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Ofcial Corel Painter TM Magazine

Learn to paint digitally today!

Issue two

Official Magazine

Artistic advice
and inspiration

Precise colour selection


Using the Airbrush options
Creative tips and tricks

Take control of

b ush
brushes

Learn how to select, edit and use


the best brushes in Corel Painter

FEATURED
IN THIS ISSUE

Philip Straub

Discover how this Painter Master


creates his amazing artworks

RealBristle brushes

Achieve realistic brush strokes with


these phenomenal new brushes

The art of glaze


Visit us online www.paintermagazine.co.uk

Quickly add definition and zing to


your work by applying a glaze
PC and Mac

www.paintermagazine.co.uk

Tonal control
The options available for
correcting colour in images

OPM_02-Cover.indd 1

Composition
Learn how to arrange objects
for maximum effect

Free CD inside
PHOTOS | GUIDES | FONTS | TRIALS

Edward Hopper
We reveal how to paint in the style
of this iconic American artist

ISSUE TWO
ISSN 1753-3155

6.00
02

771753 315000

6/3/07 16:40:00

Welcome
This is THE magazine for anyone wanting to further their
Corel Painter skills or learn how to become a better artist

Clone and glaze


Build up a glaze effect by
manipulating the clone
command and produce a
glorious portrait

Pg 64
Brushes:
Airbrushes
Discover how these
brushes work and use
them in your art

Pg 56
Paint like:
Edward Hopper
Use Corel Painter to recreate this classic image
of America

ISSUE TWO

Pg 30

No doubt a lot of you will have


tried Corel Painter X by now
and no doubt you will have
been very excited by the new
RealBristle brush category.
This makes Corel Painter act
even more like traditional
media because it allows you to make the brush
behave as if it was a real brush. Our tutorial
on page 38 shows how it works using a rather
lovely seascape as an example.
And keeping with the brush theme, our
feature this issue explores some of the best
brushes for creating certain artistic effects.
While a mere feature could never hope to
capture the complete power of Corel Painters
brushes and controls, its enough to give you
some creative ideas! And for even more ideas,
turn to our Paint Like tutorial (page 56)
and discover how to re-create one of the most
iconic modern paintings of our time Edward
Hoppers Nighthawks. Also learn about
composition on page 66 and see how it can
improve your artwork.
Happy painting!

Visit our website!


If you find that the magazine isnt enough to satisfy your Corel
Painter appetite, you can always visit our website. Pop on over to
www.paintermagazine.co.uk and register as a user. Once this is
out of the way, explore the pages and enjoy great content such as
Downloadable resources
Online galleries to share your work
Special forum for meeting other Corel Painter users

Jo Cole Editor
jo.cole@imagine-publishing.co.uk

003_OPM02_Welcome.indd 3

12/3/07 09:45:05

ON THE FRONT COVER

Clone and glaze pg 30

P38 USING THE


REALBRISTLE BRUSHES

SPECIAL TUTORIAL ON USING THIS


FABULOUS NEW COLLECTION OF
BRUSHES IN COREL PAINTER X

Pg 14

Interview

P99 GET STARTED WITH


DIGITAL PAINTING
FREE CD-ROM PACKED WITH
ESSENTIAL RESOURCES FOR CREATING
DIGITAL ART

Regulars in every issue


08 Subscriptions
Sign up to subscribe to the
magazine and save yourself up
to 40%!

10 Painter showcase
Look out for the special pages
presenting some of the best
work from Corel Painter artists

12 Letters
The newest addition to the mag
this is where you can send
your art and comments

76 Art Class
A hotbed of solutions to
creative queries, as well as
specic software questions

94 Readers Gallery
Jennifer Miller shares some of
her exquisite work in the latest
Readers Gallery

97 Readers Challenge
Load up the supplied
images and enter our
regular challenge

98 On the disc

All the content found


nestled on this issues
special CD-ROM

Philip Straub
Discover more about this artist and how
he creates his awe-inspiring
art
Pg 34

WIN!

YOUR
WORK
PRINTED
TO CANVAS

Pg 97

Reviews
84 Fujilm FinePix F31fd
We take a look at the Fujilm
FinePix F31fd and see whether its
face-detection technology is pure
gadget or sheer genius

86 HP Photoshosmart Pro B9180


Big artistic ideas require a big printer
to let others see them. We try this
A3+ printer and see if its good
enough for your work

88 Books
Three more fantastic titles that
will inspire you and expand your
working knowledge of traditional
art techniques

90 The Big Print Company


Learn more about this professional
printing company and then see
how you can order an MDF block
mounted print

006-7_OPM02_Contents.indd 6

9/3/07 17:26:25

RealBristle brushes
pg 40

Get started with brushes


pg 20

Feature
Paint like Edward Hopper
pg 56

Special creative guides


20 Get started with Corel Painter brushes
Read this guide to discover which brushes work best
for which style of artwork and guarantee
yourself great pictures every time

Visit our
website now!

tutorials

Create inspirational art


30 Clone an image and get a
glaze effect
Emulate the look of an old
master by cloning an image
and applying glaze effects

38 RealBristle brushes
Discover how this new brush
category in Corel Painter X can
be used to produce art

Drawing 101
Traditional artistic techniques
66 Learn about composition
Applying the tried and tested rules of composition is a good way of
ensuring that your work is as pleasing as possible to the eye. We look
at the best and show how to use them

52 Create your own gallery


We reveal how to set up your
own gallery on the magazine
website and also see what else
you can do there

56 Paint like: Edward Hopper


His paintings became cultural
icons of America. Re-create his
Nighthawks painting and learn
more about his style

Primers

www.
painter
magazine.
co.uk

Get up and running


36 Effects: Tonal Control
Use this menu to unearth the
commands for colour correcting
your photos and artwork

64 Brushes: Airbrushes

The best options for using these


delicate and smooth collection of
brush effects

Feature focus

Get to know your tools


48 Select colour
You have a few choices when it
comes to setting a hue to work
with we show you what they are

006-7_OPM02_Contents.indd 7

9/3/07 17:27:12

showcase
010-11_OPM_02-artspread.indd 10

9/3/07 15:02:22

010-11_OPM_02-artspread.indd 11

9/3/07 15:03:03

TITLE
WEBSITE
JOB TITLE
CLIENTS

Katarina comes from a batik and graphics background, which has helped
shape the beautiful fabric detail you see in each and every one of her
paintings. We couldnt resist putting her Chio-Chio-San painting on our
cover, as it exemplies the quality of nish achievable with Corel Painter.
You can see more of Katarinas digital paintings in the Computer Graphics
section of her site and if you fall in love with one, you can contact her to
see if its possible to purchase a print of it!

Chio-Chio-San
www.katarinasokolova.com
Professional artist and photographer
Corel Corporation, private collectors

KATARINA SOKOLOVA

n ts res our ces


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Welcome to the part of the magazine where you can com
and share your thoughts on anything you fancy!

Send your
letters to...
Ofcial Corel Painter
Magazine, Imagine
Publishing, Richmond
House, 33 Richmond
Hill, Bournemouth,
Dorset BH2 6EZ, UK
If youd prefer to contact
us via email, send your
message to opm@
imagine-publishing.
co.uk

Buying artwork

Ive wanted to get into digital art for a


while now and inally have the time now
that I am retired. The thing is, I feel as
though I have missed the boat in terms of
inding helpful online resources I just
want somewhere that I can visit from
time to time to get some inspiration. Also,
can you give me the contact details of any
artists who sell prints of their work?
By the way, congratulations on a great
magazine. Its already help me get the
hang of Quick Clone, so I am more than
pleased that it has come out. Please keep
up the good work!

Steve Marchent

Hello Steve, thanks for getting in touch and


for the praise! In fact, thank you to everyone
who has written in and said how much they
enjoy the magazine. Its exciting to think about
how the title can develop with your help, of
course! Now onto your question.
A lot of artists offer prints of their work from
their site, but by far the best way to shop for
some digital art is to visit the deviantART site. It
might be that youve already found it but if you
havent, it is a bubbling cauldron of talent of
artists covering all disciplines. The shop allows
you to buy prints (canvas and paper) of your
favourite work, as well as calendars, puzzles
and various other novelty items. Find it all at
http://shop.deviantart.com.

Readers tip

Share your Corel Painter wisdom

Keep your impasto canvas wet


for later edits
I always change my mind, so nd it invaluable
to save work in the RIFF format, because this
means I can keep my impasto layer editable,
and open up to change surface texture or
play with depth.

Sandra Choi

If you have a creative tip youd like to share


with others, send it in to us and well print it!

Famous paintings

Ive just bought issue one great stuff! I


particularly liked the Van Gogh tutorial
and wondered if youll be doing more of the
same? Ive always been fascinated with
copying masterpieces.

Dave Ridgely

It sounds like you could have a career in the art


forgery business, Dave! Just keep our names
out of it
You will be delighted to hear that well show
how to re-create a famous painting each and
every issue. We get a big kick out of deciding
who to decode and will be looking at classic
works as well as more contemporary artists.
This issue we look at Edward Hopper, p56.

For some very reasonablypriced artwork, make


your way over to the
deviantART store http://
shop.deviantart.com

Featured Gallery
Our favourite readers gallery this month

Garlic and Onions


A fine still life that would
do Cezanne proud

Lynne Mitchell

www.paintermagazine.co.uk/
user/LynneMitchell
Lynne impressed all of us
with the images she posted
on the website, especially
the still life studies. She has
a awless application of paint, and the
brush strokes are think and luxurious.
Her eye for lighting is also excellent
and manages to enhance the painterly
elements even further.
Visit the site to see Lynnes work or pay
a visit to her main website, found at
www.rabbitholeproductions.com

t
Zoe Portrai ple of
A great exam work
ush
Lynnes br

Formal Betty
Check out how Lynne has applied
textured strokes to all areas

12

012-13_OPM02 letters.indd 12

9/3/07 17:12:20

Ata finds inspiration in the natural colours of Canada, which is clearly expressed in this beautifully serene image

Corel Painter portfolio

Hello, I was wondering if youd be


interested in printing my images in
the magazine? They are titled Fall and
My Love. Since I was a child, nature has
inspired me more than anything else
to create arts. Autumn in Canada is one
of the most beautiful seasons. When
it comes to colours, nature is the best
inspiration. So in the Fall image, I was
trying to duplicate some of the colours
that nature offers and I did my very best
to get it right.
I always wanted to paint portraits and
with My Love, I had some inspiration to
paint the portrait of a lady that I love. This
image was painted in Corel Painter IX and
the Artists Oils brushes were used for the
medium. I used Adobe Photoshop for the
inal touches like tonal and the odd bit of

colour correction. It took me 16 hours to


complete it.

Ata Alishahi

Thanks for sending in those images, Ata. We


love seeing what readers are creating, so never
be shy about sending stuff in. If youd like to
see more of Atas work, get yourself over to
www.atadesigner.com.
And on the subject of showing us your
work, make sure you pay a visit to our website
at www.paintermagazine.co.uk. Were
going to keep plugging this because the
gallery feature makes it a perfect place to show
off your portfolio. You have to sign up as a
member to create your own gallery, but this
only takes a few moments. Once its done,
youre free to upload your images for all to see.
For a full guide on how it works, turn to page
52 for a tutorial.

www.paintermagazine.co.uk

bsi te info
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The latest from our


forum and website
Website challenge
Some of the best so far
Theres lots to do on the magazine website, but
dont forget the website challenge. Every two
months or so we will post a new set of pictures. It
is then your task to take these and do something
with them! The winner will receive a subscription
to the magazine and worldwide adoration!
Its early days yet, but here are our two favourite
entries so far. The top is by Stephen Salmon, while
the bottom is by Karen Bonaker.

ENTER T
FORUMHE
CHALLE
NGE
Dont b

e
still time shy theres
www.pa to enter! Go to
int
co.uk/co ermagazine.
mpetitio
ns

Forum highlights
The best topic of conversation
User: cgntoonartist
Subject: Work in Progress section
A Work in Progress section on this forum would be great! A place
where we can share and post images (step-by-step), how we create
our artwork or just to show what we have been creating with Corel
Painter and have image progressions on how we got there. What
do you folks think of this?

User: editorjo
Subject: Re: Work in Progress section
Great idea consider it done!

Camellias and
Old Bo
A lovely still life x
with
rich colours and
a texture you ca
n
almost feel

Atas portrait of his love works because of the


strong colours and also the unusual pose. Of course,
the brush strokes dont hurt either!

Head over to the forum to see whats


the topic of conversation today!
www.paintermagazine.co.uk/forum

13

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9/3/07 17:12:43

Interview Philip Straub

website
job title
clients

www.philipstraub.com
Art director for NCSoft, freelance digital artist
Corel, Disney, Warner Brothers, Universal Studios

Silent Morning
Using a mixture of Corel
Painter and Photoshop,
Phil has managed to
create a beautifully
evocative piece that
perfectly captures the
stillness of a new day

14

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9/3/07 18:50:38

An interview with

Philip Straub
We caught up with the phenomenally talented Philip Straub to find out more
about how he works and what inspires him
hilip Straub lives and breathes
creativity. Over his professional
life he has been creative
director at Electronic Arts, as
well as his work appearing in over 30
childrens books. His list of clients include
Corel, Disney, Mattel and Warner Brothers
and he also has a set up a licensing
business with his ianc. In terms of style,
Philip covers a dazzling range of looks,
from bright and colourful childrens
illustrations, to intricate concept art and
fantasy landscapes. We recently spoke
with Philip to discover how he works and
to ind out more about how he uses Corel
Painter to create his masterpieces.

How did you manage to become involved


with Ballistic Publishings Painter book?
Did you nd it difcult to judge other
peoples work?
Ive had a relationship with Ballistic for
many years now and theyve always been
very generous in including me in such
products. I worked with them on the irst
Dartiste book as one of the four authors,
Ive judged two of their CGChallenges and
also teach a workshop annually through
the CGWorkshops brand.
Ive judged a number of competitions
in my career and its always a challenge
to go through the thousands of entries
ultimately choosing a fraction of the

entries as inalists. In my experience, the


top pieces usually just jump right out at
you for their excellence, its picking those
last few inalists that becomes dificult.
Tell us a bit about the childrens books
you are currently working on. Do you plan
to release them worldwide or will it just
be limited distribution?
Its based on the Secret Places brand
Ive been working on for a few years.
Currently, a few images are available as
massive wall murals through Brewster
Wallcovering and Ive been negotiating
with a few different companies to have
puzzles made as well as stationery. Once

15

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9/3/07 14:01:25

Interview Philip Straub

I always try to bring my


personal touch to all the
professional work I produce

[ABOVE]
The Hive
This was the first
painting I created using
only the Artists Oils
in Painter IX. In this
situation, I worked on
only the canvas layer,
building up the texture,
color, and composition
as I worked

[MIDDLE PAGE]
Enchanted Evening
This image won an
award at the Society of
Illustrators Los Angeles
2005, as well as being
featured in The New
Masters of Fantasy III

I inish the book the goal is to distribute


it worldwide eventually. I have to inish
two other book projects Im working on
before I can complete this one though.
What is your proudest creative moment
so far?
I dont know thats a really tough one!
Probably winning a Silver Medal in the
Society of Illustrators annual illustration
competition. I really feel like I still have so
much to contribute to the art ield and am
just getting started.
How do you start a digital painting? Do
you have a typical workow process or
does it differ according to the particular
piece you are doing?
The answer is yes and yes! I have a couple
of different worklows I use depending on
my mood and the project.
For my more free-form personal
concept illustrations the process is
usually quite chaotic. I just simply start
throwing down shapes and colours onto
the canvas and see what happens. Usually
after a short while something takes shape
and I reine down from there.

When working on a commissioned


painting the process is usually a bit
more precise. First, I do some research
on the subject matter by gathering all
kinds of visual reference so I can have
as complete an understanding of all the
elements in the painting as possible.
Next, I usually begin sketching in black
and white at a fairly low resolution so
that memory limitations dont stile the
creative process. During the sketch phase
Im primarily focused on basic shape
construction, overall composition and
positive negative space. Once Im happy
with the overall composition, I usually
begin reining down the technical aspects
of the painting, focusing on perspective
and/or anatomy. Once Im feeling
comfortable with the drawing, Ill begin
adding colour to the image.
How did you make the leap from digital
artist to home decor products?
I really like the idea of diversifying my
portfolio and the work that I produce.
When I began working with rep. she
suggested I begin tailoring some of my
work towards the licensed market. She

16

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9/3/07 14:01:58

Afternoon Light (above)


When I set up my files in bo
Painter and Photoshop I alway th
down the structure by placing s break
background, middle ground, an the
foreground objects on separate d
This ensures that they can easlayers.
be ed ited. Towards the end of ily
painting process, Ill usually pla the
post layer at the top of the layce a
hierarchy and paint in atmosp er
perspective using either an airbrheric
ush
or cover pencil.

- Philip Straub
felt that my more whimsical childrens
book style could ind success on licensed
products so I began to expand that out
into the latter, more graphic style seen
in the scrapbooking, stationery and
wallpaper products I produce. I cant take
all the credit though, my ianc helps me
out with a lot of the brand development.
Did you nd the move from traditional
painting to digital painting smooth or
was it a bit of a jolt?
Id say it was a bit of jolt! I was trained
as a traditional oil painter and at the
time I thought that was how I would
produce paintings for the rest of my life.
Its important to keep in mind computer
illustration was still in its infancy when
I was in school. There were a few classes
just being offered to the Graphic Design
and Interior Design majors but many
artists still hadnt made the transition.
I was introduced to digital illustration
at my irst real art job working for
childrens book illustrator Mercer Mayer.
Id played around with computer-aided
design with a variety of programs
before but never thought of it as a real
illustration tool. I wasnt alone, very

few illustrators were using it to paint


and much of the computer-generated
illustration at that time was lat and
graphic. When I started at Mercers
studio I remember thinking how dificult
Photoshop 1.0 was its kinda funny
looking back on those days.
Are you thinking of expanding the
products for sale on your website?
Im currently not set up for e-commerce
simply because Ive just not found the
time. As most illustrators will tell you,
depending on how much you want
to do with your site, maintaining an
online presence can become very time
consuming. I try to post regular updates
on my site as well as post as much of the
imagery I produce once its available or
I have clearance. Right now I currently
have some of my images available as
ine art archive quality prints through
Imagekind but I may expand that down
the road.

[ABOVE] Nightmist
This image is part of
Philips Concept series,
and shows how he
uses Corel Painter and
Photoshop to create
intricate scenes

What inspires you?


