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Electronic Arts were the first company to take the Amiga seriously. They were working on a range of titles for the new wonder machine months before its release in the Autumn if 1985.

One of these, Deluxe Paint, became an instant success and achieved an unprecedented 50% penetration amongst Amiga owners by the end of 1985.

Although flushed with the success of his program, Dan Silva didn't rest on his laurels. Instead he set about creating Deluxe Paint II almost as soon as the original was completed.

A year later the sequel was ready, running faster and packed full of tasty new features - many suggested by Deluxe Paint users.

The August 1986 issue of C&VG carried a review of Deluxe Paint and we'll be reviewing Deluxe Paint II in depth in the near future. But, for now, here's a quick look at three of the most impressive new features to be found in the definitive Amiga art package. The features are all found in a new menu called "effects". These are Stencil, Background and Perspective.

Stencil allows you to literally make a stencil of your painting. Imagine you have painted a landscape but decided you want it to be set against a sunset instead of a cloudy sky. No problem! Just make a stencil of the colours you've used in the cloudy sky. All the other areas of your painting will now form a stencil through which you can paint.

How many times have you made a mistake and wanted to go back to what your picture looked like five minutes ago? And of course you were too lazy to save before you made your fatal artistic blunder.

Well now you don't need to worry because, using Background, you can "fix" your current painting to the screen and then paint over it, safe in the knowledge that if you click on "clear screen" at any time, only the bits you've added after fixing the background will be cleared, leaving your "fixed" painting as it was when you last used the background feature.

Perhaps the most impressive new feature in Deluxe Paint II is Perspective, which allows you not only to define the position of the vanishing point in your picture, but to cut out a bruch, rotate it into any plane you want by twiddling its x, y and z axes and then paint with it, in the plane you have just created. You can even cover the whole plane with wallpaper made up from any pattern you care to use.

Deluxe Paint II has well over a hundred new features making it a must for any Amiga owner with a creative bent. Owners of Deluxe Paint I can get an upgrade for about £30. For the rest of us, the price of £130 may seem a little steep, but you are getting the best!