CorelPainCorel Painter - 08 - Magazine, Art, Digital Painting, Drawing, Draw, 2d

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Official Corel® Painter TM Magazine

PAINT

digitally today! Work with Chalk brushes Learn vital art techniques Tips for using Corel Painter

Official Magazine Issue eight

Airbrush tools An intro to the Airbrushes and how to use them

FEATURED IN THIS ISSUE

Over

40

Drawing eyes Achieve realistic eyes with this step-by-step guide

pages of tutorials

Tree study

Quick and easy methods for painting believable trees

Pain t your own

masterpiece Discover how you can create better artwork with our in-depth tutorials Special feature! See page 20

The art of painting

portraits

Visit us online – www.paintermagazine.com

Improve your portrait skills! Experts reveal the key ingredients involved in planning and painting exquisite portraits

ac nd M PC a

FREE CD

INSIDE

PAINTER X DEMO | TUTORIAL FILES | STOCK PHOTOS Art class Dedicated pages that answer your art and software questions

001_OPM_8_COVERfinal.indd 1

Collages Use the composite methods to create a digital collage

Sci-fi landscape See how one artist went about creating a futuristic landscape

ISSUE EIGHT ISSN 1753-3155

£6.00 08

9

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

Program guides Learn about the Chalk brushes and how to use them correctly

Pg 40 Paint like… Edvard Munch Use surface texture for a truly 3D painting

Pg 68 Drawing 101: How to draw eyes The eyes so often elevate or extinguish the soul of the painting

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 EIGHT

Pg 32

Portraits are simultaneously the most popular and most frustrating things to paint. They are attractive because they allow you to bring a sense of personality to the painting – either in the person being painted or the way they are painted. Since portraits are both revered and feared, we thought they would be an excellent topic for a feature! Turn to page 20, where we talk with three very different Corel Painter portrait artists, and discover how and why they use the program in their work. We’ve also got them to share their best tips for working on portraits, and we’ve even persuaded some of you to reveal your personal tricks! Leaving portraits behind us, we turn to painting scenes with a limited colour palette (page 34). This is an interesting experiment that really forces you to think about colour and how it affects an image. In direct contrast, our Paint Like… this issue is Edvard Munch (p40). We re-create The Scream, which is a riot of colour and emotion. Have fun!

Jo Cole, Editor in Chief [email protected]

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original artwork by Mayrhosby Yeoshen

ON THE FRONT COVER

Collage pg 46

Fea ture

The art of painting

Pg 20 PORTRAITS

LEARN HOW COREL PAINTER ARTISTS ARE USING THE PROGRAM TO CREATE PORTRAITS AND LEARN FROM THEIR VALUABLE ADVICE

Pg 56 TREE STUDY

IMPROVE YOUR LANDSCAPE PAINTINGS WITH OUR QUICK GUIDE TO PAINTING TREES. LEARN ABOUT COLOURS, BRUSHES AND TREE SHAPES

Regulars in every issue 08 Subscriptions Take out a subscription to the magazine and you can save up to 40% on the cover price!

10 Corel Painter community The best sites, services and resources for creatives, plus see what other readers have to say on the Letters pages

96 Readers’ challenge

Haven’t entered one of our challenges yet? Turn to this page and get started

98 On the disc

A full breakdown of the content on this issue’s free CD

30 Painter showcase The first in our special pages dedicated to outstanding Corel Painter art

74 Art class Another merry gaggle of artistic problems sorted out

92 Readers’ gallery Discover more about what a fellow reader is getting up to in our gallery section

Original artwork by Sue Stevens

portraits pg 20

WIN!

YOUR WORK PRINTED TO CANVAS

pg 96

Talented artists share their secrets for stunning portraits

Reviews 82 Olympus E-410 It promises to pack a powerful punch, but does the E-410 deliver when it comes to quality? We tested it to find out

84 Backups4All Protecting your artwork is important for any digital artist, so we were intrigued to see what this online back up service was like

85 Panorama U Laptop Bag Find out about this bag that can handle your laptop, camera, phone… pretty much anything you can throw at it

88 Bags of Love Looking for the perfect present? Check out this review of one company that can take your digital files and turn them into all sorts of attractive products

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Jeff Nentrup pg 14 pg 50 Futuristic cityscapes

Original artwork by Jeff Nentrup

Interview

pg 40 Paint like: Edvard Munch

Inspirational art 14 Jeff Nentrup

Jeff’s work takes viewers into strange new lands with intriguing creatures and strange beings. We caught up with him to discover more…

tutorials

Create inspirational art 34 Limited colour palette Strip away colours for dazzling effects

40 Paint like: Munch Re-create one of the most iconic paintings of our time

50 Futuristic cityscape

Drawing 101 Traditional artistic techniques 68 Drawing eyes As a complement to our portraits feature this issue, the Drawing 101 section deals with drawing eyes – a vital skill to master if you want engaging paintings

Use composition tricks for an alluring image

56 Tree art study Learn how to quickly and easily paint trees

62 An intro to airbrushing Make friends with the Airbrush tools

Visit our website now!

www. painter magazine. co.uk

Primers

Get up and running… 32 Brushes: Chalk Beautiful texture is easy with the Chalk brushes

Feature focus

Get to know your tools 46 Create collages Merge your photos, text, backgrounds and paintings into one good-looking collage. We examine the tools that help you do this

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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

© Alan Davis © Chris Price

© Carrie Woeck

© Michael David

Digital Painting Forum Garner professional and friendly advice on all aspects of digital art from this subscription-based online community TEACHING Works can be finely tuned in the private community with help from other members

orel Painter has attracted a hard core of artists who are dedicated to educating people about the program and how it works. One of these ‘Painter evangelists’ is Marilyn Sholin, who has also contributed to our Art Class section this issue.

© Marilyn Sholin

Sholin hosts the Digital Painting Forum, which has thousands of international members and over 50,000 posts about Corel Painter, Essentials, and Adobe Photoshop. The various forums include useful topics such as tutorials, brushes, digital painting, art and the business of creating, marketing and selling digital art. While there’s plenty for Corel Painter fans, the forum deals with all forms of digital art, so you can see how other people are using different software, maybe picking up a few tips along the way. In addition to the actual forum areas, one aspect of the forum that we really like is the Featured Artist area. Each month a member gains their time in the limelight as the featured artist, where their work is given prominence on the home page, complete with interview. You can easily access previous featured artists and this is a great way to get a quick overview of the standard of work on the site.

© Jan David

This forum has a small subscription fee that is well worth the education and friendship gained. One of the members’ favourite features of the forum are the gallery where members can post their paintings and keep albums of them, while getting feedback from other members. The forum also has contests and challenges for prizes like full versions of Corel Painter X and other software. You can visit the forum at www. digitalpaintingforum.com and take the Sneak Peek tour to see what it holds. Membership fees are set to rise from 1 October, with a year’s membership costing $49 and two years costing $75.

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s

n ts n ews eveJet info n ews eve n ts res our ces letters web site info Perma Inkjet Paper & Canvas RESOURCES

Model behaviour Merge free stock with Corel Painter for outstanding results sing photography as a basis for your Corel Painter projects is an excellent way of capturing scenes you may not otherwise be able to paint. But for truly limitless possibilities, take a foray into the world of 3D. You won’t have to learn a complicated program, because lots of kind souls have provided base models. One such soul is Rita Marfoldi. Her deviantART account is full of stock resources, available to download and turn into digital paintings. She offers individual �iles for free as well as special packs, a mass of high-res �iles, costing only a few dollars to download. Take a worthwhile look at her gallery at http://sadestock.deviantart.com

RESOURCES

Free papers Popular free resource site offers over 50 papers

he Plugin Site is a great resource for free goodies and Corel Painter users will �ind a great collection of Papers on there. Harry’s Papers is a collection of over 50 paper �iles that can be loaded and used for free. Arranged into groups, all you need to do is register at the site and then wait for an email con�irmation. Once you have this, click the link back to the site and then download the papers. Pop over to http://thepluginsite.com and see what else is of interest.

Marfoldi specialises in fantasy art, but there are also sketches, colours and textures

E Y FRE VER

I S DELORDER00 ON R £1 E OV

Fine Art media without equal Digital art exhibit EXHIBITION

Corel Painter Magazine reader gets own digital art show e’re very excited to report that one of our readers is getting her very own art exhibition. Cheryl Blanchard, who was featured in issue five, is going to be exhibiting her work at Studio 33, New London, CT 06320, USA, from 7 September for one month. Visitors to the gallery will be able to view 20 of Blanchard’s works. Digital art has typically been frowned upon in the fine-art world but things are starting to change and shows such as Blanchard’s is proof of that. If you’re in the area, be sure to drop into the gallery to show your support and if you have your own show coming up, let us know and we’ll be proud to include details in the magazine.

Release the true glory of your digital masterpieces with PermaJet’s Inkjet media range. Choose from over 25 different varieties in many amazing finishes, textures, weights and sizes. What’s more, we have put together special online deals, exclusive only to readers of this magazine! To take advantage go to: www.permajet.com/109/ To see for yourself the difference our papers make to your Art reprographics call today for your FREE printed sample swatch.

The site has a vast array of plug-ins and freeware, as well as galleries, news, reviews and tutorials

Cheryl’s self portrait (top) and street scene (above) are representative of her expressive and arresting style

Call: 01926 493 632 010-011_OPM_08_news.indd 11

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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

Colour swatch

I don’t usually write in to magazines (and I promise I’m not saying this just to get published), but I wanted to say how much I enjoyed issue seven! I am very impressed with the variety of styles and was particularly happy with the seascape feature. I’ve always wanted to paint the sea but end up with a blue mess. I’m looking forward to trying the techniques out. But on to why I am writing. One thing that I found really helpful in the sea feature was the colour palette at the

beginning. I know people describe what colours they are using, but it is so much more helpful to see the hues. Now I can refer to this and then get painting. I’m probably in the minority with needing this, but can you do this regularly? I do �ind it much easier and there may be others who want it too.

Simon Lakeland

Thanks for your kind words, Simon. It’s always the best route to take if you want anything published! We enjoyed the seascape feature as well and am pleased that you did too. It’s

interesting what you say about the colour palettes. It is something we do now and again and agree that it makes things easier. What do others think? Do you want definite colour palettes for every guide or do you prefer to make up your own swatch? Let us know.

Sell your wares

I have got a few pieces of art that I’m quite proud of and wondered if you or any other readers had a suggestion for what I can do with it? Ideally I’d like to try selling it, but haven’t got a website or any means of taking payments. Is there a simple way?

Keith Burnes

Reader’s tip

Share your Corel Painter wisdom…

Random brushes If you find it difficult to think up new brush variants, the Brush Creator will do it all for you! Open up the Creator, and then pick the Randomizer function. Pick a brush category and variant and then click the Randomize Current Selection button. You’ll see various variants appear.

Barbara Haimer

Let us know if, like Simon, you found the inclusion of a colour palette useful, or if you prefer making up your own unique swatch

Thanks for that, Barbara. The Randomizer is among those functions that are rarely used but that give great results.

Featured gallery

© Eric Schranz

© Eric Schranz

Our favourite reader’s gallery this month

Eric Schranz

www.paintermagazine.co.uk/ user/tuxxon

ranz © Eric Sch

Eric is no stranger to the Painter software – he first it way back in version two but abandoned the program for a while as his computers weren’t powerful enough to cope with it! He returned to the fold with version IX, and 2006 saw him start using the program in earnest. We were really struck with how Eric introduces texture into his work – pay a visit to his gallery and you will be treated to rich brushstrokes and thick paint worked into colourful and intriguing creations.

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share my photographs with other readers. You can see them from www.sxc.hu/ pro�ile/cynthiab.

Cynthia Berridge

CafePress is a great way to sell your images on various merchandise with no hassle

Hello Keith, there is indeed a simple way. You might like to check out the CafePress site – www.cafepress.com. This service allows you to use your images as the basis of a wide range of products, from T-shirts and baseball caps, through to ceramics and other fun items. You can set up your own shop, so visitors can come and visit and then get your images printed onto product. CafePress will create the products, take care of the payment and also ship the good worldwide – all you do is pay a small commission. Maybe try and talk to a few of the people who already have a store and see how they have got on.

Photos for all

Hello, I love the Of�icial Corel Painter Magazine and am trying my hardest to understand the program and all its particulars! I have an account with Stock. XCHNG and would love the chance to

Thanks for that, Cynthia. You have a great collection of images, a lot of which lend themselves beautifully to Corel Painter projects. We were particularly impressed with your fruit still-lifes. They would make great reference photos for sketches or full-blown paintings with the Oil brushes. We have a feeling that a lot of readers will get use out of your images and thank you for offering them up to the community. As a small aside, Cynthia has got us thinking. If you get caught up in the spirit of sharing, pass it on to us! We could run a regular section where we print details of your content and either include it on our CD or have the link for people to download!

www.paintermagazine.com

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… By the time you read this, our website challenge will be over and another set of images will have been revealed for you to download and create art mayhem with. But we thought it would be nice to bring you another small selection of entries received so far, so you can have a nose at what others have been up to. For your enjoyment this issue, we have three very different but equally lovely images. First up is Apryl Bachetti’s work. We loved how the original photo had been totally transformed into a dramatic fairytale-esque piece of art. Hugo Patao’s piece caught our eye as he re-created a traditional art study perfectly. And last but not least, Kathy Pilgrim’s mosaic treatment of the carnival horses worked very well. You can see who won by visiting the website – www.paintermagazine.com.

ENTER T WEBSITHE CHALLE E NGE Don’t be shy

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

Reader Cynthia’s photographs are on display on the Stock. XCHNG website, so feel free to have a browse and draw inspiration

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Interview Jeff Nentrup

An interview with…

Jeff Nentrup From standing start to the biggest film of the year, Jeff Nentrup has had a roller-coaster career – and it’s only just begun! hile artists wielding the weight of Photoshop claim much of the spotlight when it comes to showcasing their work, artists like Jeff Nentrup can go by undiscovered. Growing up in Thousand Oaks, a town just outside of LA, the illustrator moved to Pasadena to complete his BFA in Illustration in 2000 and has been there ever since. Starting his creative journey in traditional media, most particularly in oil painting, Nentrup admits before 1997 he had “never seen a digital painting before”. However, that all changed during his last semester at college where the artists took an advanced concept course

taught by Painter Master Ryan Church. “I remember him saying that Painter was the quickest way he could communicate his design ideas and I was hooked. Lord of the Rings had just come out… and Ryan was working on these little prequel �ilms called Star Wars. It was very exciting for me and I quickly added some cinematic samples to my graduating portfolio. I was fortunate enough with them to land work on the Harry Potter �ilms right out of school.” We found out more about this intriguing artist. What techniques do you use? At �irst I would scan in pencil drawings before I could draw well on the machine.

Before long, I’d usually open a new �ile and start with a black scratchboard tool to line it out. When I’m happy with the basics, I’ll tone the whole image down to get rid of the white. From there I use Painter to mimic my paints and brushes, blocking things in and softening edges with the blending tools. The real advantages digitally are the speeds of masking, cloning, drying and glaze… the things that slow you down at the easel. A lot of �ilm directors and production designers are now used to the photographic look of using photo elements, even in the preproduction phase. It’s understandable because it ends up looking like the �ilm they’re trying to make. However, it can be

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www.jeffnentrup.com, www.basamatic.com Designer/illustrator Warner Brothers, Paramount Pictures, Dreamworks SKG and more…

All original artwork by Jeff Nentrup

website job title clients

[ABOVE] Black Sabbath Resurrection  This was a rebrand campaign “conceptualising the mythical Ironman character” for the band led by legendary front man Ozzy Osbourne

[right] Cyber Punk A character for Wizards of the Coasts dark role-play game called Hecatomb. He was born out of a two sentence description of a techno-thug

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Interview Jeff Nentrup

“I’m interested in humanity and the distance between our moments of dignity and ugly limitations”

THE GREENMAN ENCOUNTER This was a personal concept piece that Nentrup created for a disbanded film adaptation based on characters from A Princess of Mars

[ABOVE] Drift Shadow and Twisted Visage (aka: ice zombie) These were card illustrations for a Magic the Gathering series called Coldsnap

overwhelming when an artist is expected to crank out a near-matte painting per day. How do you come up with the concepts? I like to think through the concept before I start drawing. I’ll go over design briefs or reference photos if a client provides them. When I’m in full creative control I’ll do my own research. Then I rent movies or put on good music. When I start drawing I keep it simple until I know it’s working. If it’s not working at all, I’ll walk away for a while. Maybe ride my bike, pick up an instrument or something. Then go back to my desk with a fresh eye. Why do you like/use Painter? I think of Painter as a kind of magic sketchbook. No mess or fear of ruining a painting. I’ve used it almost every day for the last �ive years. At �irst I was very

aware that because of the freedom to try things or undo them, it was speeding up the learning curve of my painting and design skills. I use a lot of custom paper textures to get a more natural look in my work. I’m also a bit of a sucker for the Sargent Brush. What system do you use? I have a fast desktop Mac running two large screens so I can have all my reference material in view or watch a �ilm while I work. My mobile rig is a 17-inch MacBook Pro. I use my 9 x 12 Wacom tablet for both machines, a variety of digital cameras and a basic scanner. Who/what are your influences? My greatest in�luences have always come from the museums. It was during a trip to Paris and Amsterdam when I was 20 that I realised I was an artist. I did my �irst

painting at 21 and then immersed myself in it completely. Before that it was mostly �ilm that I remember making an impact on me creatively. What excites you about your work? Art history and new artists keep me motivated. I love people and �ind a lot of my inspiration there. I’m interested in humanity and the distance between our moments of dignity and ugly limitations. I have to be grateful that I can make a good living with my imagination. There is a lifetime worth of it to explore. What has your artwork been used for? My clients include Warner Brothers, Paramount Pictures, Dreamworks SKG, Disney, Sony Pictures, Universal Pictures, Hewlett Packard, Activision Games, EA Games, Sony Online Entertainment, NIKE, COKE, LEGO, Hasbro, Simon & Shuster

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D&D Cityscape Within this full-wrap cover for a Dungeons and Dragons book called Cityscape, there are actually tiny characters on the cathedral top battling gargoyles

Books, Random House Books, Walker Books, Bloomsbury Books, Black Sabbath, My Chemical Romance, BT, Bloc Party, Estee Lauder, Adidas, Wizards of the Coast and some others… Do you have any current projects you’re working on, or any projects lined up for the future? Right now I’m doing some pre-production paintings for a Zach Braff and Cory Edwards �ilm. I was just commissioned to do a book cover with Candlewick Press called Kaimira and continuing a series I’m doing with Wizards of the Coast. How would you describe what you do? I wear the hat of either designer or illustrator. As a designer I use the speed of digital painting to rapid sketch ideas for a client. As an illustrator I’ll go all the way from thumbnail sketches to �inished

artwork on the computer. I’m almost 100 per cent digital for commercial work. The speed allows me to take four or �ive jobs in the time it would take me to actually draw out or paint any one of them. It also makes things more easier to edit for you and the client. While working on Dreamgirls, director Bill Condon stood over my shoulder with both the production designer and art director while I pulled colour sliders around. We composed three or four shots like that completely on the �ly. That wouldn’t happen in any other medium.

think that the more you paint and draw, you de�initely become more aware of your own tendencies.

