Jacquelin Vanderwood
December 2004
Painter IX has matured into a verrry powerful tool! It's performance has been markedly improved over past versions making it the premier tool of choice for artisans of all types. It reacts in real time compared to previous versions and this is a welcome adjustment.
There is a new welcome program as you enter Painter IX that allows you to create a new document, to open an existing document, open a recent document, or open a template. With it you can view and access world renowned digital artist's sites as well as access online training, online tutorials, and online tips and tricks. You can also sign up on Lynda.com for free training videos. Also, before leaving you can setup color management, run through a color management tutorial, set brush tracking, and check for updates. Or if you don't want any of these options, just uncheck it and move on. But these alternative options are great for beginners especially.
Also new in Painter IX is the Artist's Oils and the Mixer. The Artist's Oils works like real oil paints making it truly a revolutionary change in product. Added to that is the Mixer and the new options available. You can mix paint colors in the mixer and use a special brush to apply multiple color strokes to the canvas just like real paint. The Color Set has been revamped. Now you can delete all colors, open your favorite photo or painting, and create a new color set from the painting or photo making it easy to paint a masterpiece in no time. Below is an example I created by opening a painted poster and using the colors from it. It's wonderful to use.
Brush Controls are now available to change at the desktop level. This has been a long awaited change and makes working in Painter much more productive than ever before. New paint controls for specific brushes have been added such as Airbrush, Impasto, Image Hose, Water, Liquid Ink, Digital Watercolor, and Artist's Oils. You can easily test out to changes on the Mixer before actually applying them permanently. An exciting new development is the ability to change the brush and the way it lays down color by changing it's direction. You're no longer tied to one specific direction. To add to the amazing improvements is that watercolor now stays wet when saved. You can pick up where you left off which is better than real watercolor which dries when left. You can change the direction of the water so that when laid down on the paper instead of always falling downward, you can make it go any direction you want. Why is this important? Well, in real life you can turn the paper in any direction and the water will naturally go that direction if the table is tipped slightly. Also new to this version of Painter is painting on a path where you draw a path with the pen tool or import a path, and the paint brush will be constrained to following the path you laid down. This can even be done using the text feature making new text looks much more prolific.
In the Stroke Designer you can create the new brush, test it, and select the brush layer in the Tracker and lock it all while the Brush Creator is open.
Also new and highly desirable is the layer palette that works much like Photoshop and is easy to use. You can select several layers and group them so that they are contained in a specific sub-layer area making efficiency and order prime real estate. It's gets better. Now you can save your files with masks, layers, and channels just as you have organized them and reenter the file to find that they are still exactly the same as when you were working on the project before. I created the painting below in 5 minutes on several layers, saved, exited, and then reentered to find it exactly as I had created it.
Quick Clone has been added to the lineup and features fast and simple cloning. New cloning brushes have also been added and this makes far more useful to achieve outstanding paintings. You can clone sections of a picture, change to a new picture and then clone from that one as well to make a completely new rendering. You're no longer locked into basic cloning.
Finally, Painter IX is much more practical and comfortable to use. It works more like a standardized tool and is just speedier than previous versions. It adheres more to the industry standard with it' new interface and is more compatible with Adobe products. The natural media is as before but with added bonuses allowing the artist to create with compelling speed, creativity, and accuracy. This has been a state-of-the-art upgrade. Add to the mix a Wacom tablet and improved features for the stylus and you're ready for great things. I'm extremely happy with the result. There are few things I'd like to see improved but overall it is now comparable to real and somewhat better may I say. Thanks Corel for the improvement.
Note: The Corel IX book accompanies the package and has a number of tutorials by professional and excellent artists.
Corel Painter IX $429.00 (Internet Download $399), Upgrade $229.00 (Internet Download $199.00)
www.Corel.com
System requirements
Macintosh®
- Mac® OS X (version 10.2.8 or higher)
- Power Macintosh® G3, 500 MHz or greater
- 128 MB of RAM (256 MB recommended)
- Mouse or tablet
- 24-bit color display
- 1,024 x 768 or greater monitor resolution
- CD-ROM drive
- 395 MB of available hard disk space
Windows®
- Windows® 2000 or Windows XP® (with latest Service Pack)
- Pentium® II, 500 MHz or greater
- 128 MB RAM (256 MB recommended)
- Mouse or tablet
- 24-bit color display
- 1,024 x 768 or greater monitor resolution
- CD-ROM drive
- 380 MB of available hard disk space
Copyright (c) 2004, Jacquelin Vanderwood, All Rights Reserved
