Corel Painter - 07 - Magazine, Art, Digital Painting, Drawing, Draw, 2d

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Official Corel® Painter TM Magazine

PAINT

digitally today! Calligraphy brush art Frame your images online Helpful tips for artists

Official Magazine Issue seven

Pain t dramatic

seascapes Learn how to capture the magic of the ocean with a special 10-page guide

FEATURED IN THIS ISSUE

Maura Dutra

Discover how one Painter Master merges mediums to great effect

Soft portraits

See how blending techniques can create better portraits

Ink artwork

Use the Liquid Ink brushes to paint fluid images

45 Over

pages of tutorials MASTERCLASS Visit us online – www.paintermagazine.co.uk

PC an d Mac

FREE CD

INSIDE Degas Re-create the light and texture of a typical Degas painting

001_OPM_7 COVER.indd 1

Perfect sunsets Turn to page 60 and discover the skills you need to paint rich and opulent sunset scenes

TEXTURES | REFERENCE FILES | VIDEO TUTORIALS Gradients Apply gradients to photos for instant improvement

Life drawing Become a better anatomy artist with our in-depth guide

ISSUE SEVEN ISSN 1753-3155

£6.00 07

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771753 315000

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

Calligraphy brushes

Action artwork is just a stroke away!

Pg 60 Perfect sunsets Inject drama into your paintings by perfecting the art of sunsets

Pg 66 Drawing 101: Life drawing Top tips for sketching the human form

Visit our website! If you find that the magazine isn’t 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

ISSUE SEVEN

Pg 58

As soon as the sun makes itself known, a trip down to the beach is no doubt high on many people’s list. And with good reason. In addition to cooling off by taking a quick dip, the sea offers the artist a plethora of creative opportunities. From wild and stormy waves crashing into rocks, to calm blue ripples, seascapes are a very rewarding subject matter. Turn to page 22 and dive into our special feature on painting the sea. There’s loads of helpful tips and techniques on perfecting your watery scenes and we’ve also put together a collection of reference images and videos for you on the disc. But when you tire of your sea legs, we have loads of other great content. Our interview this issue is with Maura Dutra. Her beautiful images have earned her the title of Painter Master and you can see why on page 14. We also have an excellent tutorial on using the Pen brushes to create stunning images (page 52) and you can discover how to re-create the look of Edgar Degas on page 40. Happy painting!

Jo Cole, Editor in Chief [email protected]

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ON THE FRONT COVER

Soft portraits pg 32

P99 GET STARTED WITH DIGITAL PAINTING

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

pg 22 Feature

Pain t drama tic

Seascapes P60 STUNNING SUNSETS EVER LOOKED UP AT THE SKY AS DUSK FALLS AND WONDERED AT THE MAJESTY OF ITS COLOURS? LEARN HOW TO RECREATE THAT HERE

Regulars in every issue 08 Subscriptions Become a subscriber and you could enjoy a discount of up to 40%

10 Corel Painter community Get news of the best creative websites and see what others are saying in the Letters page

38 Painter showcase

96 Readers’ Challenge Fancy testing your creative prowess? See what you can do with these images

98 On the disc Get all the information of the art resources on this issue’s disc

Pages dedicated to the very best Corel Painter artwork out there

Pg 34 WIN!

YOUR WORK PRINTED TO CANVAS

pg 96

Reviews 82 Nikon D40X Zoom Kit Does this consumer digital SLR have enough options for the artist? We take it for a test drive to see if it does

84 Pantone eye-one display 2 A colour calibrator that aims to give you all you need for perfect hue harmony. See how – and if – it works here

86 Books We look at the best titles to expand your knowledge and teach you new skills

74 Art Class Helpful advice on common artistic and Corel Painterspecific questions

88 YourFramer

92 Readers’ Gallery This is the place to come and discover what other readers are creating

Learn how to paint waves and sand with our 10-page special

Original artwork by Dee Gordon

Discover more about this company that’s making it easy to present your artwork in the best possible way

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Original artwork by Maura Dutra

Ink artwork pg 52

Interview Meet professional users

Paint like Degas pg 40

14 Maura Dutra

We talk with Maura Dutra and discover why after 20 years in Hollywood’s film and animation scene, she swears by Corel Painter

tutorials

Create inspirational art 32 Paint portraits with blending techniques Capture the softness and blended feel of traditional paints with this guide

40 Paint like: Degas Take a journey into Edgar Degas’ world of sophisticated lighting and soft pastels

Drawing 101 Traditional artistic techniques 66 Life drawing Hide your blushes – we delve into the world of life drawing and reveal the best techniques for achieving realistic shape and form when it comes to drawing bodies

52 Paint with ink Use the Liquid Ink brushes coupled with watercolour touches for a delightful and stunning effect

60 Paint the perfect sunset Ensure drop-dead gorgeous skies with our special step-bystep guide to painting simply beautiful sunsets

Visit our website now!

www. painter magazine. co.uk

Primers

Get up and running… 58 Brushes: Calligraphy

Think the Calligraphy brushes are only good for the obvious thing? Discover how they can inject movement into artwork

Feature focus

Get to know your tools 48 Gradients Discover how to use, create and load gradients, plus see how they can make your images something special with minimal effort

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y t i n u m Com Tutorial xxxx

n ews eve n ts res our ces letters web site s

NEWS EVENTS RESOURCES LETTERS WEBSITES INFO FORUM

Stock up on resources High-quality landscapes and backgrounds to inspire your Corel Painter artwork RESOURCES Check out the Resources section of the deviantART website for some great 3D characters and backgrounds

hances are you will all be familiar with the deviantART site as a place to view amazing images and get your �ill of inspiration, but have you ever explored the Resources category? Here you’ll �ind loads of generous creatives who have uploaded their work for others to use in projects. We always search this part of

deviantART to see if any providers leap out as being particularly useful to Corel Painter users, and were delighted to discover IWS-stock. Pay a visit to http:// iws-stock.deviantart.com/gallery and you will discover a haven of quality 3D stock images. These cover a broad range of objects and subjects – from sci-�i and fantasy �igures, through to buildings, backgrounds, clothes and trees. Files download as a high-resolution JPEG �ile, so they are ready and primed for loading into Corel Painter. Although there is loads of great stock to choose from, it was the backgrounds that particularly caught our eye. There’s a great range on here, from dark and brooding landscapes through to beautifully lit underwater worlds. These are an absolute dream for Corel Painter artists, as they can be imported into the program and then used as part of a composition or to turn into a fully �ledged painting.

In addition to the 3D stock artwork, you can also access a variety of stock photos that cover such diverse subjects as holiday objects, landscapes and clouds. All of the stock is free to download and use for Deviant Artists, but if you want to use it for outside the site, check with the creators �irst. Either send a note via deviantART or email them at [email protected].

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ts info n ews eve n ts res our ces letters web site info n ews eve n RESOURCES

Learn to draw and paint Instructional site improves your knowledge of art and drawing skills o get the very best from Corel Painter, it helps to have a basic understanding of how traditional art mediums work. But there is plenty of free help online if you previously led an artless life. Bob Davies has put together a fantastic resource site that includes free tutorials for different mediums, such as watercolour, oils, pastels and acrylics, step-by-step guides to learn techniques such as painting scenery, plus there is an extensive section on drawing shapes. Another feature that really makes it shine are the video tutorials. Visitors can watch as he creates various objects and scenes. Visit his site at www.how-todraw-and-paint.com or pop along to www.youtube.com/user/BobDavies88 for larger versions of his videos.

STOCK PHOTOS

Affordable photos Stock images becoming cheaper as companies recognise demand

t seems as though more and more stock providers are recognising the huge market for affordable stock photography. The latest company to drop prices is Cadmium. In addition to the bank of images aimed at professionals, you can now access a wealth of quality photos that start at just £4.90. You can enjoy a vast range of choices, from objects and buildings to people and skyscapes, and it’s really easy to search the site. Just type in a search request and then examine the bountiful supply of results! Take a look at www. cadmiummicrostock.co.uk to discover more. The company recognises that design budgets are subject to be reduced, so you might �ind yourself making it your �irst place to visit the next time you need high-quality photos.

In short Creative happenings from around the world

Bob’s site has lots to offer Corel Painter users looking to expand their drawing skills or art knowledge

Painting channel Those with digital TV should tune into the Painting and Drawing channel. Found on Information TV, this half-hour program teaches various traditional artistic techniques. Visit www. thepaintinganddrawingchannel. com to watch previous shows.

Two great companies

Mix it up with a site that offers tutorials and prints TUTORIALS

ArtMixer has a good selection of tutorials to enhance your Corel Painter usage

Enjoy artwork and instruction at the ArtMixer website e’re always on the lookout for good websites for Corel Painter help and advice, and think that ArtMixer is one of the best. Point your browser to http:// artmixer.com/index.asp and you can access free tutorials in addition to purchasing high-quality tutorials and prints. The site’s creator, Torbjorn Bergsdal, has produced some really nice tutorials here. Although quite small in number, you can learn techniques such as using the Brush Creator or painting a landscape. You can also enjoy free prints of some of the images to download (see below) to get inspired.

If you’ve ever used the PhotoBox printing service, you can now access the YourFramer service (featured on page 88), too. Both companies have teamed up, meaning the next time you visit PhotoBox to order a print, you can make it a high-quality framed print in one fell swoop! Visit www. photobox.co.uk for more.

Apology We’d like to apologise to Tina Harkin who wrote last issue’s tutorial on painting realistic fur. Unfortunately her contact details were left off the tutorial, so we’d like to pass them on now. To see more of Tina’s work, visit www.tinaharkin.co.uk or send an email to inertpixel@ tinaharkin.co.uk.

SEPT

8 of OPM goes on sale! 13 Issue

The website includes a vast range of royalty free, high-quality stock photography to choose from

Grab the latest issue of Official Corel Painter Magazine from your newsagent today! Guarantee your copy every month or just save yourself the effort of leaving the house by taking out a subscription via www.imaginesubs.co.uk.

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n ts res our ces eve s ew n o inf te bsi we s ter let ces our res ts n eve s n ew

s r e t t e L r u o

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

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

Sticking with tradition

I know this is going to sound like a complete grovelling email, but I just wanted to say how much I am enjoying the magazine. I moved to Corel Painter a couple of years ago, but my roots lie in traditional art (my �irst love is oils). I have looked at a few tutorials in the past, but they all seemed to offer no variety in terms of subject matter, or they were too simplistic and obviously digital. So I was very happy to �ind your magazine. The Drawing 101 section feels like visiting an old friend, as it reminds

me of my art school days, and the variety of tutorials constantly amazes me. I’ve always thought that the Painter software had more to do with traditional art than it did digital art and it seems like you feel the same! Don’t ever change!

Oliver Jacobs

Ha ha, bless you Oliver. Cheque’s in the post and all that! You are correct – when deciding on what to include in the magazine, we go according to an art style or discipline and then translate that into Corel Painter’s tools. It’s such a vast and infinite program, that we’ve never

Reader’s tip

Share your Corel Painter wisdom…

Grainy oils I love the Artists’ Oils but could never seem to get really textured effects. Then someone told me to try using one of the Blender brushes. Now I paint with the Artists’ Oils and then apply grain and texture where I want with the Grainy Blender brush. Genius!

Isobelle Thomas If you have a creative tip you’d like to share with others, send it in to us and we’ll print it.

thought of something that it couldn’t handle! It’s also amazing how traditional art books can also help with the program – there’s always a way to use the skills in Corel Painter, so never be put off buying one of these books!

Photo to art

Here is an image I have produced which I hope is of good enough quality for you to publish in your magazine. I am a passionate black-and-white photographer. This image was taken on the north Devon coast using a Canon DSLR in what was quite bright sunshine and cloud. It was converted to black-and-white from a RAW �ile in Photoshop CS3, and manipulated to accentuate the contrasting lights and darks within it.

Oliver enjoys the variety of traditional art styles in the magazine. What do you think? Are you fans of variety or would you like more of one style?

Featured gallery

Seras

Our favourite reader’s gallery this month

Anne Pogoda

www.paintermagazine.co.uk/ user/Azurelle Anne is a relatively new member to our website, but her work has impressed us with its variety and texture. Her Too Sweet – Gothic Girl painting took the Picture of the Week award as we felt it was a stunning image that drew the reader completely into it. As you can see here, her other work is just as accomplished and we look forward to seeing more of her work in the future. To see more of Anne’s artwork, visit her site at www.darktownart.de.

g Red Win

Babies Have Blue Eyes

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John has taken one of his photos and enhanced it by using the Clone tools and brushes in Corel Painter. It’s a good example of how easy it is to go that extra mile and create an image to be proud of

It then occurred to me to attempt a charcoal/chiaroscuro effect in Corel Painter X, as exempli�ied in previous issues of your magazine. I chose French Watercolor paper, reduced a lot of the detail with the Soft Vine Charcoal brush, set to clone from the original image and then brought back a little detail into some of the areas with the Soft Cloner. I am very excited about the overall painterly effect, which still manages to maintain the sense of drama within the image. I hope you agree!

Dr. John Fontana

Very well done, John. We love seeing how easily photos can be transformed into artwork and it really is amazing what a spot of cloning can do. It seems like your style of photography also works perfectly for the chiaroscuro effect,

especially in the clouds and rock textures. Black-and-white photography allows so much freedom to experiment with tones and contrasts. Be sure to send in more of your striking creations!

Corel Painter X update

If you have bought Corel Painter X, make sure you go along to the Corel website and download the new free update. Corel Painter X v10.1 brings a greater stability to users and is available for both the Mac and PC platform. In addition to general improvement to performance and stability, there are more targeted improvements. For example, customised workspaces are now quicker, with no refresh issues when switching between workspaces that have different window sizes. Brush Ghost is also improved, especially when using the RealBristle brushes with Wacom’s 6D Art Pen, and the program now also supports longer �ilenames in Mac OS X. For a full list of improvements, visit www.corel.com/content/painterx/ 10-1/Readme.htm and then head to the Support section of the US site (www. corel.com) and go to Patches and Updates on the left-hand side.

www.paintermagazine.co.uk

bsi te info we s ter let ces our res ts n eve s ew n o inf te bsi we s ces letter

The latest from our forum and website Website challenge Some of the best so far… This issue comes on sale a few weeks before our third website challenge expires, so here’s a quick look at some of the entries we’ve had so far. First up is Sandria Savoy’s butter�ly image, which has a great sense of dynamism to it. In the middle is Sue Steven’s colourful take on the lobster pots. As Sue proves, experimenting with colour is a great way to add interest to a normal photo. Finally, we wanted to show you Ata Allashi’s improvements of the house photo. Colour is used once more to turn a dowdy shot into one that is crackling with life. Check back next issue to see the results and if you weren’t successful this time around, or you’d like to enter for the �irst time, visit the website for the latest competition. You can download the supplied images and then email us your entry. Oh, and you can enter as many times as you like!

ENTER T WEBSITHE CHALLE E NGE Don’t be shy

welcome – everyone’s www.pa to enter! Go to int co.uk/co ermagazine. mpetitio ns

Too Sweet – Go thic Girl

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Interview Maura Dutra

WEBSITE JOB TITLE CLIENTS

www.idcphotography.com Freelance photographer and artist Canon, Warner Brothers and Condé Nast Publishing

An interview with…

Maura Dutra On the eve of a US nationwide seminar tour, Nick Spence meets Corel Painter Master, Maura Dutra

[BELOW] Maura at work Armed with her camera, scanner, tablet and computer, Maura is able to create her delicate and textured paintings

ith 20 years in Hollywood and a background in �ilm and animation, Maura Dutra embraced both Corel Painter and Adobe Photoshop early on, keen to develop her traditional painting skills digitally. In demand for her stunning painterly style, Maura is also known for her training seminars, workshops, photo safaris and range of new Corel Painter Photo Impressionism® digital painting training, available to order from Maura’s website. Maura’s long list of awards includes Kodak’s Professional Innovators Award, the Seybold Juries Digital Imaging Show, Clio Art Director’s Award for Animation and Visual Effects, and Corel Painter Master.