How do you keep yourself from becoming run-of-the-mill with so much competition out there? I love other artists’ work so much, as do we all, so I have to �ight the tendency to use techniques or signature moves of other well-known artists in my �ield. I

What advice would you give someone trying to follow in your footsteps? I think one of my best moves professionally was being open to new ideas. As an oil painter I never cared about the computer or thought of it as a tool. As a student, mileage is the key

Forgotten Realms This is a book cover called The Gossamer Plain, the first book in a series for regular clients Wizards of the Coast, called The Empyrean Odyssey

[ABOVE LEFT] Ironman Jeff’s work often retains loose brushstrokes that give the feeling of fluid images

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Interview Daniel Jeff Nentrup Conway

Bright Eyes This was a sketch created for the Fightstar album booklet. It was also used in the Corel Painter X promotional material

“Sometimes people outside of the industry have a hard time understanding what I do” to building skills and I think knowing traditional mediums is a must. One of the best pieces of advice I heard as a student was a simple insight… good work opens doors. And then realising that I don’t have to like something to be in�luenced by it. Would you like to try another area? I’m a professional musician by night. What do you enjoy the most about your work? I love the variety of jobs I get called for. I’ll do a lot of quick sketch concept work for a �ilm or videogame, and then turn around and do a tight rendering job. However, there is nothing better than selling an oil on canvas. What is your proudest creative moment so far? I think designing a campaign for Black Sabbath and then getting a big hug from Ozzy at the launch party was priceless.

Do you think the market has changed its perception of digital art? In business, everybody is on a computer. The average person knows about a JPEG or PDF Beyond that… there’s no denying the amazing work being digitally created. It’s exciting to have been involved with a medium that is still in its infancy. Sometimes people outside of the industry have a hard time understanding what I do. I’ll tell them I use a computer to paint and they’re lost. Often people will assume the computer uses a lot of tricks and they’re right on one level. But it’s de�initely not easy. I have a word processor but I can’t just sit down and expect to write a good novel with it.

Is your personal art work different to your professional commissions? And, if so, in what way? It’s a completely different process when you get an assignment. The clients’ needs are everything. By the time I get to my painting studio I’ve usually got a good idea germinating in my head. Ironically enough, I’m so comfortable with my Painter rig at this point that I end up sketching ideas out on the computer before reproducing them as oil paintings. What is your favourite piece of Painter work that you have created? There was this one that got deleted. You would have loved it.

[TOP] The Tepaphone This is another Hecatomb card. This one was described as a mental telepathy weapon, using “a technology of lenses and conductors”

[ABOVE] Green Jasper A full wrap-around book cover. The knight and castle are on the front cover

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Original artwork by Mayrhosby Yeoshen

Feature The art of painting portraits

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Original artwork by Vanessa Lemen

Original artwork by Mayrhosby Yeoshen

Original artwork by Ryan Cole

A picture may paint a thousand words but a portrait can stir a multitude of emotions. Nick Spence meets three accomplished portrait artists

Experts panel

Mayrhosby Yeoshen (www.mayyeo.com) Mayrhosby Yeoshen is an animation student enjoying a reputation far beyond her college campus. A favourite on many online communities such as deviantART, her work has gained many fans by displaying a maturity and craft far beyond her years.

Ryan Cole (www.ryancoleart.com) Ryan maintains an excellent sketch blog and illustration portfolio, with an emphasis on comic books, caricature and Corel Painter tips and tricks. He graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2006 with a Bachelor of Fine-Arts degree, majoring in sequential art.

Vanessa Lemen (www.vanessalemenart.com) Vanessa is co-founder of Studio 2nd Street in Encinitas, California, with her husband Ron. She has worked in several different arenas of art, from representational and fine-art to illustration and entertainment art, and works in both traditional and digital media.

t’s not dif�icult to see why portrait painting has endured despite a wealth of artistic movements and inspirational subject matter. The human face, with its in�inite arrangement of eyes, nose and mouth, is unique. Central to our ability to feel empathy, love, passion, anger and hate, it stirs the most extreme emotions within ourselves, de�ining both the way we look and how others see us. Long said to be the windows of the soul, the eyes particularly attract attention. The best portrait paintings offer another view behind the eyes, revealing something that a snapshot cannot. Artists have long tried to capture the essence of the subject as well as revealing something of themselves. If all fails to inspire, add a mirror to your studio or desktop and you have a subject that will sit patiently and subtly change over the years. Corel Painter is ideal for portrait painting, offering an exceptional range of natural-media painting and illustration tools. If you have a particular expression

in your mind that you want to convey, the program has the techniques to transfer what starts off as an abstract thought, to the canvas as a detailed �inished product. Varied and versatile, the program is able to reproduce the look and mood of both classic and contemporary portraiture by utilising the right tools. For the enthusiast portrait painter, Corel Painter offers some useful tools to ensure a likeness between your subject and painting. The Quick Clone feature allows you to use a guide, particularly photographs, to maintain a resemblance and make sure facial proportions don’t veer into caricature. The introduction in Corel Painter X of the Underpainting and AutoPainting palettes, and new composition tools based on divine proportion and the rule of thirds offers further possibilities for more established portrait painters. We spoke with three portrait artists to discover how they use Corel Painter in their work and to pick their brains for juicy tips. Whatever your style, there’s advice here.

Original artwork by Helen Yancy

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Feature The art of painting portraits

Mayrhosby Yeoshen ayrhosby Yeoshen, nicknamed May, creates striking wideeyed portraits of friends and fantasy friends, armed with only an old copy of Corel Painter, Photoshop and a Wacom tablet. Buying her �irst graphics tablet �ive years ago while still a teenager was something of a turning point, having worked as a traditional artist from an early age. Bundled with the tablet came Painter Classic, a stripped-down version of Corel Painter that hinted at the potential working digitally had to offer. Yeoshen began picking up commissions and as a freelance illustrator, worked mainly as a portrait artist creating fantasy characters. Although her work has a strong fantasy element, her style is not easy to pin down. “I would describe my style as a mix of digital and traditional art, since I work in a very detailed way to avoid giving that smooth feeling that most digital artists obtain,” explains Yeoshen. “I am a huge fan of old master paintings and therefore I try to apply the same old touch into my paintings, be it adding to my canon or applying the colour palette.”

used in real life, and several other tools like rotating the canvas freely, it certainly gives you the feeling of nearly painting in real life.” Yeoshen’s favourite Corel Painter brushes include the Camel brushes, Artists’ Oils, Pastels and many other custom brushes that she either creates or downloads from other artists’ websites and communities. Creating and customising your own brushes can give you a subtle edge over artists, adding a touch of originality to your work while signi�icantly expanding your creative options. For maximum detail, the Pencil tool is also a must for Yeoshen. Working digitally doesn’t mean you can abandon traditional drawing skills, although with its cloning tools, Corel Painter does allow you to work from photographic sources with ease. Yeoshen likes to get the balance right between working from photographs and from life. “I use more photographs than still-life studies to help me in my process. The fact that I cannot rely on models forces me to use photos. However, when possible, I bring the laptop and the tablet with me and ask

Central to Yeoshen’s meticulous work is the face. Portraits real and imaginary dominate her personal website and best showcase her talents. “As a lover of the human face, I must admit that portraits have a charm that cannot be compared to other painting topics such as landscapes or still-life studies,” insists Yeoshen. “It’s the proportions of the different features of the human face, the expression depicted and so many other things that keeps portraiture as my �irst choice.” Corel Painter is now central to Yeoshen creating her portraits, offering a range of tools and natural media that rival the real thing. “I really enjoy the way Corel Painter grants you possibilities to make your illustrations look more alive and less fake due to the nature of the digital media. With a wide range of brushes that mimic the ones

my friends to pose for me, being as fast as possible so as not to bore them. For clothes I just need a mirror.” Yeoshen will develop her painting in a traditional way, starting with some basics and re�ining the image over time. “To start I draw the line art, which can be done with a real pencil on a real paper sheet that is then scanned. Then I drop the basic colours for background, skin, hair, clothes, etc. From then it’s just a matter of ‘divide and conquer’. I usually start with the skin and everything involved, eyes, lips, before moving onto the hair and clothes. It’s a matter of constant re�inement, as everyone knows. For a more organic touch, I use a cross-hatching technique that creates the feeling of realistic skin and can only be noticed when zooming the canvas in its original size.”

“Corel Painter grants you possibilities to make your illustrations look more alive and less fake”

All original artwork by Mayrhosby Yeoshen

Originally from Venezuela, and now living in Ottawa, Canada, Mayrhosby Yeoshen is an animation student currently basking in a deserved reputation extending far beyond her college campus. Her work has gained many plaudits after cropping up and appearing on online communities in recent years

Above Yeoshen based this portrait on Anne Rice’s famous vampire Lestat, the second in her Vampire Chronicles, following Interview with the Vampire

This striking portrait by Yeoshen was heavily inspired by the film Final Fantasy VII: Advent of Children and especially Yazoo

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Left Yeoshen’s self-created vampire Coltrane Holland; another example of her fantasy-based artwork much admired by Yeoshen’s peers

“I use more photographs than still-life studies to help me in my process. The fact that I cannot rely on models forces me to use photos” Portrait of Nathan by Yeoshen is another example of her fan-based artwork, the creation of fellow deviantART regular Ingvild-kun

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All original artwork by Ryan Cole

Quentin Tarantino sequence After the initial sketch, Ryan sets about building up the layers of detail. An avid believer that you must study anatomy in order to paint it, he uses his knowledge and exaggerates it to achieve the caricature effect

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Ryan Cole It’s hard to imagine that someone who produces this contemporary and stunning art only graduated a year ago, but that’s what talented Ryan Cole has done, coming away from the Savannah College of Art and Design with a Bachelor of Fine-Arts in sequential art – comic books to the layman or someone so youthful, Ryan Cole draws his inspiration from traditional sources, citing the Impressionists as in�luences, particularly Renoir and Degas. John Singer Sargent is another favourite, especially his portraits that, in Cole’s view, capture all that’s appealing about portraiture painting “I think a lot of artists just prefer to draw the human face over anything else,” says Cole. “It’s a real challenge to capture not only a likeness, but also the personality of a subject, and the whole process is just fascinating from the artist’s end. I think that comes through in the �inished product; people can see the artist’s fascination with his subject, and that fascination is infectious.” For Cole, painting a portrait should be more than a simple exercise in producing a photo-realistic image. “I like to give my portraits something you can’t get with a photograph, so I tend to exaggerate the colours and I don’t smooth out the brush strokes. I also like to leave in some of the little mistakes; I think that sort of thing keeps a portrait from feeling stiff and lifeless. I also really like to do caricatures and comic-book-style portraits, which are usually black-and-white line drawings. I follow pretty much the same idea with those, though they do tend to look better when I tighten them up.”

All of Ryan’s work begins with an initial sketch, letting him organise the features and prepare for the application of colour

Despite a lifelong love of drawing and painting, Cole found traditional portraiture both frustrating and time-consuming, but discovering Corel Painter and working digitally brought new creative opportunities. “I never �inished one traditionally painted piece. With Painter, not only do I get a huge variety of options from different brushes and types of media to papers and textures, which would be cumbersome and expensive in real life, but I can edit and tweak inde�initely with no chance of ruining a piece,” enthuses Cole.

For ink drawings, Cole begins with a sketch and then converts it to a light blue colour before he begins inking. “I ink with a custom inking brush on a layer set to Multiply. This way I can erase simply by switching to white. I use the Fit To Path feature a lot in my ink drawings, and recording and replaying strokes is very handy for things like feathering and hatching.” Learning new ways of working digitally can also have a positive effect on your traditional skills. “There’s no one to stop you from taking techniques you’ve

This intuitive intimacy offers Cole a level of control over his portraits that he found dif�icult to reproduce in Photoshop. “I tried painting in Photoshop before I tried Painter, and it was just too counterintuitive for me,” explains Cole. “I spent too much time tweaking the brushes and using �ilters and effects to get my drawings to look a certain way, and not enough time just drawing. Painter lets you get the look you want right away, and no additional adjusting is required. It’s more about drawing and less about technical expertise.”

developed in Painter and applying them to traditional media. Personally, though, I doubt I’ll ever go back to paper.” Recently Cole has become something of an advocate for Corel Painter, enthusiastically explaining his working methods on his website blog. “The most compelling reason is it’s a lot of fun. A program like Painter opens up all kinds of opportunities to explore and experiment. For most artists, it’s the process that we’re in love with, and working digitally gives us all these great new things to try.”

“Painter lets you get the look you want right away, and no additional adjusting is required”

Colour is applied to the main face. Ryan favours exaggerated colours and will leave his brush strokes as they are

In keeping with his colour needs, Ryan has introduced a contrasting background hue to the tones in the face

The final details are applied. Notice how the brush strokes are still evident, which give an extra texture and depth to the image

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Vanessa Lemen Art is such a subjective medium, so it should come as no surprise that some artists plan their work differently to others. Vanessa Lemen will often utilise Corel Painter to help her during the planning stage of a traditional painting or an artist working in predominately traditional media like Vanessa Lemen, Corel Painter offers a level of experimentation and freedom that is hard to reproduce elsewhere. “When I work digitally, I’m very experimental in terms of procedure. I enjoy the digital medium because it allows for a different kind of freedom,” explains Lemen. “I can scrape and scratch, and smooth and blend, and drip and smear. I can crop the image, or expand it to try different compositions. I can save several variations of the same painting. I can throw layers in the trash or look at them in a different con�iguration and see if one way works better than another. So the most helpful aspect is the freedom that it gives me, which allows me to experiment and to not be hesitant about trying different things.” With artists’ materials increasingly expensive, Lemen will use Corel Painter to help plan her work. It’s a cost-effective, time-saving and environmentally friendly

Lemen’s creative process is displayed on her fascinating blog (http:// vanessalemenart.blogspot.com), detailing both the painting process and the stories and inspirations behind each work. With much of her best work – portraits either commissioned or self-initiated, including a striking self-portrait – it’s clear each portrait holds a powerful appeal. “Maybe it’s because a portrait painting is an iconographic image of that moment, and at the same time it’s evidence of the artist’s connection to that thing that’s beyond themselves, and their ability to objectify what they are responding to,” says Lemen. “And as far as the viewer goes, it’s very subjective and that’s the beauty of it. A portrait painting gives everyone the bene�it of the doubt and the permission to make their own interpretation.” When working digitally with Corel Painter, photos can be an important part of the creative process, again helping to look at traditional painting with fresh eyes. “I’m

way of working. “I can also utilise Painter to help me work out a strategy in a traditional painting I’m working on. I sometimes shoot a photo of the painting, and open it up in Painter and experiment with it and problem solve. It’s also a great way to do thumbnails and �igure out a composition ahead of time, or brainstorm and work out a concept, doing value and colour comps, and piecing different elements together, etc.” Lemen and husband Ron also have a solid and extensive background in art instruction. Art classes at their studio are a culmination of the wide-ranging knowledge they have gained through their experiences as artists, with a strong attention to classical foundation. Lemen has found a good balance utilising her communicative nature to be a very altruistic and dedicated instructor, while she feels that her personal work is done best when alone and speaks from what she calls the “strength of solitude”.

open to working with Painter in a lot of different ways. When I work from life, the process is very much like direct painting in oil. When I work using photographs, it’s mainly for textures and incorporating them into my work in such a way that would be like glazing transparent layers over each other and building up the image atmospherically, incorporating portrait painting into the layers and building it up, which is similar to how I would create an indirect painting in oil. I also take photos of paintings and work on them in Painter sometimes to work out a problem.” In keeping with the experimental nature of her digital work, Lemen doesn’t have a typical Corel Painter work�low. Its best features allow Lemen to remain �lexible and expect the unexpected. “The way I work with Painter is pretty experimental overall. The process of the image might change with the subject matter or situation. It’s a �lexible and forgiving tool to create with.“

“The most helpful aspect is the freedom that it gives me, which allows me to experiment”

All original artwork by Vanessa Lemen

Feature The art of painting portraits

This piece, titled Autumn, capture the subjective beauty that Vanessa attributes to the portrait form

Above Corel Painter allows Vanessa to try our ideas before moving onto her traditional canvas and paints

Left In this image titled KoiSelf, Vanessa exhibits her love of textures and slowly building an image up, layer by layer

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Feature The art of painting portraits

Top portrait tips Thirsty for more portrait tips? We quizzed the featured artists in addition to readers of this magazine to put together a compilation of the top ten tips for creating stunning portraits in Corel Painter

01

Mayrhosby Yeoshen www.mayyeo.com

Pay attention to anatomy Anatomy studies don’t hurt anyone. Examine the distance from one eye to the other, how many noses long a common head is, where the end of the jaw is located and so forth. Just practise and study to perfect your skills. When working with portraits, study the subject in detail. How this person is, the personality, what he or she does, the age, environment and so on. This will help you greatly when de�ining the mood of the piece.

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03

Carver Shivers www.paintermagazine. co.uk/user/Carver Shivers

Optimum conditions When I use a photograph that I am going to clone, I use the Layer Adjustment tools to adjust the contrast, lightness and so forth, prior to the actual cloning process, in order to highlight the effects on the photograph. In this case, I added a Screen layer for the image to make the image a little lighter overall, giving the subject more emphasis.

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Monica Saulmon www.iconportrait.com

Use layers I like to use digital layering on my �inal paintings. It’s like furniture surfaces and antique paper in the Overlay the glazing techniques the old masters used to add depth layers mode at 20% Opacity in Photoshop. It can really to their paintings. Here, I used images of old antique add the �inal polish to your Corel Painter portraits.

Ryan Cole www.ryancoleart.com

Stretch it out I never draw the same thing twice if I don’t have to. Take eyes, for example. I usually just draw one eye, choose the Lasso tool to make a selection around the eye, and copy and paste it in the same location in a layer above the original. Then I go to Effects>Orientation>Flip Horizontal and nudge it over by holding Shift and pressing an arrow key. (Holding Shift changes the nudge increment to ten pixels, whereas the arrow keys themselves nudge by one pixel.) You can also hold down the Cmd/Ctrl key to change your cursor to the Move tool and move your duplicate eye that way (Cmd/ Ctrl+Shift will constrain the movement to straight lines or 45 degree angles).

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David Cole www.paintermagazine.co.uk/user/davidc

Clone from a photo A good way to practise your skills is to clone from a photo. Begin with an interesting photo and whack up the shadows and highlights. I set up the cloning with Artists’ Canvas as the texture and �illed the canvas with a light warm grey. I used mainly my own custom brushes on this which are derived from the wonderful Sargent’s brush, some Bristle brushes and some Chalk brushes. As you can see, the background of the last version is much more vigorous and has some shape framing the head and joining up the edges of the canvas. This was an easy picture to do because the photo was so interesting to start with. It was important for me to capture the warm, low evening sunlight and this meant warming up the whole image and saturating the colours; it is the natural light that makes the picture. Though this was a colour cloned picture, there was substantial free hand-brushing along the way.