So many different things. Films, artists
contemporary and classic, television

17

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9/3/07 14:02:51

Interview Philip Straub

I feel like I still have so much to contribute


to the art field and am just getting started
shows, books, music, and every day life.
I ind theres inspiration to be found
everywhere you look!
Is your personal work different to your
professional art?
Absolutely. Although I try to always bring
my personal touch to all the professional
work I produce, after all thats what my
clients expect! My personal work tends to
be almost therapeutic and an extension
of my subconscious. While some of
my paintings are simply exercises,
experiments trying out new techniques,
many are also for my fantasy projects.
Why did you start using Corel Painter and
when did you start?
Ive been using Corel Painter almost as
long as Photoshop. I cant even remember

the irst version I used but I think its been


in my worklow for around ten years.
Corel Painter has always been really
amazing at reproducing traditional media
and its just a blast to experiment with.
Whats your favourite Corel Painter tool?
My absolute favourite is the Rotate
Canvas tool, it really allows you to recreate the rotating of your canvas/paper
in traditional media. Ive also used the
nozzle tools within Corel Painter quite
extensively to quickly create different
types of foliage, leaves, and rocks. The
cover pencil is a mainstay of my worklow,
especially in the early sketch stages.
If youd like to see more of Philips work or
buy one of his posters or prints, pop over
to www.philipstraub.com

Cohabitation (above)
Originally sketched in Painter 8 using
a variety of different brushes and
experimental techniques. During
the creation of this piece I made a
ton of new brushes in Painter and
really learned a lot more about the
flexibility and power of the brush
generation tool in Painter. As I
regularly do, I bounced back and forth
between Photoshop and Painter as I
worked, using some of my favourite
brushes in both packages.
- Philip Straub

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9/3/07 17:48:52

Feature

Get started with Corel Painter brushes

Original artwork by Philip Straub

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9/3/07 15:48:53

Get started with


Corel Painter
brushes
At a loss for what brush variant to use?
Heres our guide to the most useful
magine being let loose in the biggest, most well-stocked
art shop in the world, with a unlimited amount of spending
money at your disposal for any artist, a dream come true
indeed! Now multiply the excitement of that perfect scenario
by ten and youll come close to the experience of stepping
into the artists heaven that is Corel Painter!
Within Corel Painter, every painting and drawing tool and every
painting and drawing medium is at your ingertips, with a mindboggling selection of brushes that no paint box could ever hold. Its
true to say that this collection of tools is so vast that, for the novice
Corel Painter user, it can be quite overwhelming and that was the
inspiration for this feature, to lead you by the hand through this
mammoth collection. Of course, even if we hijacked the whole
magazine for this feature there still wouldnt be enough space to
give you the full low-down on all the brushes. But well give you the
basics so you can dive into the wonderful world of Corel Painter
brushes with more conidence.
Corel Painters brushes are divided into categories which relate
to traditional painting and drawing media, so before you choose
an actual brush, you need to choose the category that relates to the
medium you want to simulate, such as Oils, Pastels, Watercolor,
Charcoal and so on. The actual brushes that relate to the chosen
medium reside inside the category, and there are many brush
variants to choose from. A brush variant is a particularly shaped
brush, with a number of preset settings applied to it. Well look at
these settings in more detail throughout this feature.
You can completely change the way a brush behaves, and the
marks it makes, by changing the settings applied to it via the Brush
Controls palette (Window>Brush Controls>Show General), or via
the Brush Creator (Window>Show Brush Creator). These brush
controls relate directly to every aspect of the brush, including its
size, the way it interacts with paint already applied to the canvas,
how much paint it carries and the kind of strokes it makes, among
a plethora of other characteristics. Of course, the way a brush
behaves also depends on the kind of surface youre painting on, and
before you start to paint you need to choose this from the Papers
palette (Window>Library Palettes>Show Papers).

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Get started with Corel Painter brushes

GLOOPY, OPAQUE MEDIA BRUSHES

Feature

Build up a painting full


of texture and gloopy
goodness by using this
selection of brushes for
the wet and loaded look
o lets get down to some
speciics about these
remarkable brushes! First,
were going to take a look at the
brushes within Corel Painter
which use opaque, gloopy mediums such as
Oils, Acrylics, and Gouache. These are the
category of brushes that youll use to create
paintings with rugged paint surfaces, body
and texture, where the marks made by
the brushes can either be wonderfully oily
and wet, or where thick, opaque areas of
paint can be laid on to the canvas, creating
stunningly realistic impasto effects.
As far as the speciic categories of these
brushes are concerned, they consist of:

ACRYLICS
ARTISTS OILS
OILS
GOUACHE
Within these separate categories are a
huge number of Brush Variants which are
designed to apply the virtual paint in many
different ways. So, for instance, within
Artists Oils, youll ind variants that range
from soft blender brushes, which apply
very wet paint in a very soft way, through
to dry and grainy brushes which react
strongly to your chosen painting surface.
You even get heavy impasto brushes which
apply lots of nice thick paint that holds
marks made by the brush and produce
impasto effects where the paint stands
proud of the painting surface.
On the whole, all of these brushes
paint with opaque colour, but each of
the variants within each category can
behave quite differently. Its worth taking
some time to look at the individual Brush
Property settings that can signiicantly
affect the way the variants work, how they
interact with paint already applied to the
canvas and how they react to your choice of
painting surface.
Broadly speaking, within each of the
above categories, youll ind a selection of
brushes which can be divided into four
distinct types:
Dry Brushes: These brush variants,
although they still apply opaque paint,

are rather dry, and tend to deposit paint


roughly over your painting surface,
catching just the high point of the paper
grain and texture.
Wet Brushes: These brushes give the
appearance of applying lots of very wet
paint, which can mix and blend with any
paint already applied to the canvas. These

types of brush are great for quick, gestural


lines and large, painterly areas of colour.
Impasto Brushes: Here were dealing
with brushes which apply very thick paint
which stands proud of the painting surface
and create impasto. You will often see this
effect used in many traditional oil and
acrylic paintings.

Most of the active dynamic categories for the brushes contain an Expression control section. This control
determines how the particular characteristic of a brush responds to your graphics tablet stylus

Original artwork by Philip Straub

020-27_OPM02_feature.indd 22

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Soft, blending brushes: This group of


brushes apply wet paint which readily
blends with paint already applied. Marks
made with these brushes blend together as
you paint, creating very subtle transitions
between different colours and tones.
As you can see from the painting
above, by choosing your brush variants
carefully from these categories, superrealistic effects can be achieved. One
great way to get used to exactly what
these brushes can do is to use the Brush
Creator (Window>Show Brush Creator).
Within this panel, you can see and modify

all of the attributes applied to the brush,


and test its appearance in the large white
scratchpad. Any brush characteristics
that are applied to the current brush are
shown in black down the left hand side,
while any properties which dont feature
in the brush are greyed out. For instance, if
you click on Impasto, which is often a very
important characteristic of these opaque
media brushes, youll be able to control the
extent of this Impasto effect via the Depth
slider. The same applies to changing any
other brush characteristics within the
Brush Creator.
For any of these brushes to work
properly, its vital that you irst set your
Brush Tracking via Edit>Preferences>
Brush Tracking, so that the Corel Painter
brushes know how to respond to the
unique way you use your stylus. Within
the Brush Tracking dialog, simply make a
few representative strokes on the scratch
pad as you would normally use your stylus
and Corel Painter will adjust the brushes
responsiveness accordingly.
All of the usual brush shapes appear
within these categories, including round
and lat brushes, pointed and ine detail
brushes and rough bristles for real texture
and dynamism. To the right, you see a
selection of brushes from these categories
that create the range of techniques and
effects that youd expect to see with
opaque media.
Remember, many of these brushes
create impasto effects and this can be
switched on and off via the small button
at the top right of the document window.
You can also control the depth and shine
of the impasto effect via Canvas>Surface
Lighting. Within the dialog you can also
modify the direction and intensity of the
light that falls across the image and create
the highlights and shadows that describe
the surface of the impasto.

Gloopy, opaque brushes


Layer the paint on nice and thickly

Acrylic Thick Acrylic


Bristle

AO Clumpy Brush

AO Dry Brush

AO Impasto Oils

AO Soft Blender Brush

Gouache Broad
Cover Brush

Gouache Fine Bristle

Gouache Opaque
Smooth Brush

Gouache Wet
Gouache Round

Oils Bristle Oils

Oils Fine Feathering


Oils

Oils Smeary Round

Oils Thick Oil Flat

Oils Thick Wet Oils

Opaque Acrylic

Thick Acrylic Flat

Wet Acrylic
In the detail, you can clearly see the dramatic difference between areas of smooth, wet paint and accents added using
impasto brushes. Brushes that use impasto can add a real three-dimensional quality to you opaque media paintings

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DRY MEDIA BRUSHES

Feature

020-27_OPM02_feature.indd 24

Get started with Corel Painter brushes

When it comes to
traditional real media
effects, the dry brushes
are very hard to beat.
Heres a look at the best
hen it comes to dry media,
such as Charcoal, Pencil,
Chalk and Pastels, the
drawing medium itself,
and the surface you draw on work handin-hand together and in terms of the
effects achieved. By their very nature, dry
mediums work by depositing themselves
on, or within, the surface texture of the
drawing surface, unlike paint or ink, which
sticks to, and is absorbed by the painting
surface itself. Dry media depend on their
particles of pigment being shaved off and
held by the paper texture. If you were to try
and use charcoal on a completely smooth
surface, for instance, it would not make
a single visible mark. However, in a stark
contrast to this, if you were to use the
same piece of charcoal on a piece of rough
sandpaper, just the lightest strokes would
create a gloriously dense, black mark in
an instant.
The exact same rules apply within
Corel Painter when you are using
dry media brushes. However, a
slight difference is the fact that
the result of the marks you
make is governed not only
by the surface you choose
to work on, but also by the
unique settings you apply
to the particular brush
variant you are using
and we will look at these
variables here.

The Dry Media categories within Corel


Painter consist of:

CHALK
PENCILS
CONTE
PASTELS
OIL PASTELS
COLORED PENCILS
CRAYONS

Although these categories are distinctly


different, they are all dependent on
particular characteristics when it comes to
controlling the marks the brushes within
the categories make and the effect you can
achieve with them.
When youre using any of the variants
within these categories, one of the most
vital setting you will come across is the
Grain slider. This setting determines how
much effect the surface of your chosen
paper has on the strokes made with
the currently selected dry media brush
variant. At relatively low values, the marks
made by the brush penetrate the paper
grain very little, so the paper texture
is very obvious within the strokes of
colour. At high grain values, the dry media
penetrates deeply into the paper grain, so

9/3/07 15:52:27

the surface texture itself will be much less


obvious in your inished drawing.
The Resat slider controls the amount of
colour that replenishes within the stroke.
At 100% the colour will be at maximum
saturation all the way through the stroke,
this saturation within the stroke will
reduce at lower Resat values.
Youll also see a Bleed slider when
using dry media variants, which is pretty
important in determining how your brush
behaves. Essentially, the Bleed value

footprints of the brush, placed closely


together and in line with each other. The
Jitter slider adjusts the placement of these
footprints, scattering them either side of
the central line of the brushstroke to a
lesser or greater extent dependent on the
value of the Jitter slider. This feature can
be very useful to avoid the edges of your
brushstroke being too uniform and is
worth experimenting with.
Remember that all of the variants
within the dry media categories here are

Dry mediums work by depositing


themselves on, or within, the surface texture
determines how much a current stroke
of the brush blends with any other colour
already applied beneath it. At high values,
colour from your brush will blend readily
with any colour beneath it. At low Bleed
values it will blend very little. A practical
demonstration of this is that any dry
media brush variant that contains the
word soft in its name will automatically
have a medium to high bleed value,
whereas for the brush variants labelled
hard, the Bleed value will quite often be
set to zero.
Of course, the settings within the brush
is not the only thing that determines
the look of the strokes made with the
brush. The actual look of the brush is also
dependent on its footprint. You can easily
see the individual footprint of the brush,
simply by making a single click with the
brush on your canvas. Youll see from
this footprint that some brushes contain
texture within their footprint, while
others have either hard or soft edges. Here
we come to another feature of dry media
brushes which should not be overlooked,
namely Jitter. By default, the stroke
of a brush will be made up of multiple

The surface you choose to draw on is vital with dry


media brushes. You can also adjust the scale of the
paper grain, its Brightness and Contrast

Dry media brushes


For brilliantly-textured papered effects

Dull Grainy Chalk

Variable Chalk

Square Chalk

Sketching Pencil

Oily Variable Pencil

Dull Conte

Charcoal

Gritty Charcoal

Soft Charcoal

Soft Vine Charcoal

Artist Pastel Chalk

Soft Pastel

Square Hard Pastel

Chunky Oil Pastel

Soft Oil Pastel

Waxy Crayons

Using the Square Hard Pastel variant, the


difference between a 10% Grain setting and a
100% setting is hugely dramatic

drawing media and as such, the kind of


marks you make with the brush variants is
key to replicating the effect of a traditional
drawing. Its good to bear in mind that
drawing is an exercise that depends very
much on building up tones with lots of
linear shading and crosshatched strokes.
As well as this, many of these variants also
respond to the pressure you apply to your
drawing stylus, in regard to size, opacity
and grain, so its vital that you consider
this as you draw.
In the boxout to the right youll see
a selection of examples of some of the
best brush variants from each of the dry
media categories available within Corel
Painter. Try each of them and vary the
paper surface you use with them to see the
different effects that can be created.
One inal point; remember that dry
media brushes often work very well on
a coloured ground, so experiment with
irst illing your canvas layer with a solid
colour rather than automatically choosing
a white canvas.

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Get started with Corel Painter brushes

WATERCOLOUR AND TRANSLUCENT MEDIA BRUSHES

Feature

When you need a bit of subtlety in your work or just the bearest hint
of colour, the watercolour and translucent options are well worth
investigating. Try these suggestions to start with
atercolour painting is often
seen as synonymous with
the very best in British art.
There is a charm, delicacy
and directness associated
with water-based transparent media that
simply cannot be replicated by any other
techniques and this fact holds true within
the realms of Corel Painter. This is one area
where Corel Painter particularly excels,
and some of the most realistic results can
be achieved. Here are the categories which
can be regarded as transparent media:

SUMI-E
WATERCOLOR
DIGITAL WATERCOLOR
LIQUID INK
The Sumi-e category features variants
similar to those traditionally used in
Chinese brush painting techniques and can

create beautiful, effective watercolourlike paintings. The variants within this


category vary from broad bristle brushes
through to small detail Sumi-e brushes.
Each of them feature the Resat setting
mentioned in the previous section and
another brush property, namely the
Feature slider. This slider, common in many
of the brushes in the watercolour-like
categories control the density of the hairs,
or bristles within the brush. Low values
here create strokes where the individual
hairs are densely packed, producing more
solid strokes. High values produce strokes
where the bristles of the brush are more
sparsely packed, leaving unpainted gaps
between them.
The Digital Watercolor category
contains a wealth of brushes which
can be used on the Canvas layer, or
normal loating layers to create effective
watercolour paintings. Although these
brushes are a less advanced version of the
Watercolor category brushes, they can still
yield super results and are dependent on
very particular brush property settings.

The brush variants in this category


include broad mop brushes, which apply
beautiful wet, broad washes of colour, dry

When you use Watercolor variants, notice the


special Watercolor Layer that appears in the
Layers palette

Original artwork by Philip Straub

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Transparent brushes
Use for subtle washes and calm landscapes

The Water section of the Brush Controls allows you to bend and twist the Watercolor brushes for exceptionally
realistic results. From soaking the paper to creating a drip effect, it has it all

brushes which will give the impression of


a fairly dry brush just brushing the surface
grain of your painting surface and even
brushes which appear to spatter colour
and water across your canvas. All of these
brush variants feature two very important
brush properties to create the feel of
watercolour. The irst of these variables,
Diffusion, essentially controls how wet
the surface is that youre painting on.
Traditionally, working with a watercolour,
if you apply paint to wet paper it spreads
and diffuses as soon as you make a mark.
This setting creates exactly the same
effect. Low Diffusion values mean that

is the Water section of the Brush Controls


palette. The settings in this category of
brush properties allow the colour you
apply with the brush to diffuse and low
across the painting surface and in this
section you can control how wet the paint
and paper is, how far it runs and diffuses
and even the direction in which colour
applied by the brush lows.
There is a vast range of variants within
the Watercolor category of brushes and
all of them are directly comparable to
traditional techniques. The variants
themselves include runny brushes which
apply pools of really wet paint that will

Theres a charm associated with water-based


transparent media that cannot be replicated
the brush you use keeps its distinct edges,
but high values mean that the edges of
the colour you apply diffuse into the
surrounding area.
The Wet Fringe setting is great for
simulating the effect of watercolour
paint pooling around the edges of a
brushstroke, the effect intensifying at
higher values applied to this slider.
The Watercolor category group of brush
variants deserve special attention, as
the stunningly realistic effects you can
achieve with these brushes equal those
of real-world watercolour effects. They
also rely on some very speciic settings.
These Watercolor brushes require a
special type of layer, which will be added
to your image as soon as you begin to use
one of the brushes. The feature of these
brushes which deserves special attention

low over the paper; dry brushes which


can create areas of texture that take
advantage of the surface texture of the
paper; sponge effect brushes and wash
brushes that can be used to apply broad,
diffused washes of colour.
The Liquid Ink group of brush variants
imitate the effect of inks, which can range
from thick, gloopy ink to ine, almost penlike calligraphic lines of ink. Again this
group of brush variants work on a special
layer, added as soon as your begin to use
one of the brushes. This group of brushes
is fantastic for spontaneous sketches
and bold, graphic images. With these
variants, youll also ind two new brush
property settings; Smoothness and
Volume, which allow you to control
the amount of ink on the brush and the
smoothness of your strokes.

Sumi-e Dry Ink

Flat Wet Sumi-e

DW Diffuse Water

DW Spatter Water

Watercolor Diffuse
Camel

Watercolor Grainy
Wash Bristle

Watercolor Runny
Wet Flat

Watercolor
Sponge Wet

Watercolor Smooth
Runny Camel

Watercolor
Wet Wash Flat

Watercolor Watery
Soft Bristle

Watercolor
Spatter Water

Liquid Ink
Smooth Bristle

Liquid Ink
Sparse Bristle

Liquid Ink Velocity


Sketcher

Liquid Ink
Clumpy Ink

Liquid Ink
Calligraphic Flat

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Tutorial Clone and glaze

Jeff Johnson shows you how to

Clone and glaze


In this tutorial, Jeff Johnson walks you through how he cloned a photo and applied
a glaze effect to create a digital masterpiece
Tutorial info
Painter master

Jeff Johnson
Time needed

2 hours
Skill level

Intermediate
On the CD

Starter photo
and sketch

eing a restless sort, I am given to


trying every way I can discover
to achieve my ends. I am even
likely to learn a few things in this
tutorial! Corel Painter is so versatile that
effects can be achieved in many ways and I
encourage everyone to approach painting
digitally with that in mind.
The project at hand should leave us
with a very nice emulation of a character
painted in oil, using the technique of
slowly building up light, shade and colour
harmonies with semi-transparent layers
of digital paint. Because I have spent so
much time gawking at masterworks from
the Renaissance, there will be a lavour of
that look in the inal piece.
We will begin by doing a few necessary
things to a photo reference, including
adding parts of the body. We will then
transfer the igure to a background we
will prepare together. After establishing
a light source, we will build up the kind of
atmospheric effects that one associates
with oil painting. Because the process is a
gradual one, it is also forgiving. It is evenly
matched by the forgiving nature of digital
painting in general. If a muddle-head like
myself can do it, so can you!

Photo and sketch

Starting sketc h

Or igin al photo

The two starting elements

01

Scaling the reference photo Wow,

what a nice thing to have to stare at for


the next few hours! I copied and pasted the photo
onto a new canvas (37cm high by 23cm wide).
Via Effects>Orientation>Scale I resized it. Using
Canvas>Compositions>Show Layout Grid I placed
the eyes on line with the upper third of the canvas,
a common practice in portraiture. If you havent
got Corel Painter X, do this by eye.

and rotating the


02 Altering
photograph

With the photo still


selected and on a separate layer, I rotated the head
two degrees via Effects>Orientation> Rotate. I
also pinched the left side on top and bottom via
Effects>Distort to x some minor lens distortion.
Using the Lasso tool, I copied and pasted her
mouth and resized it to 98%, as it felt slightly too
full for the period avour I wanted. I then dropped
both layers and saved as a RIFF uncompressed.

