AKVIS ArtWork is the perfect tool for expressing your artistic side. It uses advanced painting techniques along with an artistic touch to create a work of art from your photos. Your digital photos can look as if they were real oil paintings. The program applies brush strokes naturally using the contours of the original photo as a reference. You can add your own creative touch by selectively changing the direction of the strokes using the stroke direction tool. Version 3.5 of ArtWork adds the ability to save guiding lines to a file (.direction extension) in case of work interruption. It makes experimenting with the program even easier. If after processing an image one wants to try different settings with the same guide lines, it can easily be done later. When guiding lines are loaded, their size is adjusted automatically to the image. ArtWork also has ready-to-use presets for the Oil Painting style which help you create a painting in various brush techniques. User created lists of presets and can be imported/exported. Professional artists have already appreciated the program. Dale McGee, BFA, an art teacher from Canada, found a new use for the program as a helpful tool for art students, "AKVIS ArtWork is absolutely ideal for use in planning a painting. One of the most common problems that can sabotage a painting is when an artist concentrates too much on small details Using AKVIS ArtWork could provide students with an immediate understanding of how realism can be reduced to the beauty and simplicity of line, form and color." ArtWork gives its users a unique opportunity to create realistic paintings from photos taken with any kind of digital camera, from a professional digital SLR, a point-and-shoot, or even a cellphone. The abundance of options opens the door to many different styles and painting techniques. In addition to Oil Painting, ArtWork offers two more painting techniques: Comics effect and Pen&Ink. With the Comics style you can emulate the style of famous comics artists with just a few clicks. Comics reduces the color tones of the photo to create an image that looks similar to comics art. Make a comic strip from your party photos or create an original poster. Let ArtWork unleash your creativity. Pen & Ink style simulates a technique in which colored inks are applied to paper with a pen, creating an image ranging from a drawing made by a modern pen to that done by a quill dipped in an inkwell. The color of the ink as well as that of the background can be changed. AKVIS ArtWork is available as a stand-alone application, as well as a plug-in to a photo editor. In version 3.5 the plugin version of AKVIS ArtWork is now 64 bit compatible. A fully featured free evaluation download of AKVIS ArtWork is available at http://akvis.com/en/artwork/download-painting-effects.php