How did you make the move from a career in film-making, animation and visual effects to being an award-winning Corel Painter Master? One phase ends, another begins, and soon you have the chapters of a career. Mine started with high school dreams of being a character animator. After studying �ine art and graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Illustration, I landed an entrylevel job as a cell animation ink-andpaint tech. Soon fate was to offer me the opportunity to assist storyboarding the effects sequences for the �irst Star Trek movie, and that led to a career in visual effects and post-production supervision, ending with a stint as a director for a few television commercials. After spending 20 years in �ilm production, my husband and I made the decision to embark upon yet another career in the arts. Enter Corel Painter. I had painted with natural media in college, but this clever program struck a chord with my �irst investigations. In no time at all I had created a series of ‘botanical �loral’ paintings that were licensed for interior décor usage around the world. I moved on from that phase several years ago, but my involvement with Painter has only intensi�ied. You’ve been working with Corel Painter since version 3. Over the years what have been the indispensable new features and tools? The tools in Painter have improved greatly in their performance over the years. In early versions of this program,

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All original artwork by Maura Dutra

Britanny This image is full of Maura’s trademark brush strokes and texture, which exist happily with the softness of the original photo

“The tools in Painter have improved greatly in their performance over the years”

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Interview Maura Dutra

Ellie Maura’s use of composite modes allows her to add lots and lots of texture in paintings and give them an exquisite depth

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“A photograph is the starting point for much of the digital painting I do these days”

the larger brushes were very slow to render a stroke and would sometimes cause the program to freeze. The newer versions of Painter each offered improvements in rendering brushstrokes and now facilitate my preferred approach to painting with an energetic application of large, sweeping brushstrokes. Other new indispensable features for my work include the masks, layers, and Composite modes. I can now apply textures in Painter using layers and the Masking tool to control the placement of my textural interest exactly where I want to see them. Using the Composite modes I am then able to season the image ‘to taste’ with different layer blending effects. As a photographer, how much of your work with Corel Painter is done through the eye of the lens? I always start with the best possible capture I can manage. I’ve tried to re�ine my eyepiece composition over the years and crop only when the proportion of my frame isn’t appropriate to the �inished piece I have envisioned. After

Windy Wish Another excellent example of Maura’s large and expressive brush strokes – here to convey the feeling of wind and movement

[MIDDLE TOP] On location Maura’s photographs play a pivotal role in her work, and she works hard to perfect the shot in the viewfinder

[MIDDLE BOTTOM] Horse Play For her personal projects, Maura enjoys creating horse, figure and landscape artwork

my RAW �ile has been processed with a baseline colour temperature, I investigate different colour toning and enhancements before painting begins. I enjoy exploring expressive colour directions in my paintings and �ind the work of colourist painters such as Wolf Kahn and Wayne Thiebaud very exciting and inspirational. If the project is a portrait, I will also look to smooth any complexion issues, and punch the saturation and contrast in the eyes, using Photoshop before bringing the image into Painter. I allocate all detailed retouching to the beginning

of the project in order to allow a loose and spontaneous energy for my work session. A photograph is the starting point for much of the digital painting I do these days. My approach begins with thoughtful consideration as to what the �inal artwork might like to evolve into. With an end result in mind, I decide upon a media substrate for the �inal print at this time. This important decision dictates the corresponding brush style I will choose to work with in Painter; ie, oil, watercolour, chalks, or pastels. Understanding that oil painting is an

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Interview Maura Dutra

[RIGHT] Part of Maura’s service includes large-scale prints, for which she relies on accurate colour management

[LEFT] A lovely side of Maura’s work is how she will use traditional media such as pastels and acrylic gels to enhance her inkjet prints of the Corel Painter creations

“Good colour management from start to finish is essential” addictive medium, I begin by making a medium-toned ‘under-painting’ for my Painter oil pieces. Moving from large and loose brushwork to the smaller and more detailed application of ‘wet pixels’ sampled from my source photo, I focus on building the form. Strong character of both colour and brush stroke to de�ine form is my goal in Painter. I often employ post-printing handwork to create a dimensional patina on my inkjet prints by using natural media such as pastels and acrylic gels. These embellishments serve to transform each print into a unique piece of art. We have found that the addition of the artist’s handwork to the archival print will increase the real and perceived value of a �inal piece.

Brianna Blues Maura is a big fan of expressive colour and uses it to create portraits with real power

You print and sell large-scale work measuring up to 40 x 60 inches. How do you ensure what you see on-screen is faithfully reproduced big? Good colour management from start to �inish, which enables accurate softproo�ing, is essential. A few test prints are also worth their weight in gold. It isn’t that dif�icult with proper attention to this aspect of your work�low.

When you work on commissions, are you ever reliant on other people’s source material and if so what challenges does that offer? Whether the source photograph is one I have produced or comes from another photographer, the ultimate appeal of a painted portrait will depend greatly upon the source photograph containing all the essential elements for a successful image: a strong compositional statement, an engaging gesture and form-de�ining light. One should be very discriminating when considering a source image. My husband, Bruce Dorn, and I have developed a new series of Corel Painter X training DVDs, which will be ready for release mid-August 2007. These initial training sessions focus on painting portraiture from photographs. The images used in these sessions were chosen from portrait shoots where Bruce designed the lighting and did the shooting, while I worked with our client on colour palettes and wardrobe choices. This is a common collaboration in our studio and produces images which I like to think of as the best of the best! Painting from his beautiful captures is a real privilege and honour for me!

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Kiersa After editing the original photo, Maura can then use Corel Painter to create something wonderful

Before retouching

After retouching

ting your own When attemp photos, take a leaf portraits froms book and spend a bit out of Maura’ g the colours, boosting of time ed itinrally creating a good base hues and gene he trick is to push to work on. Tr than you would in a things furthe o. Once you’re normal phot er, you’ll find the in Corel Paintnd well to slightly brushes respo urs. unnatural colo Your stunning images of flowers make use of a flatbed scanner, can you explain the process? I constructed a cardboard box, lined with black velvet that sits on top of my 11 x 17 inch Epson scanner platen and encloses the �lower completely. This box keeps any stray ambient light out of the equation. Depth-of-�ield is, of course, quite shallow with this type of capture. Although that particular aspect of this sort of capture can create a lovely and dream-like effect as the background details fall off into darkness, the scanner process is a bit limiting for both subject size and lighting. Since I had planned on creating my Botanical Floral series with this particular effect in mind, the effect served my ultimate goal. I was happy, however, moving on to working with more versatile capture opportunities using my Canon 5D. And is it difficult to build up such subtle evocative textures in your pictures of flowers? Yes, it began as a time-consuming and elaborate process, but I’ve recently streamlined the steps using Photoshop’s actions. Many of the images that appear

A Rose – Kiersa Maura and husband Bruce Dorn, have created a series of Corel Painter X DVDs that teach how to paint portraits from photos

Cowboy Blues Clyde, the original steed of the iconic Marlboro Man is still at work. Here he carries a wrangler across an icy Wyoming river to round up some strays. Bruce and his wife, Painter Master Maura Dutra, hold an annual digital workshop in Jackson Hole each September

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Interview Maura Dutra

with this article utilise my textural effects. While working on my Botanical series, I investigated many techniques for achieving the ultimate ‘cracked varnish’ effect on my �inal ink jet prints. I was thrilled when I eventually found the perfect product, but quite disappointed when I learned that it had been

imaging application, which can be applied in Painter or in Photoshop. How has the perception of digital art and software tools like Corel Painter changed over those years? Every creative tool, natural or digital, has its advantages and disadvantages

“Every creative tool, natural or digital, has its advantages and disadvantages” discontinued shortly after. I used the small quantity I had to create an archive of craquelure effects on hardboard. We photographed these textures at high resolution and created �iles suitable for digital layering. I now offer a varied collection of artistic textures for digital

and as an artist it is both my pleasure and challenge to experience them. Farsighted collectors and galleries will be rewarded in due time. This is the dawn of an emerging medium. Let history decide where each of us �its in the scheme of things. I’m just excited to explore.

You have developed a distinctive style called Photo Impressionism®, can you explain what this involves? Photography is a medium unmatched for its capacity to capture a unique moment. We take inspiration from the Impressionist era and approach the digital canvas with as much energy and spontaneity as we can muster. The lighting, composition, colour palette and story come from the original photograph, while our looser brushstrokes emphasise the ‘impression’ and provide the poetry. Bruce and I feel that the term Photo Impressionism® perfectly describes our style of digital painting. These days, even artists must be conscious of the value of marketing and to that end we registered the term ‘Photo Impressionism®’. It helps our clients better understand the product that we offer while simultaneously establishing our ‘brand’.

Maura’s Botanical Series of images made excellent use of traditional textures, such as crackle glaze and vintage stamps

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Feature Paint dramatic seascapes

Pa in t

When done correctly, a good seascape can look absolutely amazing. From the swell of the waves through to the water gently lapping at the shoreline, Jeff Johnson has created an indispensable guide to help you get started on this challenging but rewarding subject

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drama tic

seascapes or most of us the sea conjures up fond memories, whether it’s of family holidays full of ice cream and mischief, or romantic strolls along a sunset-lit beach. The sea is also a worthy subject of paintings and never fails to reward the artist with scenes that are packed with drama and mood.

Over the next few pages, we’re going to look at how you can paint the sea in Corel Painter, concentrating solely on the waves. We’ll show how it’s possible to capture the movement of a wave crashing against the shore, as well as how to paint calm waters. You’ll learn which brushes are the best and what colours are needed.

In addition to the tutorials, we’ve also put together a reference pack on the CD. In here you will find lots of photos of different seascapes and there’s even some small videos for you to get the feeling of how water moves. As ever, send us what you create and we’ll print it!

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Feature Paint dramatic seascapes

Colour palette Colours are obviously closely linked with the time of day and general weather conditions, but here’s a palette from the images in this tutorial. As you can see,

Ca lm seas Horizon

C: 86% M: 62% Y: 42% K: 29%

DEEP WATER C: 75% M: 48% Y: 29% K: 5%

Horizon

C: 79% M: 46% Y: 51% K: 21%

Sk y C: 90% M: 63% Y: 20% K: 4%

C: 4% M: 2% Y: 2% K: 0%

C: 59% M: 41% Y: 32% K: 0%

C: 5% M: 1% Y: 1% K: 0%

Spray C: 32% M: 17% Y: 11% K: 0% C: 21% M: 10% Y: 10% K: 0%

middle ground shadow

SHALLOW WATER

C: 90% M: 78% Y: 43% K: 48%

C: 89% M: 74% Y: 36% K: 29%

C: 84% M: 61% Y: 25% K: 7%

TOP

C: 79% M: 49% Y: 11% K: 0%

C: 68% M: 42% Y: 58% K: 18%

C: 77% M: 47% Y: 11% K: 0%

C: 65% M: 36% Y: 53% K: 8%

C: 66% M: 32% Y: 17% K: 0%

C: 41% M: 9% Y: 34% K: 0%

C: 48% M: 15% Y: 4% K: 0%

Sand

Sand

C: 6% M: 20% Y: 25% K: 0%

Breaker shadow C: 44% M: 46% Y: 62% K: 12%

C: 62% M: 29% Y: 18% K: 0% C: 44% M: 17% Y: 15% K: 0%

Shadows

C: 49% M: 32% Y: 22% K: 0%

C: 34% M: 36% Y: 44% K: 1%

Deep seas

White wa ter

middle ground shadow

C: 28% M: 23% Y: 20% K: 0%

C: 38% M: 22% Y: 15% K: 0%

C: 83% M: 60% Y: 44% K: 30%

Don’t forget that the sea also has green in it, especially in deep water and also as waves break. And make sure your light source doesn’t get lost in all the action!

SHALLOW WATER

C: 54% M: 31% Y: 23% K: 0%

DEEP WATER

colours in the sea get lighter the further you come into shore, and you need to mix pale beige colours to give the impression of water over the sand.

wave reflection BOTTOM

C: 9% M: 8% Y: 11% K: 0%

C: 28% M: 9% Y: 24% K: 0%

C: 25% M: 1% Y: 6% K: 0%

C: 3% M: 0% Y: 4% K: 0%

C: 12% M: 0% Y: 0% K: 0%

Calm sea

Stormy sea Sand C: 8% M: 6% Y: 24% K: 0%

Breaker shadow C: 30% M: 28% Y: 64% K: 0%

wave reflection C: 6% M: 4% Y: 13% K: 0%

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Brushes

CHARCOAL PENCIL

A Charcoal Pencil is good for creating an initial sketch and getting shadows in place

DIGITAL AIRBRUSH

A fabulous brush for laying colour down for skies and calm water scenes

Blenders SOFT BLENDER STUMP

Invaluable for merging sky tones as well as softening sea colours

FINE CAMEL BRUSH

Excellent for blocking in colours for stormy and choppy seascapes – great for texture

SMEARY ROUND

Another good oil brush for building up tones and movement in seas

On the CD

Reference pack for your seascape painting adventures!

The best way to learn how to paint the sea is to look at the sea! So we’ve put together a resource pack on the CD that has plenty of photos of waves, sand and foam, in addition to short videos that are good for visualising how the sea moves.

TAPERED ROUND OILS Good for wave ripples as well as painting in the shadows under the waves

M ovie s

Photos GRAINY BLENDER

Build up realistic breaking waves with this brush and also add texture to clouds and foam

SMUDGE

For fluffy, explosive waves, the Smudge brush can work miracles

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Feature Paint dramatic seascapes

Calm seas Time to enjoy a tranquil afternoon beach-side, is what we say. This tutorial will take us step by step through an uncomplicated rendering of a quiet little ocean-side scene. As to the mood of our effort, think of a bright sunny day with a light breeze and the softest of waves gently pushing ashore. We will be using a bare handful of brushes, layers and colours to render a quiet ocean all the way from the far horizon, through the soft breakers lapping the shore, past the foamy surf and onto a warm, inviting beach. Once we establish the most basic of layouts, we will quickly build up our scene, relying principally on the Tapered Round Oil Brush, the Digital Airbrush and a couple of nifty Blenders.

Prepara tion There are various points to keep in mind when attempting to paint calm seas. The most important is to decide on the medium – watercolour or airbrush work well. Here are some more pointers:

you are painting • Although still water, you still need to

•

include ripples Keep colours light at the foreground to give the impression of water over sand

01

On the horizon

Create a horizon line two thirds up the canvas, use the Tapered Round Oil Brush 15 and the darkest of the deep water colours. Also outline the modest foamy breaker, positioned just above the onethird point. Use the Digital Airbrush to spray in the sea blues, going from dark to light.

03

Blendin g

Open up a Darken layer, to quickly colour near the horizon without colouring into the water. Using an enlarged Digital Airbrush, block in the four tones of the sky. Flatten the image. Using a Soft Blender Stump enlarged to 80, blend in the various values with soft horizontal strokes. Spend time on smoothing the transitions in the sky, as some irregularities in the water will be beneficial.

02

Bands of wa ter

Next grab the Digital Airbrush. Add a strip of the almond reflection colour under the foam of the wave. Then fill in the two values of shallow water as shown, with the Sandy colour closest to the beach. Leaving a small strip for the foamy edge of the receding wave, block in the basic sand colour.

04 Shadows The Tapered Round Oils 15 is capable of producing a very thin mark with minimal pressure, and just like a natural media round, will give a fat blob of colour if pressed firmly enough. Draw in small shadows under the foremost breaker with the darkest sandy tone. Use canvas white to draw more foamy crests further out into the water and begin to embellish the near wave with a few details. Use loose, gestural strokes.

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06

05

Lighten thin gs up

Reduce the size of the Tapered Round Brush to 7. Take a sample of the water tone next to the horizon and paint into the next lightest tone with light, skittery horizontal strokes. Repeat the process in reverse by painting some of the lighter colour into the darker field with the same light, thin strokes to represent the furthest waves. Resize the brush to 15 and repeat the whole process in the shallow water area between the breaker and the foam, this time pushing harder to make broader strokes.

07

More shadow

Open up a Default layer. With the Tapered Round set to 15, use the two middle ground shadow colours to make fat and thin waves, with the darker colour used for the foremost waves. Sample some white and create the pattern of the sea foam. Using a large Eraser set to 40% Opacity, lightly reduce the brightness of any stark foam. Flatten the image.

Follow the foam

Set a 30 Digital Airbrush to 30% Opacity. Paint a little of the sand colour into the edge of the water to suggest a slight shelf. The Grainy Blender 30 brings it together. Working at full size in the foreground and reducing the brush size down to about 10 near the horizon, make soft horizontal strokes along waves and directional strokes following the foamy threads to blend edges together. Add spray at the top and bottom of the near wave as a nice detail.

09 Sand tex ture

Open up a Gel layer. With a large Digital Airbrush set to 30% Opacity, cover the water in a very light yellowish white. Switch to the variable Spatter Airbrush sized to 40 or so. With canvas white as the colour, paint about the middle third, making sure to work towards the edges a bit. This leaves a nice subtle texture on the sand.

08

Cloud glazin g

Using the Digital Airbrush 30 for the large cloud and the Tapered Round 15 for the smaller ones, paint in the clouds. Sample two medium tones from the middle ground water. Then, using the Grainy Blender 30 with strokes following the contours, blend the edges of the clouds a bit into the sky.

10

Va lues, va lues

Use the Apply Lighting command at the end for the final burst of sunlight, using these settings as an example.

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Feature Paint dramatic seascapes

Breaking waves

We have a very nice setting for some really dramatic shoreline action. There is a cliff face, a bunch of rock outcroppings, and even a secluded sandy beach for the truly adventuresome swimmer. Lots of opportunity to explore some of the interplay between sea and shore. All that is needed is a few mammoth breakers smashing into the rugged rocks and a turbulent set of swells set to follow. All waves have distinct shape and dimension and can be lit predictably, but the kind of shoreline action we require needs huge rolling breakers with their distinctive tubular shape. They are particularly fun additions to a seascape, and have an anatomy that is easy to understand and paint. Some strong gestural drawing is all we need to start. Then we will introduce some of our darker values, gradually building to peaks of spray and curls backlit by a strong light. The viewer will then be left with a sense of the ebb and �low of a sea constantly in motion.

Prepara tion When it comes to breaking waves, you need to think about the movement of the sea. Use the videos on the CD to look at how water moves. Build up a rhythm in your mind and then paint it. Sounds crazy, but you need to visualise the movement in order to paint realistic waves.

02

green or yellow • Introduce highlights to the centre of

•

01

Dra wn to the sea

breaking waves As waves break, they draw up upon themselves, so include lines to suggest movement at the side and front

the foam white with • Merge blue and yellow

It pays to look at lots of references, and have a few on hand that are most similar to your idea. Start with a quick rendering of the various waves. Nothing too elaborate, but enough to get a real sense of the shape and direction of the waves. The Charcoal Pencil 7 of medium dark value combined with the Smudge tool is a nice combination.

Choosin g a brush and jumpin g in

Size the Fine Camel Brush to 40, and start with a mid-tone blue. Open up a Multiply layer so the drawing isn’t obscured until the basic values are blocked in. Repeat with green in areas that light would pierce or that are in shallow water. Change the layer to default and flatten the image.

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03

Gestura l strokes

After adding a little lighter green to the top of the big wave, do some directional strokes with first the brush in hand and then the Smudge tool, located in the Blender Brush library. Follow the contours of the wave and try to show some of the force used on the cliff face.

04

05

Shadows

Now for a little rounding out of the forms of the foamy spray. Medium-light blues and greens, applied to shaded areas with our Camel Brush, enhance the sense of threedimensionality of our wave. Time to add a few more darks elsewhere and at the same time start refining the various edges throughout.

06

N ew wa ves

Well, as the big wave is looking fine, a little time spent on the rest of the area is needed. More waves are needed and more facets of reflected light. This shot shows the result of alternating between a small Digital Airbrush, for the sharpest edges, and a small version of our Fine Camel Brush, with blending done with our Smudge tool. The areas of brightest light are directly underneath the sun.