03 Create a reference study

On a
new layer set to 45% opacity and toned
slightly brown, I began to draw in the rest of the
gure, using a medium brown tapered artist chalk
10. I traced around the head and features lightly
and did some early shading. After saving that layer
as a new document, I worked side-by-side with
the original to create the study on the right (its on
the disc). It expresses some of the shading I will
add to make the forms rounder.

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Tutorial
Clone and glaze
31

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9/3/07 12:46:35

Tutorial Clone and glaze

Merge photos and sketch


Get that traditional look

04 Transferring the reference

I then
used the Lasso tool, copied and then
pasted our doctored reference right over a copy
of our study. Here I am in the process of erasing
the unneeded parts. I have set her layer at roughly
70% opacity, so I can see where to erase. I have a
plan! Once I cobble together the basic picture, I am
going to transfer it to a prepared canvas via an oil
cloning brush that will give me the opportunity to
nesse every part of the painting.

05 Painting in the gure

Next
I painted out the hair. Using the
Eyedropper tool I borrowed some of the
references colours to roughly paint in the
new hair, body, black dress and a very rough
background. I used the largest Airbrushes possible
for each part of this step, set to 60% opacity, in
order to create fairly smooth transitions on the
rst pass.

06 Finishing the blocking

After
attening the image, I created a new
layer set to Darken and blocked in the basic tones
for the whites of the eyes, hat and frills. This is
a snap, as the elds bordering these areas are
darker than the goal values. I set this layer at 80%
opacity. I then spent about three minutes with a
Soft Blender Stump enlarged to 60 smoothing out
some rough edges.

Creating
08
a guide
for cloning

Soft light
layer for
modifying
mid-tones
and shadows
Say what? One day I
was experimenting
with the Soft Light
layer and discovered
that if I painted onto
it with a dark colour,
it would subtly darken
the area painted. I felt
pretty clever until I
learned that a number
of Corel Painter
users have stumbled
upon this useful
application. It has
become a staple in my
bag of tricks, because
it takes advantage of
the operative term,
namely soft. Using
this layer combined
with a fairly large
soft-edged brush set
to less than 100%
opacity creates
wonderfully luminous
effects with very little
modification of the
edges needed.

I had
in mind all along that
I would want to use
an oil brush cloner
directionally over
forms to create a handpainted feel. I needed
a guide for my strokes,
so I simply copied our
latest version onto the
enhanced backround
and reduced its opacity
to 25%.

07 Preparing a background

Open
another document, the same size ad
before. Were going to do a rened background.
I have used the Eyedropper tool to match colour
between the rough background and started by
using the Paint Bucket tool to ll the canvas with
the darkest value. Using a size 180 Digital Airbrush
set to 60% opacity, I gradually worked from dark
to light. The greenish hue compliments the esh
tones nicely.

09 Cloning the gure

This step was a hoot. I felt like I had a magic


paintbrush. Using File>Clone Source I selected our cobbled together
version as the source. After a few experiments, I decided the Smeary Camel
Cloner was the ticket and I began to clone directly onto the background. Note
how my brush strokes follow the contours of the forms. I then zoomed in and
using a Straight Cloner, brought back some of the details of the original. We
now have our basic underpainting and will begin to modify it.

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Add
10
highlights,
mid-tones and

The shining light from the darkest shadows

steps help dene our light


source coming from in
front of and above her
right eye. First, I created a
new layer set to Soft Light
and using a size 27 Digital
Airbrush, made a pass of
dark brown in areas away
from our light source. I
then selected a medium
brownish-orange and
added a few mid-tones to
the nose and around the
eyes. Finally, I increased
the size to around 70 and
selected a yellowish-white
for passes over highlights.

a new layer and, using various Digital


Airbrush brush sizes, reintroduced some handpainted detail around the eyes and eyebrows.
I also continued rounding out areas like the far
cheek with mid-tones.

So you just painted an apple. You painstakingly observed every colour


you could see and mixed up a slew of separate hues and values. Then you
meticulously applied them to your canvas, blending them seamlessly. You
just employed the direct method of painting.
The indirect method takes a different approach. An indirect painter
begins with an underpainting that is then modified by successive semitransparent layers of paint that affect but dont completely cover the
previous layer. In traditional oil technique, glazing usually involves very
little pigment suspended in a thinning medium, usually some mix of
varnish, thinner and oil. Put a piece of blue cellophane over a patch of
yellow and you see immediately that you have a green that has optical
properties that cant be achieved by mixing paint. That is indirect painting
in a nutshell.
Corel Painter places a number of tools at ones disposal that can be used
to paint indirectly. Simply reducing the opacity of a layer or a brush works.
Composite layers like Gel and Multiply are particularly well suited for an
indirect approach. I discover new methods all the time.

Clone and glaze

11

Broaden the value range I created

Tutorial

Understand glazes

shadows The next three

depth and nuance to


12 Add
shadows

After creating a new layer


set to Gel at 16%, I used the largest brushes that
would t the various areas to paint a medium
reddish-brown into selected mid-tones to add
variation and depth to the areas not in direct light.
This included the entire left side of her face.

Without glaze

Using a
13
Multiply
layer

I added to
the shadows and
mid-tones around
the nose, mouth,
eyes, and cheeks on
a Multiply layer set to
25% opacity, picking
my colour from the
lightest area in the
forehead. I opened
a default layer,
corrected some areas
and began to draw in
details of the hair. The
truly astute observer
will notice that I
nudged the entire
mouth up a fraction. I
offer this side-by-side
for comparison.

With glaze
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Tutorial Clone and glaze

Lighting and colour tweaks


Going from good to great

Dont get
paint on your
nose
I worked through
this tutorial without
zooming in to near
100% until the
very last step. The
majority of my work is
done with the entire
painting visible on
the screen. Owing to
the size of my digital
canvas, that usually
translates to roughly
25% magnification.
This prevents me from
losing track of the
overall impact of a
step on the painting.
Indirect painting
is a process of
harmonising elements
together, and one
has to see the whole
painting at one time to
tell if any one step is
working towards that
end or not.

Apply
15
lighting
1

14 Adding in some details

Working with a Soft Light and Darken


layer open, I alternated between them and the painting itself to
nalise some forms and modelling. I painted in selected details throughout
the painting, focusing on creating rhythms of spot detail versus nishing
everything completely.

Apply
16
lighting
2

After merging and


saving, I repeated
the procedure and
chose Gradual
Diagonal, altering
only the direction
and placement of the
source. This time I
changed the opacity
of the affected layer
to 50%. Using a 130
eraser set at 60%
opacity, I gently
dabbed back some
highlights, merged
and saved.

On-line
resources
Here are a couple of
websites that offer
valuable insights:
www.noteaccess.
com/materials/
indirectP.htm has
a synopsis of Reed
Kays excellent notes
on indirect painting
techniques. It is
written for natural
media, but most of it
holds true for digital
painting as well. The
page also has links
to other insightful
articles on painting.
http://forums.
cgsociety.org has
a thread devoted to
Corel Painter and its
art techniques forum
has handy tutorials
and top advice from
some of the most
skilled digital painters
out there.

This step and the


next will help create
an atmosphere and
put our subject into it.
I copied and pasted
our image on top of
itself and via Effects>
Apply Lighting, I chose
warm globe. Note how
I modied the sliders
and placement of
the source. I used the
separate layer in case I
wanted to dab a bit of
the effect off in places,
but it did the trick.

17 Colour correct layer

I copied our image onto itself again and this


time worked on the lower layer. Via Effects>Correct Colors I opened
the Color Correction dialog box and chose Curve>Auto Set. Then, working on
the top layer with my 130 sized eraser, I gently brought some of those cooler
but lighter blues into the picture, focusing on the highlights and the clothing.
The last two steps had, as is the case when glazing traditionally as well, made
the picture a bit too dark and it brought in a little colour balance as well.

19 Cleanup
18 Flipping the picture

It is good
practice to ip the picture a few times, as
imbalances tend to pop out. I saw several small
areas that needed attention and created a Multiply
layer for darkening, a Soft Light layer for some
subtle highlights, and a Lighten layer to get rid of a
few annoying marks along the frills.

Now I zoomed
to 200% and, with a
Soft Blender Stump
as large as I could t
in each area, began
to softly blend out
marks that either didnt
look man-made or
detracted from the
picture. I like to leave
some dither and dash,
so I didnt spend too
much time smoothing.

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Primer Effects menu

EFFECTS MENU

PRIMER

Tonal Control
Use this Effects group to make sure the
colours in your image are loud and proud

Video Legal
Colors
One Tonal Control
option is very useful
to movie-makers and
thats the Video Legal
Colors command.
This ensures your
images colours are
compatible with either
the NTSC or PAL video
colour. Open the
dialog, choose your
format and press OK
to set.

ur next stop on the journey


down the Effects menu is
the Tonal Control group. As
you can guess by the name,
the options in here allow you to edit the
colours in an image.
To many people, Corel Painter is just
a tool for creating digital art, but it also
has an impressive set of tools for editing
photos and the Tonal Controls effects
play a major part in this. From here you
can perform tasks such as adjusting
brightness and contrast, editing selected
colours and applying posterisation
effects. Some of the edits will work as
dynamic layers, allowing you to make
changes without permanently affecting
the original image. This is a great way
of experimenting with different looks
without having to worry about running
out of Undos and ruining your original
image. For more on dynamic layers, see
the right side panel.
In addition to edits that improve the
colour of an image, it is also possible to
use some of the controls to create wild,
outlandish results. These are great if you
want a certain look and can be used to
kickstart the colour scheme of a painting.
In fact, wed suggest that if you are
painting from a photo that you always
irst pay a visit to the Tonal Controls
options. By boosting saturation or
enhancing shadows, you can make a
photo more painterly.

After

DIFFERENT OPTIONS
When you open up the Correct
Colors command, you see a
window with a big area for
curves and then a drop-down
menu below it. There are four
options in the menu; Contrast
and Brightness, Curve, Freehand
and Advanced. The sliders change
according to the option selected
in the menu.

Before

Adjust Color

Brightness/Contrast

Enjoy complete colour control

Overall colour edit

The Adjust Color command allows you to


determine the hue, saturation and value of an
image. Once selected, a dialog window will open.
The Using drop-down menu allows you to control
how the colour is adjusted; Uniform Color will
tweak all pixels; Paper will take the current
paper grain and use as the adjustment; Image
Luminance will take the luminance in the image
as the starting point for adjustment; Original
Luminance uses the luminance in the clone
source. Once youve set the Using menu, use the
sliders to alter the hue, saturation or value.

The Brightness/Contrast option allows you to


alter the, erm, brightness and contrast across
an image, using RGB values. Unless you make a
selection, the edit will be applied to the whole of
the currently selected layer.
Making adjustments with this tool is intuitive
and is based around sliders. Once you select the
Brightness/Contrast command from the Tonal
Control set, a window will appear with a Contrast
slider (top) and a Brightness slider (bottom).
Move the sliders right to increase the effect or
left to decrease. If it goes wrong, hit Reset.

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READING THE CURVE

Edit on a dynamic layer


Experiment without any regret!

Primer

As you move the sliders, a line will appear


on the curve representing the changes
youve made. Anything towards the
top of the graph will be lighter than the
starting point, while anything towards
the bottom will be darker.

Dynamic layers are a fabulous way of trying out an effect without


worrying about ruining your original image. By setting a dynamic
layer, you work above the original and can set one for the Brightness/
Contrast, Equalize and Posterize commands.

Tonal Control

01 Start the edit


ONE COLOUR OR ALL?

SEE THE CHANGES


Once you have decided on the colour
to edit (red, green, blue or all) you can
move the sliders to adjust the curve.
Youll see your edit appear in the main
grid in the corresponding colour. If you
edit the reds, for example, a red line will
appear in the grid.

To the right of the drop-down menu


is four coloured squares. The red, blue
and green squares relate to the red,
blue and green in an RGB image. Click
one of these to edit that colour. The
black square is the master curve and
controls all colours equally.

Open
your photo or image and
then call up the Layers palette.
Go to the bottom of the palette
and click the Dynamic Plugins icon
(second in from the left). Pick the
command you want from the list
that appears. We decided to go
for Posterize.

02 New layer, please

As soon
as you make a choice from the
menu, a new layer will appear above
your original one, with a little dynamic
plugin icon just so you dont forget
which one it is.

03 Ready to edit

Now the dynamic layer is all set up, you are free to
make your edits. When it comes to posterising an image, it pays to
stick to eight levels or less. However, this does change according to certain
images but if we dont like the effect we can just delete the dynamic layer. No
harm, no foul!

Equalize

Negative and Posterize

For when you need precise contrast edits


Equalizing an image allows you to improve
contrast and brightness by setting black and
white points. Once you have these set, Corel
Painter will then use these two points to evenly
distribute the values across the layer or selection.
After going to Effects>Tonal Control>Equalize,
the image will be adjusted so the lightest colour
is white and the darkest is black. You make
adjustments by moving the black and white
markers values to the right of the white marker
become white, and values to the left of the black
marker become you guessed it black.

Dramatic effects with just one click


Two of the Tonal Control options are particularly
good for dramatically altering a photo or image.
The Negative setting will create a negative version
of your layer or selection and is particularly
effective in collages or backgrounds.
The Posterize option allows you to limit
the amount of colours in an image. Go to
Effects>Tonal Control>Posterize and enter a value
of 8 or less for the number of levels. Your image
will now have a more illustrated look to it and is a
great starting point for vector or comic book-style
images. You can also posterise using a color set.

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Tutorial Paint perfect skin

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Painter master

Tim Shelbourne
Time needed

1 hour
Skill level

Intermediate

RealBristle brushes

Tutorial info

Tutorial

Using the
RealBristle
brushes
RealBristle brushes are new to Corel
Painter X and in this tutorial, we
demonstrate just how easy it is to use
them to create stunning paintings full
of brush strokes!
f your primary goal in using Corel Painter is to
produce images which are as close as possible to
real world oil or acrylic paintings, in version X
you have a new super-powerful creative weapon
right at your ingertips, namely the RealBristle
painting system. In the following tutorial, were going
to illustrate and prove to you just how incredible these
brushes really are and produce a landscape painting
which you would be hard pressed to tell apart from its
real-world equivalent!
RealBristle brushes are the closest Corel Painter
has ever come to actually putting a real, traditional
artists brush in your hand! Essentially, these brushes
very accurately mimic the shape and behaviour
of traditional bristle brushes, with all of the same
variability and vitality that artists have come to
know and love in these brushes. The brush variants
themselves range from short lats, through to lovely
full-bodied round brushes and even include tapered
varieties which mimic traditional ilberts.
As well as the selection of preset brush variants
youll ind within the RealBristle categories, youre
also able to customise and change every aspect
of the particular brushs characteristic within the
RealBristle section of the Brush Creator or the brush
controls. You can change behaviour such as bristle
length, bristle rigidity and the shape of the brush
head, right the way through to the amount of friction
between the brush and the surface and the wetness of
the canvas.
Remember, this project is all about painting, so use
the inished image as you guide, but dont be afraid to
inject some of your own personality and vitality into
your brush strokes as you work. Use these brushes
with enthusiasm and the rewards will come!

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Tutorial RealBristle brushes

From sketch to painting


Laying down the base colour

01

Open the sketch Download the starter sketch and colour swatch

from www.paintermagazine.co.uk. Open it up and go to File>Save


As and save the le under a new name and as a Corel Painter .riff le. Click the
Papers swatch and choose Artist Canvas. Click the Brush tool and choose the
RealBristle Brushes category. Choose the Real Round bristle variant. Choose a
mid brown from the Colors palette.

02 Reinforce the sketch

With this
brush at around 10 pixel size, reinforce
the distant shoreline and landscape simply by
roughly painting over the sketch lines. You can
leave the sketching in the sky as it is. Change to the
Real Flat variant. Increase the brush size to around
60 pixels and in the Size category of the Brush
Controls, change the Minimum Size to 65%.

03 Looking skyward

Choose a mid blue


colour and begin to paint in the blue
areas of the sky. Use lots of short strokes here in
random directions. Remember this brush loses its
colour quickly and starts to blend after being in
contact with the canvas for a while so regularly lift
you stylus and then begin to paint again.

Paint
04
some
water

As you paint
the blue of the sky,
periodically choose
either a slightly lighter
or darker shade of the
colour to vary the blue
here and there. Now
choose a darker blue
from the colour set
and using the same
brush at a smaller size,
roughly paint in the
water using energetic
horizontal strokes.

Loading the
Color Set
Weve supplied a
colour set which
features all the
colours used in
this painting. Once
youve downloaded
it from www.
paintermagazine.
co.uk, in Corel Painter
go to Window>Color
Palettes>Show Color
Sets. In the Color
Sets palette, click the
small right-pointing
arrow and choose
Open Color Set. Click
Load and locate the
downloaded colour
set on your computer.
Once the set is loaded,
click the small rightpointing arrow again
and choose Sort
Order>LHS.

05 The hills are alive!

Choose the Real


Oils Short variant. Set Blend to 21%,
Feature to 4.4 and Grain to 72%. Choose a very
dark blue/green from the swatch and reduce the
size of the brush to around 29 pixels. Now begin
to paint in the distant hills. Again, use short strokes
here at various angles.

07 Darker
features

06 Landscaping

Choose a very dark


olive green. Reduce the Bleed of the
brush to 12%. Now, using the brush at 19 pixels,
paint in the hills below the most distant ones. Try
and use fairly long sweeping strokes here. Choose
a darker shade of the same colour and add some
darker accents here and there.

Choose the Real Flat


Opaque variant. Set
Bleed to 5%, Feature
to 7.1 and Blend to 2%.
In the Brush Creator
(Window>Show
Brush Creator), choose
the Color Variabilty
category. Set H slider
to 10%. Choose a very
dark blue/black from
the Colors palette. Add
a new layer (Ctrl/Cmd+
Shift+N). Now begin to
paint in the foreground
hills and land mass.

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For the darker cloud areas in the sky, were using


the Real Round Bristle variant. The attributes we apply
to the brush means it has a fairly high Feature setting,
which allows the individual bristles within the brush
to remain visible in the areas of paint it applies. The
low Blend value means that the colour remains for
longer as you continue to paint. Its best to use
this brush at a fairly large size and with a distinct
scribbling motion.

For the lighter parts of the clouds we use the


Impasto brush we created, which is a modified version
of the Real Oils Short variant. The great thing about
this brush is that it paints with impasto and is best
used in short dabs in various directions.
For all of these brushes one of the most important
values is that of Blend. At high values the brushes will
create strokes and colours which blend together, at
lower values your brush strokes will be more distinct.

Real Flat High Blend

Real Flat Low Blend

With a high Blend setting, the Real Flat


variant blends readily and quickly with the
canvas and other paint.

With a low Blend setting, the same variant


blends less and leaves much more distinct
brush marks as you paint.

