The Painter X Wow! Book by Cher Threinen-Pendarvis
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Book Reviews of The Painter X Wow! Book
Book Review: I'm Wow-ed but...
Summary: 4 Stars
As with many Wow books before this one, I just loved the graphics presented. The beautiful full color pictures printed on non-glare quality paper is superb.
As a new owner of Corel Painter X and not knowing this program, I was frustrated in trying to understand the text explaining how the graphic work was accomplished. So I put the Wow book down, for now anyway, and bought the book titled 'Corel Painter X for Photographers'.
My logic was that any book for photographers wouldn't assume foreknowledge of an art and graphic software product. I was correct, this book is the one to get to learn Corel Painter; for now anyway. Unfortunately the disc tutorials only ran for about 20 minutes before the screen filled up with a red color eventually blocking out the video on my Windows Vista Ultimate system. Don't let this stop anyone from buying the "...for Photographers" book however because it is well worth its price regardless of what the disc does or doesn't do.
Getting back to the Wow book, I'm hoping to be able to properly use this book once I master the Painter X software. Until then I'll just enjoy the presentations in it and dream of what will be someday. If you are already a Corel Painter pro by all means buy this beautiful book.
Book Review: Good book. Bad index. Content still worth purchasing.
Summary: 4 Stars
The content of this book is superb. Unfortunately, accessing the content when you have a question, is a problem. I've only had the book a couple days, and I've only gone to the index three times, but for two of those three times, I was directed to the wrong page. I have been able to flip around in the book, looking for sections that are likely to contain the answer, but it is frustrating to pay almost 40 dollars for a book with a poorly assembled index.
I would still recommend this book, despite this flaw. It's organization makes it relatively easy to hunt for the info you need via the table of contents, and admittedly, it isn't aimed at complete novices to Painter, nor is it intended to replace the Painter help menu. My questions were fairly simple, like I didn't understand why the blender brush wouldn't work on a layer. (Check the "pick up underlying color" box on the layers pallete for it to work). I suspect that this book is aimed at someone who would already know or be able to easily guess this.
Book Review: For serious users!
Summary: 4 Stars
Comprehensive, inspirational, packed with amazing effects in the huge variety of styles of which Painter is capable. And the examples used are from many different painters so that this variety is even further enhanced. So why only 4*? It is simply that I am not a serious artist, with lots of time to practice using the myriad techniques. I principally wanted to find out how to achieve painterly effects relatively quickly with existing photos, rather than starting out with a blank canvas. So, if you have similar aims, this is not really the book for you. For the serious artist, though, feel free to give this 5*!
Dennis
Book Review: Good Reference
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a good book for both reference and inspiration. Its a very dense book, which covers a broad range of techniques and tools. Its only relevant if you already are using the Software and have some confidence about where things are etc. Its strength is that it has different artists which explain what techniques they used to develop their work. I found it useful to read the book through initially, and then go back to the individual elements I am interested in at the time I need them. Lots of extra's in the CD to.Book Review: Apparently the best so far
Summary: 3 Stars
I was forced to read and use this book for a class in Corel Painter X. I also owned the first Painter Wow book. This one is a great improvement over that, however it still misses the mark on what is needed. Painter has improved greatly also, and has become more complex, if not enigmatic program. Painter was designed for a special group of people, (artists, yes we're special,) who generally like to just pick up a tool and start making art with it. While this book has great full color illustrations of what is possible, thus the "WOW," i feel it has too many exercises, trying to emulate someone else's example, and not enough organized detailing of the tools.
What an artist needs with Painter is an accurate reference manual, where one can easily look-up a brush or other tool, find out all its standard variants, what they do and don't do, and what you may do to adjust it. The author attempts to do this, but you have to follow too many cross references, and too much detail is left out.
This book is however the best you can get and she does do a great job of explaining the principles behind the different aspects of this program. Painter is so complex it is not easy for any person to fully know, but this is why a complete and usable guide is needed.