Corel Painter - 04 - Magazine, Art, Digital Painting, Drawing, Draw, 2d

Ofcial Corel Painter TM Magazine
Learn to paint digitally today!
Artistic advice
and inspiration
Issue four
Official Magazine
Edit with the Focus effects

Using the Artists Oils
Creative questions solved
ON THE DIS
FEATURED
IN THIS ISSUE
GET STARTECD
WITH COREL
PAINTER
QUICK STAR
Selection tools
T GUIDE
PROGRAM DE
RESOURCESMO
Control every part of your image

with our guide to selection options
Learn to draw faces

Understand face proportions and
draw portraits from scratch
Pastel pictures
Watercolour
masterclass
Produce a beautiful lake scene,
Discover how to re-create this

classic art form on your computer
courtesy of the Watercolor brushes
Special feature! See page 22
Visit us online www.paintermagazine.co.uk
Use phot
photos
to create art
Three top artists reveal how and why
they use photos in their artwork
www.paintermagazine.co.uk
Home prints
The best suppliers of fine art
paper for home inkjet printers
OPM_04-CoverFINALfo JO.indd 1
Paul Gauguin
Re-create Gauguins colourful
style in our Paint Like tutorial
c
Ma
and
C
P
Free CD inside
207 PHOTOS | BRUSHES | FONTS
Readers art
See what artwork other readers
are creating with Corel Painter
ISSUE FOUR
ISSN 1753-3155
6.00
04
771753 315000
2/5/07 10:08:32
Welcome
This is THE magazine for anyone wanting to further their
Corel Painter skills or learn how to become a better artist
Selection tools
We reveal how to use the
best selection tools and
improve your work
Pg 52
Watercolours
Perfect the classic look
of watercolour paintings
with this tutorial
Pg 68
Drawing 101:
Face proportions
What you need to sketch
faces from scratch
Visit our website!

If you find that the magazine isnt enough to satisfy your Corel
Painter appetite, you can always visit our website. Pop on over to
www.paintermagazine.co.uk and register as a user. Once this is
out of the way, explore the pages and enjoy great content such as
Downloadable resources
Online galleries to share your work
Special forum for meeting other Corel Painter users
ISSUE FOUR
Pg 48
Its impossible to identify a

typical user of Corel Painter
the variety of styles and
techniques is what makes it
so special. But one noticeable
trend to have appeared is that
of professional photographers
using the program to offer clients ine art
portraits. Not only does this add something
extra to their services, it also means they enjoy
another creative outlet. Our feature looks
at how three photographers are using Corel
Painter to do just this, so turn to page 22 and
get some valuable advice from the experts.
If you prefer a rougher inish to your work,
the pastel tutorial on page 40 offers the perfect
anecdote. Learn how to build up a great pastel
effect and load your image with texture. In
complete contrast to this, page 52 reveals
how to manipulate Corel Painters Watercolor
brushes to create a lake scene that looks as wet
as its subject matter.
And if you enjoyed our portrait painting
tutorial last issue, turn to this issues Drawing
101 on page 68 and discover how to sketch
faces from scratch.
Happy painting!
Jo Cole, Editor
jo.cole@imagine-publishing.co.uk
005_OPM04_Welcome.indd 3
3/5/07 16:41:31
ON THE FRONT COVER
Victorian portraits pg 32
Watercolour
masterclass
Turn your photos or
sketches into stunning
watercolour images
Pg 52
P22 USE PHOTOS TO
CREATE ART
DISCOVER HOW THREE

PHOTOGRAPHERS ARE CREATING
ART FROM THEIR IMAGES
P99 GET STARTED WITH

DIGITAL PAINTING
Pg 34
FREE CD-ROM PACKED WITH

ESSENTIAL RESOURCES FOR CREATING
DIGITAL ART
Regulars in every issue

08 Subscriptions
Sign up for our subscription
service to save money and make
sure you never miss an issue
10 Corel Painter community

See whats happening in the
world of Corel Painter and catch
up on readers letters
31 Painter showcase
97 Readers Challenge
Another bumper crop

of weird photos to load
up in Corel Painter and
get creative with
98 On the disc
Get all the information

of the art resources on
this issues disc
Delicious pages of beautiful

Corel Painter artwork from both
new and professional artists
YOUR
WORK
PRINTED
TO CANVAS
Pg 97
Reviews
84 Kodak EasyShare V803
It may be a humble compact, but
we nd out that it still delivers a
hefty amount of power. Read our
review to nd out more
86 Wacom Favo Comic Pack

Like manga? See if youll love this
special graphics tablet package
from Wacom, which bundles
together a Graphire4 tablet and
specialist software
88 Books
Head on over to page 88 to check
out the latest collection of helpful
titles to aid your creativity, whatever
format or genre you may be
interested in
76 Art Class
Turn here for handy answers
to common creative and
technical questions
94 Readers Gallery
Interested in what fellow
readers are getting up to? Flick
to page 94 to nd out
WIN!
90 Inkjet paper companies

Original artwork by
Anna Thielke
Discover some of the best

companies that offer creative
options for your home inkjet printer
006-7_OPM04_Contents.indd 6
3/5/07 16:17:18
Paint like Paul

Gauguin
pg 60
Use photos to
create art
pg 22
Interview:
Bruce Dorn
pg 14
Original artwork by Fay Sirkis
Feature
Combine digital art

22 Turn photos into art
Original artwork by Bruce Dorn
We catch up with three professional photographers

and discover how and why they are using
Corel Painter to create art
Visit our
website now!
tutorials
Create inspirational art

32 Daniel Cox shows you how
We get this talented artist to
talk us through the creation of
one of his images, and share
his best creative tips
40 Paint with pastels

Discover how to master the art
of working with digital pastel
and create a your own glorious
piece of art
Drawing 101
Traditional artistic techniques
68 Understand face proportions
Being able to create a realistic portrait all starts with a believable
sketch. If you struggle with capturing the human face, turn to page
68 for advice on how to make your initial sketch and build upon that
52 Watercolour masterclass
Capture the softness and
wash feeling of traditional
watercolours with this guide
60 Paint like: Gauguin

Learn more about Gauguin
and then try to re-create the
colourful and bold look of his
work for yourself
Primers
www.
painter
magazine.
co.uk
Get up and running

38 Effects: Focus
Control how a viewers eye moves
around your image by using the
Focus commands
66 Brushes: Artists Oils
For luscious brush strokes, this

brush set is hard to beat. Learn
more about it here
Feature focus
Get to know your tools

48 Selection tools
Corel Painter has an excellent array
of selection methods. Discover
how the best ones work here
006-7_OPM04_Contents.indd 7
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NEWS EVENTS
RESOURCES
LETTERS WEBSITES
INFO FORUM
Get creative with

free photography
Theres a whole culture of free photo sites to explore
and then get painting with!
RESOURCES
MorgueFile (www.
morguefile.com) is
another top provider
of quality photos
for personal or
commercial use
he relationship between Corel

Painter and photos can be
an extremely close one our
feature on page 22 shows how
three photographers now incorporate
digital painting in their creative worklow.
Of course, theres also the opportunity
to use photos as the driving force behind
a painting.
Theres no need to limit your

creativity to what you can personally
photograph, though. The art community
is a sharing place and the amount of sites
that offer free photos for download is
growing all the time. One of the best places
to go is Stock.XCHNG (www.sxc.hu). Sign
up to the site and then search the database
for the photo you need. Once signed in, you
can download as many photos as you like,
but do pay attention to any restrictions
placed by the photographer.
If you do need photos for a commercial
project, MorgueFile (www.morgueile.
com) is just the ticket. You can download
thousands of high-resolution photographs
for whatever you wish.
To get an overview of just how many
free photo sites exist, head over to
Blue Vertigo (www.bluevertigo.com.
ar/bluevertigo.htm). This lists the best
free photo sites in addition to low-cost and
commercial companies.
Stock.XCHNG (www.sxc.hu) is a fabulous place to

come for quality free photos
Finally we have to mention Yotophoto

(www.yotophoto.com). This is a search
engine that trawls through free photo
sites, bringing you results from all the best.
Theres nothing like transforming your
own photos into a glorious painting, but if
you need something speciic or that youll
never have the opportunity to photograph,
always pay a visit to these free sites and
you should ind exactly what you need.
10
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Prepare to enter texture heaven