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Giovanna Gazzolo www.paintermagazine. co.uk/user/Giovanna

Marcelo Chiarella www.paintermagazine. co.uk/user/chiarella

Using colour Portraying emotion in a portrait is very important to me. When I know the emotion that I want to portray, I choose a colour palette that I think matches the intensity and �lavour of the feeling. For example, here I had to reproduce some ‘shy’ colours and thought to mix dark yellow, blue and the most important: purple and red! This exercise is very useful… think of a feeling and imagine which colour it is linked to.

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No res? No problem!

08 Mayrhosby Yeoshen www.mayyeo.com

In a flip

When the painting itself starts, do not forget to always �lip the canvas horizontally. Mistakes that couldn’t be seen before can be identi�ied easily this way. The Rotation tool also comes in handy.

Don’t throw out an old low-resolution photo. It could render a great work of art! First of all, resize it to the desired �inal size, Quick Clone it and begin your brushstroke work. The canvas texture and your brushstrokes will take care of recreating the interest and the sense of resolution. Now you no longer have to disregard using your old photos! Stephanie Thibaudeau www.scenicdesert.net

Perfect hair I love to use the Oil Fine Camel 30 brush for dog hair. I usually set the Opacity to around 30 and give nice long strokes in the direction the hair grows to give the hair a soft, �lowing appearance. To make highlights in the human hair, get your Color Picker and touch the hair with this. Then, once the colour is selected, move the slider on the Color Wheel to choose a lighter shade and use that colour to stroke in beautiful highlights. The Fine Tip Soft Airbrush tools are great for this!

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David Cole www.paintermagazine. co.uk/user/davidc

Base coat I quite often use a coloured undercoat – perhaps a dark, unsaturated red brown for portraits – to paint onto, and use messy, large strokes to begin with. The Sargent’s brush, and the Bristle Brush from Artist Oils work fantastically for this purpose.

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showcase

STARR SHAW TITLE WEBSITE JOB TITLE

Police Dock www.starrshaw.com CG artist

After last issue’s seascape spectacular, we couldn’t resist including Starr’s gorgeous watery scene. We highly recommend you visit his site and drink in the artwork, from intricate sketches to loose and expressive paintings.

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Primer Chalk CHALK BRUSH PALETTE

BRUSH CATEGORY

Chalk

The array of chalk brushes gives you a full range of creative possibilities. They allow you to produce sweeping, textured artwork in addition to more detailed sketches.

Get the most from this month’s featured brush category, without getting chalk dust all over yourself!

PRIMER

nless you’re extremely young and have only ever seen interactive whiteboards, for most of us growing up, chalk was the artistic medium that we had the most contact with, calling out to us as it did from the classroom blackboard, day in, day out. Not that it was often used in a particularly exciting fashion of course, but do you remember how great it looked when the boards were freshly blackened, and a bright streak of pink or orange made its way across? It may have only been making its way across to the end of another equation, but still, they were the good old days… Anyway, thank goodness for the digital Chalk brushes in Corel Painter, because you can now utilise all the great aspects of drawing in chalk, such as the sharp colour, the smudginess and texture, and all without creating the dusty mess that detracts from your masterful piece of artwork. You will be able to get the most from these brushes if you also try setting a paper texture, as that is when the Chalk brushes truly behave like the real thing. As you can see from the main image, they lend themselves well to observational studies, partly because they give you great texture for large soft areas, as if rolling the chalk on its side, but also because they are perfect for sharper edges and highlights too.

CHOOSING THE RIGHT SURFACE The chalks truly come to life when they’re used on textured paper. The Rough Charcoal Paper was perfect for the look we wanted to achieve here, but there are many variations to choose from

Searching for the right paper

Applying the paper texture

Always go for texture

Experiment for the best effects You can open the ‘Paper Selector’ by going to ‘Window/Library Palettes/Show Papers’. From here you can browse all the different surface types that you can incorporate into your work, ensuring that your work mimics natural media just that little bit closer. And you can adjust the scale, contrast and brightness of the texture too. By making the scale larger, you will have obvious paper texture, and a smaller scale will give a more subtle look. Basic Paper is quite a good choice for chalk, as is the Rough Charcoal and even the canvases.

Once you’ve chosen the paper you want, go to Effects>Apply Surface Texture and a new palette will appear. There are numerous options for you to experiment with here, from the softness of the texture, through various depth controls that affect the bumpiness of the paper texture, to numerous lighting settings. You can select the direction of the light in addition to the brightness and exposure. You can even choose a colour for the light as well. Essentially, the variations are endless and you can use the technique effectively for both subtle and extreme effects.

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FEATURED HIGHLIGHTS The Tapered Artist Chalk was used to add the highlights that fall within the main edge outlines. It’s just perfect for adding that little bit of definition without overstating it

Primer

Know your chalk brushes The chalks on offer and their various strokes

Chalk

Blunt Chalk

Tapered Artist Chalk

Dull Grainy Chalk

Tapered Large Chalk

Large Chalk

Variable Chalk

Sharp Chalk

Variable Width Chalk

SHARP CREASES We used the Sharp Chalk for the wrinkles in the skin and any of the smaller details. As you would expect, you get a really crisp line, which makes it an important Chalk brush – don’t let everything get too soft

SOFTLY DOES IT When you first start to ‘flesh’ areas in with colour (sorry!), the Dull Grainy Chalk is ideal as, with big, soft strokes, it leaves the paper texture showing through

Square Chalk

Resat levels

Not too much

Find the right balance

Finally, some added depth Adjusting the Resat levels of your brush when needed is crucial, especially when working with the Chalk brushes. The higher the level, the less the brush variant will blend with the surrounding colours. Anything above 50 and you won’t notice it blending too much, but as you decrease the level, it’s a great way to smudge your colours without having to use the blenders too much. Once you get below 12, the effect is extremely noticeable, so learn to use it at the right setting for the job.

If you’ve gone to the trouble of setting up some paper texture, be sure not to overwork your chalk drawing, just as you would have to bear in mind with real chalk. Leave some of the texture showing through here and there – if everything is flat because you’ve built it up too much, then you won’t get as convincing an effect. Also, starting with a coloured background means that those gaps in the chalk are actually adding depth to the drawing.

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Tutorial Limited colour palettes

READERIA’SL TUTOR

Limited colour palettes If you try limiting your colour palette in Corel Painter, you’ll be pleasantly surprised when you discover how much can be achieved with just a few hues Tutorial info Artist

Cat Bounds Time needed

2 hours Skill level

Intermediate On the CD

Starter photo

hile the old masters painstakingly ground their own paint pigments from rare minerals, we have an in�inite array of colours at our �ingertips and when painting digitally, there isn’t even the issue of using up precious tubes of paint; digital paint wells never run dry. There is a lot to be said for artwork that is splashed with colour, but limiting your choices to just one or two basic colours can yield fantastic results, as the image above shows. It allows the creation of a unique atmosphere, a bit of drama or it can lend itself to the story the artist is seeking to tell in one moment in time.

This type of painting is unexpected, often doesn’t incorporate local colour and may entice the viewer to tarry a moment longer. We relate to life by means of colour. You know what a grey day feels like. We equate certain shades of red with passion or love or anger. Some rooms are painted in colours thought to be soothing. Colours in advertising are often intended to grab our attention. A painting wrapped in one dominant colour may make a powerful statement. When planning a painting, we ought to consider colour theory, and then do our own thing. That way, it doesn’t rule our paintings, it just resides in the

subconscious, making suggestions. Most of us make up our own rules anyway! For example, some artists never paint with pure black, because they think it sucks the life out of their paintings. An excellent alternative is to use deepest blue or brown or charcoal, which ‘read’ as black. Another good tip is to include what can be known as ‘mouse’ colours. These are unexciting, drab shades, but serve the vital purpose to balance out the more vibrant hues. In this tutorial, we will explore limited palette possibilities, how to choose the right colours and how to whip up some great colour palettes in the Color Mixer.

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Use whichever colour you like Start off 01 with the Color Wheel

02 Let’s begin

We’re not going to begin with primaries though. Where to find the beginnings of our limited colour palette? They’re all around us. For example, you might scan a swatch of wallpaper because it has the muted colours you want. From your scan, create a New Color Set from Image. Remove or add colours using the + or – symbols.

04 Original photo

Corel Painter’s Color Set creates colour swatches from within an image. What might have looked like two or three colours will be divided into hundreds of hues, and we can customise them even further by bringing them into the Mixer, combining them with the Dirty Brush or Palette Knife and then create a new Color Set from these.

05 Photo prep

The image we’re using is a painting of a park in North Little Rock in Arkansas, USA; a favourite spot of photographers and painters any time of the year with an atmosphere of home, heritage and permanence. Currently it is painted using local colours. Now let’s try using limited colours and create something entirely different!

Load the image from the disc. Lower the desaturation and add contrast to bring out plenty of detail. If painting on a black-and-white version, there is less temptation to paint any of the local colours. Make a cloned image, save and it’s time for the fun part – playing with brushes.

Limited colour palettes

More colourful paint strokes

Traditionally, a limited colour palette referred to painting with the three primary colours (yellow, red and blue) and mixing secondary and tertiary colours from these. If you have come to digital art from traditional media, you may want to still use your colour name charts because you think in terms of those names.

03 That’s a lot of colour!

Tutorial

You’re not limited to a predetermined swatch

Select the Sample Multiple Colors tool at the bottom of the Mixer Pad and move the slider to the desired sampled area size. Click inside the Pad to pick up your colours and then begin painting, as if you were using a traditional brush dipped into several colours. Mixer colours are sampled left to right, so laying out your colours top to bottom will give you a wider range of possibilities. This technique works well with the Artists’ Oils brushes, and when set to a lower Opacity, you can achieve some nice colour blendings for both backgrounds and textures.

06 Here’s the setup

For this painting, create a custom brush palette. From the Oils palette, choose Thick Wet Oils 20 as your main brush. Select the Soft Cloner to reveal edges. In addition to this, use the Just Add Water blender to soften some of your brush strokes, and a Dry Palette Knife.

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Tutorial Limited colour palettes

Experiment with other colours and hues Using a different Color Set can transform your painting, bringing out many different emotions

08 Time to decide

07 Sun-lit version

Begin by laying in a quick outline of the image’s elements by choosing a Main Color and an Additional Color and setting Color Expression to Direction. Now, depending on the direction of your brush stroke, you will see variations of the chosen colours; much more interesting than just one colour. Just Add Water lends softness and begins building a background.

The painting is coming along nicely, but it may be a bit more colourful and cheerier than you want, so save it and begin again. This time choose the ‘mouse’ Color Set and mix additional colours to go along with them. This is all part of the process. Sometimes you may have several versions, but never discard anything.

Et voilà! 10 A Color Set is born

The real deal Corel Painter has the ability to produce wonderful painterly effects, but how do you know you’ve ‘got it’ if you’ve never painted in traditional media? Give your digital painting a boost by buying or borrowing a couple of basic fine-art brushes, paints and paper or canvas, and spend a few hours, or days, playing with them. How does watercolour paint react on wet paper? When you sprinkle it with salt? How does camel hair interact with oil paints? Learning is never wasted, and the discoveries you make will definitely come into play in your digital art life.

Load the ‘mouse’ Color Set. These are your base colours. To conjure up a quiet atmosphere, choose a cool blue and a deep lilac. There are cool and warm hues of every primary, secondary and tertiary colour; mix warms with warms and cools with cools, and you won’t end up with muddy colours.

The ‘mouse’ colours mix so well with the new hues that in no time at all, you’ll have lots of pleasing smudges on the Mixer Pad. Load it as a new Color Set so you can save it for another time. Save it with your other Color Sets, although you could save it in the Old Mill folder.

11 Brush settings

12 About brush strokes and light

09 Searching for new colours

Brush Expression still set on Direction, begin with big, loose strokes. For now, turn off Depth, giving you just enough bristle definition. You can always come back later and add a layer of added Depth strokes. Use 50% Opacity for a transparent, wet acrylic effect. Vary the brush size and transparency throughout the painting.

We’re already beginning to think about highlight and shadow, as well as colour. Try zooming in close to paint and returning to normal repeatedly. As you zoom in, each area of the painting stands out as a tiny abstract of dark and light and of pleasing brush strokes, set apart from the overall painting.

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13 Finding big shapes

14 Rough strokes

Our painting is rather rough, but the shapes and hues are nice. You could stop here, but you can go on to refine it a bit. Some say that’s the hardest part of painting, knowing when to stop. If you’re having trouble deciding, leave the painting for a day and come back to it with fresh eyes.

Things to take into consideration It is the time spent over little details that make a painting great

Colour temperature creates mood and a spatial effect: cool recedes, while warm goes forward. How do you know if a colour is warm or cool? Look at where it sits on the Color Wheel. Begin with blue; blue hues that fall closer to the greens will be cool while blues closer to red will read as warm. How about red? Red hues closer to blue will be cool while reds sitting closer to gold will be warm. And so it goes around the Color Wheel. This is handy to know when you want to create depth and dimension in your painting.

Limited colour palettes

Look for pleasing shapes, big, rough shapes that may stay as they are, or may be defined later. Again, each magnified area becomes a small abstract. Think of it as a good painting if you could cut it up into several pieces and still have worthwhile paintings. Your soft colour palette will become more important from this point.

Tutorial

Colour temperature

16 Matters of colour

15 Begin to refine

You will want detail in the areas that will define the painting, like this crooked rail fence. Use a smaller brush and an increased Opacity, and you’ll begin to find highlights and shadow, lending dimension to shapes. Oh, did we say the beginning was the fun part? This is the fun part. Okay, it’s all fun.

17 Strokes matter

There’s nothing more boring than a big area of canvas that’s all one colour, and this holds true in your limited colour palette paintings. Zoom into each of these dark window and door openings to make sure that there are colours and interesting organic shapes within each of them.

By the same token, every stroke matters. Painting these roof shingles all sketchy and messy will make them ‘read’ as shingles, though don’t take pains to delineate them. You may even want to come back and capture this roof as a texture for another painting. Everything we do is but a facet of something greater.

18 Soft detail

For the surrounding branches and leaves, reduce your brush size and think in clusters rather than individual leaves, working quickly and constantly changing colours. Keep the building’s walls fairly colourless, and wrap it in soft clouds of teals and lilacs. Toward the front, paint with a greater Opacity, softening as you move to the back.

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Tutorial Limited colour palettes

An endless supply of options at your disposal Tweak your painting as much as you like until you’re satisfied Make 20 those all-important

final decisions

19 Casting light on the subject

Though no light source has been designated yet, experiment with the light, maybe moonlight, shining on the front of the building. If you back away from it and squint your eyes, the overall shapes should be evident and pleasing. You could use the Glow brush to highlight, but you can also select that area and raise the contrast and brightness.

Using limited colours

The beauty of digital painting is that there are always more options. You could still raise the colour saturation, play with the Hue slider, increase the drama by lowering the brightness or add a surface texture. The atmosphere is one of tranquillity, thanks to the subdued, cool colour palette and gentle brush strokes.

Why use many when two will do?

We’ve seen in this tutorial how a limited colour palette can still result in very inviting images and also how setting yourself the challenge helps you look at things in a slightly different way. When you are so dependent on a speci�ic colour theme, the choice of colour is so important in conveying a mood or emotion. Here’s a quick look at some other examples of limited colour.

Ghost Ship Ghost Ship uses a limited colour palette that works well transparently, and creates a deserted atmosphere with hints of gold, as of the sun trying to peek through fog. The absence of colour equates with the absence of movement and life. It began with some colour smudges on the Mixing palette and developed into a very limited colour palette. With one photo and one set of brushes, but varying the colour palette, we can create many paintings. If rose hues were chosen instead of taupe, this painting might well have been about the dawning of a new day.

Geisha This painting began with a fairly detailed pencil drawing, without a great deal of shading, and the introduction of a colour palette; but limited colour palettes need not always be about low saturated colours. Geisha uses a palette made up entirely of vibrant blues, some of them warm and some of them cool with a touch of rich violet. The resulting Color Set is reminiscent of jewel tones. Bristle Oil Brushes and Palette Knives were used to move the paint around like soft butter

everywhere except the girl’s porcelain white skin. You can see the larger image at http://www.pbase.com/catbounds/ image/62614114, to get a real feel for how the tones work together. By combining both cool and warm blues for the background, this gives the illusion of movement within the painting. However, this painting didn’t begin with an atmosphere or mood in mind and neither need yours – just see where your imagination takes you.

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Tutorial Paint like Edvard Munch

Paint like: Edvard Munch

The Scream is an iconic image of modern life, referenced in highbrow and lowbrow culture alike. We reveal how to recreate this artistic epitome of human angst Tutorial info Artist

Hannah Gal Time needed

3 hours Skill level

Intermediate On the CD

Sketch

[BELOW] Grainy texture Instead of using a filter or texturiser for the texture in this painting, a highly textured brush is applied to add realism, as in the Grainy Hard Build-up from the Oil Pastels seen here

dvard Munch is Norway’s most famous painter. He was a troubled, multi-talented artist whose dream was to create “art that gives something to humanity. Art that arrests and engages”. With The Scream, Munch managed to ful�il his dream to an extent even he would have dreamt was beyond reach. This iconic painting has become one of the most recognisable works of art ever created, with a passion that transcends time and geographic boundaries. To many, it is a truthful rendition of human angst, suffering and the human condition in general. A particularly strong image, it lends itself clearly to a multitude of uses. From commercials and �ilm, to children’s TV, not many works of art can include Beavis and Butt-Head as well as Wes Craven’s Scream, Looney Tunes and Courage the Cowardly Dog in their credit list. Munch has created several colour versions of the piece using different media. He also produced a striking lithograph in an attempt to generate extra income. The original title given to the picture by the artist is The Scream of Nature. The ominous name goes some way towards explaining the story behind its creation. It is set in the scene of the erosion of Krakatoa, and most possibly inspired by the powerful volcanic eruption there in 1883. The ash ejected from the volcano is

said to have created a red tint in the sky that was to last for months. “I sensed an in�inite scream passing through nature,” Munch has said. Munch’s troubled personal life was a source of inspiration. The paintings are disturbing, a touch twisted, unusual and telling. They are emotionally charged with a unique and unusual sense of colour. The ability to transfer feelings to canvas with such great accuracy is perhaps Munch’s greatest gift and the reason he remains a source of reference to contemporary artists. Munch is considered to be a key in�luence on the Expressionist movement in Europe. This particular piece is part of the series The Frieze of Life, in which he delved deep into the human psyche with the themes of love, fear, death, life and melancholy. The artist has attributed his preoccupation with these themes to a childhood laden with sadness. As a child, he experienced the loss of his mother and older sister to tuberculosis. Troubled adulthood followed with alcoholism and unhappy relationships. 1892 was an important year for Munch when the Berlin Artists’ Association invited him to exhibit his work. The

paintings caused such an outrage, that the exhibition had to close. The entire episode, however, brought with it a wave of publicity, which bene�ited Munch’s career and he chose to remain in the country. This is where he started work on the monumental The Frieze of Life, exhibited for the �irst time in 1902. In 1894 Munch began printmaking, bringing the work to a greater audience. Motifs for this more ‘marketable’ art derived from his original paintings. In 1908, Munch suffered a nervous breakdown and a year later returned to Norway for what was to become an isolated and proli�ic life. He passed away in 1944 leaving behind 1,000 paintings, a staggering 15,400 prints, 4,500 drawings and watercolours, and six sculptures. We will create The Scream using a combination of media including Acrylics, Oil Pastels and Colored Pencils. We start with a drawing and continue to create a lithographic effect using Charcoal. The application of paint is important in any work of art, but doubly so with The Scream. The piece is made of long strokes that would be best applied in one, without lifting the stylus. We will mix long, bristly strokes with gritty texture and use surface texture for a touch of 3D depth.

