Deciding between Artrage and Corel Essentials

[357mag]

I been trying both programs. Both are quite good. When I'm in Painter it seems like some of the brushes smear though. I can't lay down a thick bold stroke of paint with an oil brush. I have to use an Acrylic brush to get a thick strong stroke of color.

With Artrage it appears that they have done a better job of providing brushes that lay down thick bold color. Plus they have the oil tube approach which lays down as thick as you can possibly get color.

Got to say though that I never really like the Artrage interface as much as I like the Painter interface. The Artrage interface has these semi-circles on the lower left and lower right of the screen which I don't like all that much. I wish the developers would have chosen to do more like a Painter interface and just set the brush size by moving a slider or entering a number at the top of the screen.

Can you think of other reasons why Artrage might be a better choice? I only do oil and I like to paint thick and bold. I like impasto too.

[HannahRage]

Got to say though that I never really like the Artrage interface as much as I like the Painter interface. The Artrage interface has these semi-circles on the lower left and lower right of the screen which I don't like all that much. I wish the developers would have chosen to do more like a Painter interface and just set the brush size by moving a slider or entering a number at the top of the screen.



In case it helps with your decision making;

You can change the size by pressing SHIFT and dragging right or left as well as by dragging/typing in the bottom left corner, so you can minimise the entire tool picker if you do not need to switch tools (click the corner tab).

If you are using ArtRage 5 - not Lite - you can detach the corner pickers entirely (right click on the corner tabs and choose 'tear off'). You can also switch to a more Photoshop style interface by going to View > Interface > Docking.

[357mag]

In case it helps with your decision making;

You can change the size by pressing SHIFT and dragging right or left as well as by dragging/typing in the bottom left corner, so you can minimise the entire tool picker if you do not need to switch tools (click the corner tab).

If you are using ArtRage 5 - not Lite - you can detach the corner pickers entirely (right click on the corner tabs and choose 'tear off'). You can also switch to a more Photoshop style interface by going to View > Interface > Docking.

Thanks for the tips. The changes are rather slight though. And I would much prefer a real looking palette. Not a color wheel. A palette.

[HannahRage]

Thanks for the tips. The changes are rather slight though. And I would much prefer a real looking palette. Not a color wheel. A palette.

I think the docking mode switch is a pretty major change -it has exactly the 'set tool size at the top of the screen' options you asked for and no corner pods (that doesn't mean it's for you, but it is a very different interface to the classic mode ;) ).


I'm not sure what you mean by 'palette'; do you mean something mimicking a real world palette of paint?

To select colours you can do a few different things:

- use Scraps to mix up your own colours and just ignore/hide the colour picker after that (Scraps are loaded from the Refs menu)
- add a reference image of an actual colour palette of some kind and pick from that
- create or load samples for preset colours (there are lots of defaults in the program and downloadable colours in the forums)
- change the color picker to various different modes (e.g. different RGB or HSL arrangements, a tint/tone, or a precise picker that allows entry of RGB + HSL values - the latter is the default in Docking mode).


(note: I'm not comparing to Essentials because, um, rather biased here as ArtRage staff, but there are a lot of customisation options in ArtRage I can help with).

[357mag]

I think the docking mode switch is a pretty major change -it has exactly the 'set tool size at the top of the screen' options you asked for and no corner pods (that doesn't mean it's for you, but it is a very different interface to the classic mode ;) ).


I'm not sure what you mean by 'palette'; do you mean something mimicking a real world palette of paint?

To select colours you can do a few different things:

- use Scraps to mix up your own colours and just ignore/hide the colour picker after that (Scraps are loaded from the Refs menu)
- add a reference image of an actual colour palette of some kind and pick from that
- create or load samples for preset colours (there are lots of defaults in the program and downloadable colours in the forums)
- change the color picker to various different modes (e.g. different RGB or HSL arrangements, a tint/tone, or a precise picker that allows entry of RGB + HSL values - the latter is the default in Docking mode).


(note: I'm not comparing to Essentials because, um, rather biased here as ArtRage staff, but there are a lot of customisation options in ArtRage I can help with).

Wells. Little squares with paint in them. Not a color picker. What a palette looks like.

[nekomata]

Wells. Little squares with paint in them. Not a color picker. What a palette looks like.
they are called "color samples" in artrage, available from the "view" menu.
you'll have to add them from the color wheel, pre-mixed color on a scrap, or directly from the document (or by importing pre-made ones you can find online), but it is all there.


