Corel Painter announced a new version today, Painter 2021. This is a very robust version with many new things that are extraordinary. It is definitely worth the price to upgrade. You can find out all about it, buy your copy, or try the trial version by following this link:
Corel Painter 2021 Available Here
Corel Painter also announced a free webinar scheduled for Jun 24th at 1 PM EDT.
Register for Free Painter webinar, here.
As usual, I have a “What’s New” class for the latest version. The class starts Jun 27th. I call it Painter 2021, Loads of New Stuff. You can find out the details and register for the class with the following link.
Painter 2021, Loads of New Stuff Info and Registration.
I can’t wait to show you Painter 2021. Enhanced layer control is my favorite new feature. We can lift the canvas layer to a thick paint layer, similar to what we could do with watercolor. Not only can we lift, we can simply convert any layer to default, thick paint, or watercolor. Prior to this version, we could only paint on a thick paint layer using thick paint variants. Hundreds of variants can use a thick paint layer in this version. To make it easy, Corel added a Thick Paint compatible category. Most impasto variants work on Thick Paint layers. Painting with thick paint and various compatibles adds incredible richness to Painter’s thick paint look.
Thick Paint variants with thick paint compatibles
I love using watercolor in Painter and lately have been combining watercolor and thick paint. That process is so easy with the new Painter. The following image was created using watercolor, but I changed it to a thick paint layer and added texture and thickness to the watercolor paint. I finished up with thick paint compatible brushes. See the tutorial here:
Create Textured Landscapes with Thick Paint
Blue trees, watercolor and thick paint in Corel Painter 2021
In the next image I am using watercolor, liquid ink, thick paint and thick paint compatibles. The possibilities are endless…I love this new Painter.
Watercolor, Liquid Ink, Thick Paint, and Thick paint compatibles…Painter 2021
Another new feature that is very useful is called Clone Tinting. Don’t let the name fool you. It can be used with cloning or not. It is very versatile. The following image was an ink wash landscape in grayscale. I used the landscape as the clone source and then tinted the grayscale to achieve this image. See the tutorial Here:
Clone Tinted watercolor, Painter 2021
Another new feature with lots of promise is AI-based Art Styles. This isn’t just a copy and paste function. The artist has control over the strength, detail, color matching, smoothing. Each style can be altered in multiple ways. The styles can be applied to any image, photo, original art…whatever. The results can be used as a finish piece or a starting point for an image. Following is a Work in Progress.
Work in Progress, Original painting with AI style added. Thick Paint strokes show at the base of the image.
Do you love photo-art. Painter’s creative cloning is even more versatile with the enhanced features. Here is an original photograph of mine.
Country Driveway near my house.
The next two images are cloned from the photograph.
Cloned image using thick paint and various thick paint compatible brushes. Painter 2021
This version uses Clone Tinting.
Using Clone Tinting while cloning a photograph., Painter 2021
I have to say again, I am really loving the fact that you can use multiple media on a single layer. This image has watercolor, liquid ink, thick paint, and real wet oils.
Big Tree, Painter 2021, mixed media, liquid ink, watercolor, thick paint and compatibles.
There is so much more to share. I hope to see you in my class. Click the link below for information and registration.
Painter 2021, Loads of New Stuff Info and Registration.
Enjoy,
Skip
Hey Skip, there won’t be the usual $120 upgrade pricing? I’m seeing $189 here! If that turns out to be correct, I’ll stick with 2020…
Hi Christian,
I am unaware of discounts…there probably are some…I have been swamped with getting the class ready and haven’t paid attention. But, you could download the trial version and give it a spin. This is an awesome. It may be worth the coins to upgrade; you would be the judge of that. Good luck.
My dear Skip! How nice to hear from you. I always think of you wondering how you are doing, I know you were having a personal difficult time Iat the time you were preparing the Brush Making class for us. Now that I see you are doing the new Painter version class, I really hope it means you are doing better in your life and ready to rumble Painter! Warm hug, Verena
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Hi Verena,
So good to hear from you too. Yes, my sister had been ill for sometime and I managed her care. She passed in February. I miss her.
I sure hope Corel offers a discount to those of us who have paid hundreds of dollars over the initial purchase of Painter since we first bought it long, long ago. I can not justify paying the full upgrade price each year…it comes too close to paying a subscription just to keep current. I love Painter above all other paint programs, though Rebelle is coming close, but this is way too high a price, even if you can now have more flexibility in layers using thick paint. You are a great teacher Skip…i don’t want to sound like I am shooting the messenger here.
Hey Michael,
I have not been watching for discounts, but I know there are some. I just don’t know how deep. If you open 2020 and open the welcome window…there is a discounted offer for the upgrade there. That’s about all I know. Good luck and I hope you can find a discount better than the one shown. Don’t forget you can download the trial and take it for a spin. You may find the flexibility in layers is something you cannot live without. But, I agree with you. In general most software has gotten out of reach.
I loved three of the thick-paint brushes so I broke down and bought the upgrade. I just enrolled in your upcoming class also.
Fantastic. I’m so glad you decided to upgrade. I think you are going to like this version a bunch. I really love it and am enjoying Thick paint a lot. I don’t start with Thick Paint in the class, that doesn’t happen until the third week. I am really looking forward to seeing what folks do. What thick paint variants did you like?
Loaded Wet Knife and Dry Flat Knife and the Oily Dry Pastel in the Thick Paint Compatible category. I just need to learn how to create variants of the wet and flat dry so that I can blend with them. But they work well for me and I am able to smooth out certain edges easier than in earlier versions of Painter.
The Oily Dry Pastel has impasto in it, which allows it to knock down the edges of thick paint. Loaded Wet Knife and Dry flat Knife should both blend pretty well. It takes very light strokes to blend…try altering your brush calibration. You want to paint a few strokes until the brush dries out…don’t pick up your pen…and light strokes should blend very well. With the dry flat knife…add pressure as an expression for bleed. That might help.
Thanks Skip…yes I have tried what you suggested…and that is why I like them…they work right out of the box so-to-speak. I still look forward to tweaking them to see what I come up with.
Hi Skip, Like others I am disappointed in the upgrade costs discounted at $75 more than 2020 upgrade ($125), However this upgrade comes with several brush sets, Have you seen a listing of the included brushes? Just want to see if I own them already.
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Hi Hugh,
I am sorry, I have not seen the list.
Skip