Free resource site offers lots of potential to digital creatives
orel Painters brushes can live or die
by the paper they are used on, and
the secret of a really good paper
is one that has plenty of texture for the
brush to cling to.
One excellent way of getting the exact
paper texture you need is by creating
your own, and a great site to visit to help
you with this is Image*After (www.
imageafter.com). This is a really helpful
site that has thousands of free photos for
you to download, and it has a particularly
good texture section. Arranged into
categories such as metal, fabrics, rock and
goo (!), you just have to click on a texture
you like and then wait for it to download.
Once downloaded, open up in Corel
Painter, take a grab and turn it into the
perfect paper texture!
ART TOOLS
Improve your
colour knowledge
Handy online tool means perfect
colours every time
icking colours that work

together is an essential part
of any artists worklow. The
wrong colour can ruin an otherwise
perfectly executed painting, so its
important to get things right. If your
colour theory is a bit rusty, though, Steel
Dolphin Creative (www.steeldolphin.
com/color_scheme.html) has just the
thing. This free online tool will work
out all the colours you need. Simply
enter your main hue, decide what kind
of scheme youd like (complementary,
analogous and so on) and then watch
as the perfect colours appear. Its
exceptionally easy to use and could be
the missing ingredient you need.
Diary
Creative happenings from
around the world
MAY
31
iStockalypse
If youre near Austin, Texas

from 31 May to 3 June, pay a visit to
the iStockalypse. Kicking off with a full
day of training for beginners looking to
improve their photos, visitors can look
forward to a few days of sun and fun.
Pay a visit to www.istockphoto.com
to see if there are any places left.
Image*After has lots

to offer Corel Painter
users looking for
images to turn into
paper textures
MAY
Become part of the

GFXartist community
PORTFOLIO
Discover some
phenomenal
artists, such
as Katarina
Sokolova, who
created the
image that
graced issue
twos cover
Inspiration and glory await you at

this popular art site
reating artwork can be a lonely business,
which is why communities such as
GFXartist are so important. The site
went live in March 2000, operated by Brothers
in Art who hail from the Netherlands. Thanks to
a dedicated team of volunteers from around the
world, it has grown into a thriving community
for people to come and discuss their work, to
learn from the tutorials or just to catch up with
friends using the buddylist and message system.
Its impossible to do a casual browse of the site
the variety of photography, digital art and
drawing will soon hook you in and soon itll be a
regular web haunt. So why ght it? Head over to
www.gfxartist.com and enjoy!
24
Karen Sperling
art exhibition
Visitors to Ney Yorks Monkdogz

Urban Art Gallery can enjoy a show
that includes the work of Corel Painter
genius, Karen Sperling. Running until
2 June, get more information from
www.monkdogz.com
JUN
07
Landscape
photography class
If you head over to Pittsfield, Illinois,

on 7-9 June, you will find a three-day
training course on taking landscape
photography. Your host is Don
Gale and if it sounds like something
youre interested in, visit www.
photographyhybydon.com to see if
there are any places left.
JUN
21
Keep your colours on the right track with this
handy online tool
dates
RESOURCES
Issue 5 of OPM goes

on sale!
Make a beeline to your local

newsagent and ask to see the latest
copy of the Official Corel Painter
Magazine. Or if youd rather spare
yourself a trip, pop along to www.
imaginesubs.co.uk and sign up for
a subscription!
11
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Welcome to the part of the magazine where you can com
and share your thoughts on anything you fancy!
Send your
letters to...
Ofcial Corel Painter
Magazine, Imagine
Publishing, Richmond
House, 33 Richmond
Hill, Bournemouth,
Dorset BH2 6EZ, UK
Tweaking the past
I have your magazine and I would be

interested to appear in print. I have sent
you one of my latest digital artworks made
completely with Corel Painter and my
Wacom tablet.
As you can see, this digital artwork is a
re-creation or interpretation of Girl with
If youd prefer to contact

us via email, send your
message to opm@
imagine-publishing.
co.uk
a Pearl Earring, painted by the Dutch

master Johannes Vermeer. Many people
often describe it as the Mona Lisa of the
North or the Dutch Mona Lisa.
Most of my digital artworks are
abstract and neo- igurative. I have been
using Corel Painter since the earlier
versions, but in the case of this image, I
used the Artists Oils brushes, Impasto
tools, and also John Derrys brushes.
If any other readers would like to see
more of my work, my digital art portfolio
can be found at www.ivandomeyko.
co.nr.
Ivan Domeyko
Thanks for the letter, Ivan, and also for sending

us your work. A lot of people are turning
to iconic paintings such as Girl with a Pearl
Earring and giving them a modern twist.
Its a great way of instantly getting a clever
picture. We do something similar in out regular
Paint Like tutorials, but tend to stick with a
straightforward re-creation of a classic image.
Actually, while were on the subject, its worth
saying how valuable working in another
painters style is. By forcing yourself to work
in another way, you tend to uncover new
methods for doing something often far
better methods!
Has anyone else done

the same as Ivan and
given a modern twist to a
traditional painting?
Readers Tip
Share your Corel Painter wisdom
Quickly get back to the default
Im forever tweaking my brush variants or

adding to various libraries and used to go
mad trying to restore to the default settings.
Then someone told me to hold down Shift
as you start the program and itll go to the
original state. Thought Id pass it on!
Sarah Steeley
Great tip, Sarah. Its certainly a trick we use
here quite a lot!
Sharing the wealth
Just had to write and say that I love the

magazine. The irst issue just debuted
here in Canada. Please ind two sample
images for attached submission in
the magazine and please keep up the
GREAT work. If anyone want to visit it,
my website is www.webcomicsnation.
com/jgesq/
Julian Grant
Well, keeping with the spirit of sharing the

love, we really like what youve done with
these images. Were guessing they started off
Website challenge winner

See who scooped the prize!
If youve visited our website,
you will no doubt have seen the
competition area, where we give
away a years subscription to the
magazine to the winner. Well, our
rst deadline has been and gone
and were delighted to crown Lynne
Mitchell the winner. As you can see
here, her painting was absolutely
exquisite, and was a worthy winner
But we have to mention the
close runners-up. Catherine
Bounds, Yasmin Coskun and Dave
McKeague were all extremely
close. Actually, the entire standard
of entries was very high, so pat
yourselves on the back. And
make sure you check out the new
challenge on the site!
Lynne Mitchell
Catherine Boun
ds
Cha ll en ge
winner
Yasmin Coskun
12
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www.paintermagazine.co.uk
bsi te info
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The latest from our

forum and website
Julian has merged traditional paint techniques with modern images to create these vibrant and striking artworks
as photos? By keeping photo elements and

mixing it with more obvious painterly effects,
youve created something that has its own
kind of mood. Theres the urban feel of the
photo coupled with the softer side of the brush
strokes. Excellent stuff! And your site has some
great stuff on it too.
Customisation caution
I thought I would write in and share a

little problem that I had recently. Even
if it stops one reader having the same
frustration as me itll be worth it! I
recently bought Corel Painter X and
eagerly started playing about with all the
different tools and commands. Enjoyed
doing this for a while and then settled
down for some proper work.
A few weeks went by and I bought your

