Corel Paint It! Review & Giveaway (CLOSED)

Now you don't have to be the next Picasa to create a masterpiece.  I recently had the chance to try the new Corel Paint It! software program. Have you heard of it yet? It's a computer program that uses pictures you have and turns them into masterpiece paintings.

The Corel Paint It! program was easy to install on my computer.  Then I used it to find any photo I had on my computer that I wanted to transform. It has several options for automatic painters, such as, Abstract, Oil Painting, Sketches, Pastels, etc. With this first picture I used the automatic black & white sketch feature. Here is the original and the altered photo afterward.

Original

Black & white sketch

There are also options for you to paint your own picture with a photo. They have pencils, markers, sponges, etc. Then you can chose your colors and sizes you want. The next photo set is what I did use a large-sized sponge with different colors. I wanted something that you could still see my son well, but make it look like it was somewhat painted. Here's what I came up with. First is the original photo, then my creation.

Original

Hand-sponging

I like how this turned out. It's a cute picture of my son and it allowed me to bring some extra colors into the photo in an artsy way. I had fun creating them and it was fairly easy to do. There seems to be more that I haven't tried with the program, but the basic things are pretty simple to use.

There are a few downsides to this program that I noticed. I don't think they are enough to deter me from it, but just something to be noted. First the program ran pretty slow most of the time. I don't usually have that problem with software on the computer I installed it on, but it seemed to be this particular program. And the second thing was that it's hard to do abstract, oil paintings, and some others when you are using pictures with people. You tend to lose their features. But there is a neat feature that helps with that. It restores parts of the image that you click on, so you can get it to restore a face or something as needed.

All in all I think the Corel Paint It! program is a fun one. It's great for anyone wanting to do something a little more fun and artsy with their photos.

Buy It: Corel Paint It! is available through www.corel.com/store and selected retailers across North America, including Wal-Mart Canada, for a suggested retail price of $39.99. And you can now buy it through Amazon.com.

Win It: Corel has gracious given me one copy of the new Corel Paint It! to give to one lucky reader.

To Enter: Go to their website, then tell me a feature of the software program that you really like.  Be sure to include your e-mail address, so I can contact you when you win. (If I can’t find an e-mail address in your profile or don’t already have it, I will draw a new number for the winner.)

Extra Entries: If you’d like to, you may earn extra entries for doing each of the following. Be sure to leave a separate comment for each. You must do the above (main) entry first, and then you can do these others.

*Post about the giveaway on your blog and leave the link here. (2 entries)
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*Grab my new button (on the right side of my blog) and post if on your blog. (5 entries- leave a separate comment for each entry)
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*Enter one of my other giveaways, then come back here and let me know which on you entered. You may do this for one extra entry.
*Follow me on Twitter. (I’ll follow back.)
*Follow Corel on Twitter.
*Post about this giveaway on Twitter and leave the link here. You may do this once a day until the giveaway ends. I’ve made it easy, just Cut & Paste:

Enter to win Corel Paint It! software from @psmomreviews & @corelpaintit – http://tinyurl.com/28d2jmo #giveaway

This giveaway is open now through Sunday, August 29th. I will post a winner on Monday, August 30th.

>Open to USA & Canada only!<

*Disclosure: I was not paid to post this, but a product was provided to me for the purpose of this review. All opinions are my own.*