Multi-tone face Besides drawing the features on the face correctly, we need to place shading and highlights in the right place

Direction The stroke application varies throughout the piece. Different areas call for different length and pressure

“This iconic painting has become one of the most recognisable works of art ever created”

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Tutorial Paint like Edvard Munch 41

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Tutorial Paint like Edvard Munch

Take a deep breath and begin Follow this guide and you won’t be screaming…

01 Layers

Open a new image size and copy the provided ‘scream’ drawing as a separate layer. For reference, we kept a small copy of the original piece as a layer that could be turned on and off. A third layer seen here is of a Munch lithography, which we’ll get on to.

02 Lithography effect

To familiarise yourself with style, create a lithography. Go to Brush Creator>Choose Charcoal >Dull Charcoal Pencil 3. Make black your Main colour and set Expression to None. With the Drawing layer visible and the Charcoal layer selected, cover the blank image with this solid black medium. Adjust the brush size according to your need. You don’t have to do this, though.

03 Acrylics

Select Acrylics from the Brush Creator. Real-life acrylic is fast-drying and can be diluted with water. It can tend to look like oil paint or watercolour, depending on the level of dilution. Now choose the Dry Brush 30 category.

Museum and art history The Munch museum was created as a tribute to Norway’s famous artist. Besides information on the artist’s troubled life, it takes an analytical look at his work. Go to www.munch. museum.no/ and delve deep into the life and work of a particularly prolific artist. Under Life and Work is a section called On Munch’s Paintings. It looks at different paintings including The Scream in detail, speaking of the inspiration to the piece, when it was created and what its importance was in the greater scheme of the artist’s life. It also highlights influences on Munch’s life that have inevitably had an impact on his work.

04 Application

Create a new layer called ‘Colour’ and make it the top layer. Use the Color Mixer or Color palette to create the colours you need and apply strokes of black and light brown. The strokes are long and should look bristly and airy. Set the Opacity between 10 and 12 and set the Expression to None.

05 Build up

Zoom in and apply brush strokes in the direction of the original. Make these strokes as long as possible and try to keep your stylus on the tablet from the start to the end of each stroke. Pay attention to changes in lightness and try to reflect that in your application from this early stage. This all contributes to a more sensitive and less rigid look.

07 Build up close

06 Fill

Create a new layer and open the Color palette. Sample a light brown/ dark mustard colour. Click on the new blank layer and Select All. Go to Effects>Fill in the main menu and select Fill With Current Colour with the Opacity set to 100 per cent. Place this layer beneath the Colour layer.

Keep the Acrylics brush at a maximum Opacity of 40. Continue to slowly build paint. You could choose a prominent shade like orange, cover one area, and use the Grabber to move the next area to apply all strokes of that colour. Or you can concentrate on just one area. The colour builds on previous strokes beautifully.

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The basic strokes throughout the painting should be in place now. Before moving to a different media, zoom out and look out for any overly bare areas accidentally missed. Go to the Layers palette and choose Drop All. You should now have the Canvas bottom layer and Layer 1, which includes the colouring done so far.

In the Brush Creator, choose Oil Pastels>Oil Pastel 30. This brush brings a totally different texture and is lighter to apply. Under Color Variability, pull the G slider to 20 and see the effect on the stroke in the brush preview below.

11 OilskyPastel 10 Blending oils

Create a new layer and name it ‘Oil Pastels’. Set Method to Cover and Subcategory to Grainy Hard Cover. With a 10-12% Opacity, and Expression set to None apply light strokes over the previous Acrylics. The two textures should blend together well.

The sky in The Scream is nothing short of amazing. It is made of a multitude of shades of orange, mixed with turquoise, cream and yellow. The strokes here need to go horizontally from one side of the canvas to the other. Sample a shade, apply your brushstrokes, sample the shade next to it, apply and move on.

Randomizer

Fill in the person’s details Monster Munch anyone? (Sorry!)

12

Face Pay particular attention to the person’s face. Note the different

shades that make it. There is brown, beige, a hint of orange and green. Lightly apply colour to create the features. These are loose at this stage.

Paint like Edvard Munch

In real painting, colour is applied using brushes loaded with paint. This paint mixes with colours around it and you often get a single stroke made of two colours. To mix colours this way, open Brush Creator, select Stroke Designer and choose Color Variability. Now select in RGB and apply a stroke of your clean paint onto the pad. Drag the R slider to 50 and see the effect; then to 100 and see how the new colour blends in. Try this with other colours and even two together. Apply your stroke and drag the magnification level at the bottom of the Brush Creator to 200% and see the stroke close-up.

an 09 Use Oil Pastel

08 Drop

Tutorial

Color Variability

13 Face build up

Zoom in on the face and in the Brush Creator choose Airbrush>Soft Airbrush 40. Set the Method to Cover and the Subcategory to Soft Cover. Use this soft brush at an Opacity between 10-12 per cent to fill in any light areas that have escaped the Acrylics and Pastels.

Brush Creator’s Randomizer was originally created for those unfamiliar with the brush’s controls. It is, however, a useful tool regardless of level of expertise. The idea is simple, you give the Randomizer any stroke and it creates a selection of new variants for you. Open Brush Creator and click on Randomizer. Fourteen variations of the strokes are available for you to choose from. Click on one and it will display in the preview window below. For a low level of variation, keep the Amount of Randomization slider to the left. Drag it to the far right to see it in full action.

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Tutorial Paint like Edvard Munch

Gaining 14 texture from strokes

Increase the Opacity to 15-16% and vary Opacity to apply a layer of this tool all over. Reduce the brush size, sample your colour and apply some yellowy type streaks to the face and body.

15 Area fill

The low Opacity of the brush lets previous layers shine through and remain intact. The textures are working together. Use the Airbrush to cover areas such as the face and area above it.

Build up the textures and colours Go for thick and luscious strokes

16

Grainy Hard Cover In this part of

the process, you skip from one brush to another as you see fit. Apply Airbrush to fill in an area nicely and move on to the Oil Pastels to add texture. Save your brush so you can come back to it instantly.

17 Rich in feel and tone

Build up the variety of shades slowly to create a rich feel. There is no strict method at this advanced stage. The image should by now be covered with a mixture of Airbrush and Oil Pastels. Zoom in, sample a shade you wish to enhance in order to echo the artist’s original and apply both media.

18 Ground detail

The bridge is of pivotal importance to the composition. Its straight, angled lines add to the feeling of discord. It is best to apply these lines in one go, again keeping the stylus on the tablet from the start of the line to the finish. Apply colour in the same way as previous steps, filling in an area and enhancing with texture.

20 Airbrush detail

19 Airbrush

Use the Airbrush at 18-22% Opacity to start building the darkest blacks in the image. If you are not certain of the level, start at an even lower Opacity or go to Preferences and increase the number of Undo levels. Alternatively, create a new Layer and drop when it’s finished.

Set Airbrush to a small 4-6 size brush and a 5-7% Opacity. Observe the thin streaks that are spread throughout the image. Zoom in on the face, sample a light brown/yellow shade and lightly apply in short to medium strokes. Apply once and zoom out to see the effect before applying an additional stroke on top.

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Go back to Oil Pastels and methodically go over the entire image to apply texture to the painting. This is in preparation for the next stages where we add definition to elements.

Zoom in on the face, choose the top left brush tip in Brush Creator and set black as your Main colour. Slowly go around the face to add a contour line to it. This border adds an edge and overall feeling of sharpness to the piece. It is of paramount importance on the face.

23 Colored Pencils

Open Brush Creator and choose Colored Pencils>Colored Pencils. Set Method to Cover and Subcategory to Grainy Hard Cover. Use a Grain of 20% to lightly enhance existing browns on the face and add shades of light green. The textured strokes should be clear and not blended in.

Blue 25 strokes and streaks

24 Blue streaks

The thin streaks are vital to the piece. In step 20, we applied light brown/yellowy streaks to the face, and here we apply blue/turquoise ones above it all over the dark lake. Use Colored Pencils this time at 40% Opacity and Expression set to Pressure. Grain should be 20-14% with light and quick strokes.

Zoom in to 100% and observe the streaks. They should be thin but full of gritty texture. Go over lines where there is a group of streaks together to enhance them. Take notice of those streaks to the side of the face as well. Some are slightly lighter than others, so choose a lighter shade to randomly cover some of the streaks existing there already.

For a seriously deep look at Munch’s technique, go to the Munch museum site (http://158.36.77. 168/munch/default. aspx?lang=en). You can find out about what canvas Munch chose for a piece, and how it was primed and stretched prior to painting. There is an extreme close-up on details which will give you a great insight into his work. Another eyeopening feature there is the look through a microscope at the artist’s paintings. ‘He used a limited palette, and concentrated mainly on relatively clear, bright pigments.’ One paint sample interestingly shows ‘various layers that contain organic reddish paint, and ultramarine, chalk and lead white paint’. In another real gold was found.

Paint like Edvard Munch

21 Oil Pastels revisited

22 Pointed crayon

Tutorial

Research

Adding the finishing touches The bridge over troubled water…

26

Colored Pencils bridge Stay with

Colored Pencils but use a 40% Opacity and a thick Pencil to add texture to the vertical lines on the bridge. Keep the stylus on the surface as you go over the area. The colour will build up.

27 Apply Surface Texture

Go to Effects>Surface Control>Apply Surface Texture. Set Using to Paper (Basic Paper) and the amount to 15%. This is a slight effect to add overall sharpness to the image and a slight touch of 3D realism.

28 Refinement

We earlier mentioned the option of creating temporary layers for different uses. Here we created one for general refinements where you zoom in to a 66% magnification level or higher, and make final corrections and adjustments. Start with one area and using a dark black pastel, accentuate the darkest areas in the piece. Use a light shade to highlight the brightest.

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Feature focus Composite methods

Composite methods

CLONING IN SOURCE IMAGES Cloning images into your collage creates a very nice effect. With this technique, you can place each image you wish to add to the collage as a layer in a clone source file that is the exact size of the working image. Work on a new layer just in case you don’t like what is revealed. Note that almost any brush can be used as a clone brush by clicking on the Clone Color icon in the Colors palette.

Combine composite methods to create memorable collages in many ways he process of collage can be either simplistic or extremely complex. You will discover the ways to achieve a painted look and will depend less on images and more on developing your image through brushwork, layer composite methods and textures. Corel Painter’s layer Composite Methods serve the same purpose as Photoshop’s blending modes. A composite method is a formula that dictates how the pixels of a layer will combine with the pixels on the layers and canvas beneath it. For example, composite methods are applied to a layer to darken or lighten, increase or decrease contrast or adjust the colour of the imagery beneath it. A powerful feature of composite methods is that they do not permanently alter the image you are working on. When beginning a collage, spend time organising images, textures and patterns. Create a folder where your images can be retrieved quickly, and organise meticulously from the beginning. We’re going to look at what’s involved in creating collages, with speci�ic focus on the Composite Methods. These allow you to see through layers and are perfect for creating backgrounds for collages. Read on and �ind out what’s involved and then try the technique with your own images.

FEATURE FOCUS

GEL COMPOSITE METHOD The Gel composite method tints the underlying image with the layer’s colour. Note that the Munich Rathouse appears translucent and picks up the colours from the Canvas layer. The Gel composite method can also be useful in the overall perspective of your collage, making images appear to move forward in the composition.

Lasso tool

Introducing paper texture

Making random selections

Use special effects in your collage

The Lasso tool is located in the toolbox. Use it to create a precise or random selection around the part of the photo you wish to use in your collage. If you draw an open path with the Lasso tool, Corel Painter connects the end points with a straight line before creating the selection. It is a simple and quick way to introduce an image element into your collage using the copy/paste method. Create a loose Lasso around the image, then copy and paste it into the collage. It now occupies its own layer directly above the Canvas layer.

Introduce paper texture often into your collage. Images that tend to have strong tonal contrast make for some of the best paper textures. Paper textures can be applied in many ways. You can even use special effects to emboss your images. One of the ways is to choose Effects>Surface Control>Apply Surface Texture. However, one of the most satisfying is to apply texture by hand using brushes that reveal the underlying paper texture such as the Chalk variants. If it begins with Grainy then you know you are working with a variant that reveals paper texture.

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Composite Methods

Feature focus

All the choices

Composite Methods differ according to what files you use and the layer opacity, but here’s a rough guide to what they all look like. We used Corel Painter X and a texture file over a painting.

Creating texture on the Canvas layer is part of the beauty, revealed via layer composite methods. As any image can be captured as a paper texture, the possibilities are endless. Use the Capture Paper method to reveal texture in your work. Try the Chalk>Square Chalk 35 brush variant. Subtly brush in the texture throughout to reveal it precisely where you want.

Soft Light

Colorize

Hard Light

Reverse-Out

Darken

Shadow Map

Lighten

Magic Combine

Difference

Pseudocolor

Hue

Dissolve

Saturation

Multiply

Color

Screen

Luminosity

Overlay

GelCover

Composite methods

CREATE TEXTURE ON THE CANVAS LAYER

Gel

APPLY PATTERNS AND EMBOSS EFFECTS There are many ways to create effects. Applying the Pattern effect will help to build added texture into your paintings and serves as a great starting point should you have your image printed and then decide to embellish it later. Again, when you add a new effect to the current collage, remember to clone the file you are working on and begin with a flat image. Save each new effect with a descriptive name.

Managing layers Keep on top of the game Managing layers as you develop your collage is an important part of the process. You may well end up with dozens of layers so taking the time to name each one will help you stay organised. Renaming layers is a simple task. Right/Ctrl-click on the layer you wish to rename and select Layer Attributes. In the dialog box, type in the new name and select OK. Layers give you added flexibility as you build your collage enabling you to apply precise effects on a single layer or many different layers.

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Feature focus Composite methods

Master the art of composite methods

FEATURE FOCUS

Gather source images for a creative collage Compile a selection of images and then let Karen Bonaker reveal how to use a combination of composite methods and create a collage like you’ve never made before

01 Your custom palette Lock up your layers When you create a collage, it is easy to accumulate many layers and keeping track of them all can be a daunting task. A nice tool in Corel Painter is the ability to lock layers. Locking layers protects it from being painted on, dropped, or moved. To lock a specific layer, you first select the layer in the Layers palette and then click once on the Padlock icon. To unlock the layer, just click once again on the Padlock icon within the layer in the Layers palette. When the collage is complete, blend away harsh or distracting edges with a Blender variant.

Select Brushes>Clone and Quick Clone>Paper Texture. If the item you want is represented in a palette with an icon, you can create a new palette by just dragging the icon. This works for brush variants, art materials – gradients, paper textures and patterns – nozzles, looks and scripts. Drag the lower-right corner to expand the palette. Hold down Shift to move the icons around the palette.

04

02

Source media Begin by scanning

or collecting your images. Gather your source material, create a new folder and call it ‘collage’. Inside this folder, create subfolders which will hold your paper textures, images and so on. Organise these folders in a way that makes sense to you so that images and layers are easy to find.

Open your image folder and determine which image will be your main or foundation image. For this project, I am working on a portrait, and have chosen a portrait of my father when he was 19 years old and just entering the army. Other images in the folder all say something about this chapter of his life, and are all part of how I will build the story.

06 Developing the background

Preparing your photo The

image needed some help in regards to saturation so apply Equalize from the Effects category, which helps to increase the saturation. This is an old image with some scratches, which are corrected by using the Rubber Stamp tool. So take a moment to clean up your foundation image by correcting colour and so on.

03 Foundation image focal point

05 Save and save methodically

Save each rendition methodically as a RIFF or a TIFF: remember that RIFF will retain all layers whereas TIFF will flatten the image but will not degrade the image each time it is opened, unlike a JPEG. Use the Save As command.

Your background image will be the image used to build a background texture. Here’s a complete page from a picture album scanned into Corel Painter. Select the Rectangular Selection tool and change the Saturation and Hue settings on each image. Use Uniform Color. The Rectangular Selection tool is located on the toolbox. Enable Add To Selection on the Properties bar.

Emboss effect

The Sharpen effect

More texture anyone?

The eternal struggle between light and dark

The Emboss effect is another source of creating texture in your collage or paintings. One of the most effective ways of using the Original Luminance method is to create an embossed image. Unlike standard emboss effects, applying surface texture lets you control not only the height of the texture, but also the lighting and material properties of the embossing. Images that contain a high tonal contrast work exceptionally well for this effect. Consider using black-and-white images for the best results.

The Sharpen effect sharpens the image by increasing the contrast between light and dark pixels, exaggerating the highlights and shadows. There are two choices that you can make when applying this effect. One is Gaussian, which sharpens the red, green and blue components of the image. You can also apply Circular. Circular sharpens the image based on the image luminance. There are three sliders available, with the slider amount determining how much object edges are sharpened. Keeping your settings low on these sliders will avoid increasing colour noise to match.

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Feature focus

by selecting File>New. Determine your resolution. If you were going to print this image, perhaps you would choose 150ppi. For this project, use 24 x 19cm with a working resolution of 150ppi. This size will give us nice detail. The background paper colour will blend with the other images.

Composite methods

07

09 Adding texture

Image File and Size Begin

08 Creating a paper texture

Create a paper texture from one of your source images. Open the background image, which you created earlier. Capture it as a paper texture. From the Window menu choose Select>All. Open the fly-out arrow on the Papers palette and select Capture Paper. Rename the paper ‘background texture’. The cross-fade slider should be set to 0.00.

Choose Chalk>Square Chalk 35 and begin brushing in texture on your Canvas layer. Because the paper texture is saved, you can use it at any point during the creative process to add more texture on specific layers or selections. Set your Paper Scale to 25% and try inverting the paper texture for additional texture. Save this version as ‘paper-texture.riff’.

Explore your options Make the most of the composite methods

the foundation 10 Introducing image

Open your foundation image. The quickest way to introduce an image element is to copy and paste from one image into another. When you paste the image, it now appears on its own layer directly above the Canvas layer. Right/Ctrl-click and choose Free Transform to size the image. Set Transform>Commit. To copy an element choose Select>All, then Cmd/Ctrl+C to copy and Cmd/Ctrl+V to paste.