magazine. I was following Jeff Johnsons
tutorial and went to select the Artists
Oils brush he used but couldnt ind it!
All I had in the brush category was one
poultry variant. I had a look in some
other categories and saw there were
quite a few brushes missing. By this time
I was well and truly stumped I could
see them in the Libraries but not in the
actual interface. And then it dawned on
me. When I was playing around with the
program, I was tinkering about in the
Customize Workspace area. I had turned
some brushes off and had somehow set
that as my default workspace. Needless to
say, all is good now!
Website updates
As you can see below, weve had the winners in for
our irst website challenge, but this is only the irst
of many! We will be holding a continual challenge
on the website with nice long deadlines, so you
have plenty of time to get your entry in. And heres
a couple weve had so far, to boost you along. The
irst is from Kobi McKenzie, while the second is
courtesy of Snowy.
Keeping with the website, we just wanted to let
you know that well be introducing minor tweaks
in the near future to make it even better!
ENTER T
FORUMHE
CHALLE
NGE
Dont b
e
still time shy theres
www.pa to enter! Go to
int
co.uk/co ermagazine.
mpetitio
ns
Patrick Swift
Ha ha, thanks for the tale, Patrick. I think weve

all been in your shoes randomly clicking lots
of tools and commands and then not having a
clue how to get back to the original state. The
Customize Workspace feature you mention in
Corel Painter X is an excellent way of cutting
back on tools you dont use, but just remember
that youre in it!
Forum update
New topic of conversation
User: editorjo
Subject: Readers resources
Since we are very keen to get as many of you involved in the
magazine as possible, I want you to let us know of any Corel Painter
resources you may have made. Itd be great to have a readers
section on the disc each issue, where you can share your work with
others and help their creativity. Either email me (jo.cole@imaginepublishing.co.uk) or make a posting in the Readers Resources
topic in Feedback.
Dave McKeague
Whenever you customise a workspace, remember

to call it something obvious so you dont think
something has gone missing
Head over to the forum to see what

people are talking about today!
www.paintermagazine.co.uk/forum
13
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Interview Bruce Dorn
WEBSITE
JOB TITLE
CLIENTS
www.idcphotography.com
Freelance photographer and artist
United Press International, Cond Nast Publishing
An interview with
Bruce Dorn
From Hollywood to Corel Painter Master, Bruce Dorn has had an eventful last few
years. Nick Spence discovers how a period of reflection led to a whole new career
[BELOW]
Thinkn about Runnin
Autumn colours define
this late round-up as
an Oregon cowhand
keeps an eye on an
independent-minded
maverick. Bruce
abstracted the original
photographs hues for a
more graphic effect
any would think themselves

lucky to have had one
glittering career. Bruce Dorn
however, has had several,
covering cinematography, photography
and illustration. Surprisingly, his career
as an award-winning Corel Painter artist
only began after a mystery illness laid
him low. Fearing that he may be chairbound for the rest of his life, Bruce turned
to the computer and began experimenting
with Corel Painter. Today, Bruce is the
only digital artist to be recognised as
a Canon Explorer of Light, Canon Print
Master and Corel Painter Master. His
digital artistry has also earned him
the prestigious Kodak Professional
Innovators Award.
Why and when did you start using

Corel Painter?
By the year 2000, I had been working as
a director/cameraman in Hollywood for
almost 20 years. My area of speciality
was high-risk cinematography and visual
effects. Things were going swimmingly
until I was suddenly stricken by a bizarre
health problem. I was strapped into
one of my race cars when my legs went
tingly and then numb. They stayed that
way for 16 weeks. I had trouble walking
and dificulty doing my job. Everything
changed at that moment.
The condition was never adequately
diagnosed, but ultimately cleared up
just as mysteriously as it began. During
the time of my afliction, I had much
opportunity to relect on the future and
a life that might ind me chair-bound
and tied to my computer. I started
experimenting with Corel Painter and
soon fell in love with the many creative
possibilities. My long ilm career is
now mostly in the past, but through a
delightful combination of adventure
workshops, digital photography and
digital painting, my life is busier and more
interesting than ever before.
How do you start a digital painting? Do
you have a typical workow process or
does it differ according to the particular
piece you are doing?
Whim dictates much of what I do. I
occasionally do freehand digital studies,
but most of my work in Painter is based
upon select photographic captures. I
Perfect Processional
Captured during the wedding of a classical dancer, this
image has been licensed as a design illustration for
Canons Fine Art Photo Rag inkjet papers
only paint those images that could easily

stand alone as an exceptional straight
photograph. I feel that it is tantamount to
a crime to use either Painter or Photoshop
as a disguise for a weak original capture.
You describe your Corel Painter style
as fast, fun, and spontaneous. How is
this achieved?
I always paint with a Wacom Intuos3
14
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All original artwork by Bruce Dorn

Chargin the Bank
A wrangler sends water flying as he urges his mount
across a bracing mountain stream. Bruce created this
painting as an exercise to see what would result from
using a single brush (Smeary Round Oil) and simply
changing its size and resat settings
15
2/5/07 10:47:36
Classic Flamenco
Lacking a proper studio
environment, Bruce lit and
photographed the dancer in a
modest residential garage. The
architectural background was
added in Photoshop and the
composite image was rendered
using Painter IX
My Dance Series is an ongoing pleasure

and I simply love creating images of the
disappearing Wild West
16
2/5/07 10:48:01
Dancers in Repose
Spontaneously posed, captured, and painted during
one of Bruces live Corel Painter demonstrations,
this image has been the recipient of many awards.
Featured in the Art of Digital show, Dancers in
Repose also earned the Gold for Best Portrait in
Ballistic Publishings book, Painter: the Worlds
Best Painter Art
[ABOVE]
Backstage
Carefully illuminated
with a mix of gelled
strobe and ambient
window light, this scene
was captured moments
after Dancers in
Repose. Bruce feels that
well-conceived lighting
plays a critical part in
the creation of his best
digital paintings
tablet and stylus. Painting with a mouse

is like painting with a potato; it might be
possible, but it sure wont be pretty.
The fast, fun, and spontaneous is a
function of my tendency to paint alla
prima, quickly and in the moment. I like
to paint energetically and prefer to apply
my digital paint in broad, spontaneous
strokes. I dont use the Undo button
very often and will always try to paint
my way out of an awkward corner. I do
work extensively with the Tracing Paper
function afforded by Painters Quick

Cloning technique, but I often go off on
wild freehand tangents. I choose not to
work with layers, preferring to approach
the digital canvas in much the same way
as a natural media painter would; start
with a quick middle-tone underpainting
followed by an appropriate build-up of
shadow and highlight details. Using this
combination of philosophy and technique,
I can turn around a nicely inished digital
painting in very short order.
As a photographer, how much work is

done on the photographic source before
the illustration process starts?
As with any inished photograph, I always
spend time optimising my original
capture in Photoshop before even
considering a visit to Painter. Its usually
simply a matter of ine-tuning the colour
balance, saturation, and tonal range.
We also use our Hollywood Glam skin
retouching action to make short work
of any complexion clean-up that might
be required.
To be blunt, the preparation for a
successful painting truly starts at the
exact moment of capture. The quality
and character of the illumination present
during original capture dictates the
ultimate success of the inished piece.
Light creates an emotional response that
is as nuanced as it is powerful. Pay careful
attention to the light.
We try to blend the photographers
decisive moment with the
Impressionists emotional palette. Hence
the resultant trademarked style we have
named Photo Impressionism.
Does the market for your illustration
work differ from your photography?
Yes. Both are assignment-based and
17
2/5/07 10:48:26
Lioness Charge
Working from an image captured
during an iDC Photography
Photographic safari to Botswana,
Bruce used the Sergeant brush and
a Small Palette Knife to create a
dramatic action portrait
therefore commercial art efforts. It

should be noted that when a photographic
commission is requested, the task is
usually more about communication
than some poetic musings. Illustration
traditionally addresses a more conceptual
look at the subject and therefore allows a
somewhat looser rein.
Perhaps its the evolution of the
delivery medium that is most rapidly
changing the market. The emergence of
pigment-jet printers and the subsequent
capacity to deliver magniicent canvas
prints offers many new marketing