Smudge

Now the Smudge tool does some good stuff for us. With the various values blocked in, it is time to really churn up the surf. Using various sizes of the Smudge tool, work directionally wherever a little gesture is needed. If things get muddy, just paint back into the area a bit and start over. It is pretty fun and effective.

07

Foam marblin g

Last, an important surface detail is added to top things off nicely. The preceding wave and the foam it created are being sucked back into the coming wave, and the foam pulls back in a pattern that resembles marbling. Using a small Soft Camel Brush, paint in the foamy lines with a medium to light blue, then blend them in with the Smudge tool, adjusted to size.

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Feature Paint dramatic seascapes

Choppy waters So much for the �ireworks! Now we are left with the various transitions that �low from those big waves to the rest of our setting. One is to the less tumultuous greater body of water. It is a bit more dif�icult to get right, as there are more waves with less distinct shapes, but they are every bit as necessary to do up in proper fashion. We are left with the interplay between the sea and the shore, with fun bits like the foamy receding water that follows a spent wave as another builds, complete with rivulets of runoff water �lowing from the rocky shores. Have you ever noticed how the foam in a retracting wave causes a pattern resembling marbling? We’ll include how to re-create that, and even build up a nice sand bar, created by constant wave motion, as our �inal touch.

01 Prepara tion If you have breaking waves, you need to then work in some choppy water to join them together. The trick with this is to build up lots of blues and greens to suggest waves churning away and also paint the sand to look like the water is dragging it out.

02

Grainy Blender • Use to pull away foam bits the Tapered Oils brush • Use to add white squiggles and dots to look like foam flying in the breeze

green and yellow to • Introduce the heart of the waves

Broaden the ran ge

The big drink

Using a large Fine Camel Brush, about 30, block in the values to the horizon. Picking a mid-tone colour for the farthest reaches of the big wave area will do nicely. Make the right side of the water a bit darker for compositional purposes. Use a slightly more saturated blue for this area to enhance the illusion of it being a bit closer than the horizon.

03

More smudgin g Working back and forth between a small version of the Smudge tool and our Camel Brush sized to order, some of the details are finalised. A small Smudge tool between three and ten, scratched across the edges of the brush strokes in sympathetic direction helps blend them into the body of colour.

Now we have a small bit of work broadening the range of the values, including adding a bright highlighted area in the patch of water directly underneath the sun. Notice that the strokes are pretty much horizontal in the background, but in the foreground they are beginning to suggest waves with small peaks as they get closer.

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04

M or e of the sa m e

05

This shot shows the result of about ten minutes of the back and forth workings of the previous step, applied to the water in the bay. This is not aimless brush pushing. It helps to visualise a few large swells covered with smaller surface waves. The idea is to create a number of subtle facets, some of them very crisp, so too much blending can flatten things out in an unfavourable way.

06

Now draw an interesting and logical line where the wash from the previous breaker has extended to. There is a lot of nice space to utilise in the foreground, so leave off short of the rocks. Fill in the area with a lighter green using the Camel Brush set to about 30 in the field and made smaller for details. Take a little time with the Blender around the rocks to work the edges to a nice level of detail.

Tran slucen t wash

07

Now take a large Digital Airbrush 45 set to 20% Opacity and lightly paint over the leading edge of the wash with a light sandy brown, to give the illusion of translucent water thinning at the outer reaches. Then blend it in with a large version of the Smudge tool.

08

Ashore a t last

More marblin g

Just like those done on the breaking waves, the strings of sea foam in the wash are first laid down with a small Camel Brush. Then they are carefully blended to integrate them into the foreground. Any sharp edges desired can always be painted back on and lightly blended. Something to keep an eye on is the plane that the wash is on, so the marks enhance the sense of realistic space.

Runoff

Alternating between the Airbrush and the Fine Camel Brush, with both adjusted to sizes fitting for the scale of detail, paint little rivulets of runoff water.

09 Dra win g a lin e in the sand

Now for the beach. A simple line along a likely path describes the contours of the ridge created by constant wave motion. Then it is a snap to paint in values of a sandy tan on either side of the ridge line. The Soft Blender Stump 30 works best to mingle the various values to sandy smoothness. Voila!

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Tutorial Use blending techniques for soft portraits

Use blending techniques for soft portraits As well as the Blender brushes themselves, a variety of techniques are at your disposal for merging your media for super-smooth results Tutorial info Artist

Sam Gilbey Time needed

2-3 hours Skill level

Intermediate On the CD

Source photo final image

epending on the style and techniques you favour, you could approach a portrait in Corel Painter in any number of ways. But as you might imagine, to truly get the best results you need to be able to command a variety of techniques and brush types. The more you work at it, the faster you’ll get at making the right selection for the right job. When you no longer need to think about what you need to do next, that’s when your style is really working for you. But, of course, if using

an assortment of brush categories and variants, the risk is that your artwork ends up lacking the continuity that great pieces always have. This means that the Blender brushes become a crucial part of your digital painting arsenal, fusing two seemingly disparate methods. When working with Corel Painter you can combine realistic replications of natural media, but you can do this in ways that you couldn’t actually do in real life. Additionally, though, we’re not just talking about the Blender brushes per se, as typically they get used towards the end

of a piece, literally to smooth out some of the rough edges. What we’re also looking at here is how to give a blended feel to your digital painting throughout. Many of the brushes can be set to blend with existing colours on the canvas, so you can develop the soft look as you go. We’ve included the photo we used on the disc (thanks to Sarah Ferber for permission to use her self-portrait), but the techniques explained here can be used for portraits in general, so feel free to use a different image from your own digital collection.

Setting up Choose either the portrait provided or one of your own

01 Step up

Create a new document that’s 24cm by 31cm at 300dpi. Open the portrait photo from the magazine disc and copy and paste it onto the canvas. Go to Effect>Scale>Orientation>Free Transform and scale the photo up so that it fills the canvas. We’re only using it for reference so it doesn’t matter that it’s low resolution.

not doing the obvious 2B 03 We’re joke

02 Push it back

Select the Fill tool, and pick a colour from the background of the photo. Reduce the Opacity of the photo layer to around 35%, and select the canvas layer. Fill the canvas with the deep orange tone. Next, create a new layer above the photo.

Choose the 2B Pencil from the range of variants in the Pencils brush category, and set the width to 3px and the Opacity to around 50%. Choose a dark grey tone. When you start to draw on the layer, the blending mode will automatically be set to Gel. Set it to Normal.

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Tutorial Use blending techniques for soft portraits

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Tutorial Use blending techniques for soft portraits

Use your tools Explore the depths of the portrait’s layers

05 Double size

Work your way around the piece, softly marking the key features as you go. This is so that everything is proportional, and it will save time trying to perfect the likeness later. The pencil marks won’t be very visible at the end, but still, try and keep them fairly neat.

When you’re done, try hiding the photo layer to check that you’ve got enough reference lines. Select the canvas layer, and go to Canvas>Canvas Size. Add the current image width to the right of the canvas, ie, 2,835 pixels. Reveal the photo and move it to the right side.

06 Flat tones

07 Masking the edges

04 Key features

Create a separate layer for each key area of the portrait (face, neck, hair, arm, knee, T-shirt, eyes and lips). Making sure the Resat is set to 100, pick a mid-tone from each of the key areas, and on the appropriate layer, paint the areas in with flat colours. Don’t worry about going over the edges.

Splitting hairs Don’t be afraid to use lots and lots of layers, especially when it comes to painting something like hair. It needs to look smooth, soft and shiny, but also needs detail and depth. Trying to do all this on just one layer means that your details will just get smudged, and that sheen will be lost.

Select the face layer and go to Layers> Create Layer Mask. In the Layers palette, click on the mask thumbnail. Use the Wet Detail Brush 5 from the Acrylics set (at any size though), ensuring the Resat is at 100%, and paint in black to hide the overlaps. Repeat for the other layers.

09 Gold blend

08 Chalky texture

Once you’re happy with the masks on each layer, select the Blunt Chalk 10 from the Chalk range. Set the brush size to around 50 with the Resat at 100%, and with a dark green, start to mark out the shadows on the T-shirt layer. Keep the pressure quite light so you get the chalk texture.

The Resat level is crucial when it comes to blending your artwork. Reduce it to 12% and increase the brush size to around 80. Now when you paint, you’re still working with chalk but you can push and pull away from different tones to spread the shading. Work in a variety of tones.

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Change the Resat value to 3%, and reduce the brush size to around 50. You’ll get a slightly streaky look, but that’s what we want here. Select the Just Add Water blender from the Blenders and with the size around 70, proceed to blend the T-shirt tones into one another, being careful to follow the folds.

11 Keep working at it

The airbrushes are essential for this blended look. Use the Soft Airbrush, at a variety of sizes and in a variety of tones, to further accentuate the detail in the T-shirt. Then use the Round Blender Brush 30 from the Blenders menu, to further soften the detail where necessary.

12 Just like real brushes

The Artists’ Oils run out of paint, just as they would in real life. Use the Soft Blender Brush in this category to start adding highlight and shadow to the face. Note that when you have run out of paint, you can continue to blend if you don’t lift your brush from the surface.

It’s crucial to master the Resat and Opacity levels in your techniques, especially when you’re going for a blended look as we are here. Setting the Resat down to 3% will really keep it soft, but bear in mind you’ll need to increase it somewhat when you need to bring in some darker tones. Keeping the brush Opacity low means you can blend it all together gradually.

Use blending techniques for soft portraits

10 Softer still

Tutorial

Resat and Opacity

Define the shine and lines Blend to your heart’s content

14 Shiny eyes 13 Just Add Water

The Just Add Water blender comes in very handy here, because the Soft Blender brush will have left really obvious brush strokes. Once you’ve softened it, use the Wet Detail Brush from Acrylics, but this time set the Resat to 12%. With the brush size around 20, continue to develop the shading.

Use the same brush to add various colour tones to the eyes, but then use the Coarse Oily Blender 10 from the Blenders, at a size of around 4, to drag these tones around and add lots of detail to the eyes. All the marks should radiate out from the pupil.

15 Hair time

Use some chunky charcoal strokes to start to define the highlights and shadows in the hair. To blend these in, use the Loaded Palette Knife from the Palette Knives, following the contours of the hair, with the Resat around 12% and the size around 20.

16 Distortion and more blending

In the Distortion category you’ll find the Distorto brush. With the size set to 40, you’ll find this is a great way to add thin streaks into the hair, all the time increasing the range and depth. Next, use the Flat Grainy Stump from the Blenders, at a size of 15, to just soften those marks.

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Tutorial Use blending techniques for soft portraits

The final flourishes Bring out the contrasting textures for a remarkable effect

17 Build it up

Create a new layer above, setting the Opacity of the layer to around 65%. Check the Pick Up Underlying Colour box on the Layers palette. Use the Wet Detail (Acrylic) Brush at a size of 20 and with 3% Resat, to add extra sheen to the hair, blending a range of colours in as you go.

18 Smear is also useful

Where there’s a contrast in tones on flesh, like at the edge of the nose or the chin and cheek, the Smear blender is a great tool to use. You can drag the highlights or shadows around without them becoming overpowering. Also use the Just Add Water blender to retain the softness.

19 Final touches

Using the techniques we’ve shown, complete the image, softening it where necessary, but keeping some stronger lines in view (lips and eyes for example). Add a layer above everything, setting it to Screen blending mode, and use a large red airbrush to add a glow to key areas of the flesh, hair and clothing.

Using blending techniques in portraits Traditional artists blend paint as they go, and the technique is especially good for when you are painting portraits. Blending allows you to merge colours together and soften out any hard brush marks. This not only enables you to create flawless skin, but it is also excellent for smooth hair and soft fabric. We’ve used various blending techniques throughout this tutorial, but here’s a look at the brushes we used for each task, along with how they were used. Practise with this photo and then use your new skills on your own image!

02

01

Hair The hair started with charcoal shadows, blended in with a Loaded Palette Knife, the Distorto brush and the Flat Grainy Stump. A semiopaque layer of Wet Acrylic strokes, and some airbrush highlights just brought it to life.

03

Facial detail A variety of Blenders and paints were used here, but the important thing is to know where to retain sharper lines, and where to blend everything as softly as possible. See how the highlights follow the edge of the nose and the cheek.

Clothing For clothing to be convincing, again it needs to have clearly defined contours, but the blend between light and shadow must be soft. Be careful not to overwork things!

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showcase

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DENIS FOKIN TITLE WEBSITE JOB TITLE

All Alone www.denfo.info Digital artist Denis has an amazing range of work, from dark and brooding pieces such as this example, through to bright and cheery fruit paintings and humorous illustrations. Visit his site for more great examples of artwork.

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Tutorial Paint like Edgar Degas

Paint like: Edgar Degas Famous for his images of the Paris ballet scene, Degas was an Impressionist with a difference. Learn which tools to use in order to create a Degas-inspired masterpiece Tutorial info Artist

Hannah Gal Time needed

4 hours Skill level

Intermediate On the CD

Start sketch and final file

For more on Degas’ life and works, visit www. expo-degas.com

egas was born in 1834 in Paris, France, to an aristocratic family and started painting very early in life. His well-todo family was supportive of his talent; his banker father did expect the young Edgar to go to law school, but when this path proved fruitless, his chosen career in art was nurtured. Degas studied art in France and travelled to Italy where he lived for three years, mastering the works of the classics including Raphael and Titian. His hard work and passion for Renaissance art created a highly accomplished and skilled painter, who continued to evolve throughout his career. Although part of the Impressionist movement, Degas employed a somewhat different approach and style. He favoured drawing with more control and less of the spontaneity that typi�ied Impressionism. He painted a great deal from sketches and notes made ‘at the scene’, as well as from memory – unlike some Impressionists who preferred an immediate transfer of their impression of light to canvas.

Like fellow Impressionists, Degas had an interest in modern city life with its dance halls, cabarets, racetracks, opera and, of course, ballet stages. Racing track and ballet dance life provided the disciplined movement that fascinated him. He recorded the gestures, nuances, ambience and atmosphere of the ballet scene, producing art pieces that have fascinated the world ever since. It is worth noting, however, that this versatile artist also studied the everyday life of milliners, dressmakers and laundresses. He did so with great passion, to produce immaculate paintings that are distinctively different from the pastels of later life. Degas’ technique is both unique and highly accessible. It is the result of a ‘photographic eye’ and experimentation with unusual art methods and materials. Among other techniques, Degas would mix pastels with liquid �ixative to make a colourful paste, and transfer the excess of pigment from one drawing onto a clear sheet to make an inverse proof of the original. When etching, he inked the unetched plate and drew with a brush in this layer of ink, then he removed all the ink in places to obtain strong contrasts of light and dark. The multitude of experiments gave birth to richness of surface effects and a great variety in style. Degas often combined pastels and oil in a single work but the mid 1870s saw him

Our ballerina is placed on a striking white background, which affects our judgement of colour. In a separate layer, we created a colour background which can be turned on for reference

We imitated Degas by using pencil and charcoal, using the Smudge variant of the Blend brushes on the latter

working increasingly in pastel, eventually abandoning oil completely in favour of pastel for which he is best known. Pastels gave the work qualities of lightness, which complemented the subject of dancers perfectly. He handled this delicate medium with con�idence and created a body of work that includes some of the most famous art pieces ever created. We will create The Star using a mixture of oils and pastels. Like Degas, we will start with a drawing, move to oil paint and pastels, and explore variants including the Square Pastel and Smooth Pastel. The pastels are used with a chosen textured paper. Unlike the original, our ballerina is placed on a white background. For colour reference, we will create a colour background on a separate layer that can be turned on and off when needed.

Degas often mixed oil paint with pastels. Over our layers of oil paint, we applied pastels to add a quality of lightness. Soft Oil Pastels give a smooth feel, where the Square Hard Pastel brings texture and grain

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Tutorial Paint like Edgar Degas

Outlines and layers You’ll feel the benefit of the layers later on

Brush to blend Painting with pastels involves blending layers and areas with one another. You can use any of the Blenders brushes for this purpose. Alternatively, turn any brush with Resaturation (Resat) option into a blender. Once you select your brush and variant, go to the Options bar (Property bar) and simply drag the Resat slider to zero.

01 Brush Tracking

The sensitivity of the stylus is crucial to the making of this piece. Open a new image and set the background colour to white. Before you apply paint to paper, set Brush Tracking by going to Corel Painter>Preferences>Brush Tracking. Try several strokes before deciding, considering the pressure and speed of your application.

02 Paper

At the bottom of the toolbox, click open the Papers menu. Out of the list of surfaces, choose Thick Handmade Paper. This surface can be changed at any point of painting so if you find it is not to your liking, reopen this list and choose another. Alternatively, from the Papers palette choose Launch Palette and adjust paper settings.

04 Layers

03 Drawing

Degas often started work with a detailed drawing. Go to Window>Show Brush Creator and select Pencils>Thick and Thin variant. Draw the ballerina and select Charcoal>Soft Charcoal for thicker textured lines. To complete the drawing, choose Blenders>Smudge to soften some of the lines. Alternatively, load the sketch from the disc!

This image is made of many layers. This might slow down progress considerably, but is essential for control at this stage. In the Layers palette create a separate layer each for the dress, face, skin, drawing, original for reference and colour background. A refinement layer is optional at this point, as this is the very last stage of the process.

05 First oils

As you work, be sure to have your Mixer palette and Color Sets open. Remember to select the right layer as you apply paint to different parts of the image. From Brush Selector or Brush Creator choose Artists’ Oils>Bristle Brush and set Opacity to 6-8%. Choose Draw To Colour and Depth and set Depth to 10%. Start applying colour to the sketch.

06 Darker shades

Use the same brush to add detail to the ballerina. Increase Opacity and adjust brush size as you progress. Observe the original and use the Color palette or Mixer to create the desired shade. Alternatively, double-click on the foreground colour and move the slider slightly towards the dark end.

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Customise

08

Face Once the main lines are in place,

you can disable the Grid lines or reduce their Opacity. Use the Bristle Brush at a low 8% Opacity to apply first details to the face. Add more horizontal and vertical lines for further help if needed.

