a seemingly endless supply of brush, paper texture and media. I have no doubt I haven’t even gotten to half of them. It’s really hard to capture all of the benefits of CP, but for any artist or designer out there, it really is a fantastic program. I’m so glad I made the switch.