opportunities. We use Canons ine
iPF9000 wide-format printer and our
clients are thrilled with the results.
Commercial clients generally require
only a inished ile for print or internet
reproduction, but colour-match prints are
still very valuable.
Do you still nd time for self-initiated
work or is all your time now taken up with
commissions, workshops and teaching?
I spent many years marching to the beat
of others but at this point I vastly prefer

to dance to my own silly little tune. I see
no great conlict between the goals of
my personal work and my profession
efforts. If my clients disagree, well, they
arent really appropriate clients for my
work, are they? Marketing has always
been an ongoing process of reinement.
Our workshops and tutorials promote a
similar philosophy of branding through
personal vision.
[ABOVE]
Working on location
With his Mac laptop
lashed to a battered
French easel and
his Wacom tablet
near at hand, Bruce
experiments with
painting landscapes, en
plein air.
What are your favourite Corel Painter

tools/features?
I enjoy having the ability to make Custom
Brushes. We create new brushes with
each painting tutorial and the toolbox is
growing larger with each passing day.
18
2/5/07 10:48:57
Bruces photographic exploration

of the New West were deserves
rewarded with an Artist in dly
Residence exhibition during th
Ansel Adams Retrospective ate
Eiteljorg Museum of America the
Indians and Western Art. If yo n
would like to see more of Brucu
work, simply pay a visit to w es
ww.
idcphotography.com
Cowboy Blues
Clyde, the original steed of the iconic Marlboro Man is
still at work. Here he carries a wrangler across an icy
Wyoming river to round up some strays. Bruce and
his wife, Painter Master Maura Dutra, hold an annual
digital workshop in Jackson Hole each September
19
2/5/07 10:49:27
What advice would you give to any

traditional photographer or artist
starting to explore the wonders of
Corel Painter?
Dont be intimidated! At irst glance,
Painter can seem overwhelming, but
have no fear! Get yourself a good basic
tutorial and jump right in; I promise
that no pixels will be harmed in the
process. As with any medium worth
mastering, Painter rewards the diligent
and resourceful. Select a technique and
give it your best. If your initial efforts
dont quite pass muster, try again, and
then again. The subtle understanding
that makes for a beautiful result doesnt
arrive overnight. Invest ample time
exploring and eventually grace will
descend on mufled wings. Until then,
enjoy the ride. The joy of discovering
one feels while painting is much of
the reward.
Finally, what is your favourite piece of

Corel Painter work that you have created
so far?
Thats like asking which child is your
favourite. I love them all and each one
brings back a moment and a place and
a personality that would otherwise be
trusted only to porous memory. My
Dance Series is an ongoing pleasure
and I simply love creating images of the
disappearing Wild West. The people and
creatures of Africa are a recent discovery
that I hope to explore in great depth. All
the images accompanying this article
are favourites.
Bruces early career with

the camera took him around
the globe shooting photojournalistic and editorial
assignments for United Press
International, Cond Nast
Publishing, People, Money
and Business Week magazines
Bruce is available for commissions,

workshops, and tutorials through his
website. To see more of his stunning
work and learn more about his
services, head over to his site at www.
idcphotography.com
Rosalind
Bruce posed, lit, and painted
this sultry portrait of Chicago
photographer Rosalind Van
Tuyl during a 90-minute Photo
Impressionism seminar in Las
Vegas, Nevada
20
2/5/07 10:50:37
Feature
Use photos to create art
Use photos
to create art
Original artwork by Fay Sirkis
Corel Painter has opened up new possibilities for

painters and photographers, merging the best of
both worlds with magical results
or traditional painters and photographers, Corel Painter
has helped achieve the dificult task of combining the two
art forms with subtlety and lair. Although artists have long
used photographs for inspiration and source material, Corel
Painter makes the process a painlessly simple pleasure. Open your
photograph, go to File>Quick Clone and you are ready to start work.
Crucially, its allowed professional artists to market a style that is
neither painting nor photography.
Corel Painter has also freed many traditional ilm-based
photographers from the darkroom, creating a new, all-digital
worklow from photo shoot to inished print. Corel Painter X now
includes many tools associated with traditional photography,
including dodge and burn enhancement tools. For photographers and
painters, Corel Painter is also a signiicant time saver, allowing a level
of experimentation that may take hours to produce traditionally.
For anyone working from photographs, new additions in Corel
Painter X now give greater control than ever with the introduction
of the enhanced Photo Painting system. This includes the
Underpainting palette that uses colour schemes based on various
artistic styles. A new Autopainting palette beneits from Corel
Painters Smart Stroke technology and allows a level of intelligent
auto-painting, automatically applying brushstrokes to your photo
source. Even for novice painters and photographers, Corel Painter
offers the potential to create, market and sell paintings and portraits
from photographs. Over the next few pages we meet three respected
award-winning Corel Painter users doing just that, combining paint
and photography digitally to produce stunning results.
22
022-29_OPM04_feature.indd 22
2/5/07 14:08:13
y
k by Helen Yanc
Original artwor
23
3/5/07 17:22:45
k by Fay Sirkis
Original artwor
lguero
k by Claudia Sa
Original artwor
k by Helen Yanc
Original artwor
Feature
d
ually produPceainter
an
m
e
in
b
m
el
Co skills with Cor
painting ion. I first teach how
automat e program to paint s
to use th then after two day way.
manuallyem the automated roper
show th eople to learn the p the
I want p then you combine anual
way, and omated with the m
two, aut e amazing results.
For Fay Sirkis, art and painting was always in the blood. Enrolled in
for som
Fay Sirkis
art classes by her parents at an early age, Fay has wanted to paint
since she was a small child. A respected traditional ine artist, Fay
now works digitally and is in demand for her evocative portraits
WEBSITE
www.faysartstudio.com
JOB TITLE
Digital artist
BIO
New York-based contemporary digital artist,
Fay Sirkis, is an internationally recognised
portrait artist, photographer and instructor. A
popular speaker at conferences and seminars,
Fay recently visited the UK to help launch
Corel Painter X. As a beta tester for the Corel
Corporation, Fay has also helped shape and
road-test recent updates. Fay is a Painter
Master and has had her work featured in
Corels Painter Masters Art Gallery, along with
numerous ad campaigns, including the recent
2007 calendar printed in honour of Corel
Painter X. Fay is also a Canon Print Master,
producing work that has featured in numerous
Canon brochures.
Working from photographs as reference,

Fay offers high quality Giclee prints on
many subjects, personally signed and
shipped with a certiicate of authenticity.
Mostly I am commissioned to paint
portraits of people, but I must say that
during the past half year, pet portraits
have doubled in requests, says Fay.
As well as two and four-legged loved
ones, landscapes also offer universal
appeal and Fay produces limited-edition
prints for an increasingly buoyant art
market. Art is very, very big, and is
getting more so with each year, and each
show that I attend. The art market is
growing more then any other that I am
familiar with.
Throughout her teachings and travels,
Fay meets many artists, and a lot are new
to Corel Painter. As a valued instructor
Fay sees irst hand the interest and
passion the software application can
spark in new users. At the recent Focus
on Imaging show in Birmingham, Fay had
a chance to both inspire and make some
new friends. Most had very little prior
experience with Painter, if any at all. Their
reaction to my seminar was very exciting
and they were very inspired by the
possibilities that I sparked in them.
Fay teaches regularly at the Lepp
Institute of Digital Imaging (www.
Painted Fall View In

addition to her beautiful
portraits, Fay produces a
wide range of paintings
on very different subjects.
This example above
demonstrates another
side to her creativity
leppphoto.com) in California, where

ninety per cent of students are new Corel
Painter users. Rather than a step-bystep guide on how to paint like Fay, she
encourages new users to develop their
own unique style. I guarantee that no
one leaves my workshop without knowing
how to paint, in some style or another,
promises Fay. Over a ive-day workshop
users can expect to be overwhelmed and
the training starts with students being
asked not to take any notes. I want their
full, undivided attention. I go through the
entire photo painting process in about
two hours, from start to inish, so that
they have an understanding of the whole
Explore the Workspace Manager,

new in Corel Painter X, which
allows you to easily customise and
back up your workspaces as well
as export and share them with
your friends and colleagues. It
allows me, as an instructor, the
possibilities of sharing my brushes
and layouts and all my workflow
with my students.
Explore
System, tnhee RealBristle Paintin
Never w in Corel Pain g
paint as rbeeafore was it possibleter X.
now with t listic brush strokes to
a must to hese new brushes. as
can almost feel the experience, It is
smel the p
aint! you
Fays top tip
Fays top tip
With her own bespoke set of brushes, Fay can turn photos into stunning paintings
that delight clients from all over the world
Fays top tip
al artwork by Philip Straub