09 Skin

Staying with the Bristle Brush, set Opacity to 20% and use the Mixer palette to create the right shade for the skin. Click on the Skin layer to select it and apply long strokes to arms and leg. Start with long strokes of the dark shade and use the Color palette to find a lighter shade. Repeat until you reach a near white shade.

Colour and tone Bringing the drawing to life

Paint like Edgar Degas

The features on the face might prove a challenge due to the effect of perspective shortening. Use the grid to help you get proportions right. In the main menu choose Show Layout Grid>Enable Layout Grid. Set your vertical and horizontal lines across the face to guide you.

Tutorial

07 Grids

Instead of reaching for the Brush Creator or Brush Selector each time, customise a palette to include all the brushes. Start a new palette by choosing Pastels from the Brush Selector bar. Choose a Pastel variant, drag the variant thumbnail from the Brush Selector bar and release it. You will see a new palette titled Custom appear. Enlarge it by grabbing the lower-right corner. You can now add variants to your palette by dragging a variant’s icon onto the Custom palette. The icons on the palette can be moved around by pressing the Shift key and dragging the icon to a new position.

in the 11 Add flowers

10 Darker tone

Adjust brush size and Opacity value as you paint and continue to apply Bristle Brush strokes. If you feel confident, apply high Opacity strokes. Otherwise, build layers up gradually. You can start with one end of the canvas and work your way using the Move tool to progress, or cover one layer at a time.

12 Colour background

The flowers add vibrancy to the dress. Their shape can be a little hard to see from reproductions. Use the Artists’ Oils>Bristle Brush or Smooth Pastel within the Pastels category, to apply dabs of these spots of colour. We will refine their shape and tone later on.

Earlier on we created a separate layer for a colour background. This layer, bearing the background colours similar to the original, serves as a guide for correct sense of the colours of the ballerina. Select this layer and apply paint strokes using the paint and brush used for the main figure.

Texture

13 Pastels

Once we have our oil colour layers in place, we can start concentrating on the pastels. These give the piece a feeling of lightness and texture. Choose the Pastels brush and select the Square Hard Pastel variant, subcategory Grainy Hard Cover. Set Grain to 8% and Opacity to 50-55%.

We added texture to our complete painting by using Surface Texture. We also used texture while creating the image, within the Pastel brushes and the Papers palette. It is important not to mix too many different textures and scales within one painting. Try to use the same texture for a more natural look and feel. Bear in mind that the paper you worked with while creating your piece would still be chosen in the Paper Selector, so at any point you can open it and see the settings used. Choose Paper from the Apply Surface Texture dialog box, and adjust settings to complement texture applied so far.

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Tutorial Paint like Edgar Degas

Using pastels to add texture Offset shade to bring the character to prominence

14 Paper texture

The Pastel brush works with the paper selected earlier. Work at 100% zoom level and judge the texture. If you feel it is not grainy enough, go to the papers list within the toolbox and adjust paper choice or settings. Alternatively, use the Brush Creator’s pad to test a stroke at different Grain levels.

The Degas effect

15 Darker shades

Apply the first layer of Pastels, sampling colour off existing colour as you progress. Increase Opacity and apply a second layer using the Hard Square variant. You should see the textures of the paper mix with the oil you applied before.

16 Oil Pastels

In the Oil Pastels category, choose the Soft Oil 20 variant. Choose Grainy Flat Cove and set the Expression to None. Go over the pastels already applied at a 20-30% Opacity.

Make an ‘impression’ like Degas

Pastels>Tapered Pastel 10 Thin lines In some reproductions the thin lines on the fabric is bright white, where in others it is a striking yellow. Pick what works best with your preferred tones. The thin lines are applied as short strokes from the waist down and outwards.

Blenders>Grainy Wate Water

Hint of yellow The light is facing the ballerina and is slightly yellow tinted. It falls dramatically on the skin of the face, arms and leg. To add a touch of drama and accentuate the highlight on the skin, we used a smoother brush. The hint of yellow would not be as effective on its own. It is meant to complement the white layer underneath.

Pastels>Square Hard Pastel

Square Hard Pastels covering Oil Pastels>Soft Oil

White lights The dancer’s raised head shows her neck and chest beautifully. The light is reflected from the light skin and calls for a bright, highopacity, white colour. The top white layers of paint add drama and clearly show where the light is coming from.

Fabric effect The light filters through the thin fabric of the dress. Layers of green, pastel peach and white paint have been applied to cover the dress with a Oil Bristle brush. The layer of white pastel paint is less opaque than the thin lines on the right. The stroke is wider and longer.

Lighting To set the Light Controls according to the light falling on the image, choose Apply Surface Texture>Light Controls. Direct the light to face the dancer from her bottom left by clicking Apply Surface Texture>Light Direction. Control the colour of the light with Apply Surface Texture>Colours.

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Oils and pastels

The background is made of heavy brush strokes that are loaded with paint. As this is only there for reference, apply colour loosely without paying too much attention to detail. It is the feel of the layer we are after. Use Artists’ Oils>Bristle Brush at 35-40% Depth to apply paint.

18 Colour background oils

In the Layers Palette, select all layers besides the colour background. Click on the top-right triangle to open a menu and choose Drop to create two layers: Colour Background and Canvas. Choose Blenders from the Brush Selector and use the Grainy Water variant at 10-15% Opacity to smooth paint. Go over an area, repeatedly, with the same stroke for a smooth blend of colours.

The Mixer palette is an essential tool. Take a few minutes to familiarise yourself with the tools at the bottom of the palette. Dirty Brush Mode, Apply Color, Mix Color, Sample Color, Sample Multiple Colors, Zoom, Pan and Clear are all incredibly useful. Some use it continuously while working, others only turn to it when the Color palette fails to provide the shade they need. Most handy are Apply Color which applies colour to the pad, Mix Color tool to mix the colours, followed by Sample Colour to sample exactly the right shade you were after.

Paint like Edgar Degas

17 Background oil

Tutorial

Mixer palette

Bring out the richness of the image

Detailing 20 using Hard Pastels

19 Adding layers of Hard Pastels

Go back to the Hard Pastels as in step 13 and apply another layer of this at 8-10% Opacity. Applying a single high-opacity layer will not achieve the multi tones that several low-opacity layers do. It lengthens the process but is essential to getting the airy feeling. Use light strokes and vary their length according to image details.

21 Darker Hard Pastels

Use the Hard Pastels brush at a low Opacity to apply light strokes around the edges of the dress. These are short to medium length strokes that go from the outside in to hint at folds in the fabric and add fluffy feeling to the ends.

Zoom in to 100% and create a new layer. This is the final Pastel layer and is meant to concentrate on variations in tone within areas of the image. This is time-consuming but creates the effect of richness. Examine the original to spot the many shades along and around her left arm for example, and apply.

22 Blacks

When you feel the image is well covered, layered and is looking rich in tone, select black from the Color Palette and spot the darkest points in the image. Apply dark black to these areas. If unsure, add a layer titled Blacks first. Alternatively, go to Preferences>Undo and increase the number of Undo levels.

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Tutorial Paint like Edgar Degas

Refining the image Rounding it off with emphasis

24 Refine

23 Whites

The very top layer of Pastels on the dress is made of highopacity white colour. These are short to medium strokes that go from the dancer’s waist down the dress. Choose the Tapered Pastels variant at a high 90-100% Opacity and a small brush.

Soften and blend Pastel paintings are made of many tones blended into another. The mix of colours and shades creates a rich palette. You apply colour to several areas, and then blend these together for a softer overall look. There are several ways to achieve the softening effect. You can use the Blender brushes with their multitude of variants, or any of the Oil Pastels variants. We used Blenders’ Grainy Water here, working in the direction of the painting. Don’t worry about over-smoothing an area as you can easily add texture to it later on.

Go over the image at 100% magnification level for refinement and add details to every part of the image. Darken blacks, whiten whites, add fabric folds where needed, add shadows or highlights and so on. Create a new layer for your refinements and drop it when done. From Pastels, choose Pastel Pencil 3 and use a dark shade to deepen shadows in places like waist, under and along right arm and so on.

25 Canvas

In the toolbox, click on the Papers palette. Choose Artists Canvas and launch the palette. Adjust settings to 224 Rows and 224 Columns. The texture of the canvas here is highly visible but it is a matter of personal preference how prominent you want this feature to be.

26 Canvas – texture

Go to Effects>Surface Texture>Apply Surface Texture. Select Using Paper, Amount to 30-35% and Picture to 8090%. We set Shine to 40% and Reflection to 0%. Apply and view at 100% zoom. Undo and adjust Canvas settings if needed.

and 28 Fade erase

background layer on for 27 Turn a true Degas effect

The dancer’s Canvas texture needs to be applied to the background. To match, open the paper texture and adjust the settings. Go to Apply Surface Texture, place the Preview window at the meeting point of the dancer and background layers and observe while adjusting settings.

Open the Fade dialog box. Observe the Preview box while adjusting the Fade amount to reach the level of effect you are after. Go to the tool box and choose the Erase tool. Use at low Opacity to remove some detail around the dancer, and reveal more of the texture of the background underneath her.

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Feature focus Gradients

FEATURE FOCUS

Using gradients

Bring out the best in your artwork with the help of some subtle gradient tools

Selecting gradients from the toolbar You don’t have to launch the Gradients palette to choose a gradient swatch. You can actually access the Gradient Selector straight from the toolbar. There are six selector boxes at the bottom of the toolbar – the Gradient selector is the one in the upper right. Click the thumbnail to call up the list of preset swatches in the current library. Use the scrollbar to scroll through the swatches; locate the swatch you want to use, click to select it. Easy!

magine a world without gradients. A world where everything was �lat and evenly coloured, where everything existed in sharp contrast to its neighbour; a world without gradients would be a visually stark place indeed. Long having been a staple for the art world, the contribution of gradients has not been overlooked by technology, which is why many graphics programs (including Corel Painter) come with special tools to make it easy for artists to manipulate and use gradients. In this tutorial, we’ll take a closer look at Corel Painter’s exhaustive gradient capabilities. We’ll use the Gradient palette to pick out preset gradient swatches and apply them with the Paint Bucket tool. We’ll also show you how to easily edit and create your own gradients swatches with the Edit Gradient command. Further in, we’ll see how gradients can be used in conjunction with layer composite methods to produce even more dramatic and stunning effects. For advanced users, we’ve also included more information about the various functions found within the Gradient palette and Edit Gradient pop-up. These will help explain the more obscure terms relating to gradients, like Blending Ramps and the Colour Hue function, which are invaluable when creating more complex gradient swatches.

PAINT BUCKET TOOL AND OPTIONS You can use the Paint Bucket tool to fill areas with gradient swatches. To do so, select the Paint Bucket tool from the toolbar, and then select Gradient from the drop-down bar in the upper tool menu.

RECOLOURING IMAGES WITH GRADIENTS The butterfly was transformed from a dull entomologist’s specimen to a mysterious beauty with the help of a couple of creatively applied gradient swatches and composite methods. Check the tutorial for a step-by-step demonstration.

Blending Ramps

Color Hue

Blending is best

Find the right colour for you Blending Ramps work within the Edit Gradient box to control how smoothly the colours of the gradient blend into each other. Blending Ramps can be linear or non-linear. Linear means the colours are evenly blended between two colour points. By default, Blending Ramps are set to Linear. To change it to non-linear, uncheck the box next to Linear. The Colour Spread slider will appear below the Colour Ramp bar. Click on a colour point to select it. Use the Colour Spread slider to adjust the colour smoothness.

Color Hue is an interesting additional function in the Edit Gradient box. If you look at the Color Ramp bar, you’ll notice one or more grey squares along the top edge. Clicking on a square calls up the Color Hue drop-down. You can choose from RGB, Hue Clockwise and Hue Counter Clockwise. RGB is the default, and it lets the colour blend between two colour points (say, yellow to blue). Hue Clockwise and Hue Counter Clockwise produce blends that include other colours in-between the two colour points, as they appear clockwise or counter clockwise in the Color palette’s Hue Ring.

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CREATIVE MASKING WITH GRADIENTS

Creating a custom-made one of your own

Gradients can be used on both layers and layer masks. They are useful in creating delicate masks that partially reveal an image while hiding the rest. In this tutorial we make use of a gradient on a mask to partially obscure a layer of clouds.

Corel Painter comes loaded with an extensive library of pre-made gradient swatches. However, you’ll undoubtedly want to create your own gradient at some point. The easiest way to go about this is to edit a simple, pre-made swatch (like the Two-Point gradient preset) and saving it as a new gradient swatch.

Feature focus

Editing gradients

the 01 Editing swatch

Gradients

Open up the Gradients palette. Use the Gradient Selector to choose the Two-Point gradient. Click the arrow in the top right corner of the palette to show the options, and select Edit Gradient. The Edit Gradient box pops up, displaying a bar of colour with grey markers. This is the Color Ramp.

02 Understanding colour points

The arrows along the bottom of the Color Ramp are colour points, representing the colours in the gradient. Clicking in the Color Ramp will create another colour point. To select new colour points, click to select the point. Use the Colors palette to select a new main colour.

the new 03 Saving swatch

Add as many colour points as you like. To delete a point, click its marker and hit the Delete key. Adjust the Blending Ramps and colour hue settings to make changes (see boxes). Click OK, then choose Save Gradient from the Gradient palette options. Name the swatch to add it to the library.

GRADIENTS PALETTE The Gradients palette houses all the necessary tools for you to use, edit and create new gradients. To call up the palette, click Window>Library Palettes> Show Gradients.

Capturing gradients

Express gradient

Save it as a swatch

Keep it classic Another way to create gradients is to capture a range of colours from existing artwork, and save that as a new gradient swatch. To capture a gradient, zoom in and make it 1-pixel wide for vertical swatches or 1-pixel high for horizontal swatches. In the Gradients palette, click the upper right arrow for the palette options. Choose Capture Gradient. Name your gradient and hit OK. The saved swatch will be added to the library, selectable with the Gradient Selector.

Another neat Gradient palette option is the Express In Image command. This lets you replace your artwork’s colours with that of a selected gradient swatch. Corel Painter replaces colours based on their luminance values. To use the function, select Express In Image. In the pop-up box, use the Bias slider to adjust how the gradient reacts with the artwork. Click OK to apply the effect. Although you can preview the results from the preview pane in the pop-up box, it’s not easy to assess the entire result. Save a duplicate layer of your artwork in case you need to recover it.

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Feature focus Gradients

FEATURE FOCUS

Using gradients to great effect Making a surreal photo collage When used correctly, gradients can be used to achieve all sorts of effects. Using some basic stock photos, we’ll show you how to put gradients to work to create a surreal montage of ethereal butter�lies against a dreamy backdrop.

01

Getting started We started out with

a picture of a tree and created anew layer above it. Call up the Gradients menu by clicking Window>Library Palettes>Show Gradients. Click the Gradient Selector arrow to show the gradient presets. Scroll down and locate Summer Sunset.

02

Applying preset gradients In

the Gradients palette, set the gradient to Linear Gradient with an angle of 90°. Select the Paint Bucket tool, and set the fill to Gradient. Rename the new layer ‘Summer Sunset’. Hit Select>All, then click within the selection to apply the gradient. Change the layer Composite Method to Gel, and reduce its Opacity to 36%.

03 Customising gradients

Select a medium blue for your Main Color, and set the Additional Color to White. With the Gradient Selector, choose the Two-Point swatch. Click the arrow at the top right corner of the Gradients palette and choose Edit gradient to display the Edit Gradient dialog box. Click the middle of the Color Ramp bar. A new control point will appear.

Alpha channels In addition to layers and layer masks, gradients can also be applied to Channels. Channels are customised masking layers that can be saved for reuse. To use a gradient on an Alpha Channel, access the Channels palette with Window>Show Channels. Click the New Channel button at the bottom. Make a selection and fill it with your gradient. Click on Load Channel at the bottom of the palette to use the channel.

04 Saving a new gradient swatch 05 Gradients with Layer Masks Use the Colors palette to choose a light yellow for the new control point. In the Gradient palette options, choose Save Gradient. Name it and set it to Circular Gradient. Create a new layer; select and fill it as before. Change its Composite Mode to Shadow Map, set its Opacity to 52%. Hit Layer>Duplicate layer for added colour effect.

We then opened a picture of a cloud. In the Layers palette, click the Create Layer Mask icon. Click on the mask’s preview, then hit Select>All. Change your Main Color to Black. Select the TwoPoint gradient swatch and set its angle to 270°. Click the selection to apply a gradient to the mask, then choose Select>None.

06 Colouring the butterfly

We now imported a cutout image of a butterfly on a new layer called ‘butterfly1’. Find the Oxidation preset in the Gradients palette. Change its angle to 289°. Select the Paint Bucket and click below the butterfly’s head. Change the layer mode to Gel at 70% Opacity.

Gradient types

Gradient order

Choose which gradient suits your image best

Adjust your gradient’s direction

Painter allows you to create four different types of gradients with any gradient swatch. Any gradient can be a Linear, Radial, Circular or Spiral gradient. Linear gradients blend colours in a straight line. Radial applies the colours in a clockwise, circular fashion, with the end colour being placed next to the start colour. Circular gradients blend smoothly outwards, with the start colour being in the middle and the end colour at the outermost edge. Spiral gradients appear as repeating colour blends in a swirl-like pattern. Gradient types can be specified by clicking on their thumbnails in the Gradients palette.

At the base of the Gradients palette are the gradient order buttons, which slightly but distinctly modifies the look of the gradient. The first, Left to Right Gradient, is the default and most commonly used. Click any of the other five buttons to choose a different gradient order. You can preview the result in the Gradient Order Preview bar just above the buttons. The Gradient Order buttons work in conjunction with the selected Gradient Type. The function alone does not produce new gradients, but can be useful to adjust a gradient to work better under certain conditions.

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selection active, create another layer called ‘butterfly2’. Locate the Pool of Light preset. Change it to a Linear Gradient with an angle of 270°. Fill the selection with this gradient, then change the layer mode to Gel and reduce its opacity to 70%. Shift-click all three butterfly layers in the Layers palette and hit Layer>Group.