12 Flatten the collage

11 Experiment with composite methods

Run the gamut and experiment with all the composite methods available to you in Corel Painter. Each time you paste an element remember that it occupies its own layer hierarchy. You can add a layer mask or erase on any layer. Add textures, emboss, or free brush paint. Let your imagination go.

When you are satisfied with the elements in your collage, save it again in the RIFF file format. Now you are free to come back to your collage to add or delete elements. From the Windows menu choose Layers>Drop All. This will flatten your image. Save again, only this time in the TIFF file format. Apply Equalize and Sharpen as the final steps.

Magic Combine composite method

Motion Blur

It’s a kind of magic…

Movers and shakers In the Magic Combine method, the layer is combined with the underlying image based on luminance. The parts of the layer that are lighter than the underlying image are visible. The lighter area of the underlying image replaces the parts that are darker. One way to use this method is to fill text. With a photograph as the top layer and black text as the underlying image, choosing Magic Combine fills the text with the image. You can then go on to crop the text and apply other effects such as Emboss if you so wish.

This effect makes an image appear as if it was been blurred by movement. It can also add a subtle effect to your collage. Some good choices for the Motion Blur effect are for text. The Motion Blur palette presents you with three sliders; the Radius slider, the Angle slider and the Thinness slider. The preview window will allow you to see the effects before they are applied. The Motion Blur effect is applied through Effects>Focus>Motion Blur.

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Tutorial Create a futuristic cityscape

Dawn Austin shows you how to create a…

Futuristic cityscape Take a trip back to the future and discover how to make this stylish but deadly assassin, using tricks to hold the viewer’s attention

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Tutorial Create a futuristic cityscape

Tutorial info Artist

Dawn Austin Time needed

3 hours Skill level

Intermediate

he importance of composition in an image is paramount. In this tutorial, we will be focusing on the main character and her situation. We will explore how to create an interesting background, but an altogether more arresting main �igure. We will learn about re�lections, composition and how to capture the viewer’s attention and mesmerise them. In order to get someone excited about an image, you must be able to draw inspiration from what appeals to you. What captures your attention when looking at an image? We will be using a painterly technique, but you will be strengthening the drawing throughout.

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Tutorial

Create a futuristic cityscape

Striking details Working on the eyes and the skies

Blocking 02 in the face and hair

01 The sketch

We begin by roughly sketching out our idea, using the Acrylics Detail brush. You should keep the sketch quite simple at this stage; you don’t want it to dictate too much of the final outcome. Place your character at the far end of the picture with her head angled, looking toward the viewer. You want her to appear as if she’s scanning the horizon.

Now start airbrushing the face in. Pick a muted skin colour, and use the Soft Airbrush, setting Opacity to around 80%. Start to give the face some contour lines. Place some shadows and you will start to really get a feel for the character. Use the Oils>Fine Feathering Brush to block in the hair, giving it some direction.

Connection to the viewer One of the key elements in making a great piece of artwork is to have a ‘connection’ with the viewer. The weight of the look to the character’s eyes must be able to pull in the viewer. To achieve this, make sure the body language of your character is interesting; here, we have turned the character’s body away from the viewer, but her head is imperiously looking down. Her eyes have a sexy, feline quality about them. Try and make the character’s eyes alive. Study your own eyes in a mirror, look at the glints of light on the iris, the shadows beneath the eyes. These give the eyes personality, and that is what will draw the viewer in.

04 The eyes 03 Add form to the face

Continue shading the face, giving the cheekbones more definition, and refining the shape of the nose. Think carefully about where you want the highlights and shadows; it’s all about slowly building up the detail.

05 Eyelashes and lips

Switch to the smaller airbrush, set to 70-80 Opacity, and draw in the lashes. Again the stroke is harder as you flick out your hand so the pressure is less at the end, thus giving the lashes a natural finish. Use the same airbrush for the lips and pick a damson red hue from the Color palette.

06

You want your character’s eyes to entice the viewer. Use the Fine Tip Soft Airbrush, with Opacity set to 90. Begin to draw the eyes in detail. Also pay attention to her make-up; here we’re creating a smokey look reminiscent of the Eighties. Outline the shape of the eyes, and then adjust the Opacity to around 20–30 and make the size slightly bigger. Vary the pressure with your hand, and start with light upward strokes. Then switch to a charcoal colour and work on the shape, but only shading around the sockets.

Setting the tonal values This step

will set the mood of the piece. The colours ought to be lush mauves, greys and pinks, but to have a slightly desaturated look. Use the Soft Airbrush for this, then paint in the clouds, including a hint of the reflections in the water.

07 The buildings

I blocked in the shape of the buildings in the background, using the Acrylics Opaque Detail Brush set to an Opacity of 10-15. In keeping with the muted Color palette, we will alternate the colours of the buildings. Keep it quite painterly at this stage, as you can always tighten up the drawing as you go.

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For this stage, the Dull Pastel pencil is perfect. Set the Opacity to ten per cent and the Grain to 20 per cent. Alternate your colours and overlay them. Here we have some white highlights breaking up the cloud clumps, adding a bit of sparkle. Keep the pressure fairly light, and draw in circular and dotty movements. This best simulates real clouds.

09

Finalise the buildings Now we

need to tighten up the drawing of the buildings. Use the Round Soft Pastel to block in the remainder, and then choose the Opaque Detail Brush from the Acrylics menu, Opacity 13-15. Use blues or purples for the buildings and opposing colours for the highlights and sparkles.

10 Strengthen the composition

Once you get halfway through the image, you may realise that there is something distinctly lacking in the composition. If you feel that your eye needs another point of interest, you can add another structure. I introduced a bridge to lead the eye. It’s vital to keep looking at ways to make an image more interesting.

Blocking in the details

The Blender tools are invaluable to artists. They are perfect for using on a face for that smooth, glossy model-like finish. Use the Soft Blender Stump to smooth the edges of shadows in the face and make-up around the eyes. Used in hair, it is great for blending in the strands if they look too sharp. Also superb for reflections in water, it is a really quick and easy way to smear and soften the edges, just by dragging the brush in the desired direction of the water flow.

Create a futuristic cityscape

08 The sky and clouds

Tutorial

Get blending!

Introduce the final colours and give the image some life

in the 11 Block final details

Finalise the jetty and put in the makings of a bridge behind the girl. Sketch in the shingle at the bottom, keeping it all quite painterly. You should strive for the colours to look quite Eighties, as a lot of the fashion drawings in that period had bold, gutsy marks, and that is the feel and quality aimed for in this piece.

13 The clothes

We want our character to have a leather-looking wetsuit on. Use the Soft Airbrush and block in all the dark and midtones. Use the Detail Airbrush set to an Opacity of 57% to put the highlights in. Then use the Acrylics Detail brush in blue, contrasting the orange colour drawn in the cyber, circuit design. At last, the image is starting to take shape.

12 The hair

Using the Opaque Detail Brush with Opacity set to 35%, draw in the wisps of hair. The character suits being a redhead, but you may feel that she should also have streaks of black. Move the pen quite quickly, so when you draw the hair, it helps to create the wisps. Alternate the pressure, firm at first then lighter towards the end, so the hair tips look more varied.

14 The face is the payoff

Working further on the face, we first have to match the skin tone to the rest of the image. For this, use effects and tonal control and adjust the selected colours. Play around with the sliders until you achieve more of a desaturated look. Zoom in on the eyes and make them darker. The eyes stand out now, possessing a smouldering effect.

15 The reflections

Use the Acrylics brush to add to the buildings. Once done, to soften the effect use the Round Blender brush from the Blenders menu, set to 100% Opacity. Stroke the brush across the buildings, making it bleed out. Keep firm but light pressure and use side-to-side strokes. Use the Just Add Water brush, also in Blenders, for the water surrounding the jetty. Use soft downward strokes to pull the paint down, as this gives a painterly approach to painting reflections that’s quite easy to do.

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Tutorial

Create a futuristic cityscape

Special effects Spruce up the image with some futuristic tones and hues

16

18 Finishing touches

The rocks For this, use a Chalk brush.

With the Sharp Chalk set to 28% Opacity and around 25% Grain, sketch the rocks in, again alternating the use of colours; use light lilacs, soft greys and light mauves. Then select Blenders>Soft Blender Stump, with an Opacity set to 51 and the Grain to 25, soften any hard edges to make them blend in more with the surrounding objects.

About the artist

17 Colour correction

For a contrasting tone, use a light tangerine colour and select the Furry Brush in F-X. Set the Opacity between 5-7%, the Resat to 9% and the Bleed to 72%. Use very soft swirls, alternating the size of the brush as you go along. Take a final look at the colour in your picture, and if you want to make any changes, go to Effects>Tonal Control>Correct Colors and use the sliders to adjust contrasts.

On the face, use the F-X Glow tool. Select an electric blue shade and swipe the brush around the cheekbones and some strands of hair. Next use the Soft Blender Stump to soften parts of the hair so it looks less sharp. Using the F-X tool’s Piano Keys, select light pinks and peach hues. With the Opacity set to 40%, add these near the buildings to give the background an interesting look.

The woman behind the tutorial

Dawn Austin currently works as a digital artist in Hong Kong for a leading photography company, in addition to undertaking freelance book covers and editorials. Of English and Chinese descent, Austin likes to create artwork that personifies the two different cultures. She likes to portray sultry atmospheres and trendy kids, while in sharp contrast she also likes dark fantasy and science fiction. Although her work is mainly characterbased, she’s always keen to try new styles and ways of working, for instance in different genres, so she doesn’t feel pigeonholed and her interest is held.

Drop City (left) Toxic Tess (above) Two very different images in terms of mood, but both exhibit her interesting use of composition and trademark city backdrops

The Ruins

An interesting departure for Dawn in terms of colour, this muted piece of art is still packed with atmosphere

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Art study How to paint trees

pa in t trees How to…

One of nature’s trickiest items to paint are trees, coming in so many shapes and sizes as they do. We take you through our guide to the easy way to draw and paint the different varieties in Corel Painter

Faraway trees When painting trees in the distance, the trick is actually to do as little as possible. It’s easy to fall into the trap of using a really small brush and trying to get as much detail in there as you can. In actual fact, try using the largest brush you can get away with, and restrict the number of tones

Pine trees

01

Starting with some Soft Acrylics, we loosely build up the scene in terms of tone and composition.

you use as well. You want to create the illusion at a glance that everything is how it should be, so that your detailed foreground elements are brought into focus. And for correct perspective, the further away your trees are getting, the bluer they need to be.

02 A Palette Knife is introduced to help define the angular pine trees. It’s more important to draw the shadows between the rows of pines, as that will define where the trees then appear to be.

Oak trees As you can see, with a relatively large brush and some subtle blending, you can very quickly render a tree that can be perfectly convincing in the background of a piece.

As your trees edge closer to the foreground, using the Eraser to reveal gaps in the foliage can pay dividends. When something is in the background or middle distance, it’s the shape that defines it and makes it feel real rather than tiny details.

03

Continuing to work into the piece with the Palette Knife, despite the abstract marks there is still a sense of depth, showing how important highlights and shadow are. Note that only three colours were used.

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Bare trees Art study

Step-by-step

03

02

01

A simple background is created first – it doesn’t really matter what media you use, but if you keep the Resat level of the brush down low, you can blend it in loosely as you continue to paint.

How to paint trees

A lot of your artwork will doubtlessly be influenced by the scenery outside, and as autumn creeps in, this inevitably means trees shedding their leaves. But for an artist, this presents a welcome challenge, as bare trees command so much presence and evoke powerful emotions that are personal to each viewer. Getting the shape and details just right though are crucial in creating a believable backdrop. Too much detail can draw unwanted attention to the tree, which is predominantly a background item, and that’s where this guide comes in.

Continue to add twigs until you’ve got a natural balance that feels right when you look at it. Not too bare, but crucially not too overloaded with detail either.

Twigs

x

It’s all too easy to add too many twigs to your branches. The important thing is the illusion – provide just enough detail so that your brain knows it’s a tree.

The Wet Detail Acrylic Brush is perfect for making the initial marks. Keep your strokes as loose and fluid as possible. Decrease the brush size a few pixels at a time.

Painting trunks As well as having an overall fade in brightness from one side of the trunk to the other, add notches and bumps where you can. Fo realism, remember that shadows from the leaves will also bend round the trunk.

Dappled sunlight

When rendering bark, it is important to vary the tones, working quickly with natural strokes. Whichever brush or brushes you use, keep the Opacity low so all the tones blend in together. The Artists Oils are particularly useful.

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Art study How to paint trees

Leafy trees

Mark-making

Leafy trees bring landscapes to life, but it can be easy to get bogged down in detail when trying to paint them. As with everything, the trick is to keep things simple. You can build a realistic tree just using blobs. Pick a shadow, highlight and midtone colour and use these to create depth. Be sensitive to the time of year as well, adjusting your colour palette accordingly. Start with a general shape and then add brush dabs until your tree is complete and looking fabulous!

Building up the leaves Paint in the direction of the trunk

Step-by-step

Colour palette

Spring / Summer

01

We used the Wet Detail Acrylic Brush to create this. To start with we made a very loose outline of the tree, and started to define some of the tones of the leaves.

02

Next it’s a case of filling in the gaps, slowly reducing the brush size and starting to define how the leaves shape the edge of the foliage, i.e. the silhouette of the tree.

Autumn

03

More tones are introduced, helping to establish the sense of the leaves without having to draw them all individually. The Eraser cuts some of them away too, making the overall shape much more interesting.

04

Finally, the contrast between shadow and light is increased with bright, saturated tones added to some of the foliage. A simple background helps enhance the final composition.

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Building up the branch marks

Wide stroke 50 Calligraphy Brush: Opacity 50%+, Grain 90%, Resat 50%+ (size according to scale)

Wide stroke 50 Calligraphy Brush: Opacity 10%, Grain 90%, Resat 12% (size approximately half of first strokes)

How to paint trees

Striking in either the foreground or background, these tall, thin coniferous trees create a peaceful, ambient mood. When painted in the distance you only need paint a tall spire, and things aren’t that much more difficult when it comes to close work. The main thing to remember is that you need to make the branches spread out gradually and they need a textured, rough feel. Green is the colour of the day, from dark through to a lighter highlight.

Art study

Pine trees

Smeary Palette Knife 30 Opacity 60%, Resat 3%, Bleed 90% (approximately same size as second set of calligraphy strokes)

Shadows Mid-tones Highlights Step-by-step

01

Starting with a Calligraphy brush at full Opacity, quickly mock up the trunk and the main foliage areas. Use the angle of the brush to your advantage, leaving edges angular.

03

A loose background will just help to bring the tree forward, and help highlight where more detail is needed.

02 Start to work in some more foliage tones, by reducing the brush Opacity, Resat levels and Size.

04

Add some simple definition to the trunk, and then use a Palette Knife to really help the foliage feel like spiky pines rather than soft leaves.

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TITLE WEBSITE JOB TITLE

Osvaldo is one artist who can truly claim diversity, with a collection of work that defies a label. He describes himself as creating “complex and emotional scenarios of the human condition” in addition to dreamy art like this example here.

Storm Catcher www.pixelium-art.com Digital artist

OSVALDO GONZALEZ

showcase

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Tutorial An introduction to airbrushing

An introduction to airbrushing Create an Art Deco-style travel poster inspired by Cassandre, using Corel Painter’s selections and Airbrush tools Tutorial info Artist

Stewart McKissick Time needed

3 hours Skill level

Intermediate On the CD

Initial sketch

rt Deco, or Art Moderne, was a popular design movement of the Twenties and Thirties. Its beginnings can be traced to the rise of industrial design after WWI, exempli�ied by the German Bauhaus school and the international exhibition on decorative arts held in Paris in 1925. The style came to be known for its bold geometric shapes, a re�lection of the machine aesthetic of mass production and a reaction to the organic, nature-inspired style of Art Nouveau. It was popular throughout the Western world and saw expression in every aspect of art and design. Some famous period practitioners included

potter Clarice Cliff, industrial designer Donald Deskey, fashion illustrator Erte, glass artist Rene Lalique, painter Tamara de Lempicka, and graphic artist A M Cassandre, noted for his advertising posters for Dubonnet. For this tutorial, we’ve taken our inspiration from Cassandre’s poster designs, which had a bold simplicity of shape, along with colour harmonies and contrasts that rendered them at once both readable and aesthetically attractive, artworks that transcended mere objects of commerce. While he considered commercial design its own discipline, Cassandre was in�luenced by Cubism and architecture. He said he wished to combine the need for ‘formal

perfection’ with ‘lyrical expression’. His best work had a sophisticated playfulness to it. Many of these posters used traditional airbrush techniques. For our tutorial, we’ll concentrate on using Corel Painter’s airbrushes to achieve this look. Central to this style is making selections to isolate the various shapes as we colour them in. This can take some time and patience to make the precise edges needed, especially curves. We’ll also use layers and gradients. Making many layers needs lots of memory and hard drive space. You may wish to save various ‘dropped’ versions of the poster as you go along.

Starting off with the sketch On your (underlying) marks, get (Color) set… go!

01 The sketch

Open the sketch on the CD and save this to your hard drive as a RIFF file. Go to Select>All in the Select menu and then Select>Float to put the sketch on its own layer. Choose Multiply from the composite methods on the Layers palette to make a transparent layer which you can turn on and off while you work.

02

Layers Try to work from back to front on an image – this helps to

keep you organised and establish a mood and environment. Start with a new layer called ‘SKY’ and build from there. All layers will be below the sketch. Name them to help keep things clear.

03 Color Set

Open the Color Set called Buildup Ink Colors. This set has the pastel feel that many Deco travel posters had. Making variations to the set as you go along is a great way to start off.

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Tutorial An introduction to airbrushing

Selections aplenty Your guide to the right tools and techniques

04 Selections

Making selections is one of the biggest tasks in this type of illustration. Select the sun with the Oval Selection tool – a fly-out from the Rectangular Selection tool – and hold Shift to constrain it to a perfect circle. Active selections act like a stencil or mask, and are displayed with the moving dashed-line marquee sometimes called ‘marching ants’.

Airbrushes

06 Selections – the Pen tool 05 Selections – saving

You can make selections as you paint or all at once, and save them to the Channels palette by choosing Select>Save Selection in the Menu bar. Saved selections can be turned on and off, edited, and combined in various ways. You can save up to 32 in one document. Make and save some now and make others as you paint.

Keep the shapes simple with mostly straight lines to make selecting easy. However, most cannot be selected with the Rectangular or Oval Selection tools, so you need to use the Pen tool. This takes practice, especially for making curves. For straight lines, you just click the mouse to place a corner point – this method will select the airplane.

A pick of the best Airbrush variants

Corel Painter’s Airbrush category is one of its very best at mimicking the ‘real’ paint and pigment equivalent. It is, in fact, an improvement – no more spilled paint cups, breathing dangerous fumes or having dust and hairs stick to your ‘friskets’ (masks) – and correcting mistakes is a lot easier! Airbrushes have long been used for photo-retouching, precise technical illustration, and decorative, designoriented artwork. All this can be done in the digital world as well. The ability to create smooth transitions as well as sprayed-on textures make airbrushes ideal for stylised shading or creating Digital Airbrush atmosphere and rounded form. The standard smooth airbrush for basic airbrushing uses.