Origin24
2/5/07 14:09:18
May Wynn This painting is a fabulous example of

how photos can be used as the basis for artwork that
blurs the boundaries between photography and art
workflow. After a good cup of coffee,

Fay starts the lesson again, this time
allowing for note taking, repeating the
photo painting process lesson by lesson.
For Fay, the teaching process is very
much a two-way street, she gains both
pride and pleasure from the skills her
students learn and the distinctive
artwork they will often produce. The
results I get from some of my students
in my workshops make me so proud, it
many of the new features ahead of release

and offer valuable feedback. For example,
Corel Painter X allows you to easily
customise and back up your workspaces
as well as export and share them. The
new workspace manager is amazing.
It allows me, as an instructor, the
possibility of sharing my brushes and
layouts and all my workflow with my
I guarantee that no one leaves my workshop

without knowing how to paint in some style
brings me to tears. There is no greater
inspiration for me than to see my student,
so full of self worth, after realising
what they are capable of painting using
this amazing program, enthuses Fay.
Everyone has a unique vision. My
workshops are not about teaching the
user to paint like me, but to teach them all
that is available to them.
Advances in Corel Painter in recent
years have also helped to make the
teaching process that bit easier. As a beta
tester, Fay has been privileged to try
Use a smaller W
tablet for
sketching out ideasacoanm
d
for
Usually when I just travel.
starting
out on my new am
pa
int
ing
,
I
and sketch out, and think sit back
I want to go with my of where
image.
There are times
and relax with thew6xhe8n I sit back
on my lap.
Fays top tip
students, by just having them import one

simple .pws file. In just seconds they have
available to them all that is on my desktop
and hard drive.
Fay has just finished her first DVD
in honour of Corel Painter X that will
include many of her teaching resources,
giving others outside her workshops
a chance to shine. Included is Fays
Master Workspace, including seven new
brush categories, allowing the user the
possibility of painting like Rembrandt,
Renoir, Monet and more.
25
2/5/07 14:09:54
Feature
Claudia Salguero
For Claudia, Corel Painter couldnt have
come at a better time. For many years she
had worked on two of her passions as a
photographer and ine art painter
WEBSITE
www.closalguerophoto.com
JOB TITLE
Digital artist
BIO
Born and raised in Colombia, Latin America,
Claudia Salguero is an award-wining
professional photographer, fine artist and
graphic designer now based in Ottawa,
Canada. After discovering Corel Painter back
in 2003, Claudia was finally able to meld all
three disciplines into a magical mix. Her list
of impressive clients include Sony Music and
The Supreme Court of Canada. The Corel
Corporation now recognise Claudia as a
Painter Master the only individual from
South America in an internationally renowned
group of very talented professionals.
ng on layers
Try cloning and workitou
un
leaving your canvas th it;checred.ating
At the end, play wi objects
colours, textures or new
r layers
that will show throughdeyou
ess and
epn
age
giving the final im
r.
ou
richness of col
Claudia s top tip
Combining both with any artistic subtlety

wasnt really an option and creating
images digitally had initially left her
cold. There are many traditional artists,
I was one of them, who think that this
is not real art, explains Claudia. Early
prejudices aside, she began to explore
the many ways in which Corel Painter
can reproduce traditional media digitally
and soon became hooked, enhancing a
third creative skill along the way. I am
combining not two but three passions
in Painter; photography, painting and
graphic design. As a graphic designer I
learnt how to communicate ideas through
images and that is what I do with Painter,
says Claudia. By painting over my photos
I add meaning to them. I add the feelings,
energy or moods that my camera couldnt
capture when taking the photo.
Since 2003 Corel Painter has opened
an unlimited world of possibilities for
Claudia. As well as helping to add some
prestigious names to her client list, digital
portraiture for private individuals is now
an option and many are dazzled by her
ability to blend the best of both worlds. I
can combine traditional techniques that
wouldnt work together in the real world.
I can combine that with digital tools that
only Painter has, and then transform the
result in a million ways by using ilters,
adjusting colours, adding textures or light,
just to mention a few possibilities.
ers. Its
Always name yoknurowlaywhat you
the only way to to get confused.
are doing and notthem, save your
Before dropping a new one or
file and work on group them, lock
copy the layers, drop the originals.
them and then the result, youll
If you dont like again.
be able to start
Claudia s top tip
The Barber of Seville Opera Lyra Ottawa

After taking close to 400 photos I created a composition
and then transformed it into a painting that describes the
essence of each character and the play
Manuela
Extracted from more
dancers and girls talking
in Montreal
There are many

traditional artists
who think this is not
real art
Typically Claudia paints stroke-bystroke over her photographs using an

impressive Wacom Cintiq interactive pen
display. This allows for intuitive delicate
control over each stroke, adding a level
of accuracy lost when using a computer
mouse. Being a professional photographer
means that Claudia has a ready-made
selection of stunning imagery to kickstart her work. Occasionally clients will
provide their own images to use as source
26
2/5/07 14:10:22
Sofias Ballroom Dreams

From a series of photos created
for The Chateau Laurier Hotel
in Ottawa
You can change opertie

s on
your original impr
age
w
hi
le
to get darker, lighter or cloning
different
colours to enhanc
your cloned imagee. ceJurtstain areas of
momentarily then go it change it
the original image prop back to
continue to clone. erties and
Claudia s top tip

material. I usually work with my own
photos. However, there are some clients
that have photos in which the expressions
or moments are perfect or impossible
to repeat, explains Claudia. There are
some others that are simply in other cities
or countries or agencies that already have
the photos they want to work with. In
all those cases, and taking advantage of
email, I work with someone elses photos.
Being able to supply work digitally
is another bonus of switching to Corel
Painter. Scanning or photographing
traditional artwork can often produce
disappointing results. Claudia is a
Hewlett Packard artist and has spoken
about her work at various print expos.
Colour uniformity is maintained
throughout the creative process by
making use of a wonderful HP DesignJet
Z2100 large format photo printer. What
I see on my screen is what I get when
printing on HP canvas, watercolour or
photographic paper. I havent struggled
with colour since Ive been using the
Z2100. I printed some of my images at a
conference in my home country Colombia
with the same printer a week ago and the
results were exactly the same.
Large format images can be

reproduced accurately and have typically
been used as big posters and banners
for dance, opera and theatre companies
across Canada. Despite many years
working as a professional, Claudia still
draws inspiration from her clients. My
favourite clients and topics are dance,
musicians and theatre. I create images
for them to promote what they do. I get
inspired by each dance or play and that
determines the medium and tools I use
for the creation of my image.
a
From time to time, takereand
put
com
the
break from
ditional
create images with your tra
ers
ark
pencils, brushes and m ain. To
me, our hands are our mtrained.
tools and they need to bework with
Knowing how it feels to take
traditional media help us c tools.
advantage of Painters artisti
Claudia s top tip
Claudias use of Wacoms phenomenal Cintiq display allows her to draw directly on
the screen and perfect the paint strokes over the underlying photo
27
2/5/07 14:11:11
Feature
Helen Yancy
Helen Yancy has been painting traditionally most of her life and has been
a portrait photographer for a number of years. Seeing a way to effectively
combine the two, Helen openly embraced working digitally at a time when
others were more reluctant to, back in the early 1990s
WEBSITE
www.helenyancystudio.com
JOB TITLE
Artist and photgrapher
BIO
Over a distinguished career, Helen Yancy
has worked as a painter, digital artist and
photographer. Her portraits hang in hundreds
of private homes and in permanent collections
and exhibitions. She has lectured or taught
throughout the world and has been the
recipient of numerous prestigious honours
and awards. Helen holds the rare distinction
of being the first person in the world to receive
the degrees of Master of Photography, Master
Artist, Master of Electronic Imaging, and
Photographic Craftsman from Professional
Photographers of America (PPA).
is
ing in layersy
k
r
o
w
e,
m
For I paint above m if Im
essential. h, or my drawing ily be
photograpfreehand, so I can eas ess
painting retaining the liken ject.
sure I amersonality of my sub ay
of the p in layers is a great w r
Working as well, as it allows fo
to learn ndos.
endless u
ip
Helens top t
Finding Painter and Photoshop when