08 Touching up the butterfly

Select the butterfly layer group and choose Layers>Collapse. Deactivate your selection with Select>None if needed. Soften the wing edges with the Blenders>Just Add Water brush. Use the Blenders>Grainy Blender brush to blur the wing details and infuse the butterfly with a more painterly look. Use Layer>Duplicate Layer to make three more copies of your butterfly.

09 More butterflies

Move the butterflies into position. You can use the Effects> Orientation functions to scale and rotate the butterflies. Change their colour by selecting its layer and hitting Effects>Tonal Control>Adjust Colors. Use the sliders to tweak the colour. Reduce the opacity of the smaller two butterflies.

When using the Paint Bucket tool to fill in gradients, you’ll sometimes encounter instances where clicking on the artwork doesn’t cause it to be completely filled with colour. You can try to rectify this by adjusting the Tolerance settings in the top Paint Bucket options bar. The Paint Bucket works by recolouring pixels in relation to the spot you click on. Increasing the Tolerance broadens the acceptable range of colours to change.

Gradients

07

Add more colour With your

Feature focus

Be more tolerant

Using lighting effects “And lo, Corel Painter said, ‘Let there be light’”

10 Draw a shape with the Pen tool

Create a new layer called ‘light’. With the Pen tool, click to create a triangular shape extending from the largest butterfly’s head. Close your shape by clicking again on the first point you drew (you’ll see the symbol change to a little ‘x’ with an ‘o’ beside it). In the top Pen menu, click the Convert to Selection button.

11 Beam of light

Select the Two-Point gradient from the Gradients palette. Set your Main Color to light yellow and the other to White. Adjust the Gradient Angle and use the Paint Bucket tool to fill in the selection, making sure the yellow part is nearer to the butterfly’s head. Change the layer mode to Screen and reduce its Opacity to 26%.

12 Finishing up

Duplicate the light beam layer, and use the Effects>Orientation> Flip Horizontal. Position both ‘light’ layers below the butterflies in the Layers palette. We imported a paper texture on a new layer and moved to the top of the layer stack. Add some highlights to the wings by spraying some pale yellow with the Airbrush on a new layer set to Overlay.

Spiral gradient tension

Gradients and brushstrokes

An option for different effects

Taking it a step further

The Spiral gradient type is somewhat different from the other gradient types. It applies the gradient in a never-ending swirl, which can be used to make nice Pop Art effects. You can actually control how tightly or loosely you want your spiral to be by controlling the spiral tension. To do this, select the Spiral gradient type in the Gradients palette. Hold down the Ctrl/Cmd key, click and drag the red dot in the Gradient Angle Ring. Dragging clockwise increases the spiral frequency; dragging counter clockwise decreases it.

Corel Painter gives you the ability to not only fill in gradients, but to paint with them as well. To paint a gradient, first access the Brush Creator via Window> Show Brush Creator. In the Stroke Designer tab, select Projected or Rendered from the Dab Type drop-down. In the Source drop-down, select Gradient or Gradient Repeat. Gradient applies the selected swatch across the width of your stroke. Gradient Repeat repeats the gradient across the length of the stroke. Corel Painter takes the direction of your stroke into consideration; changing direction may flip the gradient as it appears in your stroke.

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Tutorial

Joanna Michalak shows you how to...

Paint with pen and ink tools

Paint with pen and ink tools

The following tutorial has been created to show you how to create an ink drawing using Corel Painter’s pens and ink tools Tutorial info Artist

Joanna Michalak Time needed

2 hours Skill level

Intermediate On the CD

Sketch and final image

or an authentic piece of ink art, Corel Painter has all you need to create swishes and splodges with the greatest of ease. In fact, over this tutorial, I will try to show you that you don’t really need paper, pens and ink to create an ink drawing that can be compared with a ‘real’ drawing. I want to show you how some of the tools behave and what effects you can achieve using them. Creating scratchy lines, irregular or regular delicate strokes, messy textures and ink splodges, and even full colour paintings aren’t really as hard as they seem. However, they are only a small part of the possibilities Corel Painter gives you. With the whole variety of brushes

you can get amazing effects – just feel free to experiment on your own, and you will see how much fun it can be. But we’re not just going to concentrate on the ink drawing side of things. By adding a small bit of colour, you can make you ink drawing look spectacular, and draw attention to certain elements. We’re starting off with a pencil sketch here, but you can always draw something freehand, or even clone over a photo if you don’t fell con�ident with the drawing side of things. I hope that my tips can help you to start your adventure with digital ink and that you will enjoy it! Be sure to let us know how you get on and share your creations with other readers!

Start with a sketch Scan your initial idea in

01 Pencil sketch

Because I’m a traditionalist, I prefer to draw a pencil sketch for all of my more graphic pictures. Of course, this sketch is just an imperfect and not a final idea and will change during the process. I made it with a 0.5 mechanical HB pencil, then scanned it and used as a background. You can load it up from the disc.

02 Starting to sketch with pens

I set the sketch layer on lower opacity and started to draw on a new layer over it. I always start with the face and so I did this time too, choosing Fine Point Pen for drawing it (size 1.01.5, 100% opacity). It’s sensitive to pen pressure and allows you to create varied smooth lines, just like a real drawing pen.

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Tutorial Paint with pen and ink tools

Play with her hair Give yourself the freedom to add definition

Planning 04 the background

After finishing the face, I moved to the girl’s dress, following the design from my pencil sketch, using the same tool as before. As you see, I don’t care much about details and small errors at this stage of drawing (it may still look a bit messy) – they all can be fixed and finished later.

Since the character was mostly sketched, I started to define the more graphic and abstract parts of the drawing. The tool you use for it is irrelevant because it’s done to get the overall idea of what you want to draw, to try out possibilities and ideas. You can always change it if you’re not happy with it.

05 Hair

06 Abstract curls

07

08 Blending hair with background

03 Sketching the dress

Blonde hair is not as much fun to draw with ink as black hair. It leaves you less possibilities and you have to be careful. Because the picture was supposed to be painterly, I decided to draw it with delicate, loose strokes still using Fine Point Pen (size 1.0).

I wanted the other side of her hair to be less realistic and more abstract. I used Smooth Ink Pen this time (size 1.0, 100% Opacity). It’s not a very sensitive tool, but creates smooth, regular lines – just about right to draw the curls.

Coarse Bristle As you probably noticed I used this pen a lot in my drawing. I guess the Coarse brushes are my favourite since they create an effect most similar to the one I get in my drawings done with real pens on paper. If you experiment a bit with the settings (mostly with volume and smoothness), you can create the effect of scratchy lines or strokes done with a pen on grainy paper, or a pen running out.

Dry ink strokes I did this part with Coarse Camel (Liquid Ink)

getting the effect of dry ink. You can experiment with its volume and opacity to get the desired effect. This tool is sensitive to pen pressure – you can get everything from tiny lines to thick strokes. I used Coarse Camel Resist on it. It works like an eraser in a form of the exact brush.

And back to the hair. The lines where the hair melts with the background were done with another wonderful tool – Coarse Bristle (size 1.4, Opacity 14%, Smoothness 88%, Volume 122 – you can also experiment with the two last settings and decide if you want your lines thicker or more delicate). I used the same tool for the birds.

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Like the name says, I started to define the composition of the drawing and planning the patterns for the background in the top left corner. Still working with Coarse Bristle.

10

here. I chose the Coit Pen from the Pens category, mostly to save my time. With this brush you can draw few parallel lines with one stroke instead of drawing every line with a separate stroke.

Working more on the background. I combined my favourite Coarse Bristle with Ball Point Pen (size 1.0, low opacity). It gave an interesting effect – the Ball Point Pen created kind of a grey background for the other pen. The strokes are also rough and they go well together. It made the texture thicker but not totally black.

Touch up the background Don’t be too rigid with the lines

Creating a black-andwhite ink drawing isn’t the only possibility that Corel Painter’s pens and inks give you. You can also create pictures in full colour. Most of the ink tools and some of the pens allow you to paint pictures in many various styles. If you play around with the Fine Point Pen’s settings (I do mostly with opacity, leaving the rest of the settings just as they are), you can receive a very nice painterly quality. You can also combine it with some blenders (I use mostly Grainy Water and a little bit of Soft Blender Stump) if you want to achieve the more smooth look.

Paint with pen and ink tools

09 Defining the composition

Creating the background (part 1) Finally, I knew what should look fine

the background (part 11 Creating 2)

Tutorial

Not only ink

13 Window and bricks 12 Nervous Pen

The left side again, because I can never concentrate on only one part of a picture! The interesting effect in the middle at the top was created with the Nervous Pen (size 1.0, 100% Opacity). You can draw parallel lines or just mess around to create more or less chaotic shading. If you lower the opacity, the effect is similar to pencil shading.

14 Spots

I did the window using Ball Point Pen and Coarse Bristle. It is supposed to look a bit awkward and not detailed, to match up with the style of the whole drawing. The bricks were done with Coit Pen and Ball Point Pen.

I moved back to the bottom and the dry ink strokes. I added spots using Leaky Pen and some white spots (to diversify the texture) with just a regular eraser.

15 More textures

The texture on the right side next to the window was created with Coarse Bristle and Coarse Bristle Resist (works just like Coarse Camel Resist, see step 7). I used the same settings as before.

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Tutorial Paint with pen and ink tools

Accentuate with colour Finish off the drawing with personal details

Ink splodges Giving texture in a messy way Creating ink splodges in Corel Painter is not as hard as it seems. It offers you a variety of pens and ink tools that you can try to experiment with and get the desired effect. Here are just three examples of how you can create an ink spot. Of course, the settings given are not what you must do – play to your heart’s content!

01 Complex splat 16 Flowing water

In the left bottom corner I decided to repeat the texture done with Coit Pen and added a pattern that looks a bit like flowing water or tears. For this effect I used various pens mixed with each other: Coarse Bristle, Ball Point Pen, Coarse Bristle Resist and Block Eraser.

17 Shading the hair

I decided that the hair looked a bit too delicate compared to the other textures in the picture. So I added some shading to make it look ‘heavier’. I used Coarse Bristle again and a bit of Ball Point Pen for the tiny lines.

The most complicated one. I used here only Tapered Bristle, just changing the size of the brush (Opacity as you want, Volume 128, Smoothness 150%).

18 Adding colours

Finally, adding colours. I chose red for her dress and lips, and blue for the eyes. Coloured with Square Hard Pastel. It’s a pastel tool but also looks similar to coloured pencils on grainy paper. You can experiment here with all settings to get a lot of combinations and possibilities (I did mostly with opacity and bleed to create the soft texture).

02 Splodges of ink Similar effect to the one above, just less spectacular. I used Smooth Round Nib (Opacity 100%, Smoothness 190%, Volume 147).

03 Flowing effect 19

Fixing little errors The lips and eyes

had been coloured as well. I fixed some little things that I didn’t like, eg, the shape of her lips, nose and eyes. Now they look much better.

20 Final touches

Still fixing little things. It’s easier to do when you can see the drawing as a whole. I almost forgot to draw her freckles (done with small-sized Leaky Pen). Now it’s finished!

The effect of flowing ink. This time it was Smooth Thick Round combined with Tapered Bristle (Opacity 100%, Smoothness 150%, Volume 182).

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Primer Calligraphy

BRUSH CATEGORY

Calligraphy

EDGY STROKES The Calligraphy brushes are great for building up flesh tones, and giving a sense of something being threedimensional with a few swift marks. The Calligraphy brush 10 variant was particularly useful here.

Integrate sweeping angle strokes into your artwork with these brushes

PRIMER

aturally, when you �irst think of using the Calligraphy brushes in Corel Painter, you’re going to think of the written art form. And perhaps you’re a master calligrapher who’s using Corel Painter as we speak to evolve your traditional craft into the digital age. But if not, it’s highly possible that you’ve spent relatively little time with the Calligraphy brush variants. And let’s face it: it’s pretty tempting to experiment with Digital Watercolor and Oils when you �irst get your hands (well, cursor arrow) on the software. But the truth is that the Calligraphy brushes can be integrated into your artwork with great results. The angled nib makes them perfect for long, sweeping strokes that vary in width as they bend across the canvas. And as our example piece shows, this means that they lend themselves really well to pieces that feature movement. They encourage you to work loosely, and the gestured marks that result can really bring a composition to life, drawing the viewer’s eyes around the work. And, of course, Corel Painter makes it easy to adjust the angle of the nib, so you can go from narrow to chunky strokes in a �lash. Each variant has a strength that’s worth exploring, so once you open yourself up to these new possibilities, you’ll �ind yourself losing hours at a time!

STRONG OUTLINES We simply loved using the Dry Ink to create the outlines on this piece. You just get this great texture as the angle of the line changes, and can create these sweeping gestures that can be minutely thin at one end, and extremely broad at the other.

Another angle

Got the jitters?

Explore the options available to you

Unleash your inner shimmer

The Calligraphy brushes all work as you would expect, with an angled nib that affects the width of your stroke, depending on the angle you’re drawing at. Keep the Angle menu open at all times by going to Window>Brush Controls> Show Angle. That way you can make adjustments whenever you need to, without having to fumble through the menus every time you need a change of angle.

BUILD-UP The main character was built up using brush variants including the Wide Stroke 50 and the Smooth Edge 15. Texture was built up by keeping the Opacity and Resat low. Adjusting the brush angle is crucial too.

We know that Corel Painter is great at mimicking ‘real-world’ artistic media, but the fact is that you don’t always want to be limited in that way. Painter’s brush controls mean that you can take your current Calligraphy brush, and turn it into something quite different in a matter of moments. For instance, if you open the Random section of the brush controls and increase the Jitter a little, then your calligraphy is no longer restricted to conventional sweeping strokes. This technique could be useful for illustrating the reflection of light on the surface of water, for example.

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CLOUD CITY

Calligraphy brushes The pen is as mighty as the brush

Calligraphy

Not limited to writing, Calligraphy brushes are useful for depicting motion and fluid movements. This palette contains the extensive x brush range of Calligraphy variants Painter has on offer.

PEN PALETTE

Primer

We used the Wide Stroke 50 variant to create the clouds, keeping the Opacity low and just altering the angle slightly. The brush size was varied between 50 and 300, to ensure that the clouds were impressionistic rather than hugely detailed.

Dry Ink

Broad Grainy Pen 40

Grainy Pen 15

Broad Smooth Pen 40

Smooth Edge 15

Calligraphy

Thin Grainy Pen 10

Calligraphy brush

Thin Smooth Pen 10

Calligraphy Pen 25

Wide Stroke 50

Open this palette from the options box alongside the current pen name and you can easily choose a style to suit your needs, with all real-world variants covered and then some. So start experimenting!

Transposers

Sensitive to pressure?

Brushes in disguise

The mouse bites back A good way to take your brush further away from its source is via the Transposer, which is part of the Brush Creator. Open it by going to Window>Show Brush Creator, and then selecting the middle ‘tab’ on the left hand side. At the top you can see your currently selected brush variant. At the bottom you can select any other brush variant, from any other category, and Corel Painter will merge their properties to create a unique new brush.

Now we have to say that once you’ve got a Wacom tablet and pen for Corel Painter, it’s rare that you’ll want to go back to wrestling with your mouse. But on the odd occasion it can be useful. In this image, the bottom stroke shows the pressuresensitive Wacom making a pretty wobbly mark on the canvas. The top stroke is done with the mouse, and we can see that being useful in the right context too.

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Tutorial Paint the perfect sunset

Paint the perfect sunset We take you through a step-by-step guide to create a dramatic and realistic sunset, using just the basic Corel Painter tools to instil awe and wonder into whoever takes in your painting Tutorial info Artist

Wen-Xi Chen Time needed

1-2 hours Skill level

Intermediate On the CD

Sunset study photos

unsets are a natural phenomenon celebrated by artists, writers and photographers the world over, all throughout the span of civilisation. A very good example is the artist J M W Turner and his most famous work, The Fighting Temeraire Fugged to her Last Berth to be Broken Up, where the majesty of the sunset sky is perfectly captured in a painting. His legacy lives on in the Impressionist paintings, the artists who concerned themselves with light and in abstract styles, which often deal with

colour. Monet’s Impression: Soleil Levant, is the beauty of the skies broken down to stunning simplicity whereas his San Giorgio Maggiore by Twilight is a bold yet mysterious affair. In this tutorial, I will show you how to create a sunset scene using only simple Corel Painter tools and also how to pick the right colours for your ideal sunset. We will start off with our friends the gradients (see page 48 for more) and then move on to introducing clouds and the all-important sun.

We’ll be using a variety of brushes to do this and will also have a look at the different colours that can be used to paint a sunset. We’ve gone for a dramatic orange sky here, although it’s worth experimenting and trying out the different colours detailed on page 64. Everything here is drawn freehand, but if you don’t feel con�ident with your drawing skills, we have included a good collection of sunset images on the disc. Use these to sample colours or clone to get used to cloud shapes.

The starting line Create the basic layer of your image

01 Summer Sunset

Open a new blank file; mine’s 3,000px by 2,500px at 300dpi, and click on Effects>Fill – this will open up the Fill Effects window. From here, select Gradient and then the Summer Sunset preset from the Gradient window, or hit Ctrl/ Cmd+8 to bring it up. Your basic colours are now ready to go!

02 Adding the sun

Use a circular marquee to draw a circle near the horizon line and fill it in with a bright yellow or near white colour. Although it may look crude now, the bold colour serves as an undercurrent that will brilliantly contrast the onset of nightfall.

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Tutorial Paint the perfect sunset 61

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Tutorial Paint the perfect sunset

Red sky at night Add a personal touch to your layers of cloud to get a satisfying effect

Composition For a square or portrait orientation, sharp diagonal clouds make the most of the available space. Keeping the horizon line low and letting the sky dominate will create a sense of grandeur. A clear sky with a simple gradient will create a sense of calm and tranquillity, whereas looming clouds brings with them a sense of drama or foreboding.

