Review by Timothy B. Riley

I am mostly a photographer but I also dabble in drawing. This was my first experience with Corel Painter so I really can’t compare this version with others. However, I will say that I was very impressed by the depth of the program. There is so much here! I can imagine that professional artists could really create some actual works of art with this program. However, I use it both for my humble drawings and to modify some of my photographs in conjunction with PhotoShop. Still, the more that I used it the better that my works looked. I was able to add dimensions to my pieces that I could have ever done without Painter 12.

The things that drove me to distraction were the bugs that many people here talked about. I would occasionally lose some of the moves that I had just made. Some of the paint brushes seemed to do something different than they were supposed to, etc. I admit that some of my problems may have been due to user error but it was still frustrating.

I have enjoyed using Corel Painter so much that I am going to take some classes this summer in order to push my meager skills to the next level. All in all a very useful program.