Review by ScOObydoo

For the first time in ages, I’m able to review a piece of software that feels like a real upgrade over recent versions, instead of just releasing a new version with mere incremental changes. Painter 2015 is quickly becoming the industry standard in this segment, and despite being an Adobe Creative Cloud subscriber, I feel that Painter is better than any of their options when it comes to traditional and natural art.

In all use cases, you really need either a design friendly tablet (like a Surface Pro 3) or a high end graphics tablet (like a Wacom) to get the most out of this. It will not work well on low end tablets, and definitely isn’t very usable on a tablet with a passive stylus - so be prepared to find a tablet with an active pressure sensitive stylus, or invest in a Wacom.

Despite all the new features, the interface is a short learning curve for people coming from a previous version - new users will definitely require some of the online training options out there or one of the many books. Thankfully, books from previous versions will be an adequate starting point, even though there are a lot of new options.

The rest of the app is all dependent on your personal creativity. Think of Painter 2015 like a good quality canvas and top notch brushes - they won’t do much without a good artist. What they will do, is let you do almost anything you can think of, topped off with some amazingly powerful effects and almost every brush trick you can come up with in your head.

Lots of fun to play around with, and even those with just basic creative skills will be making some amazing creations in no time.