For landscape orientation, soft diagonals or horizontal clouds fill out the area nicely. Using pastel colours or having minimal clouds, even keeping the sky clear, evokes the lazy Hawaiian beach feel whereas busier cloud patterns can evoke a sense of wonder or urgency.

and 04 Erase rewind

03 Dark clouds

Create a new layer to be your dark or cumulus cloud layer. Rounded and plump, they are the main component to a sunset. Use the Digital Airbrush in the default Soft Cover setting to block in regions of cloud. Cloud near the sun has a more orange hue than the primarily blue of that further away.

There are many ways to position the clouds. Diagonal alignments create an intense drama in the sky, where the clouds appear to spread from a point in the distance. Use the Eraser tool to define your clouds if you need to.

05 White clouds

Create another new layer and let it be the white cloud layer. These wispy white clouds are cirrus clouds, a common sight in sunset skies and adds elegance and intrigue when placed against a blue backdrop. Cirrus clouds occur higher up in the sky in the troposphere, are formed of ice crystals and have a delicate appearance like translucent feathers. I used the Digital Airbrush again for this; a Palette Knife when used softly will also create a convincing effect.

06 Highlights

The sun’s light will affect clouds as it does anything else. I have started to highlight the underside of the cumulus clouds with yellows and pale oranges to create a full, voluminous feel to these darker clouds.

08 Lighting 07 More details

Here I added more stray cloud details, as the sky at sunset is anything but neat! Feel free to experiment with the tools at your disposal, as quite often this yields some unexpected, but welcome effects to create a convincing backdrop.

It is not enough to show the true shape of the cumulus clouds by highlighting the underside of the round mid-level clouds on their own. Here I will be highlighting the sides of them from the direction of the sun’s rays.

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Tutorial

09 Rays of light

To really amp up the visual effect, create a new layer on top of everything else and using a Soft Airbrush on low Opacity, about 10%, or low pressure on your tablet, draw several light rays in a soft yellow radiating from the setting sun.

Paint the perfect sunset

10 Superimposing

To make the light rays blend into the image, set the layer Composite Mode to Overlay, and if need be, turn down the Opacity of the layer so the light rays are not overpowering.

Strive for realism Don’t shy away from adding extra details to areas already on the canvas

11 Clouds again!

Getting the light and colours right is a sure-fire way to paint a realistic-looking sunset. But if you’re going for more of a realistic approach, the cloud shapes and details start to play a better part. I am using the Digital Airbrush to bring out more details in the sky. Before I had been using the brush on Soft Cover, but now I switch it to Flat Cover via the Brush Creator. This turns the fluffy-edged brushstroke into a hard-edged one, allowing greater control when painting exact details.

12 What brush to use?

Looking at the cirrus clouds, there are many brushes you can use for this. I used the Airbrush, but a good alternative to use is the Oil Bristle brush, which has a natural gradient in the stroke and is delicate when used lightly. However, this tool has a tendency to lag on older computers.

Brush Creator One of the features I like about Corel Painter is the Brush Creator. From this central command centre, you can adjust brushes to match your needs. It’s a great place to play and discover new tools!

13 Blenders

On close-up, the highlights I painted on the clouds are very rough. If you’re feeling particularly neat, then Corel Painter has a good selection of tools you can use to blend the uneven colouring. It’s up to you to decide which one works most effectively for your methods. For this picture, I used the Diffuse Blur and then the normal Blur over it.

14 Extend

The fire and air elements of sunset skies are often teamed with water or land. As I started with just enough of the sky, I now extend to the bottom of the image.

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Tutorial Paint the perfect sunset

Finishing the scenery Vary the colours and tone of the sky until you get the backdrop you desire

16 Changing colours

15 Land

The land should be kept dark, a silhouette, the same applying to other non-reflective surfaces. I advise you to paint any land details that overlap onto the sky on a new layer, so you can make changes to the sky easily. Here, I just used a hard-edged Airbrush to create the tree and a Fine Sponge to create the impression of the leaves.

I’m going to use the Tonal Correction to change my sky to a rich purple hue. To do this, go to Effects>Tonal Control>Correct Colors, which will open up the Color Correction window. Play around until you get a colour you are happy with. To achieve this effect, I turned down the brightness of the Green values.

Painting sunsets Understanding the theory behind them Light scattering

Colours

Blenders

To be truly able to capture nature visually, it is a good idea to first understand it. At sunset, the beautiful reddish hue is caused by the difference in the propagation of visible radiation through the Earth’s atmosphere. Normally, in the daytime the sky looks blue due to the more intensive scattering of blue light compared to red light, but during sunset, the sun’s rays travel through a far greater distance than it does, say, at noon, and because of this scattering of the long wavelength, red light increases causing the sky to look red.

If you ever watch the skies or look at photos of sunsets, you’ll see a variety of colours. As colours are a result of light scattering by particles in the air, atmospheres which contain less dust or miscellaneous particles will show a tendency for white or yellow sunsets. A high concentration of particles, such as after a fire, will produce a more intensely red and orange sunset. These sort of colours are seen over seas and oceans because of suspended salt particles and after volcanic eruptions due to ash and dust particles. By the same logic, in clear atmosphere, such as over a mountain, the sky tends to be more blue or white than in a city.

Here are the best blenders for sunsets: Just Add Water: This does what its name suggests. It will smear the colours on the canvas and is an effective blending tool. However, it does have the potential to leave behind a streaky appearance. Blur: A safe blend tool; it does not ‘mix’ colours but softens up edges. Diffuse blur: Softens the hard edges in the painting without losing colour intensity. It also keeps the colours more or less in their original positions. Soft blender stump: Gives a painterly effect by mixing colours, but you may have to reapply paint if you find yourself going overboard with this tool.

Swatches

Using the Blender brushes created an ominous feel to the clouds, suggesting a disturbance in the atmosphere

01

The diagram displays the longer distance that radiation has to travel when the sun is setting, its longer path creating more scattering of light, which explains why the sky has such a colourful effect during sunrise and sunset

02

These images depict differing foregrounds, the first reflected in a calm sea, the second over scenic landscape

Each different brush brings a unique effect to the clouds

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showcase

ELIZABETH LE TITLE WEBSITE JOB TITLE

Get Lifted www.symphonic7.com Digital artist

This self portrait piece from Elizabeth, is a great example of her use of colour to create soft and striking images. We love the composition and addition of the colourful creature, which tops everything off!

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Drawing 101 Life drawing

Get started with :

Life drawing In this tutorial we are going to explore the boundless potential of life drawing and consider its mysterious allure and enduring popularity rom the word go, we have had a very subjective and emotional relationship with how, where and why we represent our bodies. In today’s world, it could be argued that fashion rather than art demonstrates the power of the body image. No matter which perspective you take, it is a fact that advertising and marketing have successfully utilised the magnetic attraction of the human body, generally using ‘youth’, ‘beauty’ and ‘sex’. Our natural senses of curiosity, desire, aspiration and even revulsion makes the human body hard to ignore. Arguably the most proli�ic and revolutionary practitioner of those to have explored this allure would be Leonardo da Vinci, stimulating endless art academics to devote centuries to tireless, accurate descriptions of musculature and anatomy. We would like to think that our fascination about the human body we are imprisoned in is the connection and empathy we have with nature. Drawing nature (be it mountainous landscapes, majestic beasts or the intricate organic structure of a mushroom) makes us feel ‘awe’; there is something satisfying about capturing inspiring natural forms and we think it is this that motivates us to work directly from observation and why we �ind life drawing so rewarding. Our guide will give you the con�idence so that even a beginner will soon be producing masterful sketches.

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Dos and don’ts

The basic shapes

Drawing 101

Proportions

‘Holdability’ or composition

The best tip we have ever had is to never ask a model to hold a position you would find uncomfortable yourself. It is vital that your initial drawing is watertight, so always request a maintainable position that will be easy to return to, such as sitting on a chair or standing. Once the pose is held, consider your position to create an interesting composition and then settle in for a good 20 minutes to draw.

01

Life drawing

hen it comes to the proportions of the human body, there seems to be one golden recurring element. Leonardo da Vinci was the main advocate of the Golden Section. This is the line that divides the Golden Proportion. This in turn is the middle line that divides the perfectly proportionate body in half, though the top half is slightly larger than the bottom. The next three diagrams represent clearly how to divide the body up, bearing the Golden Proportion in mind, and makes sure you don’t make your work big-headed, bigbottomed or long-legged!

Shadows and highlights

EIGHT HEADS.

Divide a vertical line into eight. The middle three heads represent the torso, the bottom four the legs. The golden section is where the bottom of the torso head overlaps with the top of the leg head.

02

Now you have the pose, consider the lighting. Strong direct light from a single source, such as an angle pose lamp, can create really wonderful shadows and highlight or conceal parts of the body you want to focus on. Take advantage of the high contrast and really go to town with very heavy shading.

Concealment

If this is the first time you have had a go at life drawing, give yourself a chance to grow in confidence and choose a position that you will enjoy. For example, if you aren’t comfortable with drawing faces, choose a position where the model hides the face with hands. Then you can concentrate on the skin tone, forms of the limbs and general torso.

Suitability

Choose the model and pose to suit the purpose of your work. Using expression, lighting and composition can greatly influence the mood of your image.

Challenge

Now you should be ready to challenge yourself and focus on some of the areas you are less confident with. Try exaggerated foreshortening to focus on one area and conceal others. Pick unconventional poses that do not conform to ‘proper’ proportions.

11 HEADS

Two adjustments at the neck and at the hip will create our golden proportion. Drop the second head by a quarter of a head to allow space for the neck. To represent the shoulder width, you must draw two heads, jutting out horizontally just below the neck. Two vertical heads at the bottom of the torso trio depict the hips, overlapping where the legs separate.

Top tip!

HEADS, TRIANGLES AND LINES

This diagram shows triangles for the torso and limbs. The largest triangle is from the shoulders to the belly button. Below, the pelvic triangle starts in line with the belly button and converges at the groin. A slightly wider triangle sits at the top of the thighs. The top half of the arm is one and a half heads long and the bottom is one and a quarter head in length. The hands are three quarters of a head long, while the circular kneecap is a quarter of a head, as is the distance between the ankle and the sole of the foot.

03

Our absolute top tip is to look more at the model than the drawing you are doing. They’re not going to get embarrassed if you keep looking to check what fits in where! If you haven’t got a willing model, there are loads of online services where you can buy models. Modelalisa (www. modelalisa.com) provides rotating photos that are great for reference. With an average price of around 20EUR, they won’t break the bank. You can also try a free download to see if it’s helpful for you. For other photos, try the Resources section of deviantART or other free stock site.

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Drawing 101 Life drawing

Gestural drawing Give your image perfect posture his is a crucial initial stage of preparation and troubleshooting. Treat it as a warm-up exercise to iron out any problems you have with the pose or your own position. Gestural drawings allow you to get the drift of what the �inal piece will look like on

paper. You don’t have to commit yourself to a pose, unless you are perfectly happy with it. Many life-drawing classes start the session by asking the model to pose for anything from 30 seconds to three minutes, and then change position as many times as necessary. Then the race

THE STICK MAN (GESTURAL)

Use a 2H pencil for this drawing. Draw the central, vertical line that will depict the length of your figure, including the curve it may take from head to toe. Divide it into eight and add the triangles, ovals and lines to form a very basic shape of your figure. Use a very rough image that will help you make sure that the whole figure fits on the page. Don’t be tempted to start in one area and work outwards, and give yourself a proportionate skeleton to flesh out.

THE VITRUVIAN MAN (FORMAL)

We are using the image drawn by Leonardo da Vinci to demonstrate the ideal proportions of the human body. The purpose of this is to ask you to use Leonardo’s (simple, but absolutely perfect for the job) rendering of the body in line. There is very little shading in this image; we will leave that until stage four. Once again, use a 2H pencil and rubber to draw a sensitive, simple line to describe the shape of the body and remove the geometric muscles that detract from it.

is on to capture as much information as possible. Scribbly lines, scratchy marks – anything goes to get the �igure drawn and then maybe some shadow or detail. The next few diagrams show how to begin with a gestural drawing and then work over this towards the �inal image.

THE GEOMETRIC MAN (GESTURAL)

Embellish the proportions you have mapped out by building on block-like muscles and bones. Pay attention to any curves and relationships between limbs and body parts to check that your drawing has been well observed. Once again, use a 2H pencil, check your work and correct wherever you need to reassess the pose. You should be looking mostly at the figure, only glancing at your image briefly in-between.

THE MAN (FORMAL)

At this stage, observe the variations of tones and shadows that give the figure form. Our light source is coming from the right and we are building up the shadows on the left-hand side, keeping the shading sketchy. We have used curvy crosshatched contours to suggest the muscles. This is a ‘working’ drawing, different to working from life when you can pay real attention to the curves and textures of the skin.

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Drawing 101

Standing position Concentrating on trickier body parts into proportions. Also the face is slightly hidden if this is an area you are less con�ident about. The stark lighting from the window highlights the areas that we wish to focus on and creates de�ined shadows. This is where gestural drawing

THE ELBOW

Close analysis and observation is necessary here to capture both the bend of the joint, and the way that the skin and muscles contort as this happens. Circular and sensitively graded tonal shading is necessary to really give the pudginess of the bend. Use the harder H pencils to map out the dark tones, and then deepen these with a HB or B pencil.

THE HANDS

The unfamiliar angle and foreshortening needs taking into consideration. The depth of shadow and the highlights will serve as your guide to capturing their shape and enhancing their realism. Remember to leave the highlights, work on the shadows and notice the meeting points between the two.

really comes into its own. Roughly draw out the pose blocking in line and geometric block, using a 2H or H pencil to provide an erasable image to work with. Three areas need sound observation and we will cover them in more detail now.

Life drawing

he model was asked to stand in front of a full length mirror and pose as if getting ready for the day ahead. Her hands in her hair show off the curves of her back and neck, providing a simple pose that is easy to break down

THE LEGS

The tonal variations that fall on the legs from top to bottom are subtle and absolutely crucial to suggest the form of the muscles below the skin. Work from light to dark; sketchily fill in the general area of all shadows, leaving the highlights to the bare paper. A 2H or H pencil would be best for this. Then gradually crosshatch over with a softer B pencil to enhance the shadow.

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Drawing 101 Life drawing

Sitting Shadows and angles play their part or this pose, lighting and the body itself are the principal players. The focus is intensely on the body, creating an image that really accentuates the muscles, curves and structure of the body. It is emphasised by the simple setting; the curtain is the only prop and

seems disjointed from the pose. The pose itself is not natural; it is produced to accentuate the pro�iles of the face and the torso, so do not worry if you get your information for the �inal image from a series of drawings and photographs. We would use a 2H for the gestural drawing,

and for the lightest of tones close to the white. Build on these with an H or an HB only for the skin and facial features. A 4B to a 6B will be perfect to create the sophisticated moody black background. The three aspects that require special attention are covered in more detail now.

THE HEAD PROFILE AND THE NEARBY HAND

Remind yourself of the rules of facial proportions. The eyes are halfway down the face, and the lips and nose occur at the divisions if you divide the bottom half of the face into three. Pay careful attention to the angles that the features take: the lips and eyes are both tilted upwards, not straight in. Finally, be aware that only three fingers are visible on her right hand.

THE LEFT ARM AND HAND

When the highlight is right on the edge of the body, as it is here, imagine that the outline is pure white instead of grey. This will help you avoid the clunky outlines that can flatten the form. This is a very high-definition and high-contrast area which will really come to life with a solid, darker than dark background, for example the negative space that crops up between the arm and the torso.

THE FEET

These need to be really smoky as the highlights on these are few and far between, only really visible on some of the toes and the top side of the right foot. The suggestion of the shadows will help enhance the curves and crinkles between the feet and toes.

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Drawing 101

Reclining Casual and conventional lighting accentuates the curves of the legs and the torso, while subtly concealing the face, arms and legs. This comes from a genre that is today seen as contentious. It objecti�ies the subject, portraying the woman’s body without emotion, character or real affection. But we do not

think that the artist wished to do more than celebrate her form and improve on nature. So for this reason, we would recommend exploring the full range of shapes, character, ages, sizes and colours that society has to offer in a bid to produce work with depth and humanity.

Life drawing

his is a classic life-drawing pose that is excellent for the beginner and good for those who wish to create a traditional piece. It is probably the simplest as it focuses again on the body, with the major challenge lying in the foreshortening of the legs. The strong

THE HEAD AND SHOULDERS

The twist of the figure is responsible for creating the awkward angle for the shoulders. The neck is barely visible, the profile of the head nearly hidden. The eyes stare into the distance and make no contact with the viewer, but adding expression shows the character of the model.

THE LEFT HAND

Observe that the hand is just about seen, draped on the ground about a quarter of the way up the drawing, and the top profile and hip is about half way up. Therefore the composition is balanced between the stark white body and the dark, moody background, really drawing attention to the subject of the picture.

THE FORESHORTENED LEGS

The legs are seriously distorted and concealed from view by foreshortening and shadows. Observe carefully that the distance between the ankles and the knees is only one head length long, although we have learnt already that in proportionate terms it would be two head lengths long. Really focus on an accurate portrayal of the curvature and angles of the arms, legs and torso. The strong lighting reduces the shading so just use contour crosshatching to add visual interest.

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showcase

SAMANTHA LG TITLE WEBSITE JOB TITLE

Flo http://abyss.unixdaemons. com/boum Digital artist

Samantha has an excellent artistic style, creating textured and evocative images. We loved Flo, for its simplicity and muted colours. To see more of her work, visit Samantha’s website or go to http://boum. deviantart.com

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Your

questions answered Luscious lashes How do you get the look of thick eyelashes? I’m talking something natural, though. Not spider legs! A���� S�������

Your experts Daniel Cox

Daniel’s strength is in his use of brush work and creating paintings that are lush and full of colour. He shares some tip tips here for getting dramatic images

Karen Bonaker

Karen is a Corel Painter instructor and so is the perfect candidate for explaining how the program works and what settings give you the best results

What you’ll find in this section Software

Don’t get bogged down in a Corel Painter black hole – write to us and we’ll help you work harmoniously

Fine art

When it comes to creating art, you often find little niggles that ruin your masterpiece. We sort them out

Illustration

Make sure your illustrations are in top form by following our advice

Send in your queries to…

Painting eyelashes is another good exercise in simplifying shapes. If you paint every eyelash so it’s long and stands out, the effect isn’t very convincing and it’ll draw attention to itself, and won’t sit in the painting properly (it’s similar with teeth – if you paint every tooth, the effect tends to look cut out). So instead, paint groups of lashes and use variations in the edges using both a hard edge tool like the Acrylic brush, and also a soft edge like the Soft Conte. Then drag the paint away from the eye area, using either a textured blender or a Dry Palette knife.