I have to use an Acrylic brush to get a thick strong stroke of color.
I'm not sure what exactly painter essentials brushes do - I don't own their entry-level app, but there's a good chance that code behind that thick stroke brush type is based on artrage team's contribution to painter, and is an indirect relative of artrage's paint roller.


With Artrage it appears that they have done a better job of providing brushes that lay down thick bold color.
correct; a better job on program stability, UI (which is subjective tho), photoshop layer modes support and performance too, btw.


Plus they have the oil tube approach which lays down as thick as you can possibly get color.
most recent desktop painter version features an attempt at imitating layered thick paint, but the program itself is priced accordingly.


Got to say though that I never really like the Artrage interface as much as I like the Painter interface.

as someone who used to paint with artrage alongside with painter (before phasing painter out), artrage interface never bothered me; in fact, it is less cluttered.


The Artrage interface has these semi-circles on the lower left and lower right of the screen which I don't like all that much. I wish the developers would have chosen to do more like a Painter interface and just set the brush size by moving a slider or entering a number at the top of the screen.

which, actually, is precisely what you can do if you switch the interface mode to "docked" (applies to artrage 5) - it's the only number in the top-left corner of the screen, next to the small color swatch;


Can you think of other reasons why Artrage might be a better choice? I only do oil and I like to paint thick and bold. I like impasto too.

better oil simulation in artrage aside,

painter produces awfully compressed ugly jpeg files on export, and this issue is seemingly never getting fixed.
budget painter app doesn't support custom brush creation/import.
depending on your system (windows or mac), you might run into issues that are caused by painter code not playing nice on the newer OS versions, and you will be forced to pay for compatibility upgrades
(if they come at all, in case with essentials.)
painters stability and performance are still very much questionable; it's color management is atrocious, and completely behind the times even in comparison with free-ware apps such as gimp.

if you don't use painter's blenders - that are better in full version than in the economic one, your overall painting ~experience~ in artrage will be much more intuitive, once you get past your lack of experience with artrage UI.

[HannahRage]

Wells. Little squares with paint in them. Not a color picker. What a palette looks like.

As nekomata says, those are called 'samples' in ArtRage.

Open the Samples from next to the color picker
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Or from the upper menu bar in Docking mode
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Or go to View > Color Samples.



You can display just colours, or you can display by name. There are lots of built in collections of colours, as well as many downloadable sets in the Art Supplies forum or at https://www.artrage.com/manuals/digital-utility-tools/color-sampler/downloadable-color-samples/

It is also easy to create your own temporary or permanent colour sets.


Here is what the collections look like.

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These pages may also help:

https://www.artrage.com/manuals/getting-started-artrage/artrage-manuals/artrage-4/colors/setting-up-custom-color-palettes/
https://www.artrage.com/manuals/getting-started-artrage/artrage-manuals/artrage-4/colors/
https://www.artrage.com/manuals/digital-utility-tools/color-sampler/

(note: the feature didn't change in AR5, the previous guides all still apply. Samples are a standard feature in Lite, Android and iOS as well, albeit with fewer options).

[hypotaxis]

And, FWIW, you will never get support like this thread from Hannah from Corel. In my experience Corel’s customer care is very poor.

[D Akey]

You can also use an imported jpeg or whatever pic as a palette you can pick from. That means you can either import any image and just pick colors off of it, or you can paint the picture of an artist's palette with globs of whatever colors you want to paint from on it to sample from.

Many people see a pic that inspires. They love the colors in a picture and rather than re-inventing the color wheel, you can simply import it and keep picking colors from it because you like the color relationships.

It's not a slavish thing because much of what makes it work are the in-between colors and values that one achieves when blending and layering. But it takes you smack dab in the middle of what you want straight off rather than hunting up the perfect color from the full range of just blues, then another color from just greens, etc.

[nekomata]

And, FWIW, you will never get support like this thread from Hannah from Corel.

very true, thank you for posting this, x


Hannah is always providing excellent customer care and investing so much time and effort into helping users,

while corel's integrity has parted ways with that corporation ages ago with no sign of possible return. everything about painter feels lazy, imitative and uninventive.

[Gms9810]

I easily would prefer artrage.

[hildee]

And I would much prefer a real looking palette. Not a color wheel. A palette.