Real Round Bristle

Real Oils Short Impasto

Real Oils Short No Impasto

The Real Round Bristle variant leaves visible


bristle marks within its stroke, making it ideal
for soft areas such as the darker shades in the
sky and clouds.

Because weve modified the Impasto


properties of the Real Oils Short variant, it
paints with very realistic impasto, making it
ideal for the bolder areas of the sky.

Here you can see the same variant without the


Impasto value applied. You can easily achieve
a mix between the two simply by using a very
low Impasto value.

RealBristle brushes

For the initial blue of the sky, we will use the Real Flat
variant. This is a great RealBristle brush because it
quickly enables you to cover large areas with colour
that still maintains lots of visible brush strokes for
interest and texture. These brush strokes become
visible because of the fairly high Blend value featured
in the brush.

The skys the limit thanks to Corel Painter

Tutorial

Our pick of the RealBristle brushes

Continue with the colour


Were still applying base colour!

08 Suggesting detail

Use short,
scribbling movements here, regularly
removing your stylus from the tablet. Reduce
the size of the brush as you start painting in the
narrow areas along the shoreline. Add a few
small vertical strokes to indicate trees and areas
of interest.

09 Darker clouds

Change to the Real


Round Bristle variant. Set Bleed to
10%, Feature to 2.8 and Blend to 11%. In the
Layers palette, return to Layer 1. Increase the
size of the brush to 60 pixels. Now begin to add
the darker areas to the clouds. Use nice, random
movements here, reducing the size of the brush
where necessary. Refer to the nished painting for
placement of these areas.

10 More sky

Reduce the size of the brush a little and paint the darker
areas of the sky just above the horizon line. Again, use short, dabbing
strokes, brushing over some areas repeatedly to blend those areas a little. Its
a good idea as you go to choose a slightly warmer or cooler hue of a similar
tone from the Colors palette.

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Tutorial RealBristle brushes

Suggest detail with subtle shading


Its all in the brush work

Create the
Impasto
brush
Choose the Real Oils
Short variant and set
Bleed to 37%, Grain
to 72%, Feature to 1.2
and Blend to 26% in
the Properties Bar.
Now go to the Brush
Creator and click the
Impasto category.
From Draw To choose
Color and Depth, and
set the Depth slider
to 14%. Click the
Artists Oils category
and use these
settings: Bristling
9%, Clumpiness 95%,
Canvas Wetness 50%.
In the General
category, set Grain
Expression to None,
and in the Size
category, set Feature
Expression to None.
Once youre back in
Corel Painter, click the
small arrow next to
the variant selector
and choose Save
Variant, giving your
new brush a name.

11 Mix some colours

Using the Mixer pad,


mix a range of very light pinks, yellows and
blue/greys. Now choose the Impasto brush you
made earlier (see Impasto Brush boxout to the
left). In the Mixer pad, choose the Sample Multiple
Colours Eyedropper and click anywhere within
your mix of light shades in the Mixer pad.

12 Painting the clouds with sunshine! 13 Paint and Blend


Begin to paint in the lightest parts of
the clouds. Remember, this brush paints with
impasto, so the more you paint over one areas,
the thicker and more three-dimensional the paint
will become. Refer to the nished image for the
placement of these highlight areas.

Reserve the thickest


areas of impasto for the absolute
highlights in the sky. For where the lighter areas of
the clouds meet the existing dark areas, increase
the Blend value of the brush in the Properties Bar
so that you get smoother transitions from one
tone to another here.

14 Another
brush

Add
a new layer. Choose
the Real Flat Opaque
variant and in the Brush
Controls palette, set
Minimum Size to 75%.
Set Grain to 64%, Bleed
to 5%, Feature to 1.5
and Blend to 17. Now,
choosing lighter greens,
ochres and yellows
from the supplied
swatches, begin to add
some more colours to
the hills.

15 Suggested detail

Use long strokes


that suggest the contours of the land
and remember that the lightest areas will be on
the tops of the hills. As you work further down
the hills, use darker shades of greens, browns
and blue/greys. In these areas, increase the Blend
setting to around 40% so that the brushstrokes
arent quite as distinct. There are really no denite
shapes to paint here, were simply adding texture.

18 Suggested
trees
16 Dark shades, broken colour

Increase the size of the brush a little and


begin to add some real darks to the large tree bank
on the left of the painting. Its important to break
up this area with stokes of slightly different dark
colours from dark browns through to very dark
dusky blues. A great range of these colours are in
the supplied colour set.

17 Rene the detail

Use this same brush


at a smaller size to add some small strokes
to the top edge of the distant tree mass, to break
up its outline and blend it slightly with the sky.
Now continue adding dark areas of interest all
along the shoreline, still varying the colours you
use here and there. Small, random brushstrokes
here will work well.

Small,
upward strokes of the
brush along the dark of
the shoreline can easily
give the impression
of small trees and
objects. Again, at this
distance you really
only need to be quite
impressionistic, but
its still useful to zoom
close in to the image
so you can still see the
brush when youre
using it at a small size.

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Add some extra elements

Reduce the brush to


a very small size (around 5 pixels) and
choose a very light blue/grey from the swatches.
Distant boats along the shoreline can be indicated
very easily. Simply make upward strokes for the
masts and sails and two or three horizontal strokes
for the main body of the boats.

20 Water highlights

At this stage, you


can add a new layer to the image for the
nal details, or continue working on the existing
layer, whichever youd prefer. Continue to add
horizontal strokes of this light colour along the
distant waterline to serve as simple highlights on
the water.

The
foreground boat is really quite easy to
construct as were using a at brush which helps
a lot with the shapes. First, set the Blend value to
7% so the paint from the brush does not blend
too much. Set the brush size to 9 pixels. Choose a
very light blue/grey and paint a long vertical stroke
in front of the tree mass to serve as the mast of
the boat.

Sometimes, by
default, Corel Painter
can slightly over-egg
the pudding when it
comes to showing the
impasto effect in your
paintings, but you
can easily temper this
via Canvas>Surface
Lighting. Use the
Amount slider to
reduce the impasto
effect in you image.
Often, very small
values applied via this
slider can give a much
better effect than
more extreme ones.
Just click OK to apply
the change.

RealBristle brushes

19 Distant boats

21 Let the brush do the work!

Tutorial

Controlling
the impasto
effect

But still keep a loose style!

22 Painting
the sails

Increase the brush size


to around 22 pixels
and paint in the two
triangular shapes for
the sails. Apply more
pressure towards the
bottom of the strokes
to widen the brush
there. You can always
reduce the size of
the brush to sharpen
up the shape of the
sails. Make sure to
stroke in some thicker
highlights, using the
brush at a smaller size.

23 Boatbuilding!

Choose a slightly darker neutral grey and use


horizontal strokes to paint in the main body of the boat. Use short,
deft strokes here, before reducing the size of the brush and adding a couple of
small highlights here and there. By using the brush at a very small size, you can
rene the outline of the boat.

Real Blender
brushes

24 Darker details

Choose a very dark


colour and reduce the Blend and Bleed
to very low values. Now use the brush at a very
small size to add the dark details to the boat.

25 Water shadows

Increase the Feature


setting to 6.3. Choose a deep petrol blue
and set the brush size to 39 pixels. Now use this
brush to add long horizontal strokes to the water.
Also add some of this colour horizontally beneath
the boat.

26 More renements

This step relies


on your own preference. Using the
techniques demonstrated throughout this
tutorial, rene the painting by adding more areas
of indicated detail, such as more distant boats and
sharp highlights on the water. Using a range of
colours from the swatches, also take the time to
add some ner details to the hills and sky.

The Real Blender


brush variants (Real
Blender Flat, Round
and Tapered), are very
useful for refining
your paintings. If
there are areas of
paint where tones
and areas of paint
dont blend together
as much as you would
like, use one of these
brushes to brush over
these areas with an
approximate colour
to subtly blend the
areas together.

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showcase

MARK COROTAN
TITLE
WEBSITE
JOB TITLE

Manji_The Blade of the Immortal


www.sundang.com
CGI/FX artist, animation designer

Mark has produced some incredible work covering digital art, traditional
mediums and also animation lms. His images are always vibrant and
dynamic, demanding the viewers attention straight away. Also be sure
to check out Marks The Kindredd Saga animation project.

044-045_OPM_02_mark Corotan.indd44 44

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044-045_OPM_02_mark Corotan.indd45 45

9/3/07 14:45:32

Feature focus Selecting colour

FEATURE
FOCUS

Selecting
colour

Colour is at the heart of any painting, so


its worth mastering how to select it!

Work with
RGB values
If you are creating a
piece of art that you
know has to have
certain RGB colour
values, you might
think that the little
readout box in the
Colors palette is
useless, since it shows
HSV values instead.
Well, if you click on
this readout it will
turn into RGB, so you
can see how things are
shaping up!

olour is one of the big boys when


it comes to creating artwork.
Selecting the perfect hue is vital
to any artist and it comes as no
surprise to discover that Corel Painter has
plenty of options for choosing, editing and
saving colours.
The main colour selection takes place
in the Colors palette. As youd expect
from Corel Painter, this is entrenched
in traditional art theory and is based
around the concept of a colour wheel. This
means that you can visually see which
colours complement each other or which
belong to the same group. Once you have
selected your main colour, you can then
adjust its saturation or colour value. If you
havent got a clue what this means, well be
explaining everything over these pages!
In addition to the Colors palette, there
are various other methods of selecting
colours. These include the Dropper tool,
the Color squares and the Color Sets
palette. Again, well be looking at how all
of these work in more detail, including a
walkthrough on how to create and save
your own Color Sets.
When it comes to emulating traditional
art techniques, though, the Mixer palette
is phenomenal. You can use this to mix up
paint as you would with a traditional paint
palette and can also set the brush to pick
up multiple colours. Weve got a special
walkthrough just on this feature over the
page, where youll ind out how to use it
and what options are available.

MAIN AND ADDITIONAL COLOUR


The front square here sets the main
colour being used. The back square is
the additional colour and comes into
play when you use dual colour control
on your brush.

Select using squares

The main man (plus additional)

Quick and easy colour selection

Two squares are better than one

The quickest way to select a colour and the


most intuitive if youre used to using an image
editing program, is to click the front coloured
square in the toolbox. This will call up a Colors
window, with a colour wheel and a slider to
the right. Click inside the wheel to select a
colour and adjust how bright or dark it is
by moving the slider up (brighter) or down
(darker). There are also icons at the top of the
window that allow you to set a different way
of selecting a colour. These range from colour
spectrums through to web-safe colours.

One thing that confuses most people when they


move from a program such as Photoshop over
to Corel Painter is the two coloured squares in
the toolbox. In Photoshop these would be the
foreground and background colours, but in Corel
Painter they are the main (front) and additional
(back). The main colour is the one currently
selected. The additional colour only comes into
play when you have multicoloured brush strokes,
two-point gradients or whenever more than one
colour is applied. To set the additional colour,
double-click on it and pick a colour as normal.

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The hub of choosing


colours, this palette
allows you to set a hue
and also control the
value and saturation
of that hue.

Feature focus

Create color sets

COLORS PALETTE

Group colours for easy location


Color Sets are a fabulous way of grouping colours and creating
bespoke colour palettes. Corel Painter ships with several color sets,
but its worth creating your own. You might make some for portrait
painting, landscapes, clothes its completely up to you.

Selecting colour

MIXER PALETTE
This palette is one of the most exciting
features of Corel Painter and allows
you to blend colours just as you would
with a traditional paint palette.

COLOR SETS
These sets are a handy
way of keeping colours
of similar values or uses
together. You can use the
ones that ship with Corel
Painter, or create your own
for the perfect control.

01 Open up the sets

Start by going to
Window>Color Palettes>Show
Color Sets. Once the palette
appears, click the small rightpointing arrow and then select
New Empty Color Set.

02 Pick your colours

Now its time to ll your nice,


clean color set. Start by picking a colour
from the Colors palette and then click
the Add Color to Color Set button
(second from right).

COLOR INFO
If you have to adhere to certain colour rules
maybe you are designing for the web you
can see the colour values for RGB, HSV and
Web RGB from here.

Hues this then?

03 Repeat and save

Continue until you have all the colours you want and then click the
right-pointing arrow again. Choose Save Color Set from the menu and give
your set a name in the Save As box. Pick a location to save to and click Save.

The value of saturation

Using the Color palettes Hue ring to set colour


The best way to select colour is the Colors palette.
By default this will display as a ring of colour with
a triangle in the middle (although you can make it
smaller). This is based around hue, saturation and
value colour model. Typically, this model begins
with you picking a hue, which is represented by
the circle. Hue indicates a colours position on a
colour wheel, hence why its presented in a ring.
To select your hue, simply click and drag the small
black circle. As you move it around the wheel, the
triangle and main/additional colour squares will
update accordingly.

Use the triangle for tints and shade


The triangle in the middle of the ring controls the
saturation and value of a colour. Saturation is
basically how intense a colour is. By moving the
triangles circle to the left, you reduce saturation.
A move to the right will increase it for a very
strong colour.
Value refers to how light or dark a colour is and
lets you pick tints or shades of colours. By moving
the circle to the top of the triangle, you lighten
the colour and create a tint. Moving the circle to
the bottom of the triangle will darken the colour
and therefore make a shade.

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Feature focus Selecting colour

FEATURE
FOCUS

Mix colours with the Mixer palette


Enjoy a true real media effect
Users with version
IX or above of Corel
Painter will be
able to enjoy the
Mixer palette. This
allows you to mix
and merge paint
just as you would
a traditional paint
canvas, but it can
take a bit of getting
used to. Heres how
it works

02 A new background
01

Open up the palette If it isnt

already open, go to Window>Color


Palettes>Show Mixer to open up the Mixer palette.
For the shortcut fans, just press Cmd+2 (Mac) or
Ctrl+2 (Windows).

By default, the
Mixer pad is on a white background.
If youd rather change this, click on the palette
menu arrow and then choose Change Mixer
Background. A Colors dialog box will appear,
so pick the new colour you want. This is good
practice if you are painting onto a coloured
background as youll see how the colours will
appear once mixed.

03 Apply colour

To get started with the


Mixer pad, click on the Apply Color tool at
the bottom of the Mixer palette. Go up to the row of
colours at the top of the palette and click on one you
like. Return to the Mixer pad and paint. Your chosen
colour will appear.

Save your
creations
Just as you might
save a color set for
work in the future,
you can also save
your creations in the
Mixer palette. Maybe
you have created the
perfect concoction for
underwater scenes.
Simply go to the palette
menu arrow and click
Save Mixer Pad. Give
the pad a name, choose
where to save it and
then click Save. Load
it up by picking Open
Mixer Pad from the
palette menu.

04 Second helping

The Mixer pad was


not meant for just one colour, so return
to the colour swatches and click on a different
colour. Paint in the Mixer pad as before. If you paint
over the original colour you added, youll see the
hues start to blend together. To really work them
in, use the Mix Color tool. Swap between the two
by holding down Cmd (Mac) or Ctrl (Windows).

05 Use the colour

When you are happy


with the blended colour, you need
to apply it to the canvas. Do this by clicking the
Sample Color tool at the bottom of the Mixer
palette it will become the main colour. Now
paint with the new colour.

06 All in the brush

With Corel Painter


X, you can use certain brushes to mix
colour directly on the Mixer pad and then move
over to the canvas to start painting straight
away. The variants that support this are ones
that use these dab types: Camel Hair, Flat, Bristle
Spray, Watercolor Camel, Watercolor Flat and
Watercolor Bristle.

The Dropper tool

Clone colour from images

Sample colour from images

Go for preset colours

Even though the Colors palette is an extremely


accurate way of selecting colour, you might find
that you cant get the hue that you need. Maybe
you are trying to add text to a painting but cant
get a colour that matches a hue in the image. For
times like these, pay a visit to the Dropper tool.
Found in the toolbox (or by hitting D on your
keyboard), it allows you to select a colour from an
image. Click the main or additional colour square,
pick the Dropper tool and then click the colour
you want to sample in your image. As long as its a
visible colour, it will appear in your square.

Another way of using colours from an existing


image is to use the Clone Color option. This
works by letting a brush pick up dabs of colour
from the clone source. If youre using a brush
that has dab-based dab types, the colour will be
an approximation of the clone sources colour.
Rendered dab types sample various colours,
giving very realistic results.
Open an image and go to File>Clone. Now go
to Select>All and press delete/backspace. Pick a
brush and open the Colors palette. Click the Clone
Color button and start painting!

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08 Multiple
fun

a brush selected that supports direct


mixing, move the paint around in the window to
get the mix you want. Check that the Dirty Brush
Mode tool is selected and then move over to your
canvas. The colour you just mixed will be applied.

Ensure perfect control

On
a traditional paint
palette, you are able
to load more than one
colour on a brush.
You can do exactly
the same in the Mixer
palette thanks to the
Sample Multiple Color
tool. Select this and
move the Change
Brush Size slider to
decide how big the
sample area is. Click
in the pad to pick up
colour and then paint
on your canvas.

Travel down to the bottom of the Mixer palette


and you will find a range of tools that allow you to
control how you mix the colours. These are all you
need in order to create your own special colour
mixes for whatever the job at hand is. In addition to
the tools, dont forget about the settings available
from the palette options arrow. It is from here that
you can save your Mixer pad workspace.

Selecting colour

07

Mix and apply Making sure you have

Feature focus

Know your Mixer


palette tools

Dirty Brush Mode tool


Enable this in order to apply colours
mixed in the pad to your canvas

Apply Color tool


Use this to click on the top swatches and
apply a colour to the pad

Further afield

Mix Color tool


Mixes colours on the pad and unlike the
Apply Color tool, does not add any more

Customise your colours

Sample Color tool


Use this to sample a colour from the pad
and set it as the main colour

Sample Multiple Colors tool


When you have a pleasing blend, use
this to load up multiple hues

Zoom tool
Quickly zoom in and out of areas on the
Mixer pad

09

Pan tool

Other swatches The Mixer palette

will open with a default set of colours,


but you can change these to suit your work. Pick a
colour from the Colors palette and then Cmd-click
(Mac) or Ctrl-click (Windows) on the swatch you
want to change in the Mixer palette. The square
will change to your selected colour.

If your pad expands beyond the realms


of the palette, use this to move about

10 Save the colours

When you have created your new selection


of colours, go to the palette menu arrow and click Save Mixer
Colors. Give it a name, a save location and then save! You can load Mixer
colours by clicking the palette menu arrow and picking Load Mixer Colors.
Navigate to the one you want and the jobs a goodun!

Clear and Reset Canvas tool


Get rid of any marks on the pad and
reset the zoom level to 100%

Annotate colours

Get colour information

Pass the information on

For when things gets technical

If you share your work with others or are


collaborating on a project, the ability to annotate
colours means everything will always match up.
Its very easy to do as well, although you have to
be working from a color set that included names.
Paint as normal, picking your colour from the color
set with names. Now go to Canvas>Annotations>
Annotate. Put your cursor over the colour you want
to annotate and then drag out to just beyond the
boundaries of the colour. As soon as you let go of
the mouse, the name of the colour will appear.
Save as a RIFF file to keep the annotations.

You can call up the Color Info palette and discover


the HSV or standard RGB values of the colour you
are currently using. If it isnt already open, go to
Window>Color Palettes>Show Color Info. Youll
see some sliders, which you can use to adjust the
values, or simply type a new number in the box.
Click the right-pointing arrow to swap between
RGB or HSV colour values. Any alterations you
make can be previewed in the colour squares.
Also, if you Shift-click on the HSV/RGB square in
the Colors palette, you can see hexadecimal RGB
values for when creating for the web.

