Digital oil paint technique

This is not directly related to a children book illustration, but I thought the technique may be interesting to you nonetheless. I experimented with Corel Painter X, with Oils (single apple) and Digital Oils (composition of 2 apples and plate).

I'm not sure if I want to end up using the technique, but it's quite fascinating what can be done digitally! I'm wondering if I should use it for a children book illustration, and see what happens? Right now, I feel oil paint looks too classical for my taste. But who knows, maybe I'll get inspired to use the technique anyways?

Step 1:
Laying the foundation (I heard later I should have started with dark, and added light layers on top. This worked for me at the time, but apparently my approach takes more effort and more "paint" (even though digital))


Step 2:
Working on it, adding more details...


Step 3:
Adding more details, more dark and light, blending the paint.
Apart from the fact that it looks like a bell-pepper, I'm starting to like my apple :-)


Step 4:
Finishing, adding more structure to the background, and emphasizing the highlights.


Composition sample
This is an example done with Artist Oil Paints in the program Corel Painter X. These brushes took me a moment to figure out! I almost stopped working with them, because they seemed so hard to handle. Eventually, the best brushes to use seem to be: Artists Oil Wet Brush, Dry Brush, and Grainy Blender. That's it?!!

I painted everything in Painter, but used Photoshop to balance the colors, to change the color of the plate, and to add the pattern to the plate.