Mr. King, I have a bone to pick with you.
In a recent interview with Andy Beardsley of Art Rage, you commented that Corel Painter was “dead” as an application for digital artists.
You’re right. It’s a goddamn zombie. Just like Keith Richards, it's dead but still ticking away, doing what it does best, and has always done best: providing a damn good simulation of natural media for the digital artist.
And like so many other dead things, those of us who poke around in the fields of fantasy, horror, and sci-fi illustration just can’t help but play with it. After all, we like dead and outdated things: medieval knights, dragons, zombies, androids, Windows 98...
All joking aside, I’d like to point out a few things:
Exhibit A: Painter. A book (another dead medium, if you believe that kind of gossip), put out by Ballistic Publishing, featuring the best artwork produced in Corel Painter by some of the top digital artists working today. This book is, you will note, rather thick, and features more than a few artists. I happen to know a few of them.
Exhibit B: Corel Painter IX.5 released in 2006. That’s awfully recent for a “dead” program.
Exhibit C: A list of Corel's Painter Masters. Make sure you check out their galleries, it's worth your time. You'll note that they work in all different kinds of fields, as well, from fantasy illustration to concept artists to graphic design to animation.
Exhibit D: Corel Painter IX wins a “Hot One” award from Professional Photographer Magazine for 2007. I’d like to point out this paragraph in particular:
“This latest honor adds to the extensive list of Corel Painter IX and Corel Painter IX.5 industry awards that include two PC World World Class Awards and Editors' Choice awards from PC Magazine, CNET® and MacAddict.”
If that’s not enough to convince you, I’d invite you to take a stroll through sites like Epilogue.net, CGSociety.org, and ConceptArt.org where you will find some of the most beautiful, incredible digital art being produced today, and more than a few artists who are proud to say they use Painter.
But it’s so expensive, you whine. Of course it is, Shawn. This isn’t a tool for Mr. King to sit down and doodle with. This is a tool designed with the professional in mind, and it gives so much control that, yes, it can be intimidating for first time users. But I picked it up and started producing art that was ten times better than what I was doing in Photoshop within a few weeks.
That’s not to say that Photoshop isn’t a good tool for digital artists. I know many who swear by it. But it depends on how you’re comfortable working, and what tool works best for you. I know people who use only one or the other, and some who bounce back and forth between. It’s all in how you work. Painter isn’t a good photo editing tool, and I would never even think of using it for that, although their photo tools are slowly catching up with the industry standards. But as for digital painting and drawing... it’s the best out there.
I do intend to download Art Rage and give it a try. Maybe it’ll change my mind. From what I’ve seen, Art Rage is a great product for the beginning digital artist. But someday, when they’ve explored everything Art Rage has to offer, it’ll be time to graduate to Painter. It’s the difference between a community college and an art university: eventually you want to learn to play with the big boys.
And I assure you, the big boys use Painter.