Corel Paint it! Review & Giveaway

Back when I was in university I worked in a photo lab.  I loved it.  It was methodical, precise work and it would become boring and dull eventually, but for a time, it was perfect; mindless yet stimulating at the same time.  I like to believe my time in the lab gave me an eye for photography.  I've never had any training, but I've looked at pictures, tons of them.  It got to the point where I would find myself looking through the lens ready to snap a picture, but knowing that the result would be poor I would stop myself.  I'd seen that picture before, maybe not exactly the same, but close enough and I knew it would never look on paper the way it looked through the lens.

The hubs bought me Nikon F55 SLR Camera for Christmas a few years back and though I love it and I cherish that he bought it for me because he knew how much I wanted it, I rarely use it.  It's the digital age and as much as I value the beauty of capturing a single moment on film, with a young child, I want to capture every moment.  I don't want to censor my memories because film is expensive, I want to snap pictures as the fancy strikes and I want the moment I press the button, the be the moment the camera snaps the photo.

Because even the photos that might otherwise be garbage, still have so much potential when they're digital.  Like this picture for example, despite my best efforts to take a photo of the boy and me, I kept cutting the top of my head off.  But, when I "convert" it to an oil painting, it looks kind of neat (and life-like) if you ask me.

It was super easy to do, using Corel Paint It! I literally uploaded the picture and pressed a single button.  The slogan on the box is "your photos automagically painted" and I was amazed how true it seemed.  I sat here trying to find the word to describe the transition in the picture and it was right there on the box in front of me the whole time.  It's kind of neat, as the photo is "painted" you see little brushstrokes, glimpses of the "painting" with each stroke.  It does take quite a long time for the photo to paint and the resutling file is quite large but I think its kind of fun, so I can handle all that.

I have no artistic ability at all, but this "color pencil sketch" kind of looks like I drew it.  It would be neat on my desk at work or would be great on a notecard.  Seriously how cute would a "sketch" of your little one be on a thank you card.  I think I might have to make at least a couple.

The "detailed watercolor" was the third style of painting I tried.  I think it might be my favourite of the three, but I'm really having a tough time choosing.  This style might be nice to hang like a picture, but given the photo I chose, I really want to make invitations for a dinner party or lunch or some sort of food at least.  I don't really entertain, and when we do we usually coordinate via email, but this "painting" is seriously inspiring me, weird I know.

Overally, I think that Corel Paint it is a very easy to use program, I wish that it had come with a legend or key, some sort of instruction defining all the buttons in the program.  Labels came up easily with a mouse roll-over, but personally, I like to see everything laid out in front of me at once, but that's just me.  I also found the program bogged my computer down a bit (not that its the quickest computer on the block by any stretch), but it didn't freeze my computer and as far as I'm concerned that's what really matters.  Overall, I give Corel Paint it a 3.5/5

In addition to providing me with a copy of Paint it to review, Corel would like to send one of our readers a their own copy to use in their home.  You can also download a free trial of the program on the website.

Enter To Win:

A free copy of Corel Paint it!

The First Entry is mandatory; all other entries will be disqualified if it is not included.  Please leave a separate comment for each entry, six chances to win total.  

First Entry: Visit the Corel website, take a look around and tell us what other Corel Program you would be interested in trying out.

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Fifth Entry: Tweet about this giveaway (enter max. once per day, leave the link):

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Sixth Entry: Subscribe via Email to the Momma Stuff Blog (left Sidebar)

Giveaway closes Wednesday June 30 at 8pm.  Winner will be determined by a random number generator. Winner will be notified via email and the winner will have 48 hours to respond or a new name will be drawn and contacted.

Congratulations to our winner,
comment #4 Birdson