Corel painter x vs Photoshop CS

[ronin-tiger]

Well i finally got my wacom tablet and i wanna start practicing with it but im wondering what is a better or "easier" program to work with? i have photoshop cs but ive heard that Painter X is better for actual drawings whereas photoshop is more photo editting... what are your opinions?

[Burtzum]

I have both but I never use Painter. I find PS easier to deal with. But thats probably because thats the program I started with. :shrug:

Craig Mullins doesn't seem to have trouble making painterly paintings with PS. :shrug:

[sease]

it makes less difference than you'd think! so "easier" is whatever's easier for you. just alternate between them for awhile, or keep them both open at once like me.

[DSL]

Good on you for buying a Wacom, you'll dig it (much better for your hand and head). Photoshop is way more than a photo tool these days, I would advise working with it for a while before you worry too much about Painter.
Photoshop CS has an amazing variety of brushs (just right click when in brush mode and scroll down down and try them out.) You can set it so that the names of the brushes come up, cant remember how just now, look in the Help (which is one of Photoshops strengths too, good understandable help).

What I like about photoshop is that it is (mostly) elegant and easy to use ONCE YOU ARE USED TO IT. I accent that because it is a bit of a learning curve at first. Best advice I got from multimedia college was "not frig around with a million programs, learn one really well and then others will just sort of make sense".
Photoshop is the INDUSTRY STANDARD, has been for at least 10 years (more for sure) so it follows that other graphics programs have basically been modelled on the way photoshops interface is set out.
Learn the key board shortcuts soon as you can- start with simple useful ones like Z for zoom tool, B for Brush tool, E for erasor, hold down Alt with brush tool and it brings up the eyedropper to select colours quickly (off your art), hold down space bar to bring up Move tool (little white gloved hand to quickly scroll around artwork without zooming out.

Photoshop has its stupid crap, you notice it if you use it a lot but its a hell of a lot better than most others.

Which brings me to PAINTER- I have been using it since it was Macromedia Painter in 1999 and I love its natural media brushes. If you can oil paint or just damn well make art in a loose painterly way in the real world you will dig the painter brushes. If you havent done much real world fine art work you will tend to be bamboozled by all the choice.

The other thing (I find) is that Painter, whilst looking and acting more like Photoshop every new edition, still perversely insists on changing the names of things and using different keyboard shortcuts for some common things . This is just dumb pride as far as I can see, as 99% of us professional artists learnt our digital chops on Photoshop.
It is really damn annoying to be right into painting and then having to think " Oh yer, the zoom tool is called a magnifier and so I have to hit M instead of Z to bring it up".
Theres lots of little things like that- the brush size selectors are really clunky and so you have the brush set on 20px and you touch the (little) slider just near it and the bloody thing jumps to 80px!
HOWEVER this is computer land, computers and software are especially developed to help us create brilliant new things fast as well as giving us early heart attacks and strokes from shear bloody exasperation!!! (only half joking there)....

Take heart though, a couple of versions ago Painter called its layers "floaters" so you can see what vision that name conjures up (in case this is a cultural thing - I am an Australian and here a floater is a turd!):nohope:
That really put me off!

So let us know how you are faring with your new adventure.
Regards, Dave

[Rist]

I find photoshop better constructed. If you are finding a quick solution to break into digital art then neither are any good; only practice can do that. If you are saying which is beginner friendly, I might say Painter as photoshop takes ages to get used to. But for me photoshop is brilliant once you have mastered its tools. Painter can also be a super tool.

If it was me and I had only one choice I would pick photoshop. For the single reason that you have all that image editing capability. Painter is advancing but still lags behind in that area, but is great for painting; obviously.

[Brendan N]

I'm PS all the way! Straight forward, quick, and far less buggy in my experience. Plus way better support.

Whenever I do wind up using Painter, I will always take it into photoshop to touch it up in any case. And I know for sure many artists out there work this way as well - so whilst you can easily work Photoshop without Painter, working Painter without Photoshop might wind up being less desirable, depending on your needs and workflow.

[Joeslucher]

I have an older computer and Painter just runs too slow and lags too much for me to be able to use it on images for print. It might be satisfactory for web images.
I bought Painter 8 when it first came out and that has been my only experience with Painter and it left such a bad taste in my mouth that I've never returned. One file in the program would constantly corrupt so you'd have to keep a back up copy which you would have to drop into the program file to replace the corrupt file, or else you'd have to re-install. Painter files corrupted frequently. Photoshop files opened in Painter often had absolutely bizarre artifacts and sometimes even opening old Painter files revealed strange artifacts created by the program. Now, I'm sure the more recent versions are better but I'll never trust them again for selling me such a shoddy product once. It's like doing business with a sleezy car salesman and getting cheated but expecting that next time they won't sell you a lemon.

[Interceptor]

apples and oranges man... both companies offer free 30 day trials... why not just give them both a shot?

[S.C. Watson]

it's totally a preference thing. For myself, I use painter - you don't have to hassle with the brushes as much.

It's not really the program but the artist in my opinion. Sure, there's techinical issues with each program and how well you're comfortable with it, but it comes down to how well you know your stuff. The rest is just window dressing.

Ciao,
~Oreg.

[smugbug]

They're both tools. And they're both fun. So just acquaint yourself with both and see for yourself which you like best.

I began messing with PS (version 7 and now use CS2), and I like it. But a few months ago, I got the nerve to begin using Painter and ever since, that's my preference. However, I always save the files as .psd since I just find it easier to edit in PS than in Painter.

So go on and download them trial versions and play!

[jadefoodog]

err i think theres like 20 threads about this.

[Diphallia]

Wow. I love painter!
And I love photoshop!
And I use both!

Photoshop is indeed easier.
But painter has like tons of more options and it's made to paint with.

If I'd have to pay for a program to use only for drawing and painting, I'd most certainly chose painter.

[tarc]

Artrage is also quite cool, very simple UI.

[Diphallia]

Hmm I love Alias Sketchbook Pro too.
(Autodesk Sketchbook Pro now).