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Tutorial Create your own gallery

Create your own gallery


Share your Corel Painter artwork with other users and become part of a
thriving community
Tutorial info
Painter master

Jo Cole
Time needed

10 minutes
Skill level

Beginner

n addition to offering users


a delicious array of tools and
commands for creating outstanding
digital artwork, Corel Painter also
comes with a ready-made community of
loyal users who are only too willing to
pass on their advice to others.
This sense of community is an
important part of this magazine. In
addition to bringing you great tutorials
for creating modern masterpieces, we
also want to provide a place for you to
come and get a healthy Corel Painter
ix while you wait for the next issue to
arrive! So when we created our website,
we wanted to make sure that there was a
place for readers to come and post their
Corel Painter artwork. As a result, once
you sign up to the site you can create
a special gallery to display your work.
Other members can then comment on
your images, plus you can also link to
other members galleries and support an
artist who you particularly admire.
One thing that we want to make clear
from the outset is that this isnt a site
just for Corel Painter professionals or
talented artists. We welcome all users of
all abilities and styles, so dont feel shy if
youve just started using the program.
Over these pages we are going to show
you how to create a gallery, upload an
image and set an avatar for your proile.
At the end, we will also highlight a couple
of other features that you may have
missed on the site.

Newest Member

Markie

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Tutorial
Create your own gallery

Top Rated Gallery

painter_fan_75

Picture of the Week

An Homage to Van Gogh

Featured Gallery

Jo Cole

Register at the site to access the galleries


Inputting profile information and uploading images

01 Register

Pop along to www.


paintermagazine.co.uk. Youll be taken
to the homepage of the website. Go up to the
Sign-up link and click on it. Fill in the form and
make sure you enter the correct email address.
Once completed, click Create User and wait for an
email. Click the link and youre now a member!

02 Your prole

Theres a default avatar,


but you might prefer to add your own
image. This is easily done. Make sure you are
logged in and then click on Edit Prole. Go down
to the avatar bit and click Remove This Image.
Now click Choose File.

03 Set the le

Navigate to where the


image is you want to use and select it.
For ease of use, make sure it is relatively small, but
the image will be automatically shrunk to t the
space. Make sure it is a square format to start with.

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Tutorial Create your own gallery

The approval
process
There will be a slight
delay between you
uploading an image
and it appearing on
the website as all
images go through
an approval process.
This is just to make
sure no one posts
anything offensive.
We approve images as
quickly as we can, but
bear in mind that we
are based in the UK,
and so are tucked up
in bed while some of
you have just started
your day!

04 Finish up

Make any other changes


you want to your prole and then click
Update. Now its time to add some images! Go
down to the Gallery Images area and click Add
New Image. Read through all the rules for the
size/format the image has to be and then click
Choose File to select your picture.

05 More information

With the image


selected, use the Description area to give
a bit of background about why you created it and
what brushes you used, or mention if anything in
particular inspired you. Click Submit Image and
once the le is approved, it will magically appear
in your gallery.

06 Look at other galleries

Click the
Gallery Home link in the left-hand side
panel to see all the galleries. Click Search but leave
the eld blank. Click on a user to see their work.
If they have posted lots of images, use the top
arrows to navigate through them. Click the small
image to open a larger one in a separate window.

of
08 Words
wisdom

Use the Comment


box to leave a, um
comment! Type in
your thoughts or
suggestions and then
hit Post Comment.
Remember that this
is a place for people
to learn and share,
so any derogatory or
offensive posts will
be deleted.

07 Make a comment

As you look at
other peoples work, feel free to leave a
comment. This is an ideal way of praising artists
or making helpful suggestions. Its easy to do as
you click on an image, scroll down to Comment
and Rate. If youd like to give a score, pick one
from the drop-down menu and click Rate.

Other site features


Extra content for members

For all
09
your
downloads
In addition to the
gallery feature, you
can also download
tutorial les from past
issues. This is useful
if you have lost your
disc, or cant wait to
get your issue and
want to follow one
of the PDF tutorials.
Just click the Tutorial
Files link and then the
relevant tutorial.

10 Regular challenge

Members can also enter our regular website


challenge. Click the Competition link and then click Download
images. Use one or all of these to construct your art and then email them to us
by hitting the Click here to email your entry link.

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Tutorial Paint like Edward Hopper

Paint like:Edward Hopper

Discover how to re-create one of Americas most famous paintings


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Tutorial
Paint like Edward Hopper
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Tutorial Paint like Edward Hopper

Nighthawks has
found its way
into many culture
references,
including this
season promo
for the popular
CSI television
programme
(www.cbs.com/
primetime/csi/
diner/)

ighthawks was based on a


Greenwich village spot that
attracted Hoppers native
eye. The artist was known for
roaming the streets of New York, where he
lived for 54 years, to ind spots of interest.
He would make a few sketches on location
but continue to do the great bulk of work
in his studio.
Like many truly great works of art,
Nighthawks is a timeless piece. The locality
of the all night diner is interesting to note
but the place could in fact be anywhere. Its
strength is in the strong sense of place and
atmosphere. The three silent customers
are eerily captivating. They are lost in
their own thoughts and inevitably make
us wonder of their personal circumstance.
Also, luorescent lights were new in the
early 1940s and here they create a unique
glow and the place stands out on the dark
street corner.
At the time of Nighthawks irst
exhibition, Hopper was already a wellknown artist. He made his name painting
houses and other buildings, barns and
farmhouses, often lonely in a sea of
landscape. Be it a rural or urban setting,
Hoppers paintings were of an outsider
looking in.
In 1920 Hopper had his irst solo show
at the Whitney Studio Club in Greenwich
Village. His style was a success from the
very start of his career and his acclaim
continued to grow during his lifetime.
He remained a private person who spent
much of his life in his house on Cape Cod,
where many of his most famous works
were created.

This oil painting is full of shades and tones. The dark black areas are in fact made of black and dark green.
Consider this when applying paint for a more sensitive piece

His style was a success from the start of his career


and his acclaim continued to grow during his lifetime
He was fascinated by light and its
changing nature at different times. Hopper
is reported to have said of himself: I guess
Im not very human. All I really want to do
is paint light on the side of a house.
According to the artists wife and muse,
Josephine, Hopper had a very clear idea
of a piece before he started the work. He

mixed the original sketches with extensive


studio oil paintings, often using Josephine
as a model.
To produce our own work in the style
of Hopper, we will create a sketch of this
piece as a guide. In the spirit of imitating
real life, we will use the simple 2B Pencil.
Hoppers preferred painting medium was
oil and it is usually applied quite smoothly,
with strokes being highly visible at times.
We will also end up with an oil painting but
instead of applying impasto directly onto
the guiding sketch, we will explore Corel
Painters tools and array of paint media.

In the Brush Creator you can access, adjust and


test the results before applying

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Tutorial
Paint like Edward Hopper

Airbrush is used here to smooth out the painting in preparation for


application of the mighty Impasto

We will start with illing in the sketch


and move on to the Airbrush. This is used
to smooth the surface in preparation for oil
paint application. The last painting stage
is the Impasto brush, providing the oil
painting look. We will adjust the Impasto
settings as we progress using different
Draw To options in the Brush Creator. The
inal piece of the puzzle will be to adjust
the tone and texture. We will apply Image
Luminance to the oil paint to see its effect
on the paint stroke itself.
As expected in such a comprehensive
application, there is more than one way
to achieve different effects. A black-andwhite sketch, for example, can be created
by drawing using a pencil or you could take
the Effects automatic route. You can apply
canvas texture to the inished piece or
start off with a textured canvas and so on.

[TOP RIGHT] Under

the Impasto
category in the
Brush Creator, we
control the Draw
To option. Once the
piece is covered in
smooth Airbrush,
choose Depth for an
oil painting look

[RIGHT] If youd

prefer to not draw


an outline, you
can always use the
Sketch effect

Set up the document


Establish the basic sketch

Tutorial info
Painter master

Hannah Gal
Time needed

3 hours
Skill level

Intermediate
On the CD

Final file and


sketch guide

02 Layout
01 Setting up

Open a new le size 30.7cm


high by 40cm wide. You might want to
open the nal painting from the disc. This is useful
for selecting colours or to make sure you are
progressing nicely. Name this layer reference.

Weve also provided a quick


sketch, but if youd rather create your
own, open a new layer. Go to Window>Show
Grid to open the Layout Grid box. Create a grid
to help create an accurate guide. Set Vertical and
Horizontal divisions, Size and Display colours. If
you havent got Corel Painter X, you will have to
make your own lines.

03 Pencil drawing

In the Brush Selector


choose Pencils and the 2B pencil. Use the
new grid to guide you as you draw background
and characters. Set Opacity to 30-40 to begin
with. For the option to step back when needed,
to Preferences in the main menu and set a high
number of Undo levels.

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Tutorial Paint like Edward Hopper

Laying down base colours


Set up your palette

to
05 Start
paint

04 Colour Set

Design a palette
dedicated to the making of this piece.
This will include the many different shades within
the original. Use the Eyedropper to sample a
colour. Double-click on the Main colour square
to open the main Colors palette. Now select
Color Palette (third from right)>New. Drag the
sampled colour down to the newly created
colour palette, continue with different colours to
build up your set.

Create a new layer to


apply paint and name
it Background. Go to
the Brush Selector
and choose the Oils
brush category. Now
select Smeary Bristle
Spray and set Opacity
to 3-5%. Choose
the Cover Method
and the Subcategory
Soft Cover from the
General Brush Control
palette. You can work
over the drawing at
full opacity or reduce it
in the Layers palette.

06 Painting

Observe our nished image and start applying paint.


Keep the General and Size palettes open and adjust controls as you
paint. Brush size for the vast spaces can be large but it needs to be reduced
for smaller ones. Were only laying in some base colour, so dont cover every
bit of white with this colour. Opacity can be adjusted to when it needs to be
changed. Set Expression to None at this stage.

on
07 Keep
building

Continue to cover
the drawing while
observing the nished
one. You can open
that in a separate le
altogether or turn the
Reference layer on and
off as needed. Vary
Opacity between 2
and 10% as you apply
layers of paint. We are
lling in the drawing
with guide colour.

08 The rst character

In the Layers
palette, open a new layer and name it
Man on Left. We are ready to start colouring in the
four characters. A separate layer for each will allow
greater control as you progress. With the same
brush as before, observe the nal image, zoom in
on the man and apply paint. Start with the blocks
of dark areas and move to light.

Layers
To organise the
Layers palette more
efficiently, consider
grouping. This means
placing relevant layers
in a group, saving
both space and time.
A good example here
would be the man
on the left, woman,
bus boy and man in
the centre. To group
layers, Shift-select
them in the Layers
palette and then
choose Group.

10 Remaining
two
09 Central gure

Open a new layer


for the man in the centre of the image
and name it accordingly. Follow the previous step
to loosely cover the man with paint. Observe the
original as you use your own colour palette. If you
feel a shade is missing, sample and add to the set
to complete it.

Create
a new layer for both
the woman and bus
boy. Use the reference
layer as well as the
guide drawing to see
where colours change
and how tones vary.
This can be quite loose
as we will apply fresh
paint later on.

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As you apply paint on


zoomed in areas, it is easy to lose sight of
the whole picture. When you feel you are nearly
at the end of the guide paint stage, zoom out
and assess progress so far. Painters do this in real
life by taking a few steps back. This helps to spot
problem areas and ones in need of enhancement.

12 Brush Creator

The original painting


is oil on canvas so you can now select
an Impasto brush and apply straight to surface.
Smoothing out the layer underneath the thick oil
paint, however, does wonders to the overall look.
Go to Window>Show Brush Creator and select
the Airbrush category and Digital Airbrush.

13 Build things up

Choose Cover Method


and Soft Cover subcategory. Start with a
low 5-10% Opacity and zoom in on the top-left
corner of the canvas. Observe the original, choose
the relevant colour from your colour set and start
covering the area. Set Expression to None and
brush size to 30-40.

Any brush can be


adjusted to paint in
Impasto style. To do
this, choose the brush.
Open Brush Creator
and in Stroke Designer
adjust settings. Set
Draw To to Depth
or Color and Depth.
The Bristle Oil brush
we used here, for
example, will also
benefit from adjusting
Smoothing and other
aspects. Once you
reached Impasto
heaven, be sure to
save it.

Paint like Edward Hopper

11 Zoom out

Tutorial

Impasto

Smoothing and enhancing the colour


Use the Airbrush category to deepen the painting

15 More paint!
With all layers in place, it would
be wise to save the le as a layered RIFF.
Now atten it by going to the Layers palette and
choosing Drop All. Save the at version as a TIFF
le. This at le will be easier and considerably
faster to work on from this point onwards.

Use the Digital


Airbrush to continue
applying paint to the
canvas. Once you nish
covering the top-left
corner move to another
section and repeat. You
need to cover the entire
piece before moving on
to the Impasto paints.
Remember to vary brush
size and apply paint in
low opacity layers.

16

17

14 Save!

Deepen the colours When you have

nished applying the Airbrush to the


canvas, sample the dark green and black colours
for the Main and Additional colours. You can now
toggle between the two as you deepen the black
and green walls behind the characters.

All in the details The seats, cups and

other small items add a great deal of


interest to the composition. Choose white as your
colour and cover these with small 10-12 brush.
Again, set Opacity to 5-10 and reapply one layer
over the other to create depth.

18 Final Airbrush

Go back to the
black and green Main and Additional
colours and start rening edges and shadowed
areas throughout. Tidy up the composition by
straightening lines, lling in areas and smoothing
edges everywhere. Add missing details, for
example highlights on seats.

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Tutorial Paint like Edward Hopper

The Brush Creator


For the ultimate touch of realism
The reason why Corel Painter is so good at emulating real media
effects is because it has such amazing brushes. An important part
of understanding how the program works involves getting to grips
with the Brush Creator. Here we take a closer look at how to build up
realistic paint texture and depth.

Lay it on thick
Build up paint with Impasto

19 Impasto 1

In the Brush
Selector choose Artists
Oil. Set Opacity to
55-65% and Grain to
13%. Zoom in on an
area and start applying
paint to the layer
underneath. If you
wish your strokes to
be similar throughout,
set Draw To to Depth
only and Expression to
None. For this option,
you need to have
a smooth Airbrush
layer underneath, any
possible imperfections
will show through the
deep strokes.

01 Draw To

Although the
Stroke Designer is the
area used the most,
you will benet greatly
from understanding
Transporter and
Randomizer. While
using the Impasto
brush, use the
category within
the Brush Creator
to choose the
appropriate Draw
To option but also to
adjust both Depth
and Expression.

20 Impasto 2

Go to the Brush Creator


and click on the Impasto category.
Set Expression to Pressure. Start working with a
70-80% Depth. You can adjust this setting at any
time to what looks and feels best as you work.
Try your brush out on the Brush Creator pad
before continuing.

21 Canvas

This painting has a very clear


canvas look. To achieve that we will apply
canvas texture to the painted piece. To save time,
use a selection tool to create a small area in the
image. At the bottom of the toolbox, click on the
Paper Selector to open it. Now select the Artists
Canvas option.

02 Modify behaviour

Use the Artists Oils category within


the Brush Creator to control the way paint is applied. The best
options are Paint Amount, Viscosity and Paint as well as Brush Look and
Canvas Wetness. These are all crucial factors in what the brush looks like
and how it behaves.

03 Express
yourself

While applying Oils


you can decide to
apply identical strokes
throughout the
painting, in which
case you will set your
Expression to None.
Choosing any of the
other Expression
options brings in your
own personal style to
the piece.

22 Adjust
Colours

Go to Effects>Tonal
Control>Adjust Colors.
Increase Saturation to
30% and click OK. If
you feel that Saturation
level is too high, go
back and adjust it.
We want to boost the
colours a bit to match
that of the original.

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choose Paper. The Preview window will now show you your selected
texture in action. Leave softness at 0 and set Amount between 50-60%,
Picture to 90%, Shine to 90% and Reection to 10-15%.

24 Surface effects

Go to Effects>Surface Control>Apply Surface


Texture. Under Using, select Image Luminance. Set Amount to 5560%, Picture to 100% Shine to 70% and reection to 10-12%. See the effect
change in the preview window and adjust according to personal reference.
Apply to see on the painting itself.

Continue to edit colour

The Impasto brush


look is determined
by its lighting and
depth. Under Canvas>
Surface Lighting, you
can adjust level of
Shine for more gloss,
Amount and more.
The Impasto Lighting
box is a time saver
allowing application
of the Impasto look
to the entire image. It
is memory hungry so
be sure to clear any
Impasto effect you
do not wish to keep.
Experiment with Light
Controls to see what
effect they have on
the final brush look.

Paint like Edward Hopper

23

Texture Go to Effects>Apply Surface Texture and under Using,

Tutorial

More
Impasto

Perfect the colour texture for a great look

26 Fade
25 Luminous quality

Zoom to 100%
to see the effect in full. The Image
Luminance has added texture to the stroke itself,
giving it a 3D look. To properly assess the effect,
view at full magnication and even print out.

Go
to Edit>Fade
and move the slider
to 40-50%. This will
tone down the effect
you have just applied.
Again, use the preview
window to see it in
action but be sure to
apply and view at full
magnication on the
painting itself.

28 Adjust
Tone

27 New paper

In the Paper selector choose different paper textures


and experiment. Even though the original is painted on canvas, you
might prefer the look of one of the many textured papers on the list. When
ready to try any texture out, go to Effects>Apply Surface Texture.

Once
you have applied the
new experimental
texture to the painting,
go to Effects>Tonal
Control>Adjust Colors.
Choose the Uniform
Color setting and move
sliders to see the effect.
Apply and compare
the effect to that of
the previously applied
canvas texture.

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Primer Airbrushes
SKETCHING
You can actually draw with
airbrushes too! Here, the
sketching was achieved
using the Detail Airbrush.
Airbrushes are great to
sketch with as they allow
you to build up your drawing
gradually, slowly reinforcing
the tone of the lines.

BRUSH CATEGORY

Airbrush
If your prefer your paint sprayed rather
than plastered, you should experience the
flawless finish of Corel Painters airbrushes!

PRIMER

he humble airbrush has


been one of the most trusted
illustrators tools for many
years, its use dating back to
pre-digital times when photographers
used it for retouching photographs. The
airbrush is synonymous with very ine,
polished illustrations with beautifully soft
gradations of tones and highlights. Corel
Painter has a huge selection of airbrushes
and you never have to breathe in any
fumes from sprayed paint!
The Corel Painter Airbrushes feature
variants that spray a very ine mist of
colour, with which you can build up supersmooth tones and gradients, tiny versions
that can be used to create super-ine
details and even really coarse, spatter
airbrushes that feature almost tactile
grain and grit.
And whats more, Corel Painter
Airbrushes work just like the real
thing, even responding to the tilt of
your pressure-sensitive stylus so
that they spray colour across your
image, rather than just perfectly
circular footprints of the airbrush!
The art of using these supersensitive variants is to build up tones
gradually, by very gently working over
particular areas again and again rather
than trying to lay down colour in one hit.
See the samples opposite for the cream of
the crop of Airbrushes!

