By Ron Eggers

October 13, 2005 — Corel Corporation's new Painter Essentials 3 features user-friendly tools that convert digital photographs into attractive paintings. It incorporates technology from the company's flagship Painter IX and is an ideal choice for would-be artists who need a little help getting started.

Painter Essentials 3 doesn't overwhelm users with options. Its dynamic painting palettes are versatile and can be configured to automatically turn photographs into works of art, or to give users the option of hand painting everything down to the smallest details. The combined Underpainting, Auto-Painting and Restoration palettes, for example, automatically apply individual hand-painted strokes throughout the entire image.

Its Artists' Oils create realistic oil paints that can be blended and mixed. Its digital Watercolors actually react with the underlying canvas structure. Corel says the new watercolor paints stay wet between painting sessions. Painter Essentials 3 also has a Rubber Stamp cloning tool and an Eraser tool that removes any medium on the virtual canvas.

The new application ships with training videos by lynda.com and optional animated training movies for kids from GeeGuides. It supports Wacom Pen Tablets and carries a suggested list price of $99.

(Contact Ron Eggers at Newswatch@earthlink.net)