Display yourself Have you got any suggestions for how I should present my paintings on my website? I’d prefer something different to the usual rectangle or square. R�� G���� Well this is tricky because it’s more in design territory, but we have a few ideas. First there’s the basic things like using neutral tones in your navigation and backgrounds. But we think using more

white space to let your painting breathe is a good idea. If you were printing them out, you wouldn’t cram them all onto the same page. Using irregular borders in the paintings themselves, thus creating interesting negative shapes, is a simple, subtle and elegant trick. One thing we wouldn’t do, which we have seen before on a website, is create a virtual gallery. Using an actual frame, whether painted or a photograph, is a bad idea unless you’re John Singer Sergeant or have been dead for a 200 years. It’ll make you seem pretentious, which isn’t the best impression to give your viewer!

Above Paint the lashes in groups, then use Blenders and the Palette Knife to create edge variation

Right Age a brick wall using uneven brickwork, eroded areas and old signs or posters

Official Painter Magazine Q&A, Imagine Publishing Ltd, Richmond House, 33 Richmond Hill, Bournemouth, Dorset, BH2 6EZ. Alternatively you can email us at [email protected]

SHARE YOUR PROBLEMS!

Send in your questions for our experts to answer at [email protected]

Left ‘Yes’ to simple and elegant borders. ‘No’ to pretentious virtual art galleries: they’ll give the wrong impression, that you (and your work) is pretentious

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Floating around Lasts an age

J���� K���� Making a selection on a pixel-based layer creates floating objects. Shapes cannot be floating objects because they are vector-based.

H���� L������� I [Daniel] recently did just that for an Ape Entertainment comic back cover I was commissioned to do. Essentially, there are a few tricks that I used to make it look really old. The first was to create an uneven edge along the wall, so it gave the impression that some of the bricks have moved over time and fallen out. The second was to have one or two areas where the wall had eroded and broken down, exposing the inner stucco and wood. The final trick was using an old poster that would literally date the wall. The story was set in colonial times, so I chose a poster that I found, which actually had the word ‘colonial’ in it. Of course, the poster was eroded and weathered by erasing and overpainting with a midtone sampled from the wall. The final result looks very convincing!

Art class

I want to make a brick wall look really ancient and weathered. How would I go about doing this?

Q&A

What are �loating objects and what do they do? Do they help out in artwork or are they best left?

However, you can turn a shape into a pixel-based layer by first selecting it. Once a floating object is dropped to the canvas layer, it can no longer be moved. When a document is saved to RIF format, Corel Painter preserves all floating objects. Saving in a non-RIF format automatically drops floating objects onto their parent layers, so always save in the RIF format until you are ready to drop all layers. Here, we will build a company logo using the floating objects method. Selections can be made on layers using the Rectangular Selection, Oval Selection, Lasso, or Magic Wand tool.

01 Layers

On the canvas layer, create a selection around the part of the image you want to use to create your logo, in this case the horse’s head. Use the Lasso tool from the toolbox to accomplish this. Make sure that the Add To Selection box is enabled. Choose Select Menu>Float or select the Layer Adjuster tool. The floating object appears as an item below the parent layer on the Layers palette.

02 Pixels

Turn your attention to the Layers palette and notice that the floating object now occupies its own pixel-based layer. We do not want to retain the pixels on the Canvas layer. To remove them from your keyboard, select Ctrl/ Cmd+A then Delete>Backspace. Notice that the pixels are deleted from the Canvas layer.

Realistic surfaces

Which are the best tools and what is a good technique for creating a gesso-like surface? P���� A������

Gesso is traditionally used as surface preparation or primer for painting on canvas and is a permanent and brilliant white substrate, as long as it is used on wood or Masonite. Looking at traditional paintings, you’ll sometimes see the raised

03 Captions

From the toolbox, select the Layer Adjuster tool and position the logo. Add your text and choose the Text tool. As you type, a new Text layer is created. Choose the text colour and size that best suits your new logo. Because the floating object is on its own layer, you are free to erase, blend and manipulate the image.

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Q&A Art class

Creating a gesso-like surface is easy, and can even be done after you have completed your painting because it won’t affect the colour or tones

surface of the underlying primer and there’s a really good technique for simulating this and enhancing the great Oil and Impasto brushes that come standard with Corel Painter. It can be applied either during or after you have completed your painting. First, create a new layer and then set the Opacity to 0. This is the most important step. Next, choose an Impasto tool and begin painting. In the thumbnail, you will notice that you are using paint, but it won’t show up on your canvas. However, the impasto-like effect will show through, without affecting the paint. The effect works better with some brushes than other, but we’ll leave that for you to explore.

The big bang I want to create an explosive effect, but do not know the best method or tools to use. Can you help?

The key to creating a convincing explosion is using restraint and subtlety. Only use near white around the impact zone

points to really enhance the effect. The first is to only use near white around the base of the explosion, which gives the impact a centre of focus. Having an object near the base is an excellent idea as it allows you to create a dramatic silhouette. The next tip is to paint billows of smoke and to illuminate them either from within, or below. Interactive lighting is essential as well. What we mean by that is light that is reacting with a surface or object. So lighting up the bonnet of the car, and also on the bottom and landing pads of the helicopter. Finally, don’t forget the debris, which sprays out and away from the impact zone.

Against the grain I have noticed that some brushes have a Grain setting? Why is this and what does this do? S����� T��������

C���������� F����� Now we’re talking. Explosions are fun, but can easily become a big glowing mess if you don’t show some restraint. We always recommend actually painting the effect, and not using dodge or screen, and the same applies here. We’ve created this scene mid-explosion and there are a couple of key

The Grain setting is one of the most important brush settings. It is your key to revealing the wonderful paper textures available in Corel Painter. Some default variants have their grain component determined by the pressure you apply to the stylus. The paper grain is the Grain slider located in the Brush tool’s property bar. This

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02

Feeling a little lighter

01 Contrast You can easily control the Grain Settings in the Brush Controls palette. Moving the slider to lower settings limits the level of colour deposited into the paper grain. Higher settings allow for deeper colour penetration

Here’s the line drawing and as you can see, we’ve roughly placed where we would like the light to be emanating from. We’ve positioned it here because it will contrast different areas in the image by highlighting aspects and casting shadows equally.

02 Effect

The next step is the tonal study, which solves all the problems. The great part here is seeing how the negative space can be created for dramatic effect, like the edge between the collar and shadowed area from the sorcerer’s head.

Art class

C������ T����

The biggest mistake that we see when a beginner tries to paint a brightly lit scene, is when they use dodge and burn. Painting the light gives you a lot more control, and will help you better understand where the shadows fall. Break it down into the simple shapes and work from there. Always simplify!

Q&A

slider determines how far colour penetrates into a grain. Lower settings limit colour to skipping along the top of the grain; higher settings allow for deeper colour penetration. You can also use the paper’s brightness and contrast settings to control brush-grain interaction. The easiest way to identify a grain-sensitive variant is to have the Brush Controls palette open as you choose variants by choosing Windows>Brush Controls>Show General. Watch for the use of the word Grainy in the Method Subcategory pop-up palette. You will find grain-sensitive variants in the Brush Categories that emulate media, which typically interact with a surface grain: Chalk, Charcoal, Conte, Crayons, Oil Pastels, Pastels, and Pencils.

Have you got any tips for painting a strong light source as the focal point in a painting? I’m �inding it dif�icult to do it, as I get so far but then it seems that I’m making it obvious.

03 Intensity

The final step is just rendering. Here we’ve decided to tone down the intensity, but that was because we decided to add a magic scroll. We could have easily gone with what we had done in the study. The main thing is, have fun with it and explore.

If the variant you are using has a Grain setting you can change the setting there as well. Changing the Grain setting as you work will reveal some wonderful textural effects. If the variant you are working with has a Resat setting as well, set the slider to 0% and you have a wonder ful blender brush

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Q&A Art class

Spooky moments Which colours work best for horror images? I like to get my colour schemes sorted before I start images. N��� P��������

We think generally any colour can work, but you just need to think about what feeling you are trying to convey.

A

Nothing scary here. Just a young girl holding her bunny, right? Appearances can be deceiving however, and the simple twitch of a colour scheme can change the whole perception of the image.

B

That said, there are some tried and tested colours and techniques for sending chills up the viewers’ spine. There’s certainly been a resurgence in the fascination of horror lately as well, with the success of movies like Hostel and Saw. For inspiration, you might want to look back at the early illustrators and what they were doing in the pulp novels and

The first scheme is to set it at night, when horror generally occurs. We can backlight her for a further sense of dread. Don’t saturate the image by making it overly blue, when things are actually desaturated at night.

C

horror comics when they relied on suggestion through the manipulation of images. Generally, a limited palette would be used, with either a contrasting colour used as a rim light, or lighting someone from below, which is always a good technique. But we’re talking colour, so let’s look at some colour schemes to evoke the inner chill of the viewer.

Yikes! A shift into the greens immediately gives the image an eeriness that something unsettling, almost possessive is going on with that bunny. One of the most dramatic effects, and just one colour was altered.

D

Adding an opposite colour as a fill light changes the feeling again. The pulp novels used a lot of this sort of colour scheme, as it gives the image a very alien feel and that something nasty is about to happen! Now you try some.

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Q&A

What watercolour?

Art class

What’s the difference between the Watercolor and Digital Watercolor brushes? I don’t know which ones to use and what difference it makes. S���� H����� It really comes down to layers. Watercolor brushes paint into a watercolour layer, which enables the colours to flow and mix and absorb into the paper. In Corel Painter, you can edit the Watercolor layer as you would any other layer without changing anything in the image layer. For example, you may enjoy creating a sketch using pencil outlines in the image layer and then overlay watercolour shading without smudging the pencil lines. When you begin to paint with Watercolors, a new Watercolor Layer is added. Watercolors are based on the Gel composite mode. The Digital Watercolor brushes by contrast, paint directly onto either the Canvas layer or a default layer so you can create effects similar to those of Watercolor brushes without using a separate layer. If you are just discovering the joy of painting in Corel Painter, then Digital Watercolor may be just right for you. For best results set your Opacity to around 10-12% to reveal paper texture. You can use Digital Watercolor brushes to create effects similar to those produced with Watercolor brushes, without having to create a separate layer. Settings such as Diffusion, Opacity, and Wet Fringe control the appearance of the stroke.

Compose yourself What are composite modes best used for? Are they only for very technical paintings?

L�� F����

The fun begins with the Digital Watercolor’s Property Bar. These brushes reveal lovely paper texture. Set the Opacity for about 10-12% for best results

Notice the blue water drop that signifies you are working on the watercolor layer. As it continues to drop, the paint is drying. Once it has stopped dropping, the paint is dry

There are many ways to utilise composite modes in your creative process. They can change the way an image appears in some very dramatic ways. Sometimes just changing the composite mode of a layer can make all the difference. These methods are similar to those we use in Photoshop called blending modes. When you overlay multiple layers of pixels, we find that the composite mode of each individual layer controls how its pixels will be visually combined with any of the pixels found beneath it. For example, composite modes can be applied to a layer to darken or lighten, increase or decrease contrast, or adjust the colour of the

In the example, we have used the Place command and placed a butterfly on top of the flowers. We used the Gel method, which tints the underlying image with the layer’s colour. For example, a yellow layer gives the underlying image a yellow cast

Painter has several different composite modes such as Gel, Colorize, Reverse-Out, Shadow Map and Pseudocolor. Cycle through a layer’s composite modes to create new versions of your image

imagery beneath it. One of the most powerful and beneficial features of composite modes is that they do not permanently alter the image, as only the visual display of the combined pixels is altered. A good example of this would be the composite mode Gel, as this method simulates the transparency of a watercolour application.

Here, Layer 1 had the composite mode changed to Luminosity. Layer 2 is filled with a complementary colour and the composite mode changed to Screen. The composite mode then changed to Gel and a Paper Texture was applied

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Using the prodtteuKnicfetsand

The Pale s Camel Oil brushe one on rs worked wonde 0X’s of the Nikon D4 close-up photos

The creative products on test this issue…

nikon d40x

eye-one display 2

book reviews

yourframer

Nikon’s upgrade to its D40 model gets put under the microscope. See if it offers digital creatives anything on page 82

Correct colour calibration is essential if you want to ensure a harmonious workflow. We tested the eye-one product to see how easy it was

We serve up another helping of useful titles that will guide you through the waters of artistic techniques and Corel Painter creativity

Discover what the YourFramer service offers you and how it takes the hard work out of adding the final flourish to your digital printouts

Reviews

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 displaying your artwork

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Reviews Nikon D40X Zoom Kit

Nikon D40X Zoom Kit £529 | A shiny new entry-level DSLR to tempt buyers

Screens It’s quick and easy to cycle through the menu screens for the mode you desire

he world of digital cameras is constantly changing, but if there’s one thing that’s certain, it’s that it is a fantastic time to be buying an entry-level DSLR. With Canon, Nikon and Sony all offering very sophisticated models and highly affordable prices, anyone in the market for a new camera is very spoilt indeed. Last issue we reviewed Canon’s EOS 400D model. Although the Nikon D40X Zoom Kit being reviewed here is on a par with Canon’s model, we are not going to be writing a comparison review here. However, if you are interested in buying a new camera, it’s worth looking at the various comparisons on the internet. But back to the Nikon D40X. This model can be seen as an upgrade to the D40 – an upgrade that arrived only a few months after the D40’s release. The biggest speci�ication bump was the move from 6.1 megapixels to 10.2 megapixels. These extra pixels give you a bit more freedom when it comes to cropping large images and allow you to print up to A3 size at 300dpi. They also mean that you can zoom in nice and close to photographs that you may be using as reference images for your Corel Painter artwork. The camera itself is very comfortable to hold. The plastic casing feels nice and solid, plus the speckled surface texture makes it easy to grip. It weighs just 471g without battery, memory card, lens or body cap. Once all these are added, the

camera still won’t break any necks. In fact, the camera is very comfortable and can be slung over the shoulder with no pressure at all. It also means you can compose shots with one hand quite happily. The main controls are housed on the back of the camera, surrounding the 2.5-inch LCD screen. The �irst impression of the back was that it seemed sparse compared with similar models. On the plus side, this does mean that �irst-time DSLR users aren’t bamboozled by complicatedlooking buttons and symbols, but it does mean that functions that usually only require a tap of a button are now only accessible through menus – the most obvious being white balance adjustments. But, to be honest, the menus are so easy to use and quick to work, this won’t be a problem for the majority of users. The LCD screen displays information about the proposed shot, which can be turned off or on using the Info button on the top of the camera. You can also access helpful suggestions for taking shots from here, with the camera alerting you if the shot is too light, too dark or suffering from any other problems. This is great for beginners and acts as a good aid for amateurs to move from the Auto mode through to manual control. Although let’s not dismiss the Auto mode – it offers fabulous results and does a lot to boost the con�idence of those who may not otherwise be so comfortable with photography.

Lens The supplied Nikkor lens is a good all-rounder and takes great distant and close-up shots

Pick a mode You access the different camera modes using the top dial and you can use the Info button to see the current settings

Manual info screen Mode dial Viewfinder

Close-Up Use the Close-Up mode to achieve effortless macro shots, with crystalclear focus detail and excellent depth of field

Scene info screen Playback button Menu button

Playback mode LCD screen

Zoomed in Trash button Setup menu

D-pad control

The maximum zoom on the lens is adequate for most reference shots, but if you find yourself zooming a lot, you will need a specialised lens

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Exposure modes

£529 A, P, AP, SP, M, scene modes 10.2 Flash modes Max resolution A, RE, Fon, Foff, 2nd 3,872 x 2,592 Curtain sync

Megapixels (effective)

Lens data

camera specs

Nikon D40X Price

Connectivity

f/3.5-5.6 G II (18- USB, AV 55mm) Weight Zoom 471g (excl battery) By lens Dimension Focus/Macro 126 x 94 x 64mm By lens Batteries Shutter speeds Lithium-ion 30-1/4,000sec, bulb Storage ISO sensitivity SD, MMC A, 100, 200, 400, LCD 800, 1600, Hi 2.5” Metering options

S, CW, Matrix

Build design The camera feels very solid in the hand and is surprisingly light. All the controls are easy to access and the menus are intuitive

Wide-angle landscape shots The Nikon D40X is as comfortable with wide-angle landscape shots as it is with zoomed in pictures, taking in everything from the foreground to the background in fantastic detail

Strap hooks

What we like

Upgrade has increased pixels for better shots Comfortable and light when handling

An excellent camera that can be used with ease by both beginners and experienced photographers

Mode dial

What we don’t like Not all lenses offer autofocus Some functions more complex to access

Features

9.0

Ease of use

on the top

In low light, the images were pretty much free from any noise, and once you add natural light the results are outstanding. Colours are rich and inviting and the level of detail and focus is near-perfect. There are only three settings for autofocus (Single Area, Dynamic Area and Dynamic Area with Closest Subject Priority) but for everyday shots, we didn’t feel as though it needed more. In a lot of ways, this camera is perfect for users who want to take the step-up from consumer camera to digital SLR. It has a wealth of features that appeal to the beginners, such as those shooting notes mentioned earlier, and the Auto functions still produce outstanding results. The menus are very intuitive to use and it’s possible to work everything out without worrying about referring to the manual. It also takes SD memory cards, which is popular among the consumer camera models. One slight hitch in all this beginner-friendliness is that not all lenses will offer autofocus. You will need to look out for AF-I or AF-S lenses, which does limit the choices somewhat. In short, this is a great camera. The images it produces are hard to fault and its automatic options mean it can be used by anyone straight out of the box. For more experienced users it has all the manual options needed and is a camera you can enjoy for many years to come.

