Rating: 
Summary: Demo CD Rom
Review: Actually, the book is probably great. However, I gave it one star solely to alert consumers to the fact that the CD that comes with the book is just a 30 free trial. I guess this means the whole CD vanishes after that period of time?. Don't know yet.
The brushes are nothing short of outstanding. Too bad I can only use them for 30 days. Nothing can be saved, and I am not computer savy enough to convert the CD to a permanent status in my computer. ...
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Reference
Review: I am new to Painter 8 (or any of the Painter programs for that matter), but not new to painting, particularly in oils. I spent over 2 weeks getting frustrated with the program and the brushes that it comes with by default. No matter how much I tried, I could not get the program to behave in the same manner I was accustomed to with conventional painting. The book was excellent at explaining and illustrating the various different styles of painting, and how to do them. The presets that come on the CD to me are worth the price of admission. The "Wet Oily Blender" and "New Totaly Oils" work near perfectly in accordance to what I was accustomed to with regular oils. With the help of this book, I am now able to do what I set out to do in the first place: Enjoy the process of painting without having to have a studio and a ton of expensive supplies. I highly recomment this book.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Reference
Review: I am new to Painter 8 (or any of the Painter programs for that matter), but not new to painting, particularly in oils. I spent over 2 weeks getting frustrated with the program and the brushes that it comes with by default. No matter how much I tried, I could not get the program to behave in the same manner I was accustomed to with conventional painting. The book was excellent at explaining and illustrating the various different styles of painting, and how to do them. The presets that come on the CD to me are worth the price of admission. The "Wet Oily Blender" and "New Totaly Oils" work near perfectly in accordance to what I was accustomed to with regular oils. With the help of this book, I am now able to do what I set out to do in the first place: Enjoy the process of painting without having to have a studio and a ton of expensive supplies. I highly recomment this book.
Rating:
Summary: Simply superb -- must have this book if you have Painter
Review: I buy a ton of graphics books, most of them very good, but the "Painter 8 Wow!" book is one of the very best I've seen. I'm a Photoshop power-user of many years, but I just recently bought Painter in an attempt to learn drawing and painting. Cher's book is exactly what I needed. In particular: - I really appreciate the specific suggestions on brushes to use for various styles. There are hundreds to pick from, so starting from the book's suggestion gets me on track fast. Ditto, of course, the suggestions in specific tutorials. - Speaking of tutorials, they're great. They cover a TON of ground over very diverse styles. They're not so complex that I can't follow them, but they're complex enough to be "real" artwork. The level of detail is just right: specific brushes and variations are identified, shots of each major stage are shown, and any custom patterns/textures are on the CD. In the process of teaching Painter skills, the tutorials are also giving me a good general-purpose art lesson. - The gallery choices are also great. They represent many styles but all are high quality, and many are very inspiring. No cheesy "look what I can do with filters" or other throw-away junk. Always worth looking through and reading the captions. - The tone of the book is friendly to all: approachable to newbies and not boring to experienced artists. No condescending "for dummies" stuff, no arrogant "I'm an elite artist" junk -- just solid, useful information. I've dug through this book every day since I bought it, and I work on the tutorials every chance I get. Painter is such a deep program -- it's as deep in natural media as Photoshop is in editing and effects -- and having a companion book like this makes it truly come alive.
Rating:
Summary: WOW book fills learning experience with EXCITEMENT
Review: I have about five years of computer graphics experience and have purchased quite a few reference and 'how to' books along the way to help me better understand the use of the programs I own. Without a doubt this has been the most helpful book I've ever come across. Put together with consideration for the Painter beginner like myself, this book has been FILLED with beautiful, full-color examples so that each step was easy to follow and understand. While it also explored more of the Painter 8's functions than the user manual Corel packaged with the program, many other accomplished Painter artists contributed their techniques which made this book very rich. Cher's WOW book filled my learning experience with excitement instead of frustration and will remain a useful guide even after I'm more experienced. Thank you Cher and everyone for all the hard work and talent that went into its creation! Sincerely,
Rating:
Summary: The only reference you need for Painter 8
Review: I just bought this book based on the reviews before me. After reading a bit and skimming the whole thing (was delivered yesterday), I picked up a hundred new ideas on how to create and work with images. This is far better than searching through online tutorials. For those of you who know that you can create anything with the software but can't imagine what steps to take, this is your ticket to how to do it. Buy it.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book
Review: I paint with Painter since version 5.5 of Metacreations, and I
have the Painter 6 Wow Book too, this new book of Cher is
excellent and much better than the former. It was a pleasure to learn new tecniques and tips, and also
the fortunate owners have a lot of goodies in the Cd. I highly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: 30 DAYS???
Review: Please don't base your decision to buy this book on the review below. The brushes and CD are NOT on a 30 day trial. The actual Corel program is a 30 day Demo. It's a shame that reviewer gave this book 1 star because of this. That being said...the brushes are fantastic. The CD-Rom even comes with movies, stock libraries of images and a bunch of other extras. This book is indispensable as a resource for both inspiration and new techniques. Plus it's nice to see how other artists go about creating art.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Painter 8 Book out there!
Review: Simply, this is just a great book. It really goes on in detail of how to create certain things with Painter 8 and I was really impressed by this book. Not only are their how-to-tips to make awesome Painter art/projects, there are examples of what professionals have accomplished using Painter. The fact that they have promoted this book inside the Painter 8 box when you purchase it and the fact that the developers of Painter support Cher Threinen-Pendarvis, the book is indeed enthusiastic and very easy to read and learn. Highly recommended for anyone using or learning Painter 8!
Rating:
Summary: The Best Painter 8 Book out there!
Review: Simply, this is just a great book. It really goes on in detail of how to create certain things with Painter 8 and I was really impressed by this book. Not only are their how-to-tips to make awesome Painter art/projects, there are examples of what professionals have accomplished using Painter. The fact that they have promoted this book inside the Painter 8 box when you purchase it and the fact that the developers of Painter support Cher Threinen-Pendarvis, the book is indeed enthusiastic and very easy to read and learn. Highly recommended for anyone using or learning Painter 8!
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