A colour palette in painting/photo editing programs is a completely different animal from the colour wheel. Think of the real life painting analogy - your palette is what you have definitely laid out for painting and you choose from there with your paint brush, your colour wheel is where you decide your tones, hues, etc, and eyeball it. If you're thinking of a mixing area like Painter in ArtRage, you can actually use the canvas itself and eyedrop from there.

Also you can hide the pods to make more room by using Tab on your keyboard on pc.

[barryem]

I'm very new at all this and I don't pretend to know what I'm talking about but I just got a Wacom Intuos tablet that came with Corel Painter Essentials. My first interest is in pencil drawing and pen and ink drawing although I hope to learn something about painting as well. Anyway I was very frustrated with Painter Essentials because I couldn't create a simple shortcut for the Eraser, among other things. It may be possible but I haven't been able to find anything about it at all.

I've been using ArtRage on a tablet from time to time so I gave it a try on the PC. First, I have to agree that the interface is pretty clumsy but so is that of Painter Essentials. The difference, however, is that with Painter Essentials I kept running into roadblocks and with ArtRage on my PC, well, probably more roadblocks because I don't really know what I'm doing yet but I also keep finding solutions. I even keep finding solutions to problems I didn't know I had yet. If ArtRage has anything it has solutions. :)

I'm a retired computer programmer, retired for a long time so Windows interfaces are something I've learned as a user more than as a programmer. However I've written a LOT of interfaces, in Windows and before, and I have to agree that these programs both have clumsy interfaces. But they work. In the case of ArtRage, everything seems to work well and I can either get used to or find workarounds for the things I don't like. And I can hit the E key if I want to erase. :)

Barry

[steve ryan]

And, FWIW, you will never get support like this thread from Hannah from Corel. In my experience Corel’s customer care is very poor.


Totally agree with that comment above Corel support i found was pointless, even after my wife spent a lot of money for a present for me, By buying Corel painter 2018. They seem to have the attitude - we got your dough, now go away. And what really galls her is that I after some time messing with Corels many bells and whistles program. And scrambling my bonce Getting to grips with it over several weeks I decided i much prefer using my Artrage 3-4 or 5 versions. Which are just so intuitive to use.

[roma Golich]

C.Painter is more expensive to make sketches, than ar5.

[Stephen Lo Piano]

I been trying both programs. Both are quite good. When I'm in Painter it seems like some of the brushes smear though. I can't lay down a thick bold stroke of paint with an oil brush. I have to use an Acrylic brush to get a thick strong stroke of color.

With Artrage it appears that they have done a better job of providing brushes that lay down thick bold color. Plus they have the oil tube approach which lays down as thick as you can possibly get color.

Got to say though that I never really like the Artrage interface as much as I like the Painter interface. The Artrage interface has these semi-circles on the lower left and lower right of the screen which I don't like all that much. I wish the developers would have chosen to do more like a Painter interface and just set the brush size by moving a slider or entering a number at the top of the screen.

Can you think of other reasons why Artrage might be a better choice? I only do oil and I like to paint thick and bold. I like impasto too.

I have tried Corel Essentials only due to the situation at home using graphic arts software on a computer with a situation where I do not have any internet connection, using Windows 7 Professional. Essentials is possible to activate without an internet connection, Corel Painter and Draw are not. I like the full Painter program yet do not like Essentials, the brushes I worked with in Painter are not included in Essentials. The latest version of Painter has pushed my favorite brushes into the archive menu of past versions, the new brushes they are adding are not very useful for my personal work.

I believe Art Rage 5 is a much better program than Corel Essentials. Not sure if you will be able to use any newer versions of Art Rage past 5 on an older Windows 7 operating system without an internet connection, yet did find a work around provided here to install Art Rage 4 on a Windows XP machine and Art Rage 5 on a Windows 7 Professional machine without any internet connection. Art Rage works through the Wine application on Linux operating systems. I am able to use my installed version of Art Rage 5 on a machine that also has Fedora Design Suite 27, Art Rage works well in this operating system. Also have AV Linux 2016 on the same machine, Art Rage 5 works well on this operating system also. Art Rage also works in Linux on my older machine with Windows XP and Art Rage 4 through the Wine application on Linux.

So far as the future is concerned a program to watch is the GIMP latest version 2.10. They have included many brushes from the MyPaint software program, the MyPaint software program seems to be finished, haven't seen any recent updates. Combining the features of brushes from MyPaint into the latest version of GIMP 2.10 is a definite positive improvement and upgrade. MyPaint never had any editing features and I have always managed to export a file out of MyPaint that needed some editing features into the GIMP to get the job done.