I purchased my irst Wacom tablet and
irst computer was the beginning of a
magical journey, blending what I knew
about photography, painting, and the
digital world of endless possibilities with
electronic brushes, describes Helen.
The beneits were obvious, giving Helen
scope to experiment and produce work
that had elements of both photography
and painting. I have no boundaries
except that I believe a likeness must
be preserved, explains Helen. I can
make my photographs as painterly as I
wish, amplifying the good qualities and
wonderful expressions that my camera
can only record literally. Helen now
creates enhanced photographic media
portraits which differ from her more
freehand, traditionally painted portraits
in being both more affordable and
Life is finding the joy.

My joy is in creating
portraits and scenes
with Corel Painter
contemporary looking. I love creating

them because I can change the image
anyway I like.
Helen works from photographs when
creating her paintings. These can range
from her own carefully lit photographic
portraits, to producing stunning work
from sepia-faded photographs and old
torn snapshots. Part restoration, part
inspiration, Helen is able to produce
something new from something old. I
much prefer doing my own photography,
but I will occasionally create a virtual
painting for another photographer, and
of course, I want my clients to know that
I can paint from their photograph if the
image was originally made several years
ago. I only need a face that has fairly
decent lighting. I can create whatever else
is needed. With children as her favourite
subject, working from old photos can
mean additional income even if the child is
now all grown up. This ability allows my
client to have a painting of a child that is
now older, so I dont lose a sale when they

tell me I didnt do it for my older child,
so I shouldnt do it for my younger one,
explains Helen.
Working with the full power and
potential of Corel Painter, Helen has
found those who commission her work
to be very open to the idea of having
their portrait produced digitally. I think
when people come to a photographer for
a portrait, they like a realistic approach,
not necessarily traditional. They expect
photography to be digital in todays world
and are pleasantly amazed that I can paint
with different kinds of brushes. As well
as individual commissions, Helen also
sells a range of affordable limited-edition
Giclee prints that cover the full range of
her talents and painting styles.
Always go to Preferences and

then Brush Tracking. Setting
up Brush Tracking each
time you launch Painter will
give you the best use of the
sensitivity of the Wacom
tablet and stylus.
Helens top tip
Adrienne Helens soft painting style is perfectly demonstrated in this image, with
the brush marks surrounding the focal figure
al artwork by Philip Straub

Origin28
2/5/07 14:11:36
Advance your
digitally by usingeaCrnings potential
X to streamline thorel Painter
painting process an e traditional
on real paint d reduce costs
freehand traditaniodnacanvas. My
portraits are muc lly painted
expensive, th h more
more affordabelev.irtual paintings are
Helens top tip
Yancy Little Ones Helens combination of photography and painting has given her clients a lovely keepsake of
different memories and stages in their familys life
Helen has also earned a reputation for

excellence in digital artwork education,
and is in demand for her talks on Corel
Painter and Adobe Photoshop. Helens
teaching expertise was recognised when
she was named the ninth recipient of
Professional Photographer of Americas
Gerhard Bakker Award, for lifetime
achievement and service through
education in the field of photography and
visual communications.
For those traditional artists new

to Corel Painter, Helen believes you
shouldnt have to make a decision
between traditional and digital: the
skills learnt in traditional painting can
be used with Corel Painter and vice
versa. I would encourage them to do
both. Once you work with Painter, you
fall in love with it. The brushes have a
wonderfully delicate feel. I call them
delicious brushes! Learning Corel
I only need a face that has fairly decent

lighting. I can create whatever else is needed
e the
Make an effort to investsteigat
, new
m
Sy
ng
nti
RealBristle Pai
the
e
lov
I
X.
r
nte
Pai
in Corel
in
new Realistic Brushes acatreaegol ryoil
e
hav
Painter X. They
azing
paint look and feel, and are am
to work with.
Painter and working digitally can also

be financially rewarding, adding to your
income and potential appeal to clients,
concludes Helen. There must be joy in
the pursuit of anything. Life is finding
the joy. My joy is in creating portraits
and scenes with Corel Painter, and
teaching photographers how to raise the
level of their images with Painter skills.
These beautifully painted images enable
photographers to offer exquisite high-end
art pieces that will bring new clients and
more income.
Helens top tip

29
2/5/07 14:11:53
DENNIS ORLANDO
TITLE
WEBSITE
JOB TITLE
Flowers in Light and Shadow

http://216.219.129.143/index.html
Digital fine artist/painter
Dennis has been involved with digital painting since the very beginning
in fact he was partly responsible for making the medium a reality! All of
his computer skills are self-taught, although he has shared his knowledge
with countless others through magazine articles and tutorials in over 15
books, and has had work exhibited throughout the world.
031_OPM_04.indd 31
3/5/07 12:09:55
Tutorial Paint a Victorian portrait
Start
blocking in
the colours
Laying down
the tonal values
Preliminary sketch
Dan iel Cox shows you how to
Paint a Victorian portrait

In this tutorial, Daniel Cox explains how he sketched, painted,
screwed up and then re-painted an illustrative Victorian portrait
Tutorial info
Painter master
Daniel Cox
Time needed
2 hours
Skill level
Intermediate
e have a slightly different

spin on this tutorial,
mainly to try and show
how anyone can master
the Corel Painter software by applying
traditional techniques and theories.
We asked Daniel Cox, a regular on our
website, to explain how he created this
Victorian-inspired portrait. We never had
any doubt that Daniel was an amazing
artist, but we were intrigued to discover
that he had only been using Corel Painter
for just over six months!
So, rather than present this as a
straightforward tutorial, we thought it
would be interesting for you to discover
how a fellow reader goes about creating
a painting. Over these next few pages,
Daniel will show you how he starts
each project, from inding appropriate

references to achieve an authentic look,
to creating a thumbnail tonal and then
colour study. Hell also illustrate which
brushes were used and at what settings,
as well as showing some of the key phases
the painting went through. And in the
interests of true creative discovery,
Daniel will also show how the irst face
he painted didnt quite work out, but how
he wasnt afraid to just paint over it and
start again. One of the most important
lessons of this tutorial, though, is how
Daniel created the painting all in one
sitting, never allowing himself to hesitate
or second-guess his decisions.
So read on and discover how one reader
has adapted Corel Painters tools to his
own creative genius.
Emphasise the shadows and highlights
32
032-036_OPM_04-Daniel Cox.indd 32
3/5/07 12:17:53
Tutorial
33
3/5/07 12:19:03
A moment of inspiration
Prepare for the journey ahead
01 Reference = inspiration
After
searching online for some photos, I open
a canvas and just drag and paste everything into
groups. Its hard to paint in a bubble, so I use the
reference for inspiration!
02 Thumbnails
I like to start sketching

using a deep reddish-brown, and use the
colour Mixer to mix it. Something around R 90 G
55 B 50 is perfect. Notice the thumbnails bottom
right I started doing those rst just to loosen up.
03 Blocking in with Conte
Here I use the Conte brush (Size 10,