Brush Size

PEPPER AND SALT


Here the Pepper Spray variant was used
to create yeast speckles and surface
interest on the grapes. The Pepper
Spray variant sprays a very coarse
pattern of colour, which is ideally suited
to creating interesting texture and grain
in your illustrations.

Soft centres

Control the speckler

Setting smooth or hard lines


The Feature slider is critical when
youre using the Airbrushes,
because it determines the size
of the individual grains or
speckles within the airbrush
stroke. At high values these
grains are large and packed
closely together. When set at
lower values, the airbrushes that
use the Feature control produce
strokes where the grain is very
fine indeed.

Its vital to remember that by their very nature,


airbrushes produce strokes with very soft edges,
so if you want hard edges around objects in your
paintings, you need to paint inside selections.
Use the Lasso tool to draw over the object youre
painting and then paint inside the shape with the
selection still active. Alternatively, paint the shape
onto a separate layer with one of the smooth pen
variants and then check Preserve Transparency in
the Layers palette. You can now paint inside the
shape without any colour marking the transparent
areas of the layer!

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Primer

Choosing your brush


Get the perfect effect each time
BRUSH PALETTE
Selecting a brush requires
nothing more than clicking the
brush variant menu and then
clicking on the brush you want
from the menu.

Broad Wheel

Graffiti

Coarse Spray

Pepper Spray

Detail Airbrush

Pixel Spray

Digital Airbrush

Soft Airbrush

Fine Air Detail

Tapered Detail Air

Fine Spray

Tiny Soft Air

Fine Tip Soft Air

Tiny Spattery Airbrush

Fine Wheel Airbrush

Variable Splatter

Airbrushes

The Airbrushes in Corel Painter offer users an excellent way of


gradually building up effects in their paintings. Theres a healthy
amount of variants to choose from, which can be used to create an
airbrush effect or just smooth colours.

SELECTION BOX
Initially, each grape
was painted inside a
selection. With the
selection active, each
grape was then lled
in with the base colour
with one of the Soft
Airbrush variants.
Once the initial colour
was lled in, the same
airbrush was used with
Preserve Transparency
checked in the Layers
palette to add the dark
and lighter modelling.

CATCHING THE LIGHT


The highlights here were
added with one of the
Fine Tip Soft Air variants,
allowing the highlights
to be built up very slowly
and subtly, gradually
increasing in intensity into
pure white catchlights.

Control yourself
Dictate every stroke
The Brush Controls palette has a
complete panel dedicated solely to
airbrushes, where you can control how
much colour flows from the airbrush as
you paint with it and also control the
spread of the strokes it makes. You can
choose for these characteristic to be
controlled in a number of ways, such as
being affected by the tilt of your stylus
or by the pressure you apply as you
paint. Set this option via the Expression
option in this section of the palette.

Finer Spray

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Drawing 101 Composition

Understand the rules of

Composition
The core of a successful painting is good composition and there are lots of theories and
rules that can help you set up the dream arrangement. We take a look at the best here

our painting can be set to


succeed or fail before you
have even applied any colour
or form onto the canvas and
its all because of composition. A truly
successful image is one that plays with
a viewers eye, moving them around
the different areas in the most pleasing
manner. In essence, composition is a
jigsaw puzzle. For it to work properly
youll need to work out exactly where to
place objects for the maximum effect.

While this may sound quite lofty and


annoyingly vague, the good news is
that a lot of composition theory is based
around instinctive behaviour. Our eyes
travel in certain directions and it is such
an ingrained action you probably havent
even noticed it. For example, when you
read your eyes go in a certain direction
and most people tend to look at the top
third section of an image. When an image
feels wrong, it is most likely because it
is forcing the viewers eye to move in

an unnatural or awkward way. Try it


for yourself look at an image and try
and remember where your eyes land
irst. Also feel how your eyes wander
about the scene. It is this behaviour that
can be controlled by what composition
techniques the artist has employed.
Now, we know that this sounds like a
very wispy concept and to be honest, it
is. Everyone is obviously different and
youll never be able to come up with a fullproof way of ensuring that every single

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Drawing 101

person who looks at your painting will


respond to its composition in the same
way. Well, you could just have one thing
illing the entire frame, but even that
technique can be improved by applying
composition techniques. Thankfully there
have been many studies on what makes
for an aesthetic arrangement and these
studies, plus centuries of artists trying
new techniques, have resulted in a set of
guidelines that will help you get a good
composition. Although some of them
have come to be known as rules, never
ever feel as though you have to rigidly
stick to them. Not all of them will work in
all situations and sometimes an images
colour or structure or texture will
override any composition factors.
While its easy to think of composition
rules only in relation to where objects
are placed, its important to remember
that every single element in an image
contributes to the success or failure of the
composition. For example, having an even
balance of light and dark areas will give

a more balanced image. Have an image


with too much dark area and you can
drag everything down go for too much
light and you have a loaty result.
The fact is that composition covers
everything you put in your image,
whether you are actually conscious of it
or not. But by familiarising yourself with
some good composition practice, you
will be more in control when it comes to
painting a scene and will be able to make
informed decisions about how something
should be arranged.
Well be looking at some of the most
common composition rules over the
following pages, demonstrating how
they can help your images become
stronger. From the scientiic principles
of the golden section, the rule of thirds
and divine proportion, to general advice
for arranging elements so they have
maximum impact. Corel Painter also
has some inbuilt tools for handling
composition, so well also look at what
these are and how they work.

Composition

To keep the viewers interest, go for a meandering path that leads into an image. This forces the eye to look around
the painting. A straight path to the centre leaves little room for exploring

A triangular composition is very handy for portrait paintings and sits well in the
frame. In the above example, the two figures actually make two triangles

Arrange your objects


Bigger is not always better
Try not to fill a frame with your main object being used really large. Use a
smaller size so theres room for other elements to give a sense of setting

This is a great example of leading a viewers eye around a picture. The textured brush strokes and subtle direction
lines allow you to discover the two figures and other detail

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Drawing 101 Composition

Pick a format
Your first decision

n images format is an important


part of the composition process,
because certain formats give
you certain beneits. Its then up to you
to pick the best one for the type of image
you want to create. By choosing the
perfect format, you can help ensure that
the viewers attention is on the part of
the image that you want. You can use any
shaped format that you like, but the main
three are landscape, portrait and square.
Landscape formats are good for when
you have lots going on in the foreground,
because it allows the eye room to explore
whats there. Its also a good format to use
for, unsurprisingly, landscape paintings
because you can have a meandering
river or path that leads the viewers eye
towards a focal point. Plus, if you have a
moving subject in a painting such as an
animal or bird, the landscape format gives
more room around the subject and can
help heighten the feeling of movement.
The portrait format works well when
you have a stationary subject that you
want to emphasise. It is also good for
landscape subjects, especially those that
have a directional device for leading the
eye upwards. Because a portrait format is
taller, it means that the eye has farther to

travel from bottom to the top, making the


experience interactive and interesting.
A square format isnt as popular as
portrait or landscape, but that doesnt
mean its any less effective. If you have
a scene with lots of detail at the edges, a
square format will help frame this and
force the eye to look into the picture.
If you have an image that youre not
happy with, try cropping it in a different
format. You may ind that its the best
solution for getting maximum impact.

Here weve taken the same scene and applied a landscape, portrait and
square format. The landscape one works the best, with its feeling of space

The golden ratio/divine proportion


What happens when maths meets art

Scholars believe that the divine ratio can be seen in architecture. One of the
theories is that the Parthenon conforms to the ratio and if the roof was complete,
it would fit into the ratio grid perfectly. There are also those who think it was more
of a case of the Greeks having a good eye for proportion!

ronically, a lot of artistic composition


theory is based around mathematical
equations. When looking at the
history of composition theory, many
people will cite the ancient Greeks as
playing a pivotal role. As artists and
architects, the ancient Greeks were
fanatical about perfection and this
fanaticism drove them to create objects
that are still lauded as true works of art.
They decided that there had to be a reason
why a certain arrangement or balance
was pleasing to the eye and why another
one wasnt.
Their studies led them to a certain
ratio. By constructing a canvas into eight
parts horizontally and vertically, and
then counting ive stops in horizontally
from the left and right, and then ive
stops in from the top and bottom, they

created a grid that has come to be


known as the golden section. Well its
actually been called all sorts of things,
from golden section, golden number, and
divine proportion. The intersecting lines
created by this grid became the hotspots
on a canvas and marked the spots where
the viewers attention would fall. This
gave artists a guide as to where to put
the subject(s) for maximum impact and
interest. For maths fans, the technical
deinition of the golden ratio is that the
sum of two quantities is to the larger
quantity and the larger is to the smaller.
You also have something called a
golden rectangle. This, not surprisingly,
is a rectangle whose side lengths are the
golden ratio. You can make one by irst
making a square. Now draw a line from
the midpoint of one side over the opposite

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Heavenly composition for everyone


With Corel Painter X, you can apply guides to help you make your
creations adhere to divine proportion. This gives you a greater sense
of where the areas of interest are and where to place elements to help
move the viewers eye around the canvas.
Just as with the Layout Grid, you can edit and customise the tool
and alter the size, angle, colour and opacity of the guide and also edit
how many levels there are, which will affect how many times an area
divides into itself. You can also choose to just see parts of the guide.

01

Composition

The Golden Section rule


is similar to the rule of
thirds, but with a thinner
middle section

Divine Proportion tool

Drawing 101

corner. Use this to make an arc, which will


then give you the height of the rectangle.
You can now complete it.
The golden ratio has been discussed
for over 2,400 years, with the Greeks
attributing the ratio to Pythagoras. But
it wasnt until the Renaissance period
that any literature on how the golden
ratio can help aesthetics was developed.
The irst was De Divina Proportione by
Luca Pacioli in 1509. Pacioli applied the
mathematics behind the ratio to explain
how it produces harmonious proportions.
The three-volume edition was also
illustrated by Leonardo da Vinci, who
was convinced that the human body had
proportions that itted with the golden
ratio. It has been said that he constructed
some of his most recognisable artwork
using divine proportion, including the
infamous Mona Lisa. Mr da Vinci was
notoriously private about his artwork,
but given his love of maths and codes, its
completely believable.

Many believe that Leonardo da Vinci used divine


proportion when he created the Mona Lisa

STEP 01 Go to Window>Show Divine Proportion to call up

the palette. Click the Enable Divine Proportion checkbox. Use the
Orientation area to set which direction you want the guide to appear.

STEP 02

Classical division
Divide and conquer
Paciolis De Divina Proportione text
also boasted lots of illustrations
by Leonardo da Vinci. These
demonstrated how different forms
could be split up according to the
golden ratio, thus ensuring the most
aesthetically pleasing arrangement.
This allowed artists to see the
human form as measurements and
break down parts into their relevant
length and width.
Obviously you dont have to
adhere to these rules, but they are
useful for life drawing, especially the
face. Well look at the measurements
in more detail in a future issue.

02
03

Chances are you will


need to resize the
guide to make it work
with your canvas or
existing artwork. This
is easily done; simply
move the Size slider
to the right to make
it bigger or go left to
make it smaller.

STEP 03 If you have the Divine Proportion tool selected in the

toolbox, you can move the resized grid wherever you like on your
canvas. You can also turn off some of the guides to just be left with the
spiral, grid or axis. Save and delete presets as with the Layout Grid.

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Drawing 101 Composition

TOOLBOX
CONTROLS

Rule of thirds

You can access the


Layout Grid here
and control some
of the options. By
clicking the tool in the
toolbox, you can then
move the grid about
on your canvas.

Meet the main event


he grandam of composition
theory has to be the rule of
thirds. Employed by artists and
photographers, this follows a similar grid
system to the golden ratio, except the
scene is split into nine equal parts. These
lines and the points they intersect are the
hotspots and represent the optimum
position for your objects.
It is thought that the rule works
because the human eye is naturally
drawn to a point thats two-thirds up a
page. Because it also positions subjects
away from the centre, it makes for a more
balanced arrangements, since everything
isnt clumped in the middle.
When it comes to creating landscape
shots, the rule of thirds is a great guide

for getting the most from your foreground


or background. By placing your horizon
line on the highest horizontal line, you
give yourself a nice amount of space for
foreground interest. If you use the rule of
thirds to a portrait format, you have even
more room for the foreground elements.
Alternatively, get the most from skyscapes
by placing your horizon line on the lower
horizontal line. Now you have two thirds
of the image to dedicate to a dramatic
skyline. Even though you have committed
to having the top area as the main point
of interest, the lower third provides an
important rest area before the main
event. This avoids bombarding the viewer
with the main point of interest and will
actually enhance the focal point.

By playing with the horizon line, you


are playing with the point of interest.
A lower line forces the viewer to
concentrate on the top two thirds, and
vice versa for a high horizon.

Having the horizon line directly in the middle of your frame lessens the impact. Its better to use the rule of thirds
and place it in the top or lower third

The Layout Grid


Divide up your canvas
Weve already seen how the rule of thirds has
been used in photography and art to improve
composition and this grid-based system is at
the heart of the Layout Grid. Once enabled,
you will see a non-printing grid appear on
your canvas. This divides your canvas up into
sections and you get three default options
straight out of the box. These are the rule of
thirds, 3x5 and 5x5. You also have the option
to modify these grids by altering the number
of divisions, angle, colour, opacity or size. Any
alterations you make can be saved for future
use or to give to other people. Heres how to set
the grid up and also use the options.

01

02

STEP 02 Horizontal and vertical lines will appear


STEP 01 With your canvas open, go to Window>Show Layout Grid.
Once the palette opens, click the Enable Grid check box to see the grid.
Use the drop-down menu to apply one of the presets we picked Rule
of Thirds.

on your canvas. If youd rather these were different


colours, simply click the arrow next to the colour
square and then pick a colour from the picker. To
change how strong the grid lines are, alter the Opacity
slider. By having a low opacity, you can get on with your
composing and not get bogged down in guidelines.

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Go off-centre
SETTING THE
GRID TYPE

By using the rule of thirds when constructing your composition, you can make sure you
have maximum impact from the objects. Dont go centre near the side is better.

Drawing 101

You have a choice


of three preset grids
the Rule of Thirds, a
3x5 or a 5x5 grid. You
can also create your
own presets or delete
ones that are of no
use to you.

A quick way to boost interest

Composition

x
CONTRASTING
GRID COLOURS

The default grid


colours are a dark blue
and green. You may
nd these get lost on
your image, in which
case click the colour
square and choose a
contrasting shade.

03

STEP 03 It might be that youd rather use the grid at

a different size to how it appears. This is easily done. Go to


the Size area and move the Vertical and Horizontal slider. If
you want to resize the grid proportionally, simply click the
Synchronize box.

04

STEP 04 You might want to make up your own

compositional guide, in which case you need to make


a trip to the Divisions area. In here, set the number
of horizontal or vertical lines you want. To link these
values, select the Synchronize the Divisions check box.

05

STEP 05 If you want to move a grid, click the

Layout Grid icon in the toolbox and drag the grid into
your new position. To save a grid as a preset, click the
Add Preset button (looks like a plus sign). Give it a
name and then click OK. To delete a preset, choose it
and then click the Delete Preset button.

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Drawing 101 Composition

Other rules

Lines of interest
Make the viewers eye travel around the canvas

General guides for getting the best composition


s artists have developed and
started to experiment, various
other rules of composition have
sprung up. While they may not be as
iconic as the ones weve looked at so far,
they are still good techniques to employ
in your work.
The diagonal rule splits one half of a
picture into two and then each half is
divided into three separate parts. The
adjacent side is then divided so the lines
connecting the points make a diagonal
frame. The most important elements of
a picture should then be placed along
these diagonals.
Diagonal lines in a painting are
preferable to horizontal or vertical, since
they do not run parallel with the frame
of the picture. You can merge all lines,
but make one noticeably longer. When
using a diagonal composition, try to have
elements in both sections. A straight
strong diagonal line with objects just on
one side wont look that good. Keeping
a diagonal line in mind when it comes
to adding a second object of interest is
also helpful. Keep one larger than the
other, and place them diagonally across
from each other. This will be far more
attractive than right on top of each other!
In fact, on the subject of multiple points
of interest, its worth saying that multiple
subjects should be grouped within the
centre of interest. Do not scatter them

all over the image otherwise they will


compete for the eyes attention. Also,
if you can, try to stay away from even
numbers or rigidly symmetrical images.
Things always seem to work better with
odd numbers.
Triangular composition is an
interesting one and is very good for
painting portraits. It works best if the
background is simple and plain and
then the igure is placed to the side in a
triangular format. The space around the
igure will actually make it more powerful
and the clean geometry will enhance it
even further.
It may sound like a bit of a weird
thing to say, but when thinking about
composition, you need to make sure that
you dont push a viewer out of the picture
frame. If you have a road or river or any
other such element, dont have it leaving
the frame. It needs to go into the horizon,
rather than out of the frame. If you have
an animal or person in your painting, have
them facing straight out or facing and
looking inwards.
When it comes to the actual objects
in your image, try and mix up forms and
shapes. If you have lots of mountains or
vertical elements, luffy round clouds will
act as a good balance. In a similar vein, if
your scene has lots of horizontal planes,
try mixing things up by adding vertical
detail such as trees.

The paint can bonus


Limited edition tools

Mix and match lines


When there are no objects, use lines to add
interest to the scene
There doesnt have to be an object in a scene for it to be interesting.
In the example below, the trees and sun look lost because there is so
much nothingness. Even though the example on the right had no real
excitement in terms of form, the fact it has horizontal, vertical and
diagonal lines makes it dynamic and appealing to the viewer.

If you have bought the limited edition paint


can, or if you end up being one of the lucky
30 to win one in the competition set in last
issue, you will benefit from the special
composition guide tool. With this, you can
physically place a grid over the scene in
front of you and then use it to transfer what
you see onto the canvas.
There are five different grids in this
tool, covering the rule of thirds, divine
proportion (both grid and spiral), 5x5
grid and the diagonal rule. To use it,
simply pull out the one you want and
then hold up in front of you. You can
then call up the corresponding tool from
the Corel Painter X software and use the
guides to paint your picture. This tool is
perfect for if you are out and about, maybe
using a laptop to do some digital painting
on the fly.

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Keep it odd
Drawing 101

Stay away from symmetry


A symmetrical
composition may look
nice and neat, but if you
go for one with angles
and odd bits youll end
up with a much more
interesting effect

Composition

When you are dealing with landscape paintings, think


about where your lines are directing the viewer. As
general good practice, you should add a bit of excitement
for the viewer and avoid straight lines. Even though the
image on the left goes towards a central horizon, the
fact that the path leading there is curvy makes things far
more interesting. In the example below, the path goes
past the house and off the canvas. Always try and keep
the viewer in the canvas trips off the side means the eye
misses whatever has been painted!

Diagonal compositions
Good advice for working on a slope
Diagonal compositions
are really effective, but
they work best when
its a subtle suggestion.
Dont divide your image
into stark light/dark, or
space/detail. Have things
on both sides of the line

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showcase

JOERG WARDA
TITLE
WEBSITE
CLIENTS

Waiting part 2
www.warda-art.com
Samsung, Nokia and Sony
Joergs career started as a young airbrush artist, where seven years
were spent applying the effect and teaching airbrush classes. Since then
Joerg has worked for many different clients, both as a designer on user
interfaces and an award-winning digital artist.

