I was browsing about.com resourses and found an interesting article about raster editors that immitate traditional art techniques. Although some of them also offers tools for working with pre-existing images, the emphasis is on art and the creation process. Most of them have tools to mimic traditional artistic media such as oils, watercolors, acrylics, pencils, markers, crayons, chalk, pastels, and felt pens. Many of them also offer a variety of unusual, non-traditional tools.

1) Corel Painter – (WIN/MAC)
Corel Painter is like a well-stocked artist’s studio, without the mess. With textured surfaces, brushes, and tools, you can mimic painting and drawing with chalk, pastels, watercolors, oils, crayons, pencil, felt pens, ink, and more. While its strong point is its artistic toolset, Painter also offers features for photo enhancement, Web graphics creation, animation, and working with text.
Price range: $248.99 – $399.35
Limitations: 30-day trial
Average expert reviews: 4.5/5

2) Microsoft Expression – Free (WIN/MAC)
Expression was the first graphics program to allow users to create brush strokes from arbitrary pictures, and remains the most artistically-oriented vector-based drawing package today.
Price: Free

3) ArtRage (WIN only)
ArtRage is a fun little free program for experimenting with digital art. Although it has some annoying bugs and limitations, it’s very user-friendly and could not be easier to learn.
Price: Free
4) Alias SketchBook Pro (Windows and Macintosh)
Alias SketchBook Pro is an innovative freehand drawing and painting program designed specifically for Tablet PC and graphics tablet users on Windows and Macintosh. Although it does not offer the same variety as other artistic software, it is extremely easy to learn and use.
Price: $179 ($79 students and educators)
Trial: 15-day trial , with some limitations on use after it’s over.

5) Deep Paint (Windows)
Deep Paint is a standalone program and Photoshop-compatible plug-in that brings real-time material-based 3D paint rendering to your digital art.

Price: $249+shipping
Trials: no trials available

6) Project Dogwaffle – Free (Windows)
Project Dogwaffle, “the unnatural paint program,” is a painting and animation program for Windows with many unique tools for creating pictures. You can create your own brushes (including animated brushes), mix colors naturally, and apply a number of special effects.
Price: $67
Trials: free light version available .

7) Deleter CGillust (WIN)
If you’re into the Anime and Manga illustration style of Japanese comics, have a look at Deleter CGillust, a computer drawing software originally developed in Japan and designed for drawing in the Manga style.
Acverage price: $60-$75
Trials: no trials found

8) Pixarra TwistedBrush (WIN)
TwistedBrush offers a collection of realistic natural brushes for media such as watercolors, oils, acrylics, pastels, oil pastels, charcoal, pens, pencils, and markers.
Trials: 15-day trial
Price: $70

9) PhotoArtMaster (WIN)
Unlike some similarly advertised products, the images you create in PhotoArtMaster really are your own unique creations—not like one-click computer-generated “art.”
Price: $495
Trials: 10-day trial

10) Studio Artist (MAC)
Users can paint and draw manually with configurable tools, or they can use automatic painting actions to intelligently paint an image with artistic effects.
Price: $379
Trials: free demo version available

Related links:
About.com full reviews

Check out ten latest links from Linkdup.com .

1.Hot dog & Mustard
Create promos, title sequences, sponsorship bumpers, channel idents and all forms of on-air graphics from design to delivery.

2Designaside
Italian design studio, tv,radio,interenet , and newspaper adverising . They have some nice works .

3Hoover Fusion
Simply hilarious pixel game. Prove that you’re a hoover champ !

4 Stardust
This company is famous for its video production works in advertising and music industry. MTV, BMW and Incubus rock band are among their clients.

5 The Aristocrats
Check this smash hit of the Sundance film festival 2005.

6 Lookom
Submit your online design profolio here.

7 Richard Fenwick
Check his latest music videos.

8 Instant
German studio specialized on print and web design.

9 Kangaroos

10 Don’t Click
You don’t need to click to navigate through the amazing wesite of this Italian web research company.

Think ironing is a boring thing ? Think again … Shane Inder from New Zealand rethinks the ironing process by inventing an absolutely new iron board that has a shape of….a human !

OK, let me explain . This is a normal iron board :

It’s rectungular and white . And this is a new iron board :

Guess what ? It really works ! The ironman’s unique shape allows for easier ironing. His broad chest provides a greater surface area for ironing shirts, skirts and linen. His legs allow you to slip over trousers and shorts.
Available in four colours, but new covers are expected soon. I wonder if they have Paris Hilton’s cover to make the whole process of ironing even more interesting .

A new generation of Danish designers is emerging, with design that is characterised by powerful aesthetics, social awareness and new expressions – in product design and graphic design, modern communication design and solutions to complex challenges concerning environmental sustainability and other issues…. link
Read more at core77

What is Balldroppings? Noisy and from the first look useless game ? Or may be another sound-visual designer’s caprice ? I didn’t firgure out what is , but one thing I know for sure : it’s addicting.

Balldroppings based on two simple rules : balls fall from the top of the screen and bounce off the lines you are drawing with the mouse. The balls make a percussive and melodic sound, whose pitch depends on how fast the ball is moving when it hits the line. And sometimes you can create a little electronic symphony on your screen, I’ve been playing it for two hours and the sound it generated reminded me of the summer rain with thunder and wind ….hmm , but don’t laugh at my sick imagination, download the game and try it yourself !

Related links:
Jtnimoy design