Digital Painting software has existed at the consumer level, in some form, for more than 25 years. In those 25 years, a lot of programs have come, but more have gone, falling into obsolescence due to usability issues, limited functionality or the poor quality of its finished product and overall creative process. Among the slim few that have come, arrived and appear to be here to stay is "TopTenREVIEWS Gold Award" winner Corel Painter, now in its 11th version.

In its eleven releases, Corel Painter has expanded, refined and evolved from an ersatz "wet" or "dry" media simulation program to a legitimate replacement of traditional visual media and their design processes, even going as far to design tools and customizable workflows to suit the needs of various media and the stylings of their respective artists. Not to be confused with "cut-and-dried image editing and graphic design software programs like Adobe Photoshop and others, Corel Painter is designed--and intended--for innovative and creative use, paying equal attention to the precision and effect of paint brushes, paint palettes, composition tools and wet and dry media suites as it does to tools and features that have no counterpart in either wet or dry media. With unrivaled tablet response and program architecture designed to see artists, designers and illustrators through every step of the creative process, it is easy to see why Corel Painter has become an integral part of the design process for many artists, as well as the main creative vehicle and mode of production for a growing number of other artists of all backgrounds and training.

Who Uses It?

The ranks of Corel Painter's users is large--and growing larger. Though it is often used in addition to wet and/or dry media and other digital illustration or painting software programs by countless artists, it boasts an impressive roster of master artists, designers and illustrators whose backgrounds range from digital, animation, conceptual and mixed-media to landscape, portraiture and even photography. Many of these artists are featured and interviewed on Corel's official Painter site, of which much of the content gives great insight into the program's potential, as well as the personal workflow and methodology of the respective artists.

To name but a few of Corel Painter's many, for lack of a better term, artists in residence:

• Andrew "Android" Jones
• Bruce Dorn
• Cliff Nielsen
• Dwanyne Vance
• Fay Sirkis
• Jeremy Sutton
• Peggy Gyluai

Standout Features

RealBristle Painting System
In a class of its own, the RealBristle Painting System is, to date, the only system to successfully replicate the precision, effect and process of wet and dry media in a digital interface.

RealBristle Dry Media
Dry Media has often been under represented in digital painting software programs. With RealBristle Dry Media, however, artists can select palettes designed specifically to reproduce the effect and quality of marker, pen, pencil and even chalk-based artistic developments.

Universal Mixer Palette
Colors with names are merely stop signs along the UV spectrum. With Corel Painter's Universal Mixer Palette, artists can mix, bleed and combine colors to create new colors to great effect and with the utmost precision.