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Your

questions answered
Make light work of it
Is there such a thing as an ultimate
light source direction that looks
good no matter what?

B P

Your experts
Stewart McKissick

Stewart is a long-time user


of Corel Painter and is a
big fan of the airbrush and
illustration potential offered
by the program. Here he
answers your questions on creating cartoons
and character design.

Wen-Xi Chen

We saw in issue one how


talented Wen-Xi was when
it came to painting. So this
issue we have called upon her
services to answer the general
art questions, revealing the
best Corel Painter tools to use.

What youll find in this section


Software

Dont get bogged


down in a Corel Painter black hole
write to us and well help you
work harmoniously

Itd be great to say something like


top left but this question cannot be
answered (at least we think) in one
go. Think about what sort of scene you are
painting and what kind of atmosphere you
are trying to create. Its good to go for light
sources that will cast interesting shadows and
pick out fascinating highlights that will add
intrigue to the overall painting. So if youre
painting scenery, strong scattered sunlight
from a sun partially hidden behind clouds will
create beautiful variation over your landscape
and add depth in a way even bright sunlight
will not.
For portraiture, a soft global light can
work well, but to make it more dramatic, low
key backlit scenes are perfect as many old
Masters have discovered. Fantasy art seems to
often call for mysterious and oddly coloured
ambient light and many different light
sources radiating from various glowing orbs
and creatures.

Leafy environments create


green-tinged ambient ligh
t, which makes the characte
skin look green and casts
rs
shadows on her arm. A seco
nd light source from the
lantern throws warm hued
light and puts emphasis on
the main character

Fine art

Behind glass

Illustration

Im trying to do a painting of a
friend who wears glasses, but I
just cant seem to get the look of
glasses. Any tips?

When it comes
to creating art, you often find
little niggles that ruin your
masterpiece. We sort them out
Make sure
your illustrations are in top form
by following our advice

A M

Send in your queries to


Official Painter Magazine Q&A, Imagine
Publishing Ltd, Richmond House, 33 Richmond
Hill, Bournemouth, Dorset BH2 6EZ.
Alternatively you can email us at
opm@imagine-publishing.co.uk.

SHARE
YOUR
PROBLEMS!

Send in your questions


for our experts to answer
at opm@imaginepublishing.co.uk

In light and shadow. Notice how the edges


with white

of the lenses are outlined

We sympathise with you Adrian


because we also find that glasses
are indeed rather tricky to paint
effectively. One thing to remember is that
the lens of glasses will distort whatever its
placed upon. So if the wearer is short-sighted,
things behind the lens will appear smaller
and vice versa if the person is long-sighted.
Modern anti-reflective lenses also mean that
there isnt much in the way of highlights to
paint except for around the edges where
the glass is actually cut. Assuming you are
not painting the subject under very dramatic
lighting you can generally ignore the shadows
cast by the frame.
If it so happens that the eyes happen to be
in shadow while the lens is catching the light,
then there will be reflections on the lens. The
best advice is to observe the way it looks and
take a few photos for reference.

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Eye concern
Q&A

How can I paint realistic eyes?


Im ine with the shape and the
shading, but always seem to go
wrong when it comes to the iris.

T T

Art Class

The iris is far more complicated


structurally than you might think.
To paint a realistic eye is, however,
simpler than the anatomy of the eye. Once
you have mastered creating the 3D look of
the eyes then painting the pupil is a simple
process in Corel Painter. It is a good idea to
have a photoreference or to look at your
own eyes in the mirror if you are trying to
achieve perfect realism or if you are unsure
what to do.

02 Shading

Things are obviously looking


a little grim at the moment, but it doesnt
take much to alter this at and lifeless application
of colour and turn it into a realistic eye that holds
interest. To start with, you need to apply some
shading to the top half and the outer ring of the
iris. Use a darker colour than the base colour, but
dont go for pure black. If needs be, pick up a
lighter colour and shade the bottom half with the
lighter colour.

03 Texturing

Using your favourite Corel Painter painting tool,


I chose a basic Digital Airbrush here, paint short strokes that
radiate out from the centre of the iris, keeping lighter colours towards
the bottom half. This can be many different colours but primarily those
that match your desired colour. Paint a dab of white to simulate light
reection, it can be a circle but for a more realistic look take into account the
surroundings, eg the reection of eyelashes.

01 Base colours

If you nd it hard to
paint a circle, use the Oval Selection
to create the shapes you need. Fill in the outer
circle with the colour you want the eye to be,
and the smaller circle should be black.

A touch of evil
I want to show that a character
is evil and menacing. I have the
basic form sorted, but am having
problems with the shadow whats the
easiest way of creating dramatic shadows?

E D

The two things to keep in mind here


are having a very long, strong and
interestingly shaped cast shadow and
the lighting on the character itself.
You should design your composition so
that it can show the cast shadow clearly and
perhaps place your light source in an unusual
way. A classic scary lighting scheme is to light
a person from underneath this is not often
seen in normal conditions when the light is
usually from above.
Here we have a scary guy positioned at
the bottom of a tall composition so the cast
shadow can be used as a long and dramatic

Using unusual
colours and a
strong low light
source can create
a menacing
shadow effect!

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Q&A Art Class

Gradually building up your painting from the


bottom layer up creates depth and makes
the fur look soft

element. The red is a rough plan of where


the light will fall. A green light was eventually
chosen to add to the sense of drama.
If your characters shape is closed off you can
use the Magic Wand tool to select the white
space around it. Then Select>Invert to turn the
selection into the shape of the character and
the Select>Transform Selection option to drag
the selection up and widen it.
Shadows are often soft-edged and variable.
Use the Select>Feather command to soften the
selection edge before filling. Its a good idea
to create a new layer just for the shadow and
fill it with a neutral grey. Then just paint your
character on layers above it. Lastly, add a light
to dark gradient.

Furry critter
Any good advice for getting the look
of fur? I seem to either not have
enough or too much.

S C

Unless youre thinking of very short


bristly fur, painting fur is rather like
painting hair. Try layering your strokes
to create the elusion of fluffiness and depth.
Work with a tool that you find easy to control
the opacity of a good choice is a basic Loaded

variety of
Creating a colour set helps you to see the
colours other artists are using

Palette Knife, and paint with short decisive


strokes from the root of the fur to the tips. The
pressure of your pen should fall most heavily at
the start and fade towards the tips; this creates
soft looking fur. Your base colour should be
relatively dark as upper layers will create a
shadow on the lower layers and the layers of
fur should get gradually lighter as you reach
the surface layer. Using a smaller brush size,
pick out some highlights and single hairs.

Colour concerns
Are there any special rules when
it comes to choosing colours for a
painting? Should it be limited to a
certain number?

P A

Unless you really do know what you


are doing, too many colours in a
painting can sometimes make it
look crowded, confused and often downright
silly. It is normally a good idea to use your
colours very subtly and rely more on different
tonal values.
A strong painting has an underlying colour
theme to it. However, saying this may lead to
counter-productivity, as in some cases many
different colours go to make what you might
conceive to be just one colour variant and

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Sketching an outline
Q&A

What are the best


brushes for making a
sketch outline?

D S

Art Class

There are a huge


number of brushes
in Corel Painter that
will do line sketching, so
a lot comes down to your
personal preference. One
of my favourite sketching
brushes is one you might not
immediately think of for this:
the Pastel variant Square Hard
Pastel. This is a captured dab
brush that really looks like
its namesake.
This brush works well with
the paper textures and has a
very nice organic feel to it,
lending a loose look to the
sketch. As with all brushes
in Corel Painter, you can modify
it with the Brush Controls to
further customise its features
and looks to how you wish it
to appear. Similar brushes can
also be found in the Chalk and
Charcoal categories.

02 Finish the composition

Now to establish the rest of the


background. For a stylised effect, switch the brush to Straight Line
Strokes (keyboard shortcut V) for the big trees in the far distance. This allows you
to make straight lines but you have to hit the V key every time you want to make
a new line that doesnt connect to the last one. To go back to the regular Freehand
Stroke, just hit the B key. You can also use the buttons in the Property Bar.

03 Final Details

To
nish, thicken the
brush to make shading strokes
theyre still just lines to suggest
shadows and volume. A nal
trick is to raise the Jitter setting to
4 and raise the Spacing setting in
the Brush Controls palette from
its default to around 120%. This
creates a spattery brush that we
used for the leaves on the little
tree. Switch the colour to white
in the end to give the leaves
some depth.

01 Rough in the main shapes

Start with
a Square Hard Pastel 10. You can use the
default settings except for the size, which should
be smaller (2.4) for a more linear look. The opacity
should also be lowered to 33% for more light and
dark variety. Just use black for the colour at this stage;
the grey comes from varying the pressure.

often contrasting colours make the painting tell


a story.
Open up some of your favourite paintings
and go to Windows>Color Palettes> Show
Color Sets and create a new colour set from the
image. Itll give you some indication as to how
many colours the pros are using.

A bit of a do
Im illustrating my irst character
and am having trouble with the
hair. Have you any advice for
creating hair that has a bit of deinition but
that doesnt involve loads and loads
of shading?

01

02

03

S W

In a way Steven, your question


actually answers itself. Indeed, a
common mistake in drawing is
making things far more complicated than
they actually should be. Many artists of all
different kinds and styles become much more
simple and direct as they mature throughout
their careers.
When you draw and then shade in hair, you
should think of it as an overall shape or group
of shapes, instead of individual strands. Then
treat it as you would any other shape and think
of how the light hits.

Here are six simple character heads. In each


case we started with the head shape and
then drew the hair on as masses that sit on
the head. This is important as it determines
how the overall character will look.

We all know hair is thousands of individual


strands, but thats not what we see. Here
we drew many small lines, but the result is
busy and even though they followed the
face contours, it looks flat.

Here weve simplified and treated each


hairstyle as a few basic forms and also
applied definite highlights. These actually
feel more dimensional than the more
complicated versions.

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Q&A Art Class

Lip service
Whats a fool-proof method of shading lips? I cant get the
rounded look my lips are always lat!

A ML

As long as you have a basic grasp of the shape and contour of


lips then the same principles apply to lips as to any other 3D
object. Projecting a shadow under the lower lip helps to create
the illusion of roundness and strategically placed highlights will also
achieve this effect. The most important part to get right is the shape
of the lower lip and most of that comes down to placing highlights in
the right places.

02 Colour and shadow

Depending on the direction of the light source, the lips will cast
shadows and colours of the lips will vary accordingly. The upper lip normally looks a little
darker than the lower lip due to the way the curve of it interacts with light. The lower lip will cast a
shadow on the chin in many light conditions.

03 Highlight

Adding some
white highlights to the
middle of the lower lip
and a little also to the
upper lip makes those
areas pop and appear
closer to the viewer than
the rest and this again
helps to create that
rounded look.

01 Shape

Think about the structure of lips; the upper lip curves


inwards slightly towards where the upper and lower lips part and
the lower lips curve out and then in again.

Painting fabric
Whats a good way to get an
authentic look of fabric?

P T

White highlights along a


folded edge create voluminous
looking fabric

Different fabrics have very different


properties, in the way they fold, the
way they reflect light, their opacity
and surface texture. Satin, for example is
reflective and will often form quite dramatic
highlighted areas along folded edges. Cotton
on the other hand has a matte surface and has
a more even tonal distribution.
There is a whole myriad of fabrics out there,
and the best way to nail each one is to work
from observation; take out some clothes and
drape them over furniture to see the sort of
shapes the folding create and how shadows are
formed in these folds. Experiment a little and
see how your results vary. Common mistakes
in painting fabric are ignoring gravity and
tension, or to paint too many folds so it
looks unnatural.

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showcase
MARK BANNERMAN
TITLE
WEBSITE
JOB TITLE
CLIENTS

Gothic Drive
www.markbannerman.com
Professional digital artist
Madonna, Time Warner, Sony and EMI

During his professional career, Mark has been involved in the entire
spectrum of design, from creating illustrations for advertising and
editorial, to producing images for BBC TV. He now works entirely within
the digital realm, merging 3D and other techniques.

081_OPM_02.indd 44

9/3/07 17:36:22

Using the
products
We used

Use this section to discover what


creative products can boost your use
of Corel Painter, learn about the best
artistic books and discover ideas for
outputting artwork

The creative products on test this issue

FUJIFILM FINEPIX
F31FD

HP PHOTOSMART
PRO B9180

This camera promises sharp


colour rendition and crisp, clear
photos. Does this make it an
ideal compact?

We tried this A3+ printer to see


if it offered home users the
opportunity to get professionallooking prints

BOOK REVIEWS

OUTPUT

Start to explore traditional art


books and see how they can help
improve your artwork. Youd
be amazed at what tips and
techniques you pick up

This is our regular look at


companies or products for
printing out your work. This issue
we look at MDF block mounts
from The Big Print Company

Reviews

a photo
taken with the Fujif
ilm
camera and then
printed it out with th
e
HP printer!

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Reviews Fujifilm FinePix F31fd

Fujifilm FinePix F31fd


249 | Face Detection and low-light capabilities for a modest price

Navigating
your on-screen
options
Get to know the cameras
menu system

t irst glance, the Fujiilm FinePix


F31fd looks pretty ordinary. With
6.3 megapixels, 3x optical zoom and
2.5-inch LCD screen, on the surface it
seems the camera is nothing particularly special.
In order to discover the true beauty of this latest
offering from Fujiilm, we must delve a little
deeper beneath the F31fds matte silver body.
This offering takes after its older sibling: this
camera is an upgraded version of the muchrevered F30. Its predecessor was praised for
its performance in low light, something which
the F31fd certainly upholds: the AF-Illuminator
a bulb that helps the camera to ind a point of
focus by shedding some light on shady situations
does a great job, helping the AF system to focus
quickly. Users can choose to either activate the
Intelligent Flash system, let the camera pick the
ISO sensitivity automatically, or set the shooting
mode to Manual and select the ISO themselves.
With a comprehensive range of ISO settings
available (100-3200) the F31fd really does let
the photographer take control of their creative
decisions. But thats not the only trick the camera
has up its sleeve.
Within the sleek, stylish, yet solid shell, lies
the technology that gives the camera the new
credentials at the end of its name: Face Detection.
This is one of the latest and most exciting pieces of
technology to be developed in some time and the
F31fd demonstrates the possibilities it holds for

the future of photography very well indeed. With


the touch of one button on the back of the camera,
you can activate the Face Detection feature in
Auto, Anti Blur or scene modes, but curiously not
in Shutter Speed Priority, Aperture Priority or
Manual modes.
The Face Detection system works by seeking
out eyes, noses and mouths, and adjusting the
cameras settings to a best-it exposure for all the
faces in the frame. However, it can only locate
faces when they are facing the camera. The
system is fooled by glasses and it wont recognise
a face thats in proile, or tilted to one side. The
manual also states that the FD system will not
work if the subject is not human, if the camera is
not held correctly, or if the subject is standing on
their head! That aside, what we had anticipated as
being a fantastic little feature seems to be a little
sensitive in reality.
In practice, once a target has been acquired, a
green box surrounds the subjects face and you
can ire the shutter. However, unless the subject
remains perfectly still, they may move outside
of the FD frame, so youll end up with a part of
the background beautifully in focus, but not your
intended subject! When you do everything right
however, the Face Detection is a great tool that
will come in very handy for family gatherings and
nights out.
The Face Detection button doubles as an
Exposure button, allowing users to quickly alter

Connections
AV, DC and USB sockets are all
present. The F31fd can also be
connected directly to PictBridgecompatible printers for fast printing
without the need for a computer

Batteries
The camera comes with a
hardwearing, long-lasting lithiumion battery and a power adapter for
recharging, so theres no need to
keep buying disposables!

Set-up menu
Wide angle
and zoom
button

Memory card
The F31fd takes xD Picture
Cards, which you will need to buy
separately, although the camera
does have 26MB of internal storage
to get you started

Playback menu

74.5mm

Playback button
Photo Mode
button

OK button

Colour menu

Intelligent
face detection
button
Display/Back
button

LCD
F-mode menu

105.5mm

Maximum zoom
This shows the F31fds capabilities
when it comes to reproducing vivid
and accurate colours. The leaf is
crisp and detailed, even when at
full zoom

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Price

Exposure modes

249 P, AP, SP, 15 scene


Megapixels (effective) modes
6.3 Flash modes
Max resolution A, RE, FF, SF, SS,
3,024 x 2,016 SRE&S, Foff
Lens data

Camera specs

Fujifilm FinePix F31fd

Flash

Connectivity

f/2.8-5 (36-108mm) USB, AV


Zoom

Weight

3x opt, 6.2x dig 155g (excl. batteries)


Focus/Macro

Dimensions

60cm-Inf/5cm 92.7 x 56.7 x 27.8mm


Shutter speeds

Wide angle
Capturing a scene is
easy using the camera
at a wide angle setting.
All of the detail is picked
up too, thanks to its
high quality lens

Colour capture
The F31fds ability to capture pinsharp shots full of colour means that
it is perfectly-suited to snapping
resource shots for turning into lovely
works of art

Microphone

Ergonomic grip

Shutter button

Mode dial

What we like

What we dont like

The occasional
confusing design
feature aside, the
F31fd has some
great features
and produces
decent images,
particularly
low light

features

Quick startup
Intelligent Face
Detection
IR capability

Overall
score

on the top

Power
button

we say

Overall though, the F31fd manages to feel as


good as it looks this stylish little number even
has specially designed inger grips that make it
really comfortable to hold and easy to use with
just one hand. An extremely quick start-up time,
great low-light performance, Intelligent Flash
and Face Detection are just a few of the fabulous
features that make the F31fd a recommended
buy. A huge range of preset shooting modes as
well as more advanced settings make this an
excellent introductory camera, especially if
youre looking for something light and reliable
enough to slip into your pocket and forget about
until its eventually needed. This camera has it
all: good looks, functionality, excellent image
quality and some really innovative technology
to boot.

on the front

Lens

The Face Detection is a great tool that will come in handy for
family gatherings and nights out
the shutter speed or aperture without having to
hunt through the main menu a deinite plus for
users who like to make their own decisions when
shooting. Another excellent feature is the InfraRed Communicator, which sends and receives
images to and from another Fujiilm camera or
other devices with IR capability.
Although Fujiilm has got it right when
it comes to accessing important functions
like Macro mode, Self-timer mode and LCD
brightness all of which can be accessed with
one touch of the d-pad things have gone a bit
awry elsewhere. The F-button can get confusing,
as the functions it accesses change every time
you switch to a different shooting mode. It would
be useful if users could program this button to
access the functions they use on a regular basis.