Digital Airbrush Grainy Edge Cover The basic smooth airbrush made textural by changing its Method subcategory. This subcategory gives rough edges with solid centres to the strokes.

Digital Airbrush Grainy Hard Cover The basic smooth airbrush made textural by changing its Method subcategory. All paper textures can be ‘sprayed’ using this technique.

Airbrush Coarse Spray A special Dab Type, this brush has particles and will spray in a directional manner using a properly equipped tablet and stylus. A special palette allows you to customise the spread and flow of the particles.

Airbrush Pepper Spray Feature setting Similar to Coarse Spray, but with more varied sizes to the particles. If you change the Feature setting on the Brush Controls>Size Palette, you can exaggerate this as depicted in the image above.

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The Pen tool draws ‘shapes’ – these are vector objects with strokes and fills. Each shape will appear as a layer with a circle/ triangle icon. For a project like this, we should convert these to selections – use the button in the Property bar or go to Shapes>Convert to Selection in the Menu bar. Save the selection to a new channel.

The cloud requires geometric curves – these shapes take practice to draw. You must click and drag a direction handle while holding down the mouse button to pull the curve. Don’t worry about following your sketch exactly. You could use combined Oval Selections here instead. See the side tip for more about selections.

Now’s the time to use your airbrush Load up the selections and get to work

09 Start painting – gradient sky

You can select more shapes as you go. To start, fill selections with a colour or gradient. Use gradients for large transitions. They can be airbrushed for more detail later. Select the sky with the Rectangular Selection tool and use a Two Point Linear gradient at 90º. Go to Effects>Fill in the Menu bar to apply the gradient.

You can load your selections in various ways: Replace Selection loads a selection exactly as it was saved. Add To Selection will combine the chosen selection with an active one. Subtract From Selection will deselect overlapping areas from a chosen selection and an active one, and Intersect With Selection will keep only the overlapping areas. With practice, these options can make hundreds of combinations from the 32-channel limit.

An introduction to airbrushing

07 Selections – converting shapes 08 Selections – curves

Tutorial

Selections – an insight

Start 11 airbrushing (a trick!)

10 Gradient ground

Make an additional layer for the ground. Add layers for most of the major shapes; this makes reselection and changes easier. If your computer memory is limited, combine things together – for instance, this could be on the SKY layer. Gradients can be customised with multiple colours and applied at any angle. Pick a yellow gradient and invert the angle to 270º.

Begin with an easy shape: the sun. Load the selection and fill it with a flat colour. Select the Digital Airbrush variant with default settings. Change Color and increase Size to 70. This is a smooth brush with no texture. Go to Select>Stroke Selection (if this is ‘greyed out’, first choose Select>Transform Selection) to make a perfect stroke around the edge!

Hiding 12 marquees and the sketch

Load the plane selection and fill it. When airbrushing, you don’t want to see the ‘marching ants’, so go to Select>Hide Marquee. The mask is still active, but hidden. Also turn the SKETCH layer’s ‘visibility eye’ off to see subtle edge relationships. You may prefer selecting with a mouse, but use a tablet and stylus for pressure-sensitive airbrushing here.

13 Sub-selecting and Preserve Transparency

Deselect the plane (Select>None) and turn the sketch visibility back on to see details. On the Layers palette, check the Preserve Transparency box. This makes it possible to only paint where colour is already on the layer. Now subselect the wings and shade to give them some form. Keep colour and values light for atmospheric distance.

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Tutorial An introduction to airbrushing

Bringing it all together Get a rush from your brush

14 Cloud

15 Detail ground

16 Bushes with texture

17 Decorative zig-zags

Load the Cloud selection and fill it white. You can go to Effects>Fill or use the Paint Bucket tool. Using the same smooth Digital Airbrush set to its largest size, shade the bottom and left with the lightest blue from the sky, selected with the Eyedropper tool. Then highlight the right with yellow from the sun.

Use guides and grids to keep things straight up! Corel Painter has rulers, guides and grids to help keep design-oriented and technical art square and exact. You access these from the Canvas menu. When you draw your pencil sketch, use rulers and drafting triangles, but don’t worry too much about making it perfect – you can correct things on the computer using these very precise tools. For this illustration, set the Grid Options to .125 inches (.318 cm) and the line thickness to .01 inches. You can pull guides out from the displayed rulers. Both the grid and guides have a Snap to option to help you draw perfect selections.

For the bushes, make one selection, then move and resize it using the Selection Adjuster tool. Put paper texture in by changing the Digital Airbrush’s Method Subcategory in the General Brush Controls palette to Grainy Hard Cover. Texture suggests detail in closer objects. Make a separate layer for shadows and lower its Opacity to make them transparent.

Select the buttes and paint them. Using layers and Preserve Transparency, it’s not necessary to save every major selection. Save your sub-selections like the butte shadows instead. Use the Rectangular Selection tool to paint the plane contrail, and also the strata on the Ground layer. Note the reflected colours from the plane and sun.

Put the triangular zig-zag pattern in the nearer foreground to suggest detail but also for a decorative effect. This motif was common in classic Art Deco design. Carry it through on the roadrunner’s feathers. Use the grid and the Snap to Grid option to make the pattern exact, and paint it on the Ground layer.

19 Cactus details

18 Cactus dissection

Select the cactus in three parts – the ‘body’ and two ‘arms’ – but fill them in on one layer. Draw wavy lines using the Pen tool and grid to keep them perfect. Leave the vector shape ‘strokes’ coloured green, then make copies to convert to selections for shading. Use straight lines if this is advanced beyond your pen skills.

To create the stronger cactus texture, again use the Digital Airbrush Variant, and switch its Method subcategory to Grainy Edge Hard Cover. Set the Grain slider to nine and change the paper from Basic to Rough Charcoal Paper. Combine your saved cactus selections with the ‘wavy’ ones to get the sub-selections you want.

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Introducing the roadrunner and the text

21

Select the roadrunner’s main body shape and save it. Fill it with a flat colour of middle value and intensity. Filling a midcolour allows you to add both highlights and shadows and keeps the overall shape unified. Notice the use of darker shadows to create atmospheric space, keeping an emphasis on the foreground elements.

Make sub-selections for the details. Save some like the eyemask, beak, main tail and a set of zig-zag feathers. Move the feathers and repeat using the Selection Adjuster tool; create other selections using the Load Selection options. You can also invert selections (Menu>Select>Invert) and use this along with Preserve Transparency to create new masks.

Digital airbrushing is similar to the real thing in that you don’t actually make contact with your surface – in fact, using a tablet and stylus is more tactile than actual airbrushing. One thing to avoid in airbrushing are ‘puffy’ transitions – tentative, overworked applications of colour that comes from being unsure of your shading. Use as large a brush size and as few strokes as possible. Undo a ‘bad’ stroke rather than painting over it. And don’t be lazy about making selections – the variety of hard and soft edges make an airbrushed image solid and pleasing.

An introduction to airbrushing

20 Roadrunner

Main tails and details

Airbrushing pointers

Tutorial

Finish up the poster

23 Type 22 Find your legs

Finish the roadrunner by adding his legs and shadow on their own layers. Make the Shadow layer partially transparent to overlay the cactus shadow added to the existing shadow layer. Here, use the Digital Airbrush variant set to Grainy Hard Cover. For the speckles on the roadrunner, use the Pepper Spray Airbrush variant.

The typeface is Novel Gothic. Being geometric, it’s easily hand-drawn with the Pen tool. Set the words with the Type tool, skew them using the Layer Adjuster while holding Cmd (Mac) or Ctrl (Windows), and convert them to Default Layers for airbrushing (in the Option menu from the Layers palette). Use Stroke Selection to outline the word ‘Arizona’.

Sun rays, 24 road and more details

On a new layer, make some subtle rays and glow around the sun. Add value and texture to the road, darkening the shadows – use the Coarse Spray Airbrush variant for the texture. Once everything’s in place, go over all the values, colours and details to make final adjustments. Saving selections and layers makes this easy.

25 Final adjustments and details

Darken the cactus and some of the ground elements (using layers set to Gel for transparency). Add one more distant row of zig-zags, and details to the roadrunner, foreground bush and sunrays. Put some motion lines coming off the roadrunner. Make any final colour changes, like the purple in the butte shadows, at the end.

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Drawing 101 How to draw eyes

How to…

draw eyes In day-to-day activity, eyes can betray the spoken word. In art too, they can reveal hidden truths, so it’s imperative to master their form

ow many times do we refer to eyes and sight in everyday life? ‘The eyes have it’; ‘I see what you mean’; ‘Seeing is believing’; ‘Eyes are the windows to the soul’. It could be argued that these describe the credibility or truth that eyes express. A smile is false because of the crinkle of the eyes, not because of the curve of the lips. It is therefore crucial to try and overcome initial mistakes. This tutorial aims to re�ine and enhance both your observational and drawing skills.

When we are very small, we make huge assumptions when drawing faces and eyes. We assume we automatically know where the features lie within the ears, chin and hairline. We forget to doublecheck – we’ve looked at faces, eyes in particular, all our lives and we think we don’t need to look twice. We forget that it’s hard to draw accurately from our imagination, which regularly trips us up. So with that in mind, some common assumptions with eyes include missing or seriously linear eyebrows, repetitive,

Free reference photos for all Practise your drawing skills with the CD reference files

SOURCE FILE ON THE CD!

sparse eyelashes or including the whole of the outside of the iris. Then there is the shape of things. The almond shape of the eye, how far down the hood of the lid drapes, the re�lection in the pupil – there’s plenty to look into. The key to success lies in keen observation; you can’t look at your subject too much in a sitting. Sorting these teething problems will give you a very sound foundation on which to build your image. Our next consideration will be the observation and representation of shadows and the type of shading that works for the skin folds around the eyes. With shading, start out cross-hatched and scribbly, then aim for smooth and soft on top. This is achievable with the right pencil leads. Start out with a correctable H and enrich the midtones later with a B or HB. A �inal dark contrast can be added with a 2B and even a 6B for the pupil or eyelashes. To draw an eye accurately is said to be one of the hardest aspects to perfect, and therefore one of the most satisfying to master. By following these tips and the step-by-step, stage-by-stage process from start to �inish, you really will enjoy this challenge.

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Different eye shapes

All in proportion It is more than likely that you will be drawing a portrait to accompany your eyes so here are a few pointers about accurate proportions. Plot the eyes just above the horizontal halfway mark on the face. The eyebrows are just under a third of the way down the face – bear in mind that the density

Drawing 101

What works and what doesn’t

Avoid your subject looking cross-eyed of the eyebrows can transform the look of a face. The eyeline now needs to be divided up into five. The eyes can then be drawn with an almond shape into the two spaces that are neither at the side nor in the middle. This means that the space that the nose occupies is the same size as the width of one eye.

How to draw eyes

HOODED EYES

With careful observation you will notice that these eyes are half-covered by the top lid. Half the pupil is visible beneath and there is lots of white. Draw an egg shape and a circle at one end for the eyeball and pupil; divide this in half to denote the lid. Subtly build the shadows on the lids to create form.

FRONT VIEW

SIDE VIEW

The eyes ought to be slightly above halfway on the face, with the eyebrows roughly in line with the tip of the ears

Common mistakes when drawing the eyes include placing them on the face’s edge or too near the ears

Dimensions SMALL EYES

NOSE WIDTH

Looking at small eyes, you will notice that they are long like a fat banana rather than an almond, and you can see almost all of the iris. Draw an egg shape once again, but this time the lids will encase it on either side. A slimline eyelid and short, stubby eyelashes accompany this elegant and understated type of eye.

After equally dividing the width of the face in five from ear to ear, the middle space between the eyes will be the space that the nose will occupy

EYEBROWS Just under a third of the way down the face, the eyebrows shouldn’t overlap too much into the space between the eyes and the ears

EYELIDS Draw your eyes – use a round object for the iris if you aren’t yet comfortable drawing a circle freehand – but remember that the lids will cover part of the eye

ROUND EYES

This one has a large round shape for the eyeball, just covered by a rounded lid that sits in a rounded socket. The sunken socket and large iris exaggerates the pupil size and shape of the eyeball. Capturing the perfect circle for the iris is nearly impossible freehand. When you start out, use an appropriately shaped object like a coin to build your confidence, then back to freehand.

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Drawing 101 How to draw eyes

Seeing is believing Beauty is in the eye of the beholder – literally, in this case, so make sure you do it justice by perfecting your drawing skills his tutorial needs careful consideration over the quality of your paper – cartridge is best – and a really good source to draw from. We used a large black-and-white photograph, a clean rubber and a range of pencils from 2H to 6B. You will need to set

aside about three or four hours to follow this tutorial, as it should take you the best part of an afternoon. Take your time to look at your source material and tweak your drawing constantly. Don’t get put off if you make any mistakes; keep trying as you will improve enormously with practise.

Guidelines for your eyelines Blink and you’ll miss it STAGE 1

MAPPING THE MAIN SHAPE

Draw expressively and freely for a few minutes, to sketch out the general shapes that make up the different parts of the eye. You can afford to hold your H pencil loosely and make a curvaceous and soft sketch. The sketch’s most important function is to show you how much paper the eye will occupy.

STAGE 4

DETAILING THE TONES

Here is where your keen powers of observation will really help. You have to look carefully at the shape and relationships that the shadows take. Where are they deepest? Where are they subtle? Where are they delicate? Outline them all with confident H pencil lines once again.

STAGE 2

CHECKING YOUR MEASUREMENTS

Now to double-check that your sketch is accurate. You may find that when you observe the relationships between the different parts, you see that you have initially drawn the pupil in the wrong place; just move it to the right place. Use the pupil as your starting point and work out how many pupil widths make up the width and height of your image.

STAGE 5

THE FIRST TONES

Remove any labels, trust your outlines and begin to colour or shade in the shadows and dark areas. The lightest parts are the whites of the eye and the reflection in the pupil. But you may decide to leave a few other areas as white paper. Shade very loosely and quickly, making sure you shade in one direction.

STAGE 3

FIRMING UP THE FIRST SKETCH

You should now feel confident that your outline is correct and you can convey that confidence in your drawing. Rub out sketchy lines and, firmly but lightly, draw the most important descriptive lines. If you are in any doubt about what goes where, label the different parts so you don’t get lost without the tones to guide you.

STAGE 6

THE SECOND LAYER OF TONES

Your first layer of shading should include all shadows very lightly in the middle of the tonal range. Carefully observing the darkest areas and shading them in the opposite direction can enrich this. You should now have a sound working sketch that can be easily changed if you still feel some areas aren’t quite working.

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STAGE 7

STAGE 8

STAGE 9

Drawing 101

At this stage, even if you think it is all going smoothly, take a good long look at your drawing as you may notice a few mistakes; possibly the too-round shape of the tear duct or the line of the bottom lid may be too sharp as it lies against the eyeball. The bottom lid is unprotected and moist, so it will pick up highlights without even trying and needs very little definition.

STAGE 10

THE EYEBROWS

Time to define. So far we have done all the work with an H pencil. Pick up your HB pencil and go crazy on the eyebrows. Look carefully to see the direction of the individual hairs and do your best to capture this direction with swift, short marks. These marks start heavily and tail off like a hair; you may need to do them back to front to suggest a softer edge.

STAGE 13

THE TOP LASHES

Aim once again to make your marks in the correct direction that the real eyelashes follow. Use a B pencil once again or a HB. Layer upon layer with no curls, unless they are there. Then allow the dark shading you use here to creep down towards the tear duct.

MAKING MARKS - THE FUN BIT

The next focus is on the skin texture, folds and contours of the lids, wrinkles and brow. You can really go for it at this stage, scribbling and cross-hatching to your heart’s content. Consider the curve of the folds and cross-hatch in the direction of the curves. This will help you get a real sense of the movement of the folds and creases.

STAGE 11

THE EYELIDS

Use your B pencil to pick out the defining lines surrounding the lids. Use a sharp lead for the top ones. The bottom lid needs a much softer line so use the blunt edge of your pencil to define it before you add with a rather sharper lead, small and subtle eyelashes on the bottom lid. The top lid will also require darker definition, especially at the edges of the lid.

STAGE 14

LAST MINUTE HIGHLIGHTS AND LOWLIGHTS

The reflection brings the eye to life but don’t forget to add realism to the eye with the all important eyeball shadows. The lashes cast a shadow over the very top of the eyeball and this continues down to the corners of the eye. Use an H pencil to create a subtle shadow.

How to draw eyes

THE NEXT DOUBLE CHECK

SMUDGING - THE NEXT FUN BIT

Now we are working on the tones and highlights of the skin only. To enhance the smoothness of the skin, smudge your H pencil scribbles firmly with your finger. You should feel that the drawing is not set in stone from the start to finish, giving you plenty of room to correct mistakes. Finally, take a clean rubber and rub out the smudges to create highlights.

STAGE 12

THE IRIS AND PUPIL

Pick up your 2B pencil and your rubber. Look deep into the eye. You’ll see speckles, blotches, a dark circle around the very edge and a massive reflection right in the centre. Recording the tones and the reflection brings the eye to life. Draw exactly what you see and don’t worry if it looks wrong, it will all fit together when it’s complete.

STAGE 15

THE FINAL TOUCHES

Just a few reminders to polish it off. Check your wrinkles are still well picked out with your rubber. Smudge any areas that look too cross-hatched . Finally pick up your darkest pencil and give a final layer of darkness onto the eyelashes, the top half of the eye and the middle, lower section of the eyebrows. Finally, have a close look to check all is in order.

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TITLE WEBSITE JOB TITLE

Jason has devoted his life to painting and drawing, so much so that he now works at the influential Massive Black company. Jason’s love of fantasy novels has guided his work and he has produced some beautifully-imagined pieces.

Junk Angel www.jasonchanart.com Digital artist

JASON CHAN

Your

questions answered A little rough around the edges

Your experts Marilyn Sholin

Marilyn’s knowledged and love of Coel Painter has led her to set up the excellent Digital Painting Forum, which we feature on the main news. Here she reveals art tips

Jo Cole

We thought it was time for the editor to roll up her sleeves and answer your Corel Painter questions! She helps out with the tricky ways to get painterly effects

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

I often use the Clone features of Corel Painter but only seem to be able to get very neat effects. As a result, it’s almost too perfect for its own good! How can I make things look more painterly without me having to do anything freehand?

Left Import a photo into the program that you want to transform for a painterly effect

R��� D������ You can do a variety of things, Ruby, and a lot of the best results come from experimenting, but one of the most fun methods comes from Painter Master, Jeremy Sutton. He incorporates what he calls a ‘muck up stage’ into the cloning process, which basically means he roughly clones an image with absolutely no thought to detail. Although it looks horrific to begin with, it provides a good base for bringing back the detail. A lot of traditional artists will block in colours first and then slowly paint more refined shapes until it’s finished – this is the same principle. Once you’ve finished the muck up stage, you can use your favourite cloner to bring back the detail. Our best advice and secret tip of the day would be to use the Smeary Camel Cloner, which is excellent as it brings back detail but still looks like paint. Just bring the brush size down and brush over the photo with more care. Even if you have nearphoto effect in the detail, as long as you leave some of the muck-up stage showing, you will have the painterly effect you desired.