Opacity 10%) exclusively, using a Hard Wacom setting so I can
work quite lightly in areas and build up the values. Most importantly, I work
quickly, trying to nd the large shapes and Alt/Option-click to select the
midtones. Shes starting to take shape!
The
04
Palette
Knife is your
friend As I use the
Conte brush to dene

broad planes, I also
end up with a lot of
hard edges, which
is ne! The Wet Oily
Palette Knife (Size
17, Opacity 45%) is
perfect for softening
and losing edges, and
I use a zig-zagging
brush motion over the
edge, which pulls and
pushes the paint. At
this stage, the values
are feeling correct
and Im condent to
move forward.
05 Drawing is hard!
However, drawings also essential, even though

I dont have a clear idea how much of the nal line will show through
at the end. First I create a new layer, and then drop the tonal study onto the
canvas at about 10%. Now I use the Acrylic brush (Size 9, Opacity between 1530%) to dene the shadow areas, which helps delineate the forms.
colour
07 The
key
06 Drawing in the rest
Next I create a new layer (and as I went

on, another layer for the background), knowing that I will want the
line work to sit on top of the colour key, which Ill do next. Here I use the Fine
Detail Airbrush (Size 3, Opacity 30%) to further dene the areas and planes
that are being suggested in my quick tonal study.
I mix my
palette on the Mixer,
and limit it to hues of
cyan, greens, yellow
and red. I use the
Square Conte Brush
(Size 48, Opacity 30%)
to block in the colours
directly on top of the
tonal study, but under
the line drawing. The
drawing clearly denes
the shapes, so this
stage is the quickest
and I dont worry about
any blending. Using
the Hard setting, you
naturally get a build up
of hue on top of other
hues anyway.
34
3/5/07 12:19:31
and
09 Drop
blend
The
11
importance
of expression
10 Blending is fun
I alternate between the Palette Knife and also the

Coarse Oily Blender 30 (Size 20-40, Opacity 15%) to pull out edges.
This particular blender creates a really interesting textural effect very easily,
and I vary the size of the brush continually, sometimes pulling out small areas
(like in the hat and roses), and other times working very large (the inferred
forest in the background and her dress).
Its
at this stage that I
realise somethings
not working and
quickly decide its her
expression! She looks
like she is aware of
the camera, and to
my eye it spoils the
whole authenticity Im
trying to achieve in
the painting. I quickly
paint out the face
using the Conte brush
and begin again
I think its important

to remember
that although the
toolset Im using is
digital, traditional
painting techniques
and theories are
invaluable. For this
and most of my
paintings, I like to
use the Alla Prima
method, as taught by
Richard Schmid.
Its a style of
painting where,
instead of building
colours up with layers,
the painting is done
in one session, which
stops me from fiddling
or worse, overworking the painting!
His books focuses on
the main disciplines,
which are: drawing,
values, edges,
colour and light and
composition. He also
offers great advice
such as there is no
wrong colour just a
colour that is in the
wrong place!
For more about
Richard Schmid and
his excellent book,
check out: www.
richardschmid.com/
book.html.
I continue on, either

selecting from the palette or using Alt/
Option-click to select hues that have mixed during
the blocking-in process. I start to bring reds into
her face, and use hard shapes to dene the planes.
Once the colours feel

correct, I drop all the
layers back onto the
canvas and begin
to use the Wet Oily
Palette Knife (Size
49, Opacity 35%) to
blend and soften. Its
at this stage that the
initial tonal study, the
line work and colours
all combine to create
interesting variations
in hue and tone, and
I work very fast over
the canvas, mostly
zoomed out.
Tutorial
08 More colour
Painting Alla
Prima
If at first you dont succeed

Dont be afraid to start over again!
12 Quick, before anyone sees!
After blocking the face in, I go back

to the Acrylic brush (Size 12, Opacity 30%), dropping the angle of her
eyes down, trying to achieve a more sultry look. Its a subtle thing, but after
studying the reference and a few aborted attempts, I have success! The eyes
are much better and Ive also managed to make the mouth more sensual.
13 Time to render
Everything is there for me drawing, value and

colour so now I just render using the Acrylic bristles (Size 20, Opacity
20%), working into the shadows with the browns and pulling out the
highlights using the warm yellows.
35
3/5/07 12:19:52
14 Continue to render
Here I just
continue over the whole canvas,
rendering the shapes and planes using the Acrylic
brush. Mostly I Alt/Option-click to select hue and
work as quickly as possible, mostly because this
is the part I nd the most tedious as the decisions
have already been made in the previous stages.
The trick here is to not over render, and to move
on and not linger in one area. Again, work quickly
and youll avoid that (mostly)!
Meet Daniel Cox

I reside in Sydney,
Australia and live with
my two children and
Australian Tiffanies
(fluffy white kittens).
With that many
mouths to feed, I
work as a freelance
matte and concept
artist, having recently
completed a contract
with Weta Digital, where I worked on the
films Eragon and Fantastic Four: Rise Of The
Silver Surfer. It was also at Weta that I had
the pleasure of meeting and working with
Michael Pangrazio a legend in the matte
painting field!
While Ive only been using Corel Painter
for about six months now, I actually
purchased the first version years ago.
However, with the changes over the last few
versions its really become a powerful tool
that I am very excited about using for more
personal paintings and has also expanded my
professional toolset.
And on the subject of professional life,
Im also trying to break into the comics
business and just completed a back cover for
the Ape Entertainment comic book entitled
The Black Coat.
When Im not being a father and cleaning
out the cat litter, Im also hard at work on
my own graphic novel, which Im writing and
illustrating. Its a huge sci-fi extravaganza
called Red Giant (which is the astronomy
term for a large star) so make sure you look
out for that soon. Well, if I can get it finished
that is! However, in the meantime, I regularly
15 Nearing the end
At this point, I zoom

out all the way and begin to look at what
areas are working and which arent. Immediately
my eye is caught by the lack of edge variation,
and I work over the hat to blend it into the
background. I also rene the way her hair is falling
on her shoulder and soften some of the remaining
sharp edges on her face. Switching back to
the acrylic brush, I paint sharper edges into the
material of the hat and rene some of the owers.
16 Finishing touches
I always planned to push the border back

onto into the gure, so I use the Square Conte Brush 15 (Size 50,
Opacity 20%) and the Oily Palette Knife to do this. This takes a little bit more
time than I thought it would, as it was easy to sometimes follow her contour
too closely, which made the border feel contrived. In the end, Im pretty
happy with the result.
The man behind the tutorial

update my blog with sketches and whatnot, which
you easily can check by paying a visit to http://
danieljamescox.blogspot.com/.
Red Giant cover
Spartan
A cover mock-up of my graphic novel. Im

going for a traditional painted look, la
the great paperback cover illustrators like
Robert McGinnis, and the Acrylic brushes
are perfect for that
Frank Millers 300 graphic novel and the

images in the movie
trailer were the inspiration for this Spart
an piece. Its also
a personal homage to what I learnt from
reading Richard
Schmids excellent painting book
36
3/5/07 12:20:32
Primer Focus
EFFECTS MENU
PRIMER
3D BRUSH STROKES
Here weve chosen 3D Brush Strokes
from the Using option. Again, with
this method, Corel Painter uses the
current pattern to base the actual glass
distortion on. This is a much more subtle
way of using the lter and can be used
to create a quite painterly effect.
Focus
Corel Painter has a number of hidden gems

and we zoom in on the Focus menu
Here or
there?
You dont have to
apply these effects
all over an image, you
can actually use them
in isolated areas of an
image if you prefer. To
do this you can make
a selection first with
any of the selection
tools, or apply the
effect to an entire
layer and then use a
Layer Mask to reveal
the effect in specific
areas of the image.
ou may think of Corel Painter purely