Built-in flash

Mode dial

Build design

Noisy at high ISOs


F-button is confusing
Confusing menu/
shooting mode
system

9.3

ease of use

verdict

Ergonomic
grip

Ergonomic grips make the F31fd easy


to keep hold of and it has just enough
weight behind it to make it feel robust
and ready for any shooting situation

Batteries

3-1/2000sec (1-15 Lithium-ion


secs in Night mode) Storage
ISO sensitivity xD Picture Card,
A, 100, 200, 400, 26MB int
800, 1600, 3200 LCD
Metering options 2.5
MS, S, A

9.0

quality of results

8.7

value for money

8.9

9.0
85

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Reviews HP Photosmart Pro B9180

HP Photosmart Pro B9180


499 | When it comes to printing out artwork, bigger is always better. We
discover what results this A3 printer will give the home artist

On-screen instruction
There is a small pad for controls,
which although basic, still gives you
the information you may need

Avoid damaging any of


your work

t can be expensive to have your images


printed professionally at a large size, so
this month were testing a printer from
HP which enables you to print at A3+ size.
It goes without saying that the B9180 is
more expensive than the usual inkjet printer
youll ind on the shelves of your local appliance
store, but we thought it was worth trying out,
considering that it was voted the best A3 photo
printer in Europe by the Technical Image Press
Association, quite an accolade.
The setting up process is a lot more
complicated than other printers weve come
across. After shaking each ink cartridge
a precise number of times at a 25 degree
angle and wiping each print head nozzle
with individual foam swabs, the printer then
needed to be left for a further 30 to 60 minutes
while the initialisation process ran its course.
However, it has to be said that although this
part was time-consuming, the software
installation was quick and simple.
In terms of appearance the printer is
obviously large and quite dominating, so you

will need a considerable amount of desk space


available, but the unit is robustly built inside
and out. It really is an ideal purchase for those
of you who work in a busy studio, but its also
just as viable for home users who are serious
about printing.
While the printer is obviously tailored for
large format prints, its also possible to print on
smaller sizes than A3 by placing them into the
main tray of the unit. If you want to print onto
large specialist media such as canvas sheets or
watercolour paper, all you have to do is load it
into the speciality media tray, which is easily
located on the front of the unit and is simply
lipped open.
Loading paper into the speciality media tray
is simple it must be fed into the front of the
tray until the edge nearest you lines up with
the dotted line on the tray and the other edge
of the paper is poking out of the back of the
printer. Once you commit your image to print,
the B9180 then impressively feeds the paper
out and then back into the printer and begins
to print.

No need to rush
This isnt a machine thats
ready for printing as soon
as you take it out of the
box. Set aside enough
time for quite a fiddly
setup process

Paper textures
HP sells special textures
papers, such as canvas,
photo and watercolour

Speciality
Media tray

Theres an output tray extension built


into the unit which can be pulled out
to catch larger prints as they come
out of the printer

Display

Ink cartridge
compartment

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Price

499

Website

www.hp.com
Operating systems

PC and Mac

The printer uses eight individual


Vivera ink cartridges so you can
change each one as and when
it runs out

Its an ideal purchase for those


of you who work in a busy
studio, but its also just as
viable for home users who are
serious about printing
art gallery. We certainly werent disappointed
when printing onto HP Advanced Photo Paper.
The results were crisp, clear and displayed
excellent tone, thanks in no small part to the
four HP 70 dual-colour print heads and 8448
nozzles which the printer features.
Not only were we pleased with the quality
of the prints, the time taken to output each
was fast with an A3+ sheet of canvas taking
around ive minutes. Even though the setup
process was lengthier than normal, this more
than paid off in the quality and speed of the
inished printed pieces. If you buy the B9180
it really is worth investing in the specialist
types of paper that HP offers for some really

Windows 2000
Professional, XP
Home, XP
Professional

Versatile printing
The B9180 produced beautiful A3+ prints of a high quality
on all types of paper we tested it on, from glossy photo
paper to canvas sheets

What we like

Produces beautiful
prints on a variety
of materials
Prints rich, vibrant and
crisp colours
Easy to load paper,
which is then fed
back into the printer
automatically
Reasonable output
time for A3+ prints

Pretty bulky, but


worth it for the
exquisite quality
of prints

What we dont like

Consumes a lot of
desk space, but this
is expected
Fiddly and lengthy
setup process

Features

8.0

Ease of use

we say

outstanding prints. It also has the added bonus


of featuring eight individual ink cartridges, so if
one runs out you dont have to replace the whole
set. The cost of each HP Vivera ink cartridge is
22, which can be expensive if replacing all at
once. However, if this is compared to the price
of getting a collection of your images printed at
A3+ size professionally, it really is great value
for money. It wouldnt be unheard of to pay 70
or more for an A3 printed canvas, and with
the B9180, you can get the same quality but in
the comfort of your own home. Artwork looks
divine and the quality of the photos means they
look as though they could be hung in a gallery.
Deinitely one to save up for!

verdict

As expected, the B9180 works at its best


when printing onto HP sheets of paper. We
printed out images onto a variety of different
paper types from HP. When printing onto
matte canvas paper we found the image was
improved, especially if the colours are irst
given a bit of a boost. However, even though
the result is subtle its very effective, appearing
to have actually been painted onto the canvas
sheet. We also tested printing a photo onto
the HP A3+ Hahnemuhle Watercolour paper
and found the results amazing the image
wouldnt have looked out of place hung in a ine

PC Requirements

Mac Requirements

Mac OS X 10.2.8 or
later (the printer
driver for Mac OS
X 10.2.8 must be
downloaded from
www.hp.com)

Printer specs

HP Photosmart Pro B9180

7.0

Quality of results

9.0

Value for money

8.0
Output prints of different sizes
You dont have to stick to prints of A3 size or greater. Other
smaller sizes of paper can be loaded into the main tray quickly
and conveniently

Overall
score

9.0
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Reviews Books

Painter

$45.00 | A glossy collection of inspirational art


sually, any subtitle in a book
is taken for show. Its a clever
marketing ploy and the reader
generally takes it with a pinch
of salt its PRs way of adding a bit of
excitement and zing to the book. This
offering from Ballistic Publishing has
one of these subtitles The Worlds
Finest Painter Art but if anything, this
undersells the extraordinary content
found within the 190-odd pages. What
you have here is a collection of jawdropping, envy-inducing Corel Painter
artwork. Divided into 12 sections, the
artists here have been chosen by a special
board of noted Corel Painter evangelists
and represent some of the best work being
produced with the software. The sections
cover a speciic style and deal with
Character in Repose, Character in Motion,

Just by flicking through the book you will see


everything from traditional-style portraits to fantastical
scenes and furry critters
Multiple choice
The pages are a mixture of full pieces of artwork and
smaller pieces. Even if something isnt printed as a full
page, you still have no trouble seeing all of the detail

The fact that there are so many styles


represented in the book means that there
is something that will strike a chord with
you, no matter what your favoured look
is. It also makes for an incredibly lush feel
just by licking through the book you
will see everything from traditional-style
portraits to fantastical scenes and furry
critters. Whats also good is that there is
nothing to get in the way of the artwork
the pages are glossy and the colours
are beautifully rendered. If an artwork
doesnt happen to take up an entire page,
it is placed on a black background. This
means that everything is shown off to its
very best advantage.
Put simply, this book really is an
essential buy. It has obviously been put
together by people who love Corel Painter
and who are passionate about using it
to its full potential. The quality of work
created by the featured artists is truly
breathtaking and highly inspirational.
If ever the term feast for the eyes was
applicable, its here!

Authors

Daniel Wade and


Paul Hellard
Price

$45.00
Publisher

Ballistic Publishing
ISBN

1-921002-18-2

Portraits, Concept Art, Fantasy, Editorial


Illustration, Humorous, Environment,
Wildlife, Sill Life, Transport and Abstract
& Surreal, and each section starts with
the artists who were awarded the title
of Master and Excellence. They then
deftly move on to the other works in that
particular style.

Different strokes
The 12 sections of the book
represent 12 completely different
artistic styles, resulting in a glorious
mixture of styles, moods, colours
and finishes

The judges
Before you get into the artwork, you
can find out about who the judges
and advisory board were the
people responsible for picking who
went into the book

Colourful stuff

Artistic indulgence

The print quality of the book is


absolutely perfect, so all of the
tones are represented faithfully.
Images are crisp and clear and
you wont find any washed-out
colours here!

Some of the artwork is spread over


two pages, giving a luxurious feel
to the book. This also gives you a
great chance to examine the brush
strokes and techniques in much
finer detail

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Acrylics Workshop:
Simple Steps to Success
9.99 | Learn more about this flexible art medium
Author

Phyllis McDowell

Price

9.99

Publisher

Dorling Kindersley
ISBN

1-4053-1578-4

crylics are a fabulous medium


to paint in because they give
you the depth and look of oils,
yet you can also dilute them to
get more of a watercolour feel. The Acrylics
brush category in Corel Painter is very
true-to-life, making this book a worthwhile
read to understand how the brushes work.
In addition to the acrylic-speciic focus,
this book also has some excellent guidance
to art techniques such as composition,
perspective, light and colour. You can also
stretch your legs on the walkthroughs
for various paintings, and use the guide
to brush strokes to set up your own
specialised acrylic variants.
This is a very interesting book that has
plenty to teach whether youre working in
the digital or traditional format. Theres
tons of information and interesting ideas
on offer.

Inspiration
for all
The Gallery pages dotted
throughout the book can
give you some good ideas
for using the acrylic brushes
in a variety of ways

Colour mixing
These pages on what happened when you mix certain
colours together are handy for when youre using the
Mixer palette to paint from scratch

Watch and learn


The walkthroughs in the book are a great way of seeing
how real acrylics work and then transferring that to your
Corel Painter space

Giovanni Civardis Complete


Guide to Drawing
19.99 | In-depth guide to improving
your drawing skills
Author

Giovanni Civardi
Price

19.99

Publisher

Search Press

ISBN

1-84448-206-5

his is a hefty tome, coming in


at just under 400 pages, and is
packed to the gills with techniques
for improving your drawing skills.
Starting with basic techniques and a
fabulous display of what pencil marks give
what kind of effect, the book then moves
onto types of drawing as well as types
of medium.
Every concept is accompanied by
detailed instructions of how it works and
there are plenty of in progress shots for
understanding how to get from A to B. The
books author gives a constant narrative of
information, pointing out whats going on
in an example and why its happening.
Theres plenty to learn from this title,
whether you want to get started in
drawing or youre just looking to improve
your skills.

Basic techniques
Theres plenty of advice for
the complete beginner in the
book we particularly liked the
guide to different effects using
different mediums

In progress
Perhaps the most interesting pages are the ones where
you can see how a drawing was built up. Seeing the
progression from start to finish is a valuable learning tool

Essential considerations
The pages dedicated to specific techniques will help you
create realistic sketches and ensure that everything is
in order

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Reviews Output

All blocks have impeccably neat


finishes to the edges

The MDF board offers a very


interesting texture

Mount your
images to MDF

Youll get everything you need to hang


your board

The Big Print Company offers customers professional printing options at affordable
prices. We see how the site works
Tutorial info
Painter master

Jo Cole
Time needed

10 minutes
Skill level

Beginner

emember the days when


the only option for printing
photos was 4x6-inch prints,
with a choice of gloss or matte
inish (but only if you were lucky)? If you
wanted a larger print you had to try and
scout out professional printers and pay a
hefty amount of money to get the result
you wanted.
Now you can get digital iles printed on
loads of different media, in a seemingly
endless number of different sizes. One
retailer offering such a service is The Big
Print Company. Based in Manchester,
this is an online haven for artists and
photographers who want to show off
their work in the best possible way. You
can have images printed on high-quality
paper, canvas, MDF board or plastic, get

them laminated and even framed so they


can take pride of place on your wall. The
company can work with digital iles, or
you can send in your prints, negatives
or transparencies to be scanned in. And
dont worry if your image is a bit on the
small side The Big Print Company can
scale an image up to 1600% without a
discernable loss of quality, so theres hope
for those old negatives yet! Before any
order is started, the customer is sent a
section of the image at print size to check
that the resolution meets their standards.

If it doesnt, the order can be cancelled at


no cost.
Over these three pages were going
to take you step-by-step through the
process of uploading an image to the site
and ordering a print. Were choosing the
example of an MDF board here, which
gives a very robust solution to displaying
your artwork. Plus were all fans of
Changing Rooms so if MDFs good enough
for building a bedroom, its certainly good
enough for us! See how it all works and
then try it for yourself.

The Big Print Company can scale an image up to


1600% without a discernable loss of quality, so theres
hope for those old negatives yet!

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Pick your product

File formats

Its easy to place your order

01 And youre off

Load up www.
thebigprintcompany.com and click the
Print your Images link on the side panel of the main
page. Youll see a screen which explains how the
process works and what you can order. Click the
Continue link at the bottom to get going.

02

The perfect size The rst job is to

select the size of your print. You can


either pick a preset size form the drop-down
menu, or enter your own dimensions. You also
have the option to constrain proportions to keep
within standard frame proportions. Click Continue
when youre nished.

03 Make your choice

Youll now
see a page with all the different print
products. Each option has a good description of
what the product offers, so theres no guesswork
required. Click the small square on the right to
make the selection. We went for the Block Mount
Wrapped Edge option, and picked the 18mm
thickness option from the drop-down menu.

A wide variety of
formats is accepted
by the Big Print
Company, but there
are guidelines worth
following if youre
uploading the image
to the site. Pick an
RGB image because
this allows the site
to provide an online
thumbnail and actual
size image of your file.
Its also preferred to
save the file in .jpg,
.tiff, .eps or .pict
format. If you pick
.jpg, make sure it is
saved at the highest
quality setting.

05 Antouchartistic

04 In the frame

If you want to add a


frame to the equation, the next page is
where you get to do this. There are three types of
frames to choose from along with the type of nish.
Also notice that a price has appeared in the Your
Cart box at the top of the window. This will keep
you informed as to how much your order is coming
to. If you dont want a frame, just click Continue.

Depending on the
image youre thinking
of using, the next page
offers various options
including the chance
to have your print
turned into a piece of
art by the companys
designers. If you have
an old photo you want
printed, its worth
choosing the Photo
Enhancement option,
but if youre happy
with your image, just
click Continue.

the
06 Edit
size

The
next page gives
information about
how to get your image
to the company. If you
go the upload route
you may need to do
some tinkering in your
image editor. Open
the le up and go to
Image>Image Size.
The Big Print Company
recommends that
your le is no larger
than 150ppi at the
print size, so adjust
the numbers.

07 Save and send

Once you have your le


at the correct dimensions and resolution
settings, its time to head to the Save dialog. Were
saving as a .jpg, so make sure that the Quality slider
is up to the max and theres no compression. Once
thats all done, click OK and return to where you left
off at The Big Print Company.

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Reviews Output

Getting your
le there

Upload and pay


The final order steps

Weve shown you how


to upload a file to
the company simply
because this is the
quickest option.
Obviously this isnt
suited to everyone
you may have a slow
internet connection
or have a hard copy
of an image so there
are other ways of
getting your image
printed. If its a large
digital file, burn it to
disc and post to the
company. Photos,
transparencies or
negatives can also
be posted and will be
returned with the
final product.

08 Uploading
Now the le
is in the correct format
and dimensions, tick
the square to select
the Upload option and
then click the Choose
File button to get to
your image.

09 Pick and choose

A dialog window
will zip down that allows you to
navigate to your le. Once youve found the le
destined for printing greatness, simply click on the
Choose button to add it to the site.

it
10 There
is

A little
thumbnail will appear
in the Upload box
which should be
the image youve
just selected. Press
Continue to upload the
image. This may take
a while depending on
the size of the image
or the speed of your
internet connection.

11 Order summary

Once uploaded youll


see a summary of your order, including
postage rates and nal total. If you want to order
more products, click the Continue Shopping
button. If you want to order more than one copy,
enter the number you want in the Quantity box
and click Update. When all is as you want it to be,
click the Proceed to Checkout button.

12 Details,
details

With the order out


of the way, its time
to add your details.
The rst step is to
add your name and
address, and then the
country you live in.
The Big Print Company
delivers worldwide, so
dont worry if youre
outside the UK. Click
the Proceed to Secure
Server button to enter
your card details.

13 World on a stick

You will be taken to


the secure WorldPay server where you
can enter your payment details and nish up your
order. You will receive an email conrmation and
also be forwarded a print size portion of your
image to make sure its the resolution you want it
to be. Then just sit back and wait about a week for
your print to arrive!

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readers gallery issue two

Gallery

Time to indulge yourself in more


inspirational art from a fellow Corel
Painter user. This month, we feast our
eyes on the work of Jennifer Miller
f youve already had a look on this
issues disc you will have seen Jennifer
Millers art inside the Gallery section.
We were blown away by her painting
skills, especially the detail and realism she
brings to light and cloudscapes, so couldnt
resist including her in the magazine.
Currently living on the East coast of
America with her husband, four parrots
and dozens of tropical ish, Jennifer has
drawn all her life, but says it has only been
the past eight years that she has been

serious about it. Starting out on Corel


Painter Classic back in 2001, she applies
traditional art practices to her work, citing
the oil pastel brushes as her favourite.
This love of the traditional also means she
prefers to leave a rough and organic feel,
avoiding the smooth/airbrushed look of
some digital art.
To see more of Jennifers work, head over
to http://featherdust.critter.net. While
youre here, check out the print service and
order some of her work!

01

Title: December Sunrise


Often the best way to touch a viewer is to paint things
that evoke a memory or emotion and when painting
this piece, I was reminded of silent snowy mornings Ive
spend in the wooded areas of my home.

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02

Title: Barn Owl Five of Hearts


(far left)
This piece was actually painted to be
included in an animal-themed deck of
cards (can you see the ve hearts?). It was
completed mostly with the Oil Pastel tools
and the rough graphic lines were hashed
in with the Scratchboard pen tool.

03

Title: These Velvet Skies


A commissioned piece; this was a joy to
paint and experiment with lots of dark
colours. I started with a black canvas and
built up the colours with the Oil Pastel
tools. The stars were created using the
Pixel Spray Airbrush.

04

Title: Sunrise Ritual


Part commission and part personal piece, this painting started
life as a scenic ocean view, but the client wanted to have a oneof-a-kind piece of artwork so I worked a deal with her and used
the background for a different idea I had.

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Gallery

readers gallery issue two

05

Title: Corvid Triptych


This was a piece a long time in the making, and
as the title suggests is actually three separate
paintings. They were done both as a gift for a
friend and as personal pieces, each with their own
meaning and a combined meaning when viewed
as a triptych. They were completed almost entirely
with the Chunky Oil Pastel tools, with a touch of
the Splattery Airbrush.

06

Title: Likeshine Portrait


Here is a piece that has more tools used, as
an experiment. The sketch was done with
the Pencil tools in a layer set to Multiply, then
the rest was done on the canvas. There is a
mixture of Oil Pastels (character) with Palette
Knife and Digital Watercolor tools used in
the background.

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Challenge
ith another issue comes another
Readers Challenge. If you missed
out on the irst issue, let us explain
what the devil this page is all about.
Basically, each issue we will provide a collection of
random iles that you have to create a piece of art
with. You can use all of the iles or mix some with

your own resources but all we ask is that you use at


least one ile. There will then be a winner from the
entries we receive in that month who will get their
work printed onto canvas, courtesy of the excellent
PhotoArtistry (www.photoartistry.co.uk) site.
There are no deadlines and you can ind the images
on this issues disc.

This challenges materials

THE WINNER

WILL GET
THEIR PAINTING
PROFESSIONALLY

PRINTED ONTO
CANVAS!

How to enter the challenge


To share your work with others, send your pictures in to
us and you could be featured on these pages. Just pop
your images onto a CD and send it to:
Creative Challenge, Ofcial Corel Painter Magazine,
Imagine Publishing, Richmond House, 33 Richmond Hill,
Bournemouth, Dorset BH2 6EZ, UK
Alas, we cant return any CDs.
If your entry is under 2MB, you can email it to
opm@imagine-publishing.co.uk

Remember! You can email your entries to opm@imagine-publishing.co.uk


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