Right Here we’ve used the Smeary Flat Cloner to brush over the photo and create a right royal mess of colours

Left Now is the time to bring back some detail on the most important parts. For an interesting photographic art effect, use something like the Soft Cloner

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

SHARE YOUR PROBLEMS!

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

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Feeling sketchy

B��� L�����

Art class

I’ve just bought my �irst Wacom tablet (an Intuos3) and I’m not sure where to start when it comes to settings. I’m not too worried about the buttons or strip, but I want it feeling right. Any advice?

The Pencil brushes can give you pretty much all the same effects as their real world counterparts, but they are labelled slightly differently. Whereas you can go into an art shop and pick anything from a 2H to a 6B, the Pencils in Corel Painter are called according to what effect they give. So you have titles such as Sharp Pencil, Greasy Pencil and Dark Hatch. Here’s a closer look at how to get a traditional pencil sketch effect in Corel Painter.

Q&A

Tablet tweaks

I’ve really been enjoying your Drawing 101 series but I had made myself a promise to try and lead a paperless artistic life! I’ve used Corel Painter for making oil and watercolour paintings but must admit I have no clue as to how to use the Pencil brushes or where to start. Can you help me out?

R������ R������� We always have time and advice for our readers Richard! Especially ones who share our enthusiasm for artistry using a Wacom tablet. It’s best to alter settings in response to what medium you are working in and the kind of ‘feel’ you’re going for, but there are some fundamental settings that will put you in good stead. Open up the Control Panel (from System Preferences in Mac or Wacom Table Properties in Windows). Select the Grip Pen icon, then the Pen tab and then move the Tip Double Click Distance slider to Large. This means you won’t accidentally double-click when applying strokes. Click the Details button to open the Feel Details

01 Keeping track

If you’re using a graphics tablet, go to Preferences>Brush Tracking and make a mark as if you were holding a pencil. Think loose and gestural strokes.

02 Paper and draw

Create a new document and set Basic Paper from the Paper Selector. Choose the Pencils brush category and pick the 2B Pencil. The default setting has the Buildup method, which means it gets darker the more strokes you apply – just like a real pencil! Use this to create the basic drawing.

Make sure you don’t accidentally double-click by adjusting this slider

window. The Click Threshold slider will affect how easily your tablet registers a click. The higher you go, the less sensitive it is. And talking of sensitive, the Sensitivity setting adjusts the tablet to your way of working. Make a mark in the Try Here pad. Adjust the Sensitivity slider until you get it as you like. Click OK and you return to the main menu. When you do want to make adjustments to the buttons, click the drop-down menus to set the Pen buttons or pick the Functions icon in the Tools bar. There you have it! Hopefully that will have quelled any uncertainties you had.

03 Final touches

Use the 2B Pencil for a realistic sketch, but there are other ways. Pick a light colour and change to the Cover Pencil to apply an opaque colour. Now you can apply highlights over dark strokes without smudging.

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Q&A Art class

Unlock palettes from their groups by clicking and dragging off to the side

See it all

I’ve recently started working with the Color Sets, as I �ind the fact they are labelled according to traditional paint colours very helpful. I’m getting a bit fed up with having to keep scroll up and down the menu, though, but can’t seem to resize the palette. Am I missing something? W����� F��� By default, Corel Painter’s palettes are grouped according to like, so the colour palettes are together as are the brush controls. While this is great for organising, as you have pointed out, it is impossible to extend a palette so you can see everything. What you need to do is unlock the

palette from its group. In your case, you would call up the Color Sets palette and it will appear with the colour controls as normal. Go to the top of the Color Sets palette and place your cursor near the top of the palette; it should turn into a hand. Click and drag the palette over and it will unlock the Color Sets from the other palettes. Now you can extend and see all of the colours! If you want to lock a palette back, put the cursor over the top of the palette and when it becomes a hand, click and drag back to its group. A black line will appear so let go and it’s back in its home!

Using the multitude of effects that Corel Painter includes, it is possible to achieve a number of different adjustments in order to give a picture some sort of life before being cloned

Clone foundations Should I do anything to a photo before I clone it? I don’t think I’m getting the most from the function. J���� E������

Once they are free, you can extend the palette length as much as your monitor allows

We’ve shown the original picture before preparing it for cloning. It’s important to do everything to the photo first before cloning and then save it as the changed photo so there is always an original with the right colour to go back to. To create a painting there should be life, contrast and colour to the photo before cloning it. There are a number of ways to achieve the changes. Equalize is one that can make the change quickly and still be adjusted. Go to Effects>Tonal Control>Equalize. At this screen it can be adjusted and then click OK.

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

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Painting sketch

Sketch marks make a great addition to any digital painting, portrait or otherwise. The greatest flexibility is achieved by using the

01

Preparing for sketch effects

Open the painting intended for sketch effects and add a new layer using the Layers palette. Be sure to tick the Pick Up Underlying Color checkbox. If desired, simplify the painting to a point where sketchy lines would look natural.

02

Let the sketching begin… Choose a

brush and sketch away, following the lines of the painting. Be expressive with your marks using fluid, thick and thin lines. They will add a great dynamic feel to your finished painting. Continue sketching until you have a completely sketched layer.

After clicking OK, if it was too much, go to Edit>Fade and fade part of the Equalize effect. Next go to Effects>Tonal Control>Adjust Colors. Here bump up the saturation so there are warm rich colours to begin. Once this is done, it must be saved with a new name. Go to File>Save As>Eliana_Orig_Paint. This is the file that is ready for cloning. Eliana’s final painting is warm and rich with life. The portrait of this three-month old conveys all the feeling, beauty and wonder of a baby’s world. It has been cropped to form a better composition to focus on her luminous eyes.

Well Jess, you’ll be pleased to hear that Corel Painter has a brush all loaded and ready to help you with your task. It’s found in the often overlooked FX brush category. Go here and choose the Hair Spray variant. Once picked, simply brush over your image and it will cause the colour to splay out in a furry frenzy. It’s best not to use this over very detailed work as it will obliterate it, but you can always use this first and add detail later. Hope that helped!

Brush out those knots in your hair

I’d really like to create a portrait of my family, using a photo as a basis. Any advice on how to set up the photo?

I’m creating my own children’s characters and I’m having problems getting a really �luffy fur effect. I’ve tried painting individual strands, but I haven’t the patience. Is there a quick way?

J��� B�����

Art class

D���� M����

pencil marks. If you want oily or brushed sketch marks, Tapered Gouache from the Art Pen Brushes category works well. No matter the brush choice, be sure to size your brush appropriately for the size and resolution of your painting. A two pixel brush mark will be lost in the final print of a high resolution painting at any size. Fifteen pixels is a good starting point for a 300dpi painting. Now then David, we’ll continue in the vein which you mentioned, so for your own use and for our readers’, we’ll apply those tips to create a fantastic sketchy painting!

Q&A

Your magazine has always given great advice, and now I’m in need of more of the same! I like it when you can still see sketch marks on a portrait but was wondering if it’s best to do them on a separate layer, or have them on the paint layer. Any advice?

layering technology, as marks on a separate layer do not alter the painting below. By using layers, you can always go back and make major adjustments, erase stray marks, use different composite methods or adjust the opacity without damaging your painting on the Canvas layer. Jumping headfirst into the arsenal of brushes, any brush can be used to create sketch marks, but for a more natural look, brushes in the Charcoal category will work best; Sharp Charcoal 7 is recommended because of its pressure sensitive size taper. Also, this brush picks up paper texture well, and in the end, its marks look like natural

03 Blended to perfection

Pick a brush from the Blenders category that matches the style of your painting. Create a new layer for blending, and selectively blend and paint the sketch into the painting. The Opacity of the layer may also be adjusted. This will really make the sketch feel like a part of the painting and not just an afterthought.

Family affair

S������� F���� Setting up the photo when you know it’s going to be a painting as the final output is a wonderful way to preconceive your portrait painting. Think

The Hair Spray brush is a quick and easy way of giving the effect of fluffy fur. You may have to be a bit inventive about when you use it, but it can give a great look

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Q&A Art class

about the background and how it will be treated in the final painting as to painted realism or painterly strokes. Putting the people together, decide first if it’s to be a horizontal, vertical or maybe even a square painting. By having all these decisions in place before ever taking the actual photo, it will save work later in the painting. If the elements are all together in the photo portrait, it makes the painting of it so much easier. Consider your lighting as to whether it’s going to be a ‘dark’ painting with shadows or open and flatter lighting. How dramatic will the final painting be? Once that is decided, it makes it easier to light the portrait and create either something light and airy or something richer and darker that lends itself to canvas reproduction.

In the background I can’t for the life of me work out how to clone onto coloured paper. I want to give the impression of a pastel paintings that’s been done on blue paper but don’t know how. E����� M���� What you need to do is increase the size of the canvas and then fill it with colour. Open up your clone source and then go to Canvas>Canvas Size. Enter the amount you want to extend your canvas by – we’ve gone for a thick border of 300 pixels here – and then click OK. Select a Main colour and go to Effects>Fill. Make sure Current Color is selected and click OK to set your paper colour. Toggle Tracing Paper on and then start cloning as you would normally.

Left The finished painting is ready for the wall in a light and airy style, keeping the people as the primary subjects but allowing the environment to show their lifestyle. The style of this painting is much more light-hearted than the previous, more traditional oil painting

Above This was pre-designed to be vertical to hang in the home as a watercolour painting in a specific spot. Knowing it was going to be a watercolour meant looking for a light background to photograph against

Colour choice I once used a great command in Photoshop that allowed me to grab the colours of a photo and save as a colour swatch. Is there a similar function in Corel Painter?

B�� G����

Left For canvas extension on all sides, make sure you enter a number in every field

There certainly is! Open up an image in Corel Painter and then open the Color Sets palette. Go to the options

arrow and select New Color Set From Image. This will grab all the colours and, well, create a new set! You can then pick Save Color Set and name it. If it grabs too many colours, you can delete them by clicking the Delete Color icon. To name them, pick the Display Name option from the menu and then double-click next to a colour. Give it a name and then double-click the next colour.

Below left Using the Fill command will flood your canvas with colour Below Setting a background colour is an easy way of creating a natural background

Give your colours a name by double-clicking them when in the Display Name format

It’s easy to grab the hues from a photo or image. Just use the New Color Set command from the Color Set menu

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Q&A Art class

Here comes the rain What’s a good way of simulating the look of rain? I don’t want a realistic effect – just something nice and atmospheric. S����� H���� Using Corel Painter’s Layers is a great way to play with creating rain. We are going to use a few of the features in Painter to do this quickly. The original photo I want to put rain on is sized to an 8 x 10 at 300dpi. We are going to create a new canvas the same size as the photo and fill with black.

04 Autoplayback 01 Fill with black

Open your image and create another file the same size as the original and fill with black using Fill Bucket in the Tools palette. Be sure your Current Color that is forward is black to ensure it will fill with black. Any other colour and that will be the colour it will fill with.

After that, go back to the Brushes Selector and choose Autoplayback. The stroke will be repeated on the layer over and over. Stop it when it’s fully covered, but not blocked up.

05 Motion Blur

Go to Effects>Focus>Motion Blur. Watch the Preview box as you adjust the settings. Be sure to play with all three settings to get a long blurry angled effect on the lines.

02 Layer up

Add a new layer on the black Canvas. In adding the new layer, you are able to draw on it and see what you are doing. The purpose for the layer of black is to see your strokes and what they look like.

Record 03 strokes of rain

Using the Oils>Details Oils Brush 5, make a few marks with white paint to see what you like. Click Record Stroke from your Brush Selector and put down the one stroke you want repeated.

06 Intensity

Now that you have the layer, it’s time to copy and paste it into your painting. Put more than one layer into your painting and adjust the Opacity on each layer individually so there is a variety of rain intensity.

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Using the prodmpuuscE-t41s0

The Oly source provided a good Corel to in photo to take with Painter and play s he us br the Chalk

The creative products on test this issue…

OLYMPUS E-410 With its professional picture quality and easy-to-use functions, we wonder whether this is the perfect camera for the enthusiastic photographer

COGNITION BACKUP SOFTWARE

PANORAMA U LAPTOP BAG

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Store your camera, laptop, phone, PDA, MP3 player and anything else you may have in this sturdy and alluring bag

BAGS OF LOVE We bring you the lowdown on one company who is offering visitors some truly unique ways to present their artwork. Prepare to be amazed!

Reviews

Discover some of the best products out there to extend and improve your Corel Painter experience

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Reviews Olympus E-410

Olympus E-410

SRP £499 | Olympus has tinkered with the E-400… but is it enough?

Screens The menu system on the Olympus E-410 is easy to navigate, with clear, distinguishable screens

lympus is the poor relation in the DSLR market. It’s common knowledge that it lags behind everyone else in innovation, resolution and performance – right? Well, actually, the truth is very different. Olympus was the pioneer of a dust-reduction device that was featured on the �irst Four Thirds camera, the E-1, back in 2003. Then along came the E-300 (the �irst 8MP camera), the E-330 (a 7.5MP DSLR with a unique Live View facility), followed by the world’s smallest DSLR in the form of the E-400. One odd aspect of the E-400 launch was that Olympus didn’t release it in North America. However, six months on we know why, as the E-410 has landed on our laps, replacing the barely aged E-400. So has Olympus managed to squeeze the best from its unique camera system that promised so much? First, it really is tiny and so light. Placing the E410 next to a Canon EOS 5D with 24–105mm lens and battery grip is like parking a smart car next to a Hummer. The kit lenses are also interesting. The 14-42mm and the 40-150mm are smaller and lighter than any other Olympus Zuiko digital lenses and feature near-telecentric construction. One of the main changes from the E-400 is the inclusion of a Live View facility. This has resulted in a switch of sensor brand from Kodak to Panasonic. Another bene�it of the switch,

according to Olympus, is that the new sensor displays less noise at higher ISO settings. It’s fair to say that Olympus has never been regarded as the class leader in signal-to-noise ratios and we’ll return to this issue later on. Having a 10MP sensor puts it in the class currently dominated by the Nikon D40X and Canon EOS 400D. If the image quality can compete, then it may well be onto something. The launch price is also tempting: a body-only purchase is just £499. The build quality is as good as the current class leader, the Nikon D40X, and it feels better made than the Canon rival. The plastics are of a good quality, nicely put together and it �its nicely in your hand, with a rubberised grip to improve comfort. Existing E-series owners will immediately be at home with the handling. Most functions are easily accessible through the menu system and there are one-touch buttons for Timer/Shooting mode, exposure compensation and the Depth Of Field preview button. The main camera functions – ISO, metering, image quality, etc – are controlled by a user interface that’s one of the most intuitive we’ve seen. There’s a plethora of metering options, from spot to matrix, and also the ability to protect highlight or shadow detail. One minus for the E-410 is that there are only three selectable focus points, less than some of its rivals. Our gripe is that, when mounted on a tripod, we sometimes want to select the

Batteries The 1150mAh battery provides around 450 shots before requiring a recharge, but if you use Live View and extensive image replay, then this will vary

Connections The E-410 provides the usual highspeed USB 2.0 connection, housed behind a secure panel on the rear of the camera. The USB cable is supplied, along with an AV lead

Colour options Mode dial Viewfinder

Lens The 14-42mm kit lens is an absolute peach for the money. The sharpness across the frame is impressive and outperforms lenses costing twice the price

Live View Playback button Trash

Main shooting LCD screen

D-pad control

D-pad control Picture mode

Pressing the OK button when you’re in Shooting mode gives instant access to all the main shooting functions, allowing you to navigate easily using the d-pad

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Exposure modes

£499 P, S, A, M, 20 scene Megapixels (effective) modes 10 Flash modes Max resolution A, RE, M, SS, Fon, 3,648 x 2,736 Foff Lens data

camera specs

Olympus E-410 Price

Connectivity

By lens USB, AV Zoom

Weight

By lens 375g (body only) Focus/Macro

Dimension

By lens 129 x 91 x 53mm

Shutter speeds

Batteries

ISO sensitivity

Storage

60-1/4,000 sec, bulb Lithium-ion A, 100, 200, 400, CF, xD 800, 1600 LCD Metering options 2.5” ESP, CW, S, Highlight, Shadow Build design For a DSLR, it really is very tiny and lightweight. But this doesn’t mean it’s flimsy. The plastics are good quality and the rubberised grip feels comfortable and secure

Test shot All test shots were taken using the Auto WB control, which was excellent – outdoor images required no fine-tuning

Flash button

Mode dial

What we like

What we don’t like

Olympus has really pulled the rabbit out of the hat with the E410… so look out Canon and Nikon!

