COREL PAINTER 2016
PLATFORMS:- Mac 10.9 and above
- Windows 7 and above
£315 / $429
T
he Corel Painter versus Adobe Photoshop
debate is one that fascinates any newcomer
to digital painting. Photoshop, as the name
suggests, is traditionally intended more for
photo-enhancing and photomanipulation, despite the
fantastic capabilities of the Brushes and the various
different mixing tools such as Smudge and Blur. It
might seem the answer for an all-rounder, but Corel
Painter is specifically tooled for anyone setting out to
create art.
Both offer more than enough on their own to be
perfectly viable options for creating paintings.
Photoshop can offer so much more than just paintingREVIEWS COREL PAINTER 2016
IS PAINTER LIKELY TO OUST PHOTOSHOP AS YOUR DIGITAL PAINTING
PROGRAM OF CHOICE, OR JOIN IT?tools; where Painter is a place to start a sketch and
build, Photoshop is almost the opposite, with tools for
editing, adjusting and finishing off your pictures.
Where Photoshop has fantastic layer styles and the
ability to download millions of brushes online, Painter
offers speicific layer styles for painting techniques,
along with top quality real media brushes.
Both are extremely powerful software packages,
and both are obvious answers if you’re looking for a
painting program. Interestingly though, both
Photoshop and Corel Painter complement each other
well, as both can provide tools that the other can’t.
This was recognised, with Photoshop integration into
Painter 12, so what else does Corel Painter 2016 offer
that can enhance your Photoshop experience?
Perhaps the most obvious advantage of Painter is
that it feels closer to real media than almost any
other package. Brush sensitivity is easy to control,
and this gives you pinpoint precision when drawing
and brings your creative process even closer to theTOP 5:
PAINTER PLUGINS
NIK COLLECTION
$149
Adjust colour tones in your
paintings with complete control,
using the Nik Collection, which
was purchased by Google and assembled into one
complete editing suite for Photoshop and Painter.
GLITTERATO
£20
A plug-in that can create starry
nebulae, Glitterato is perfect
for adding texture and sparkle
to your digital paintings. It’s great for adjusting light
in your picture and can bring out the vibrancy of
your colours.
AUTOFX MYSTICAL
Suite Gen1
$199
This AutoFX bundle includes
Mystical Focus Gen1, Mystical
Lighting and Ambiance Gen1 & Mystical Tint Tone
and Color Gen1 for improving photos and lighting.
It’s an adjustment package, for if you don’t want to
use Photoshop.
COPIC COLOR SET
for Painter 12
FREE
Created by a DeviantArt
member, this free plug-in
generates swatches for your artwork based on Copic
pens and it is perfect for creating manga. It includes
358 colours and is also available for Photoshop.
TOPAZ SIMPLIFY
$39.99
Create all kinds of artwork
from your photos with Topaz
Simplify and then edit them
further in Corel Painter. It’s a simple way to
generate a basis on which to paint.