Hi,
My name is Bill and I've just started in with Essentials 4. I tried the demo and purchased it a few days later, it's that impressive. Also took a look at Painter X and while it's an incredible piece of work it's much more than I need at this time, a bit overwhelming for my level of art challenged!
i Took this photo a few years back using a Sony Mavica which produced a 640X400 image and very poor resolution. I increased the photo to 1024X768 in PSP 9 using a pluggin and thought it was good enough to hold on to. I used Essentials 4 in the auto mode using all of the effects just to see what it would look like. This is one example using the Classical oil mode. I'm not an artist but I know what looks good to me and this looks pretty darn good and I plan on using it for a greeting card, a jigsaw puzzle and whatever else I can find a use for. I'm so glad I gave the demo version a look because now I can't imaging not having it to work with. Thanks Corel!
I also plan on using/experimenting with the drawing portion soon as I can get a Wacom tablet!
Hope you like!
Bill