Features

Live View MOS sensor Excellent Auto WB feature Clean image quality

on the top

extremely useful facility. We feel that those making the move from a point-and-shoot will feel very at home with this. One essential feature on DSLR cameras is the ability to have a histogram review available post-shot to tell us what we have captured and then adjust the exposure if required. The E-410 offers an excellent histogram and also an equally essential highlight warning indicator. We cannot over-stress the importance of these features. Size does have its penalties, though, as the view�inder on the E-410 is a little on the small side. However, it’s actually very bright and easy to compose images with. Flash performance was adequate for an on-camera �lash. Take any of the full-res �iles produced by this camera and print them off on a decent printer and you should be impressed. Logically, with 12bit sensors being able to capture four thousand colours or so, it’s not surprising. However, there’s just a special something about the Olympus prints. They have a 3D quality that can rival the best output from some manufacturers’ pro-spec offerings – all in a camera costing less than £600 with kit lens. During testing, we really got to like this little gem. It’s well-proportioned, svelte and curvy. If your budget allows you to consider the E-410, then we would say, unless you already have an investment in another brand’s lenses, buy one. You’ll be taking home the new class leader.

we say

appropriate focus point to maximise the depth of �ield. With the E-410, we were unable to do this and we had to resort to manual focus (in Live View) in order to achieve this. Olympus claims that by only having three focus points, focusing is faster and more accurate, which was indeed the case. The E-410 does give the opposition a swift backhander, though, by providing the rather excellent Live View function. Currently the only production DSLR at this price point to offer this

Only three selectable focus points Struggles a bit under tungsten lighting

9.0

Ease of use

verdict

“The Olympus prints have a 3D quality that can rival the best output from some manufacturers’’ pro-spec offerings - all in a camera costing less than £600 with kit lens”

Shutter release

Lens release

9.0

Quality of results

9.5

Value for money

9.5

Overall score

9.3 83

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Reviews Backups4All

Backups4All very savvy computer user should have a checklist of things to do to ensure their digital life runs as smoothly as possible. Keeping antivirus and system software up-to-date, regular defragmenting and freeing up valuable space all help ease the strain on both you and your hard drive. Inevitably, though, things will go wrong. Trying to recover lost �iles can be a painful, time-consuming and expensive process. Backing up, burning data to disc and investing in an external hard drive are all good solutions, but each relies on the user to remembering to do so. Backups4All takes a different approach. A simple automated process will back up your data to a secure off-site location with just a few clicks of the mouse. Installing the Backups4All software is an equally simple process. A free fully functioning 30-day trial is available for download and requires you to enter basic information such as user account and log-in details. After successful login, a back-up setup wizard will appear to help create your �irst back-up set. All data backed up using Backups4All is encrypted using an encryption key (pass phrase) of your

choosing, so it’s important that you keep it safe from others. All data is compressed and encrypted before it leaves your computer so the chances of it being intercepted on the internet before it makes its way to the server are negligible. Backups4All will only copy changes from your last backup so there is no needless duplication. You can restore �iles directly from the application or via the web from any computer, location and at any time, so you’ll always have access to your �iles. For additional security, you can restrict access to your backup �iles to a set of IP addresses, which you de�ine. Regular email noti�ications keep you informed as to what’s been backed up and when, or if you’ve missed a backup. Prices start from £5.99 a month for 5GB of storage space, rising to £17.99 for 20GB. Aimed at home users and SoHo (small of�ice/home of�ice) customers, it’s still a signi�icant investment over the life of a computer, although the peace of mind it offers could be priceless. No home user Maccompatible option is available as yet, although Backups4All should rectify this shortly, making this excellent service available to all.

specs

From £5.99 per month | This online back-up storage solution offers home users professional level data protection to protect against file loss

Backups4All Company

Operating systems

Cognition Windows 95/98/ME/ Software Limited NT/2000/XP/2003/ Price Vista (including £5.99, (5GB), £10.99 64-bit) (10GB), £14.99 (15GB), Minimum requirements £17.99 (20GB) Windows 95, Website 128MB memory, www.backups4all. 100MB disk space co.uk

Backup Setting Control how long deleted files and older versions are retained on the server

Online access

verdict

we say

24/7 access to your data from your computer or anywhere on the internet

Backup Source It offers a user-defined service for you to decide what needs backing up

Backup log Keep track of changes to backed-up files and data with intelligent file copying

What we like

What we don’t like

Although some may find it expensive, if you can justify spending your money on this for your particular work, the service is well worth it

Features

No fuss Peace of mind Automated data protection Excellent support

Overall score

No annual discounted deals No Mac-compatible home user/SoHo version yet

8.0

Ease of use

9.0

Quality of results

8.0

Value for money

8.0

8.0

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Company

specs

Panorama U Laptop Bag Size

15 x 5.9 x 11.8” (Maximum external Price size. May vary £64.95 according to content) Website Weight www.kata-bags.com 0.87kg Kata

“It will protect your equipment from knocks and adverse weather and is extremely comfortable”

Lots of space The main compartment has a dedicated area for the laptop in addition to pockets for other electrical equipment

Kata Panorama U Laptop Case compartments has further divisions. The main compartment has a safeguard laptop area, which means you can take your laptop out to locations and use as your digital easel. If you don’t have a laptop, this area is also perfect for sketchbooks or any other number of items. Also contained in this main area are three smaller pockets for items such as a small camera, PDA or MP3 player. The front zipper pocket has reinforcement along the front, as well as a division strip that can be moulded to �it around whatever is stored there. This is the perfect place for a digital SLR, as the strip can swirl around the camera and lenses, keeping everything safe. There’s a further compartment around the back with an internal organiser for pens, cards and space for keys, money or general bag ‘stuff’. As a dedicated camera or laptop bag, this product triumphs. It will protect your equipment from knocks and adverse weather and is extremely comfortable to wear. But where it really excels is in the fact it is just so damn wearable! It doesn’t feel like a specialist holdall – it will happily take all the junk you would normally shove into a bag but it will also protect your precious equipment. All in all, a stellar combination.

What we like

Lots of space Special organiser pocket Ergonomic design Protective areas

This is a goodlooking bag that protects equipment but also has the flexibility to be used every day

Safe and hidden The strap houses a phone compartment and any excess strap is hidden thanks to the cover-all sleeve

What we don’t like

The mobile phone pocket is a bit of a squeeze for larger phones

Features

10

Ease of use

we say

ow more and more of us are grabbing our cameras and heading outdoors to take reference pictures for future art projects, it seemed a good idea to look at ways of transporting that equipment. After all, nothing spoils a day’s shooting more than a sore neck after lugging a camera about for hours! The Kata company has long been involved in the business of packaging and travelling products, more often seen in the high-end arena of professional video and photography, security and high-tech industries. But one of its latest products, the Panorama U bag on test here, is perfect for the home creative. It combines all of the quality engineering of Kata’s products with features that make it practical for day-to-day usage. All too often you buy a dedicated camera case only to �ind you also have to take another bag for extras like keys, purses, phones and so on. With this bag, you can �it everything you need in one space! The bag itself is treated to Kata’s own ElastoGuard laminate, which feels like wetsuit material. This makes the bag very tactile but more importantly, protects its contents from the elements. There are three main compartments to the bag and each of these

Cleanly designed The Kata bag is well designed, with pleasing special extras. Check out this special opening for headphones!

verdict

£64.95 | Is this the perfect bag to take on creative outings?

9.0

Quality of results

10

Value for money

10

Overall score

9.8 85

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Reviews Books

Painter X for Photographers £27.99 | Achieve great results from your own photos orel Painter is a huge program with in�inite possibilities and can be a daunting prospect for those who have previously only dabbled in photography or other photographic-based image-editing programs. Finding an affordable book that does a good job of exploring the program, not only well but also in a concise manner, can be tricky. Painter X for Photographers is written for those who have a good eye for colour and composition, but aren’t necessarily au fait with the ins and outs of painting concepts, tools, papers and techniques. The book begins with an exploration into the setup and structure of Painter, and also takes some time to explore the

“Painter X for Photographers is written for those who have a good eye for colour and composition, but aren’t necessarily au fait with the ins and outs of concepts”

A good introduction Getting acquainted with Painter X’s many brushes can be a daunting prospect. The ‘Choosing Brushes’ section demonstrates the effects of the brush library

useful compatibility between Painter X and Photoshop. Once this introduction is over, it then tackles some basic techniques including cloning and tracing paper. Quite a hefty section near the beginning of the book is devoted to the selection of brushes that are available in Painter X. Using the same photographic example over and over again, the pages do seem a little bit repetitive but it is a useful approach to

seeing the different results that brush choice can achieve. Included on the rear page is a DVD-ROM presented by Martin Addison, which adds as a good accompaniment to the book and helps you to master the tricks in a more informal manner. Later on you will �ind more speci�ic tutorials for which you can open the source �iles on the DVD and work through the steps, including portraits and special effects. These images are perfect for trying out your new techniques on and once you’ve got the hang of the methods, you can easily apply the steps to your own photographs. Although this is a superb starter guide, the synopsis of the book leads you to believe that the book is suitable for both fresh starters and ‘seasoned pros’, the classi�ication of the book for ‘Beginners and Intermediates’ and the basic topics mean that the Painter X for Photographers would be most appreciated by those who are new to Painter concepts.

Edited by

Martin Addison Price

£27.99 Publisher

Focal Press ISBN

978-0-240-52033-9

The basic interface

Bite-size projects

Complete beginners to Painter X will find the opening chapters useful as they take the time to explain the basics and introduce the program’s interface

Throughout the book you will find plenty of quick and simple techniques for you to try your hand at. After all, it’s true what they say, practise makes perfect!

Using the DVD Many of the smaller techniques in the book can be closely scrutinised and followed meticulously using the sample files found on the DVD supplied with Painter X for Photographers

Handy resource Near the rear of the book you will find a valuable print resource of all the paper assortments found in Painter X, which is always useful to refer back to at any time you may need to

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Successful & Creative Washes £9.99 | Take advantage of traditional watercolour tips Author

Barry Herniman

Price

£9.99

Publisher

Search Press

ISBN

1-84448-148-4

y now, we all know how successful Corel Painter is in replicating the medium of traditional paint. Thus, although Successful & Creative Washes is aimed towards watercolour artists, the layout and approach of the book is valuable to Painter digital artists too. Although the book does devote a considerable amount of space to building up larger, more intricate scenery from scratch, the most useful section is at the beginning. Here, Herniman explores some unusual effects that can be achieved with your brush, including stunning wash effects, glazing and spattering. The layout of the book is superb, with bright and clear step-by-steps that are accompanied by clear and simple instructions. Although there will some tips that have no relevance to the results that can be achieved in Painter, this is an excellent resource for those who wish to perfect a traditional watercolour style.

Basic brush tips The book begins with some invaluable brush application tips, many of which can be applied to your Painter tools

Clear layout The step-by-step style tutorials are carefully laid out with images big enough to pick out intricate details, benefiting digital as well as traditional artists

Good examples Each small project begins with a good-quality large example, which acts as a good reference as you follow the tutorials

Digital Macro Photography £19.95 | Get up close and personal with your camera Authors

Ross Hoddinott

Price

£19.95

Publisher

Photographers’ Institute Press ISBN

1-86108-452-8

f you want to stand out from the crowd with your Painter results, then delving into the world of macro photography will give you plenty of scope for accessing unusual patterns, colours and intricate details. Digital Macro Photography, written by Ross Hoddinott, BBC Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year 1995, is an easy-to-read introduction to macro photography. The manual doesn’t get bogged down in technical jargon and is divided into easily digestible sections. For those who are new to photography, the book begins to explain the kit you will need to take successful close-ups and common problems that might crop up. Images throughout the book are impressive and inspirational, and each chapter in the book encourages you to look in different areas for your subject. Hoddinott’s writing style is friendly but concise, although if you already know the basics of macro photography, you won’t �ind anything extra here.

Kit advice The book begins with a detailed tour of the cameras, lenses and equipment that will help you on your way to taking great close-ups

Shooting tricks A successful macro photo relies heavily on good technique. The ‘Basic techniques’ section talks you through your camera setup and problems that may arise

Varied subjects The book covers a plethora of different subject matter. Professional tips throughout the book offer advice for setup and more advanced camera settings

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Output

Bags of Love

Memory Boxes For storing special trinkets, the memory boxes comprise of a printed image and fabcric-covered sides

Photo albums Available in small, medium and large, these are popular for wedding albums

Journals Printed professionally and handbound to a book cloth. You can even re-create your own This Is Your Life book

Bags

Bags of Love

Complete with a one-year guarantee, bags are printed on satin, with leather, vinyl or canvas trim. They are really sturdy and attractive

Don’t leave your artwork to gather virtual dust on your desktop – waste no time in checking out the multitude of practical gift ideas that Bags of Love has to offer you Tutorial info Artist

Rosie Tanner Time needed

15 minutes Skill level

Beginner

ags of Love is an online service providing a massive selection of personalised photo gifts. The UK-based company employs a team of specialists to manufacture all items in-house. The company launched way back in 2002, which means it’s a well-practised expert in providing excellent customer service and top-quality products. The gift range has grown from a small selection of bags to a huge array of practical items. On �irst impressions, we assumed there wouldn’t be much market for a website which simply turned photographs into bags, but in actual fact, the range of gift options is so immense that you’re likely to �ind making a decision extremely hard. Not only does it produce the usual suspects such as photo canvases, photo books, jigsaws and obviously the bags,

but it also produces some more unusual options. The �irst item to catch our eye was the wallpaper, in which you can have an image blown up to a huge scale and plaster your wall in it. Granted, this is expensive with prices starting at £49 per square metre, but in terms of giving

boxes, tapestry and framed prints, too. All textile printing is done with water-based ink and they are machine washable. The company is both digital and analogue friendly, so don’t fear if all you have is an original print or negative. You can elect to send your picture via

your home that personal touch then you can’t get much better than that. Other interesting items �itting the interior design category include folding screens, roller blinds, blankets and cushions – all delivered to your door between one and 21 days. On a smaller scale, Bags of Love also produces calendars, memory

snail mail and it will do all the necessary scanning and uploading for you. Other handy bonuses you should remember is that it offers free black-and-white or sepia conversions, free red-eye removal and even free blemish removal too! Head online to www.bagso�love.co.uk and see what it can do for you.

“The company is both digital and analogue friendly, so don’t fear if all you have is an original print or negative”

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Prep and upload your files

Gift vouchers

In no time at all, you’ll have both a thoughtful and practical gift

01

02 The first choice

Click on the gift you want to purchase and a page will load asking you how many items you wish to order. Type the relevant number in the box. On the same page is a drop-down menu providing Photo Treatment options: Colour, Black and White and Make Sepia. Choose your preferred option and then press Add to Cart.

Make a selection Load up www.

bagsoflove.co.uk and take a look at the gift options. This is the hardest part, just choosing what you want to go for, but luckily the gifts are divided into categories for ease: Wedding gifts, Personalised gifts, For the home, For him, For her and Photo gifts. We opted for a memory box.

03 Where in the world?

Next, you must select where you live. Despite being based in the UK, Bags of Love will deliver worldwide, although obviously this does affect postage costs. For the memory box, the postage costs are as follows: UK – £3.85, EU – £12 and Worldwide – £15.

04 It’s all about you

At this point you have to enter your address details. If this address differs from the one you want your gift delivered to, then simply click in the option box at the bottom of the page and a new form will pop up asking for your preferred delivery address.

If you’re stuck for finding the perfect present for friends or family, you can order gift vouchers from this site too. That way, people can opt to have any of their images placed on a gift. All you have to do is track down the item you want to buy your friend and tick the box marked Purchase as a Gift Voucher. You will receive through the post an attractive decorated gift certificate printed on A5 white card, with an ivory envelope, which you give to your friend. They can then upgrade or add extras on if they wish, by simply paying the extra difference. The gift voucher takes three to five days to get delivered.

05 Signed, sealed, delivered

Before you can proceed any further, you must agree to the terms and conditions by clicking on the box. As always, it’s advisable to read through these before placing an order – that way you won’t be getting any nasty surprises later on.

Baby photo albums A personalised album is great for lasting memories

06 Money talks

Now enter your debit or credit card details. You can also contact Bags of Love direct to make a payment over the phone, or even send a cheque or postal order. Finally, upload your image. You can upload a JPEG or TIFF and there is no limit on file size. Likewise, you can also send your images via post.

Artwork Time can be enjoyably whiled away looking for the perfect gift

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23/8/07 11:40:53

Readers’ gallery issue eight

Gallery

Appearing regularly in our website gallery, Sue Stevens surprised us when we found out that she has only been using Corel Painter for a year! Discover how one reader has made the move from traditional artist to digital genius aking the move from traditional art materials to the digital canvas needn’t call for a massive change to your working practices. Corel Painter encompasses all the settings and brushes needed to carry on in your traditional style, as Sue Stevens can testify. Although she has only been using the program for just under a year, Sue has an impressive array of work that combines traditional techniques with the bene�its of working digitally. Texture plays an important part in her work, with con�ident brushstrokes that look as though they have been slathered in paint. We’ve got some of Sue’s images here, but if you’d like to see more, head over to www. [email protected].

01

Title: At the Garden Centre We thought this was a great candid scene that merges the colours and textures to striking effect.

When did you start using Corel Painter? I discovered Painter in September 2006 while researching the possibilities of painting using Photoshop, and bought the program immediately. Had you used much traditional media before this? I have painted all my life, originally using gouache and oils, and later moving to

“Undo is essential to me and Save As… gives me freedom to experiment without total commitment” acrylics and watercolour. I have been unable to continue as I lost partial use of my wrist and hand several years ago.

as if I was using paint. I would paint it differently now, but it recalls the pleasure of that moment.

Have you a favourite Corel Painter tool? Undo is essential to me, and Save As… gives me freedom to experiment without total commitment

Who or what inspires you? Karen Bonaker, without a doubt. She is an excellent teacher who freely imparts her knowledge and advice. Her lessons have enabled me to use the Corel Painter program �luently and her tutorials to explore the program’s possibilities. I know that I use what I have learnt.

How would you describe your style? My work has been given labels, but I think I paint traditionally, and I try to paint to suit each image individually. What’s your favourite piece of art that you have created? My own favourite Corel Painter image (Wensleydale) was the �irst time it felt

02

Title: The Artists’ Bridge A fabulous image that has the perfect water reflection for this style. A peaceful and accomplished piece.

What’s the best piece of Painter advice you’ve had? Someone recommended the LVS online classes. I signed up at once and that was the best Corel Painter advice that I’ve had.

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03

Title: Shadow Patterns on Waterlillies This is another piece that conjures up feelings of the old masters. The water is fantastic, with a great feeling of movement and ripples.

04

Title: Early Morning The light in this artwork is sublime. The softness is perfect, the composition sets just the right mood and the rays are gorgeous.

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Gallery

Readers’ gallery issue eight

06

Title: Peonies The green background here makes the pinks of the flowers leap to the front, giving a feeling of depth and layered planting.

05

Title: Cowboy Painting movement is a tricky thing to do, so we were impressed with how Sue introduced dynamic elements into this piece. The flying lasso leaves you in no doubt that the cowboy is on the move and the different directions of the horses’ heads also contribute to the sense of speed and movement. The use of yellow looks as though dust is being churned up by the horses’ hooves – again giving a feeling of speed.

07

Title: Misty Morning Although the detail here is quite minimal, you can instantly see what the scene is and almost feel the cool sensation of a misty morning. The path leads you nicely into the painting, helping the viewer’s eyes move around the scene.

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08

Title: Weston Shore This painting proves that you don’t need to use realistic colours in order to make a scene recognisable. The purple colours on the sand make the blue of the water really stand out. Sue has also used great texture in this image, with lovely thick paint bringing the image together.

09

Title: Boats on the Mill Pond Rich, luscious colours are complemented by thick texture and 3D paint, all combining to make this image look just like a traditional piece. The composition and lack of sharp detail gives a lazy Sunday feeling, where all you have to do is relax by the river and take a short nap!

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Readers’ challenge issue eight

Challenge e’ve put together another merry hodgepodge of images for you to transfer onto your computer and do something amazing with! You might like to pick just one photo, or maybe use a selection and try your hand at montages. You are free to use

images from past challenges or you can use some of your own photos or artwork – just make sure you use at least one challenge photo in your entry. Either email or post your artwork to us at the address given below. You can enter multiple entries, but only one will be put forward to the �inal judging.

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

t’s a tough business being us. Not only do we have to scour through amazing artwork from inspiring artists to get the magazine tutorials, we also have to pour through the entries you send us for the challenges. This being the magazine, we take care of the magazine challenges, although don’t forget the Creative Challenge on our website. So who do we have this issue? Taking third place is Samantha Cread with a �irey dragon, using the pastel medium. Second place goes to W Szabo Peter for a very accomplished painting, complete with a personal belief. But the winner this issue is Joey Lim Li-Shan, for a colurful, textured and intriguing piece of work. Well done!

WINNER! Joey Lim Li-Shan

3RD PLACE Samantha Cread

2ND PLACE W Szabo Peter

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JASON CHAN Official Magazine

100_OPM_08-back cover.indd 1

Our cover artwork comes courtesy of Jason Chan. We loved his use of texture and colour and couldn’t resist having it grace the issue. See more of Jason’s work at www.jasonchanart.com

21/8/07 16:47:49