Info button

we say

This kit comes with an 18-55mm AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor lens, which proves to be a solid choice for different types of pictures. When using the Close-Up mode, detail is pin-sharp and colours are spot-on (see our sample image, left). Switch to wide-angle landscape shots or zoom portraits and the lens delivers equally as impressive results. In fact, the images were constantly impressive! We tested the camera in a range of conditions, covering indoor, outdoor, low light and brilliant sunshine and were pleased with all of them.

Lens release

verdict

“Let’s not dismiss the Auto mode - it offers fabulous results and does a lot to boost the confidence of those who may not otherwise be so comfortable with photography”

Shutter release

10

Quality of results

10

Value for money

9.0

Overall score

9.5 83

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Pantone eye-one display 2

specs

Reviews Pantone eye-one display 2

Pantone eye-one display 2 Price

£150 + VAT

Website

www.pantone.co.uk

PC requirements

Windows 2000/XP/ XP64/Vista (32-bit only)

Operating systems

Mac requirements

PC and Mac

OS X 10.2 and above

£150 + VAT | Monitor calibration equipment that measures the actual amount of ambient light in a room for best results

Accuracy is everything! While you’re adjusting the Contrast and White Point settings of your monitor, the software gives you a constant update of the setting’s accuracy. Always aim for each slider to sit in the green zone

Hey presto! At the end of the process, the eye-one match software displays a summary screen, showing the accuracy of the generated profile. You also have the option here to set a reminder which will alert you when it’s time to calibrate again, and view Before And After results

“The difference here between this and lesser units is that it measures far more colour swatches to create the colour profile” the appropriate drivers, and the calibration software eye-one match. The device copes perfectly with both a TFT or CRT monitor . One of the great strengths of the software is that you have the option of choosing to operate either in Easy or Advanced mode. Easy mode produces outstanding results with very little input from the user, but Advanced mode has ultimate control and the best results. After clicking the arrow to

where to position the unit on screen, whereas the eye-one software actually ‘looks’ for the unit on screen, using small white patches to locate it. The difference here between this and lesser units is that it measures far more colour swatches to create the colour pro�ile, measuring fully saturated colours and a myriad of shades and tints. This results in a very accurate calibration unit that is perfect for those looking for something more.

Software updates You ought to be using the latest version of the calibration software, and look for a Check For Updates button on the first screen. Click this and you know that your setup is bang up-to-date!

we say

advance, you have the chance to de�ine your target calibration setting, but often it’s best to leave the software to choose these for you. On this screen, notice the checkbox for the Perform Ambient Light Check option. The actual eyeone unit comes supplied with a semi-opaque white cover, and you need to �it this cover. Turn the unit so that its covered base faces you and it will proceed to measure the amount of ambient light in your workroom, making for a far more accurate calibration. Once the unit is on the monitor and you have your monitor’s Brightness and Contrast controls set accurately, the software will start the actual calibration routine. With the huey unit, you are told precisely

verdict

ast month, we reviewed the Pantone huey display calibrator, which is aimed squarely at the more casual computer user, with a price tag to re�lect this. On the other hand, the Pantone eye-one unit will make quite a bit more space in your wallet but, reassuringly, will calibrate your displayed colour much more accurately, giving you far more con�idence in your output. The eye-one itself is a pleasingly compact unit, which connects to the PC via a USB cable, and relies on a counterweight attached to the cable itself to sit on your screen, so it helps to have your screen tilted back a little during the calibration process. The eye-one comes with an auto-starting CD containing

What we like

Ambient room measurement Choice of easy or advanced mode

An advanced and intuitive piece of software that really helps to maintain a consistent workflow when it comes to colours

Overall score

What we don’t like Pricey for the casual user No physical attachment to screen Features

9.0

Ease of use

9.0

Quality of results

10

Value for money

6.0

8.5

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Reviews Books

Exposé 5

$55.00 | Another brush with the best digital art out there

Grand Master flash The book kicks off in great style, with an in-depth look at the artist who has been crowned Grand Master

egular readers will be familiar with Ballistic Publishing – we’ve reviewed a few of its titles and ended up giving them all the same gushing and enthusiastic reverence that sometimes makes us embarrassed. So in the interests of making us seem hard-nosed and hard to impress, it would be great if we could say that this book was unremarkable – after all, what’s so great about a book that just has lots of pictures? But we’d be lying through our teeth, because the Ballistic team have once again put together a collection of artists whose work can’t fail to inspire you. The format is the same as previous Exposé titles. It starts with a breakdown of the book’s categories (19) and who made up the panel of judges. Before seeing who the judges entered in the book, there is a six-page special on the exceptional artist who was awarded the title of Grand Master. This time around it’s John Berkey, whose vision has been a guide and inspiration to many science-�iction artists. Having this extended section sets the reader up nicely for the rest of the book by setting the mood for some fabulous art. Once you’ve learnt about the Grand Master, you are moved smoothly into the bulk of the book – namely the art representing those categories we mentioned earlier. These are: Portrait (Painted), Portrait (Rendered),

Architecture (Exterior), Architecture (Interior), Architecture (Reconstruction), Fantasy, Creatures, Action, Concept Art, Matte Painting, Science Fiction, Environment, Cityscapes, Abstract, Product Design & Still Life, Horror & Surreal, Humorous, Whimsical and Transport. Each section is heralded by full-page artwork that has been awarded the titles of Master or Excellence. In addition to allowing you to see the best of the best up close and personal, these pages also act as excellent soft divisions between the categories, in turn making this book easy to pick up and �lick to a category that inspires. The variety and quality of the work presented here is truly breathtaking, as is the software used to create them. The colour rendition is superb and the glossy paper makes the book feel like a luxurious treasure. Which is actually quite a good description of it. Like all treasures, it has no practical use, but it greatly enhances your life by being there.

Big and small The artwork is displayed in different sizes throughout the book, swapping between sweeping fullpage prints and smaller, intricately detailed entries

Edited by

Daniel Wade and Paul Hellard Price

$55.00 (soft cover) Publisher

Ballistic Publishing ISBN

978-1-921-002397

A little something for everyone The categories cover a wide range of subjects and styles, meaning you get to sample all manner of artwork contained within the pages

Different software

Best of the bunch

One thing that is really nice with the title is that all sorts of software is represented. On these pages there is work created in Corel Painter, Photoshop and Maya, to name just a few

Each category is headed up by full-page artwork whose creator has taken the title of Master or Excellence for that particular subject matter. Purely mesmerising and inspirational work

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The Photographer’s Eye £17.99 | Can this book help you see more creatively? Author

Michael Freeman Price

£17.99

Publisher

Ilex

ISBN

978-1905814-04-6

nyone who is interested in photography – at whatever level – will probably have seen some of Michael Freeman’s other books. But instead of producing an instructional tome on one aspect of photography, Freeman has instead opted for a far more interesting achievement – to show readers how composition can make or break a photo. To do this, Freeman displays images and explains when a composition does or doesn’t work. There are helpful illustrations to simplify the photo and help bring the composition to the fore, which makes it easy to remember the setups and use them in your own work. Now, obviously this book is aimed at photographers and lining up subjects in a camera’s viewer. But the book is also invaluable for artists, giving you great information for arranging a painting’s scene. Plus the great photography used throughout gives plenty of inspiration.

Assess the options Pages like these show you the different ways an image could have gone, allowing you to decide what makes for good composition

Lines in the picture The book is peppered with handy pages such as these, where the photo’s composition is clearly illustrated with useful diagrams

Picture perfect In addition to learning about composition, the book’s photos also serve as a great inspirational source for your own digital works of art

Terry Harrison’s Sea & Sky in Watercolour £7.99 | A one-stop resource for budding sea artists Author

Terry Harrison Price

£7.99 Publisher

Search Press

ISBN

978-1-84448-198-0

his seemed like the perfect book to review in light of our seascape spectacular on page 22, as Harrison imparts a lot of helpful advice and techniques. In addition to three step-by-step walkthroughs for creating different seascapes (including a beautiful sunset one), this book’s crowning glory is the guides to painting nautical elements. These start with painting different types of sea (calm, choppy water and breaking waves) and move onto other bene�icial techniques such as painting different skies, creating textured rocks and making realistic re�lections. Obviously this book is tailored towards traditional watercolours, but the techniques correspond beautifully to Corel Painter. With its inspirational scenes, this guide may very well yield some of the reader’s best work. Harrison has produced a very informative title and although it’s just 48 pages, it covers all you need to create your own seascapes.

Quality results The book has three great step-by-step tutorials that guide you through some tricky sea-painting techniques

Extra touches We really like how the author shows how to create seascape paraphernalia, such as painting cliff top footpaths, lighthouses and reflections

Vital advice The pages that show how to paint different types of sea are a real bonus and will delight anyone interested in creating seascapes

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Reviews Output

Visit www.yourframer.co.uk to browse the range of frames

You can order all of the materials you need to hang your image

Order frames online

Discover how the YourFramer company can help you display your favourite images, giving professional advice to finding the right frame for your picture

Tutorial info Artist

Jo Cole Time needed

10 minutes Skill level

Beginner

hen it comes to displaying your artwork on the wall, frames are an essential ingredient in making sure your hard work looks the best it possibly can. But picking a frame isn’t necessarily as easy as it sounds. First of all you need to make sure that the frame won’t distract from your actual image. You need to �ind one that is not only the right colour, but one that is also the right thickness. If you have a large image with a very thin frame, it’ll get completely lost and you may as well not bother with one in the �irst place. Of course, the opposite is true. Large frames may be dramatic but if they are surrounding a teeny tiny image, they will dominate and demand all the attention.

The best way of picking a frame is to take your image along to the frame shop and try it out. This is also preferable if you are considering mounting board as you can see what colours and size works. But if you have a large or delicate image,

purchase all the materials and receive them in the post. Now all that’s left is to put it all together and hang your artwork. The site is incredibly easy to use and you can clearly see what’s happening at all stages, from uploading the image

“You can clearly see what’s happening at all stages, from uploading the image right through to finalising the order” this way of shopping can quickly become more of a hindrance than a help. Luckily, there is a simple solution. The YourFramer company allows you to upload an image and try out a range of frames and boards to see what looks good. Once you’re happy with your virtual framed image, you can

right through to �inalising the order. The products are shipped all over the world and we’d de�initely suggest you try them out yourself. To get you started, we’ve put together a tutorial on navigating your way round the site and adding the perfect surround to your image.

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In the frame Choosing and purchasing the equipment

Receiving your frame

01 Upload your image

Go to www.yourframer.co.uk and click the Start yourframer Now link. Pick your country and then click the Select Frames…For My Pictures link. You’ll see a table showing upload speeds for image sizes, so reduce yours if you need to. Select Choose File, find your image and click Upload File. You can also import an image from a web page.

02 Size it up

Your image will appear and if all is good, click the Yes button to proceed. You can crop your image or skip straight to entering a size. Everything is clearly explained but you need to remember to reduce size if using a mount. Enter a size, click Confirm and then Next.

04 Frame choices

03 Board it up

Now you get to pick the outer, single mat. Use the drop-down menus to set the thickness and click on the colour squares to preview what other hues will look like. To proceed, click Yes. You can decline a mount if you prefer. The next stage allows you to add a double mat, but you can bypass this.

05 Review the order

Now you get to the really fun bit – trying out the frames! Use the drop-down menu to see the complete list. These are arranged in groups, so it’s easy to pick something you like. Each time you click on one, the image preview will update. If you’d like to see the frames closer, click the magnifying icon in the shopping cart to open another window.

Once you have the frame and mount selected, you get to review the order. This lists everything you have selected or that you might need. To remove an item, click No under Action. Click Yes to confirm you want it (a tick will appear). If you need more information, there’s an Info link for each item. You can also use the options on the left to add more items or change your order.

Your order will arrive in a secure package, with the frame and any board all ready for you to put together. You also have the option of purchasing hanging equipment from the site so it really is a one-stop shop for frames. We were really, really impressed with the YourFramer service. Being able to instantly see how different frames and surrounds work with an image is invaluable, and the whole process is so easy to do. The prices are reasonable and it’s an ideal alternative to a traditional framing shop. Give the service a try today!

06 Pay up

Your total will appear at the bottom. If all looks good, select Place This Order Now. Fill out your information – it is a secure server – and then click Submit Order. You’ll receive a notice saying the order has gone through and will also see an email address if you have any questions.

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Readers’ gallery issue seven

Gallery

Dee Gordon’s varied range of work caught our eye as soon as it appeared on the magazine website, with its range of colours, styles and techniques. We decided to discover more about the woman behind the work ee is a great example of where practice and gleeful enthusiasm can get you. After starting in Corel Painter almost by accident, she has gone on to create incredible images and is looking forward to trying out even more things in the future. We caught up with her to �ind out more… How did you get started in Painter? Painter was actually bundled in with software I had purchased. I loaded it and had forgotten all about it, until I was trying to follow one of the Photoshop recipes and thought that it would be so much easier if I could just paint it. I opened Painter for the �irst time and there you have it, I was off and running with it. What’s your favourite Painter tool? I am not really sure that I have a favourite. In many of my paintings I use chalks and pastels. I love the look and feel of the acrylics… I have a few custom brushes I have made… I really feel as though I have just ‘got my toes wet’ for I have not used many of the tools Painter has to offer. Who or what inspires you? I am very easily inspired by other people’s work and by all that surrounds me. It is the everyday things in life that truly inspire me: dogs playing in the yard, a bird at the feeder, �lowers, food, water, light and colour. I like to take it all in and then eventually it will come out in one of my paintings. When did you start painting animal portraits? I was a dog trainer for many years so it is very easy for me to be around animals. Close friends have been known to tease me by saying I was a dog in a past life due to the fact that I know them so well. It just seemed to be a natural progression in my career. Interestingly enough, during the initial stages of learning my way around Painter I was commissioned to paint a few portraits. Often the animal is deceased and I go by a description of not just the animal’s appearance, but also their temperament and personality.

Dee and friend

“It is the everyday things in life that truely inspire me: dogs playing in the yard, a bird at the feeder…” Also, I �ind it very helpful to understand the breed speci�ics and the importance of colour use to bring out their personalities. Tell us a bit about your website. Do you really do almost a doodle a day? Yes, I really do almost paint a doodle a day! The site is �illed with my doodles, and at times I’ll post a few proofs, portraits and paintings in progress, items that are on sale, photography, etc. Because of the work I do, I �ind people like to see a more personal side of my life with my dogs, so sometimes I will put up a story or two, a few photographs and videos. Most importantly, I have a cocker mix that was paralysed in her hind area about six months ago. I post her rehab in progress

for I know I had to do much research on working with a dog that had such special needs. This information can and has bene�ited others in a similar situation. [Find out more about Dee and her dog on her website at http://pawprintsstudio. wordpress.com, where you can catch up with her dog’s progress.] What’s your most helpful piece of Painter advice? Paint anything and everything. While cloning is wonderful, you need to make it your own. Start drawing early, as freehand is something that is achieved by practising. If that is of little interest, then colour, brushstrokes and texture will add individuality to your work.

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02

Title: Sweet Nectar “This is by far my favourite painting, but then I am just so drawn to colour and texture, and this has it all.”

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Gallery

Readers’ gallery issue seven

03

Title: Alex “A portrait of a young Dalmatian in need that came to me for behaviour evaluation. During his stay with me, I decided to paint his portrait. He made a fine model!”

04

Title: Gemma “Two years ago, her original people hired me to work with her for she had serious behavioural issues. In the end they did not want her back because they were afraid of her. Her future was not looking so bright, so my family discussed the situation and we decided to make her part of our pack. The colour palette chosen for this painting was because Gem is a very aloof dog. Very independent, but at the same time fearful and unsure of things. This is just my interpretation of how she would look in colour.”

05

Title: Day Dreaming “There’s nothing better then watching a boy with his dog. The little boy looking off in one direction, the dog in the other (one wonders if the dog is daydreaming about the bird.) All the while a ball is just resting on the shoreline, waiting for more play.”

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06

Title: Sailing

“I was taking a break from portrait work. It was a dark, rainy day as I looked out my window. I visualised what, at that moment, I would love to be looking at through my window. I painted several paths for there is always more than one path to get where you want to go!”

07

Title: Freedom

“This is a freehand painting. I sat thinking of the symbolic images of the Fourth of July, and thought of the quote: “In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved” [Franklin D Roosevelt]. I painted the flag, then the eagle, and finally the fireworks.”

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Readers’ challenge issue seven

Challenge o far we’ve had some outstanding entries into our Readers’ Challenge, but don’t fret if you have missed out on previous challenges. We’ve got another crop of images on this issue’s disc, just waiting for you to work your Corel Painter magic. If you’re new to

this, the rules are simple. Download the images and think about what you can do to them. You can use them all, take a couple or integrate them with artwork of your own – just please use at least one image. Then send it in! There’s no deadline, and the winner will get their creation printed onto canvas.

This challenge’s 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, Official Corel Painter Magazine, Imagine Publishing, Richmond House, 33 Richmond Hill, Bournemouth, Dorset BH2 6EZ, UK Alas, we can’t return any CDs. If your entry is under 2MB, you can email it to [email protected]

Remember! You can email your entries to [email protected] 96

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Cha llen ge

winner Have a look at the best entries that have been sent to us

he post bag has been �illed with some great entries to our previous challenges and we have the top three for you here. Before we look at them, don’t forget that you can enter this challenge whenever you like. There are no deadlines, so you can take as long as it takes to create your masterpiece! Just be sure to send it in. On with the accolades then. Sue Stevens took third place this issue, after winning the contest last issue. Ken Small scoops second place with his transformation of Pike Place Market into a night scene. Well done Ken! But Richard Page has taken the winning crown with his portrait painting that incorporates one of the images in a globe. We particularly liked the brush strokes on the beard and loved the general idea!

WINNER! Richard Page

2ND PLACE Ken Small

3RD PLACE

Sue Stevens

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Official Magazine

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25/7/07 15:11:58