Digital Art Community Forum for Artists & Creators

Username: postdes
Post Date: 2024-11-08 14:57:05

Me being a bit of a nerd regarding art programs, I was tempted to try Corel Painter 2023 which is a part of the Humble Bundle. In any other circumstance the regular price alone would prevent me from even trying it, but I took a chance on this to see how it would compare as it is seen as the godfather of painting programs. To cut a long story short: it wasn't pretty. I am mainly a Clip Studio Paint user who uses Rebelle mainly for it's oil brushes, which have the nicest blending and impasto effects I know of. I also use other software like Krita, Procreate and Affinity. Coming on the back of these experiences, trying Corel Painter came with quite high expectations to fulfil and it disappointed on just about every level. Though it was not as laggy as a version from a couple of years ago, it was still far from smooth, especially the navigation of the canvas. As for the brushes, there is of course a lot of them, but the way they are presented and organised is rather messy and overwhelming. This is especially because there is a lot of novelty stuff there which is not very useful. Rebelle may be more limited in the amount of brushes it includes, but the way they are organised and selected makes sense and gives you everything one needs. Another major annoyance was the pixelation of the brushes, many of the impasto brushes had hard pixely edges which just looked ugly, an eyesore to work with. Then there is the issue that certain brushes only work properly on certain layers, which is really quite annoying as I really prefer to have everything on one layer. The UI also still feels very dated, and Corel has kept adding stuff to the program with very little practical application which clogs up the interface. I had to quit futher testing as the experience was just so frustrating. I opened up Rebelle after this and it was such a pleasant experience. It may not be perfect (but no program is) but at least it is fun and efficient to use.

Username: LunatiqueRob
Post Date: 2024-12-10 05:01:47

The rise of Rebelle has made the leaders of realsitic painting programs of the past look really dated, and using them now feels insufferable. I did the same about a month ago, booting up Corel Painter and trying it after using Rebelle almost exclusively for the last few years. And yeah, it was an extremely frustrating experience, with clunky and cluttered GUI, unresponsive brushes, fake-looking impasto, and a bunch of other problems. Artrage isn't as bad, but compared to Rebelle, it is very limited and unintuitive. I have no doubt the developers of Corel Painter and Artrage have been scrambling to catch up to Rebelle, but so far it doesn't look like they are capable of even coming close to what the Escape Motions team can achieve. Back in the mid-aughts, I was a big Corel Painter advocate, and their team even bought an art print of my work (done with Corel Painter) to hang in their office to inspire the team. I had given them a ton of suggestions on the direction of their development, how they can improve the GUI, the brush engine, etc., but none of my suggestions were taken seriously or implemented, and I knew it then they were on a downward slope, and I was right. They wasted time developing frivolus things that only appealed to the kind of hobbyists who do not take art seriously, like autopainting a photo to turn it into a painting, aimed at photographers who want to turn their photos into paintings for their clients. So instead of improving their GUI and their brush engine, they worked on features that no serious artist would care about or want to pay for, which also degraded the impression people had of the software because of the gimmicky stuff.

Username: Carlos Caicedo
Post Date: 2024-12-20 12:10:39

I started with painter when it was packaged in a physical paint can. It was the best at the time. After Corel purchased Painter, the yearly updates were mostly cosmetic with supposedly better performance and an expensive price. Several Painter media brushes require a very cumbersome dedicated layer. Corel does not have capable technical support for Painter. There still is an issued with pressure sensitivity not working on the Microsoft Surface computers. After many months Corel told me that they would not fix it for the Surface Computers. Corel has rebranded to Alludo (All you do). You can read about it in Wikipedia. I still have a version that runs on a Mac with a Wacom tablet so that I can open the RIFF files if ever I need to. The one very important Painter capability that was useful to me, is the ability of Painter to record scripts of the painting session than can be played back at a different scale or even edited in a text editor (The files are huge). I did use that feature to also write algorithmic code to make brush and paint images. The brush pressure headaches with Painter caused me to look for alternatives that resulted in discovering and switching to Rebelle. Rebelle has a far better and uncluttered user interface, far more responsiveness and has the great nano pixel feature.

