The Royal Treatment

   
Interview with Rob MacDonald product manager for Painter Essentials 4 by Corel
By Ken Royal for District Administration Magazine

DA: “Rob, where do you see Corel’s Painter Essentials 4 fitting into the K12 market? Why would a district administrator, technology or art director want to install this as a digital art solution?”

Rob MacDonald, product manager Painter Essentials by Corel: “Painter Essentials 4 is built on the Painter X engine, so you’re getting the same technology, but just getting it at a much easier and simpler to use format. It’s aimed at the novice user, while our Painter X is designed for the professional user.”

DA: “Then Painter Essentials 4 would be something I’d use for a middle school computer lab?”

RM: “It could be used K12, but certainly our target would be grades K through 9, and the home market as well.”

DA: “So, it would be simple enough for a first-grader to operate?”

RM: “Yes, and that’s exactly what we’re looking at doing with it.”

DA: “This is dual-platform software?”

RM: “Yes, it’s a hybrid skew–Win/Mac–both on the same CD, which is great when we’re looking at education folks.”

DA: “As an educator, what can I do with Essentials?”

RM: “It bridges the gap between doing things naturally, with brush and canvas, or pen and pencil with paper, or you can do those things digitally. And doing it without any of the toxicities associated with what’s in a traditional art studio. Doing it digitally with Painter Essentials, you avoid the set up, preparation and clean up. All you have to do is turn on the computer, open up the application and you’re good to go.
In total there are 90 media types in Painter Essentials 4. And we have paper textures, so you can grab different canvas types. The Real Bristle system has calculated the brushstroke right down to the single bristle, which allows the same functionality of a traditional  and natural painter’s brush, and it can even be multi-loaded with different colors of paint.”

DA: “Are there any extras?”

RM: “We include over 2 hours of painting tutorials by our Painter Master John Derry. We also have a full-color printed user guide. Looking at it from an education standpoint, we’ve just finished customizing our user guide for teachers. There’s a teacher’s resource kit and student guide.”

DA: “Do you have a training video?”

RM: “It’s on the CD-two hours of John Derry’s video tutorials comes with the application. So yes, all the tutorials are there.”

Note: The software is best used with a tablet and pen, such as the Wacom tablet.

DA: “Rob, what’s the education price for Painter Essentials 4?”

RM: “$49 is the education pricing.”

DA: “Do you find that Districts balk at the additional costs to replace a mouse with a tablet and pen?”

RM: “We present to the schools and show them what they can get when they use the tablet, and how they can replace all of the other things associated with the art class with the tablet and a piece of software. While the upfront cost may be higher, over the year it pays for itself.”

DA: “Seems like a smart way of presenting it.”

Additional thoughts:

I was very impressed with the way a student could paint on a tutorial image. Students can choose a medium and watch the image painted using that choice. The “Smart Stroke” process can be stopped at any point. A function called Tracing Paper allows the student to paint over a tutorial image, or a favorite image, to learn brushstroke techniques. Turning off Tracing Paper lets the student see only his or her brushstrokes. This makes is perfect for younger students and special needs students as well. Much of this can be done with just a mouse.

www.corel.com