When I use the palette knife it looks like the paint is filled with lots of lines everywhere. In real painting this is not what it looks like. The paint is smooth with no lines. And in the new 2019 version when I use the paint tube for some dumb reason they put a horizontal line right in the middle of the paint. Once again in reality there is no line in the paint. Why Corel does these things is beyond me.
Hi 357mag,
Can you tell us the exact brush names you are using? For example I just tried Paint Tube from the "Thick Paint category" and there is a highlight of color in the middle of the brush, is this what you mean? In terms of palette knives, there are a few in the Thick Paint category and some have lines and others do not.
Indeed some of these brushes could use improvements, and the good news is it's not hard to customize them. There are lots of examples of artists creating amazing artwork with thick paint that looks very realistic.
Let us know which variants you are using (and want to use for your painting) and I'm sure a few of us here can help tune the settings to get a realistic look and feel.
Hi Stephen, I don't want to blow your cover, but I think you work for Corel -- and if so, thank you for your hugely increased presence here recently and being genuinely helpful to all the questions that get asked. It's something this forum really needed, and you've done a great job of addressing it all on your own.Since this might be the most direct way to give feedback on Painter, I'd like to offer some constructive criticism that maybe you can pass on up the chain. As you stated, yes, it is possible to get incredibly realistic results with the thick paint tools in Painter, if you have the time and knowledge to learn all the intricacies of the brush engine to do so. I am very glad that capability exists in Painter instead of being locked away from the user, because I can get just about any look from it that I want. BUT -- and this is a very big but -- Painter markets itself as a 'real media' simulation, to (presumably) traditional artists. And in many cases, traditional artists want tools that already look good, and work the way they expect, without spending hours tweaking and adjusting things. This is where Painter utterly fails. So many of the preset brushes (and not just for Thick Paint) can be drastically improved by changing their settings, and they should come that way out-of-the-box. Other 'real media' apps like ArtRage and Rebelle absolutely beat the pants off Painter in this regard, and are far more accessible to new users coming from a traditional media background. In fact, if I was asked to recommend a painting app for a traditional artist looking to get into digital, even if they are computer-savvy, I probably would not recommend Painter as their first or even second choice.The first time I tried the new Thick Paint in Painter, to be completely honest -- I thought it was abysmal. Even the YouTube videos demonstrating it (I think it was Cher Pendarvis?) looked laughably bad, and far from realistic. I had pretty much written it off until I wasted hours and hours tweaking it like I have already done with so many other aspects of Painter, and eventually found that it could be made to look REALLY good -- but it took a huge amount of effort to get there. I even posted some example images of that in this forum about a year ago, but those images magically got removed from my post.
Stephen said:Indeed some of these brushes could use improvements, and the good news is it's not hard to customize them. There are lots of examples of artists creating amazing artwork with thick paint that looks very realistic.
And therein is the problem. Painter is the premiere digital painting package, according to Corel. It shouldn't need tweaks to get the most out of its tools, and most of Corel's target audience just wants to use the tools to create art, *not* spend hours figuring out how to polish the rough edges of Painter to reveal its potential.Thanks for listening! And again, please know this is in no way directed at you--just trying to give an honest criticism to help improve the product. It's been great to see you around here so much lately!
EDIT: just to show I wasn't making it up, here's a direct link to the post where we were talking about this very thing, and the broken image link in that post: https://painterfactory.com/painter_product_discussion/f/got-a-question-technical-issue-bug-report-for-the-painter-team/28833/some-pros-and-cons-of-corel-painter-2018/121904#121904 I don't like to be conspiratorial, but I didn't take the image down, it was embedded in the message, and I can only assume someone at Corel didn't like me showing what their software was actually capable of?...
Hi Querty42,
My main goal here is to answer questions people have about the program, and try to get them painting if they are blocked.
The 'higher level' feedback such as "this other program blows the doors off Painter" is probably best channeled through things like the recent survey link that was posted here. Did you participate in it?
I am not a moderator, but what I can say is there are lots of images posted here, some show Painter working perfectly, others show issues like you describe and they haven't been taken down...so maybe there is some other reason why your image is not showing?
Either way I think it's great to see fellow artists lke yourself and the OP who are passionate about digital art...hopefully the community continues to build and support each other in a constructive way.
Hi Stephen, yep, I did indeed participate in that survey, although I didn't see it until a couple weeks after the deadline they wanted us to respond before, so I'm not sure if my feedback made it into consideration.I'm not sure why that image of mine disappeared, but it was actually a side-by-side comparison showing that Painter's thick paint could be made to look nearly as good as another (free) program's, if the settings were tuned just right. It was there for a few days and then vanished.
For those of us who critique Painter here--for most of us anyway--it's not because we hate the software and take delight in pointing out its flaws. It's because there is a big and loyal user-base that really thinks Painter has something special, and huge capability and potential, but are frustrated by its various rough edges that hold it back from everything it could be. The critiques are because we value the software and really want to see it reach the full potential it deserves.
Anyway, thanks again for your presence here! You're doing a great job of helping others as much as you can, and it also helps reassure the users that these forums haven't been abandoned or forgotten.
I've never heard of Rebelle. Can it do oils? I have not seen this on any videos. I have only seen watercolor and acrylic.