Corel Painter Essentials is a home

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated software documentation, documentation and data (computing), data. This is in contrast to Computer hardware, hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. ...

studio for turning

photographs A photograph (also known as a photo, image, or picture) is an image created by light falling on a photosensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic image sensor, such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are now created ...

into

paintings Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

. Corel Painter Essentials is now in its 7th incarnation.

Features

Workspaces

Painter Essentials provides two workspaces that can be switched between at any time. The Drawing and Painting workspace is used for doodling, sketching or painting from scratch. The Photo Painting workspace is used for creating a painting from a photograph. In this workspace, a variety of styles of paintings can be created from a photo in a single click. Alternatively, one can paint by hand with the program automatically choosing colors from the corresponding location in the original photo.

Tools

Painter Essentials provides a variety of brushes and media including

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...

acrylic Acrylic may refer to: Chemicals and materials * Acrylic acid, the simplest acrylic compound * Acrylate polymer, a group of polymers (plastics) noted for transparency and elasticity * Acrylic resin, a group of related thermoplastic or thermosett ...

watercolor Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to ...

gouache Gouache (; ), body color, or opaque watercolor is a water-medium paint consisting of natural pigment, water, a binding agent (usually gum arabic or dextrin), and sometimes additional inert material. Gouache is designed to be opaque. Gouache ...

, and

ink wash Ink wash painting ( zh, t=水墨畫, s=水墨画, p=shuǐmòhuà; ja, 水墨画, translit=suiboku-ga or ja, 墨絵, translit=sumi-e; ko, 수묵화, translit=sumukhwa) is a type of Chinese ink brush painting which uses black ink, such as tha ...

paints, together with pencils, pens, charcoal, pastels, chalks and a variety of blenders. A variety of paper textures or canvases can be chosen for use in conjunction with any of these media. Color can be selected from a set of traditional paint colors, adjusted by hue/saturation/value, or mixed in the mixer palette that mimics a traditional painter's palette. The page can be freely rotated while drawing or painting, as one would do when using a traditional piece of paper. The program also provides standard

image editing Image editing encompasses the processes of altering images, whether they are digital photographs, traditional photo-chemical photographs, or illustrations. Traditional analog image editing is known as photo retouching, using tools such as a ...

features including layers and

filters Filter, filtering or filters may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Filter (higher-order function), in functional programming * Filter (software), a computer program to process a data stream * Filter (video), a software component tha ...

Learning Material

The program includes a set of tutorial videos by John Derry. These teach the viewer various techniques from automatically creating a painting from a photo, to introducing some touch-up by hand, to creating a cartoon, drawing or painting from scratch. Sample files are provided to allow one to follow along while watching the videos. The accompanying manual provides the same tutorials in written form, plus reference material and an art tips section.

Versions

*Corel Painter Essentials (2003) *Corel Painter Essentials 2 (2004) *Corel Painter Essentials 3 (2005) *Corel Painter Essentials 4 (2007) *Corel Painter Essentials 5 (2015) *Corel Painter Essentials 6 (2018) *Corel Painter Essentials 7 (2019) *Corel Painter Essentials 8 (2020)

Relation to Corel Painter

Corel Painter Essentials is a

hobbyist A hobby is considered to be a regular activity that is done for enjoyment, typically during one's leisure time. Hobbies include collecting themed items and objects, engaging in creative and artistic pursuits, playing sports, or pursuing oth ...

version of Corel's Painter line of software. Painter Essentials is used by art and photography hobbyists, while Corel Painter X is used by commercial designers, entertainment artists, professional photographers and fine artists. Painter Essentials provides many of the same core features and capabilities as Painter X. However, in addition to the features of Painter Essentials, Painter X allows more customization of the

user interface In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine f ...

and brushes, and provides over 800 brush tools as compared to approximately 90 brushes in Painter Essentials.

References

External links

Corel's Painter Essentials WebsitePainter Essentials User Community Site, essentialscafe.com