Username: oandroido
Post Date: 2025-01-20 13:35:20

Just getting back into this now, and feeling pretty nostalgic. I had Painter in a can as well. I bit further back even... I was using [URL='https://pasttimesandpresnttensions.blogspot.com/2014/09/fauve-matisse.html']Fauve Matisse[/URL] :)

Username: JennaStark
Post Date: 2025-01-22 16:24:52

I worked with Corel Painter for [I]yeeeears[/I], over [I]many[/I] iterations. (I never understood the people who preferred painting in PS -- always felt so clunky and not at all like the experience I wanted to have "painting", y'know?) Corel Painter had its flaws, but it was definitely my jam for a long time because I couldn't find another program whose interface wasn't infuriating (hello, [I]Artrage[/I] -- totes looking at [I][U]you[/U].[/I]) to deal with, but also still had that sort of... [I]buttery[/I] feeling of actual paint. It was, however, bogged with so much extra crap that it made the performance of the software iffy at times, and none of which I would [I]ever[/I] use. When I ([I]skeptically[/I]) gave Rebelle a try (after Painter tanked and I was looking for a new staple program), it was like a breath of fresh air: everything I loved about Painter, but done [I]much[/I] better and [I]significantly[/I] more efficiently. Not a ton of unnecessary filters or overly-complicated effects, just amazing color mixing and simple, realistic medias. Both my workflow and my computer CPU benefitted so much from the change and I really haven't looked back since last winter. Learning the ins and outs of the program has been fun! (I've definitely recommended it to several other artist friends!) Happy to have found a solid home here. :D

Username: primabrachii
Post Date: 2025-01-22 22:57:37

Yes, original Painter-in-a-can user here too, back when it was developed by Fractal Design and sported 'floaters' rather than layers... on a 233MHz Pentium II (!), much patience was needed! It is fascinating how software has evolved since, and what an application like Rebelle is capable of now compared to the then. Even now, digital art is still a thrill, always learning all the time.

Username: 6X69QKvwuaVU
Post Date: 2025-02-10 19:57:12

[QUOTE="postdes, post: 4826, member: 125892"] Me being a bit of a nerd regarding art programs, I was tempted to try Corel Painter 2023 which is a part of the Humble Bundle. In any other circumstance the regular price alone would prevent me from even trying it, but I took a chance on this to see how it would compare as it is seen as the godfather of painting programs. To cut a long story short: it wasn't pretty. I am mainly a Clip Studio Paint user who uses Rebelle mainly for it's oil brushes, which have the nicest blending and impasto effects I know of. I also use other software like Krita, Procreate and Affinity. Coming on the back of these experiences, trying Corel Painter came with quite high expectations to fulfil and it disappointed on just about every level. Though it was not as laggy as a version from a couple of years ago, it was still far from smooth, especially the navigation of the canvas. As for the brushes, there is of course a lot of them, but the way they are presented and organised is rather messy and overwhelming. This is especially because there is a lot of novelty stuff there which is not very useful. Rebelle may be more limited in the amount of brushes it includes, but the way they are organised and selected makes sense and gives you everything one needs. Another major annoyance was the pixelation of the brushes, many of the impasto brushes had hard pixely edges which just looked ugly, an eyesore to work with. Then there is the issue that certain brushes only work properly on certain layers, which is really quite annoying as I really prefer to have everything on one layer. The UI also still feels very dated, and Corel has kept adding stuff to the program with very little practical application which clogs up the interface. I had to quit futher testing as the experience was just so frustrating. I opened up Rebelle after this and it was such a pleasant experience. It may not be perfect (but no program is) but at least it is fun and efficient to use. [/QUOTE] That is interesting observations you do. I'm an professional artist with first one man show back in 1983 - acrylic on large canvases. 16 years ago I started my journey into the landscape of digital painting (well, first came drawings and then paintings to be correct). When the painting came I ended up with Corel Painter, and Wacom came along about the same time. Still I always look for new tools, and tried Rebelle - I think it was version 4 or 3 - and it was then mostly a tool for water colours, as I saw it. Now I downloaded a version 7, and there has truly been lots of improvements and added features. But you say you prefer to work on only one layer. There we are different, I work with lots of layers (really lots) and have used that as an way to get around to how I work with my large canvases and acrylic painting. As I have the loooong experience with Corel Painter, I suddenly have to search for features in Rebelle, and with lots of layers it takes loooong time to open a file. But I'm only on the second day of my trial, and apart from the loading time the Rebelle 7 seem far "lighter" - and I''m honestly very positive surpriced with Rebelle of today. But who is best? I can hardly say that and that artist are better than others - it's all about if it's a great work of art, or not. Art is not sport that has it's "easy" way to judge - number of scores, the best time and so forth. I'm tempted to purchase the Rebelle 7, but I wish I had a month more to try it out. For you I would say: go for Rebelle, it IS A GREAT TOOL!!! If it's better than Corel Painter I honestly can't say - I got so many years working with Corel - so I really can't judge. I have to find more tools, how it work so I don't use most of my time on that - compared to paint (-:

