Essentials Cafe

Well ! I guess this is for the attention of all those at Corel as well as all members of this forum.

I know the home page says this space is for users of Painter Essentials but I think that is a bit limited.

When I was enquiring into having a digital art programme I thought that Painter Essentials was more like a taster version of Painter (whatever number) like photoshop elements is. I think the confusion is added to by the fact that they are both 'Corel Painter' programmes. Until you have run with the programmes for a while you have no idea what they can or can't do. My first one was Corel Painter IX which sat pretty well unused on my desktop for a year or more because I had no idea how to use it except for cloning.

My point is that even though I had the advanced programme I was, and to some point still am, a total novice to art in any form. I initially found the Painter Factory forum to be very intimidating and it was only the help and encouragement of Jinny Brown and a couple of people there that I still pop in and flash my work at them or ask a question. It is not the members who cause this intimidation it is my own sense of awe at the level of their work compared to my own. In short it is my own recognition of my short comings that intimidates me.

I do find the two programmes complimentary and my advances in one always seems to help me advance in the other.

I am seeing a need for two forums, but I'm not sure they devide up neatly the way you have them. Whilst I can see the need to keep the two programmes seperate for your development needs I can also see the need to have beginner and advanced user forums to help and encourage all users onto the first rungs of the ladder.

Perhaps we could have a beginners room in each forum but until then is there any problems for Corel if members who are new to the programmes use this forum to post their creations regardless of which programme it is created in?

That is of course provided the other members agree, after all without members there is no forum. Without the forum it is much harder for us to help the developers iron out any problems or to aid in decisions about updates or even new programmes.

It would be helpful if Corel could give us their views on this but I would also like to know what others think and feel as I think we have the makings here of a cracking art forum for budding artists of all ages.

 

Well I just about agree with you all the way. As long as the work is done in corel, then i feel it should be allowed to let members post work with X here. Why ? because after getting to know people in this group, if you decide to buy X which is probably a result of using essentials, then corel are benefitting from this site, but, its a little hard to then expect someone to leave this group and the people they know, to join another group. I dont want to leave this group, and will still continue to use essentials, but it would be nice to share my X work here. Maybe users should only post X work if they have used essentials. I say that because it would just become a free for all site, but there must be a way to accomodate those that want to work in both ? I would also like to know what the guys at corel think. Maybe it wouldnt work for the points ive said about it becoming a free for all, but those in power might see a way for this to happen. Good post squirrel.

These are all good questions :-)

I would like to start by saying that the intention behind the Essentials Cafe site was to provide an easily accessible place for Essential users to show their work, share their ideas and learn from each other. That being said, I don't believe that the work shown in this forum needs to be done solely in Painter Essentials. From reading your posts I understand that many of you have a variety of tools in your toolbox, and the tool that you use depends on what it is you are trying to create and I believe that this site needs to be reflection of how people are using our products.

All I would ask is that if you are posting an image that you have done solely in Painter X or using Painter Essentials in conjunction with another application, then let us know. This way we can all get a sense of what tools everyone is using. It will also help people to understand what things can be done in other applications that may not be easily accomplished in Painter Essentials. I know that I, myself, would be interested in learning more about why you prefer to do somethings in Painter and other things in Painter Essentials, or why you like to use Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, Paint Shop Pro or whatever other tool you are using. Understanding this may help us understand what we need to improve in Painter and Painter Essentials.

Please let me know if this sounds reasonable to all of you, after all, this site is for you!
Jennifer

Thank you for replying jennifer. I personally think that what you suggest is very reasonable but I would be very interested to hear what others think also.

I am very grateful to have this space to show what I am doing and to see what others are doing in Essentials. I also find it extremely interesting and helpful when members take the time to explain how they achieved their image. Having said that I also know how easy it is to lose track of the precise steps when I become engrossed in the creation and have tried several settings before hitting on one I like. So I do understand that there will be times when these explanations are not possible.

However I do think it should be possible to explain when a different programme was used, what it was used for and why it was used in preference to Essentials.

I hope other do respond, because after all any future development of these programmes will affect our use so it is to our own advantage to give as much info as we can.

Come on guys and gals what do you think?

Thank you jennifer for replying. You know what, I have drifted from photos as my end product to paintings as you know, but after your reply, I feel compelled to try out paint shop pro now ( i dont really need photoshop after migrating to this workflow), and would be more than happy to use all corel software for any work i produce on this site in future. I love the way that you will also use this to work on any future improvements for essentials, which may as a result, see people needing version X less for their photo to painting methods.

I welcome the idea of being permitted to use other digital image processing software in conjunction with Painter Essentials 4 I don't have anything very elaborate myself, an Image Tricks application which can do a few things Painter 4 can't (like kaleidoscope patterns). also the Paint facility on my Mac computer, which has one or two brush ideas not found on Painter 4, also you can do a graduated fill in any colour you like. (Mind you, I have a feeling these may not be compatible with Painter 4 - I'll need to try them out). If people are going to say what they've done in Painter 10, and how they did it, I would be delighted to learn about that.