Username: Carlos Caicedo
Post Date: 2025-03-12 13:51:38

[QUOTE="LunatiqueRob, post: 22775, member: 101069"] The rise of Rebelle has made the leaders of realsitic painting programs of the past look really dated, and using them now feels insufferable. I did the same about a month ago, booting up Corel Painter and trying it after using Rebelle almost exclusively for the last few years. And yeah, it was an extremely frustrating experience, with clunky and cluttered GUI, unresponsive brushes, fake-looking impasto, and a bunch of other problems. Artrage isn't as bad, but compared to Rebelle, it is very limited and unintuitive. I have no doubt the developers of Corel Painter and Artrage have been scrambling to catch up to Rebelle, but so far it doesn't look like they are capable of even coming close to what the Escape Motions team can achieve. Back in the mid-aughts, I was a big Corel Painter advocate, and their team even bought an art print of my work (done with Corel Painter) to hang in their office to inspire the team. I had given them a ton of suggestions on the direction of their development, how they can improve the GUI, the brush engine, etc., but none of my suggestions were taken seriously or implemented, and I knew it then they were on a downward slope, and I was right. They wasted time developing frivolus things that only appealed to the kind of hobbyists who do not take art seriously, like autopainting a photo to turn it into a painting, aimed at photographers who want to turn their photos into paintings for their clients. So instead of improving their GUI and their brush engine, they worked on features that no serious artist would care about or want to pay for, which also degraded the impression people had of the software because of the gimmicky stuff. [/QUOTE] So true about the gimmicks in Corel Painter and the infinite number of unneeded brushes, stamps and too many adjustments. I always found that it took forever to do anything and could not focus on painting with it. it is orders of magnitude better with Rebelle.

Username: GurujotNM
Post Date: 2025-03-14 04:05:36

I also bought Painter 2023 in the humble bundle. It was a waste of $30. I haven't made a single image in it and I have now uninstalled it to clean up my PC. I don't like the brushes. Different brushes prompt you to start a new layer type. Its not intuitive AT ALL. The impasto looks like blobs of color with a drop shadow. Very cheesy looking. Its super clunky and overstuffed with menus that I don't know what to do with. I've seen some nice stuff made with it for sure (I don't know how), but I couldn't be bothered to figure out if there are any benefits over Rebelle. I'm a Rebelle evangelist.

Username: jss315
Post Date: 2025-03-22 16:46:11

[QUOTE="JennaStark, post: 23193, member: 188819"] I worked with Corel Painter for [I]yeeeears[/I], over [I]many[/I] iterations. (I never understood the people who preferred painting in PS -- always felt so clunky and not at all like the experience I wanted to have "painting", y'know?) Corel Painter had its flaws, but it was definitely my jam for a long time because I couldn't find another program whose interface wasn't infuriating (hello, [I]Artrage[/I] -- totes looking at [I][U]you[/U].[/I]) to deal with, but also still had that sort of... [I]buttery[/I] feeling of actual paint. It was, however, bogged with so much extra crap that it made the performance of the software iffy at times, and none of which I would [I]ever[/I] use. When I ([I]skeptically[/I]) gave Rebelle a try (after Painter tanked and I was looking for a new staple program), it was like a breath of fresh air: everything I loved about Painter, but done [I]much[/I] better and [I]significantly[/I] more efficiently. Not a ton of unnecessary filters or overly-complicated effects, just amazing color mixing and simple, realistic medias. Both my workflow and my computer CPU benefitted so much from the change and I really haven't looked back since last winter. Learning the ins and outs of the program has been fun! (I've definitely recommended it to several other artist friends!) Happy to have found a solid home here. :D [/QUOTE] Corel was my staple for years after coming here never went back.

Username: Lithmariel
Post Date: 2025-04-20 04:31:31

You might wanna try MyPaint. Still has some brushes that feel superior even to Rebelle depending on what you're doing. I specially like some of the custom brushsets. Honestly kind of same overall. I try everything and ever since 10+ years ago when I used MyPaint, Rebelle is the only one that goes above what it does. Took such an awful long time for any other software to catch up to that random lost and underrated little thing.

Username: Lithmariel
Post Date: 2025-04-20 04:32:22

Still, CSP has them nice features... nothing I miss too bad though. I don't feel like switching up between software while working on something because of compatibility.