in terms of natural media effects and
brush marks, but the Effects>Focus
menu command contains ilters
which are far more photographic in nature,
and can be applied on essentially photographic
images, or even on your inished paintings to
subtly or dramatically manipulate the surface
and depth of the image.
Via these commands, you have the option
of sharpening or blurring an image, applying
camera shake and zoom effects, and even
applying a decorative glass distortion effect.
Its often a good idea to use these effects on a
pasted duplicate layer, so that you can adjust
the intensity of the effect after applying it
simply by modifying the layer opacity. When
youve worked on an image for a long time
it can lose a little sharpness, so the Sharpen
effect can save the day, restoring essential
razor-sharp edges. In contrast to this, you
might sometimes feel that areas of your image
are too sharp. In this case you can easily soften
areas off with the Soften or Super Soften effect.
The Super Soften is simply the Soften ilter
with bigger muscles! If you want to create the
effect of movement then go for the Motion Blur
effect. The Zoom Blur effect can concentrate
attention on one area of an image, rendering
the remainder as radiating blur trails. You can
even give the impression of lens blur by using
the Depth Of Field effect.
Were looking at all of these effects here,
including a more detailed examination of the
super-decorative Glass Distortion effect.
IMAGE LUMINANCE
Using Image Luminance applies the glass
distortion in its pure form, without referring
to either paper or pattern. Instead, the
effect is based on the luminance values
of the image itself to base the amount of
distortion on. This is a great way to creating
a painterly effect prior to adding some
exciting brushwork.
Sharpen
Soften and Super Soften
A much clearer contrast

Essentially, the Sharpen effect sharpens the image by
increasing the contrast between light and dark pixels,
exaggerating the highlights and shadows. You can choose
from two types of apertures for this process: Gaussian or
Circular. Gaussian sharpens just the red, green and blue
components of the image, while Circular sharpens the
image based on the image luminance. There are three
sliders available, with the Amount slider determining how
much object edges are sharpened. The Highlights and
Shadows slider lightens the highlights and darkens the
shadows respectively. Its best to use fairly low values on
these sliders to avoid increasing colour noise too much.
Softly does it
The Soften effects are useful not only for
softening and blurring photographs, but also for
subtly softening brush strokes in you paintings.
Again, you have Gaussian or Circular options here
and its useful to experiment with both to see
which gives the best effect for your requirements.
The Amount slider simply governs the overall
strength of blurring. Its useful practice to
apply this method on a duplicate layer so you
can temper the effect afterwards if needed by
reducing the opacity of the blurred layer or using
another layer altogether.
38
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ORIGINAL LUMINANCE
Dealing with distortion
Primer
Shattering the Glass Distortion illusion

The Focus menu in Corel Painter provides some very diverse and
useful tools that can help make your image jump off the page. Here,
were going to look at the Glass Distortion option and how to apply it
to your work.
01 Duplicate layer
Focus
Here weve chosen Original

Luminance from the Using
option. This method uses the
currently selected Pattern to
tonally alter the glass distortion.
Again, the Map method
used was Refraction. You can
choose any pattern from the
Patterns palette while using the
dialog. Its possible to create
some really decorative effects
by this method.
With your image

open, go to Select>All.
Now go to Edit>Copy,
followed by Edit>Paste.
Its good to use this effect
on a copied layer so you
always have the option of
using another Composite
Method or reducing
the Opacity of the Glass
Distortion layer.
02 Distortion
method
Go
to Effects>Focus>Glass
Distortion. From the Using
option, choose whichever
method you want to use for
the distortion. If you select
Paper, you can click the
Paper Selector to choose a
surface. For 3D Brush Strokes
and Original Luminance,
choose your pattern from the
Pattern Selector.
03 Distortion
options
PAPER DISTORTION
In this section of the image weve
chosen Paper from the Using option.
This method of distortion uses the
current paper texture to base the
pattern and tone of the glass distortion
on. You can choose another paper
texture from the Papers palette with this
window active. Refraction was chosen
as the Map method.
Zoom Blur
You can
soften the effect with the
Softness slider and choose
Refraction in the Map
option. Always select Good
in the Quality option for the
best results. The Amount
slider controls the overall
strength of the effect. Via
the Variance and Direction
sliders, you can make the
distortion more random.
Motion Blur
Keep your focus
A world in motion
The Zoom Blur effect is very useful for
concentrating the viewers attention on a
particular point in an image. It gives a similar
effect to zooming a camera lens while the
camera shutter is open. Once youre in the Zoom
Blur dialog, you need to click on your image
where you want the centre of the zoom to be
located. The degree of zoom is controlled simply
by the Amount slider. By default the effect
zooms out of your image, but you always have
the option of checking the Zoom In checkbox to
achieve the opposite effect.
This useful application simulates the effect

of movement within the image. You can
either use it over the entire image or within
a selection of another layer with an isolated
element, such as a figure on it to give the
impression of this element being in motion.
The Radius slider determines the amount of
blur and used at higher values gives the effect
of faster movement. The Angle slider controls
the direction of the blur. The Thinness slider
adds another blur effect at a vertical angle to
the one youve set via the Angle slider.
39
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Tutorial Sketch with pastels
Sketch with pastels

Tim Shelbourne puts paints aside and revels in the chalky, dusty vibrant realms of
the humble pastel. Follow the walkthrough and draw with vibrant colour!
Tutorial info
Painter master
Tim Shelbourne
Time needed
1.5 hours
Skill level
Intermediate
On the CD
Swatches and
starter sketch
he vital component of any

artist medium that uses colour
is pigment, after all its what
supplies the colour itself. In
paint, this pigment is suspended in some
sort of medium, such as water or oil but in
both cases the colour comes directly from
dry pigments mixed into the carrier.
The most direct way of applying colour
to a surface would, of course, be some
way of using these pigments in their
purest, dry form, and thats exactly what
you can do by working with pastels!
Essentially, artists pastels are pure dry
pigments mixed to a thick paste with
a binder, such as gum-arabic and then
rolled or pressed into sticks and left to

dry out. Varying amounts of white iller
mixed with the pigment produces pastels
of various shades from bright, really pure
colours all the way through to barely offwhite subtle shades.
For the digital artist, Corel Painter
features pastel variants which do a
fabulous job of simulating the delicate,
powdery look of their real-world
counterparts, and here were going
to look at how to use them to produce
a full-blown, vibrant pastel painting.
Traditionally, pastels are used on a
colour ground, rather than white paper,
and well replicate that here by illing
the initial Canvas layer with a neutral

midtone. Because pastels work by
depositing their colour within the actual
grain of the paper, we will choose a rough,
sandy paper from the Papers library,
so we can reproduce the lovely, grainy
texture which is synonymous with the
medium of pastel.
Because pastels are a dry opaque
medium, its very important to work from
dark to light, building up tones gradually
and working towards the inal highlights
to really make things pop.
Weve supplied a sketch to start you
off with this project, and a colour set
featuring all of the colours used.
A sketchy start
Laying down the foundations
and
02 Paper
pastel
01 Load the sketch
Open pastel_sketch.jpg from the disc. Save this

le as Pastel_Painting.riff via File>Save As. Copy the Canvas layer via
Select>All, followed by Edit>Copy then Edit>Paste. Set the Composite Method
for the pasted layer to Gel. Click on the Canvas layer, choose a light blue colour
for the Main colour and go to Effects>Fill, choosing Current Colour for the ll.
Click OK to ll the Canvas.
Click the Papers

swatch and click on
Sandy Pastel Paper.
Click the Brush tool
and choose the Pastels
category of variants.
Now choose the Artist
Pastel Chalk variant
at 20 pixels. Add a
new layer and start to
establish the dark areas
in the central area of
the painting, either
by using the swatch
on the disc or your
own colours. As this is
simple underpainting,
you can use loose
diagonal strokes.
40
040-045_OPM_04-pastel.indd 40
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Tutorial
Sketch with pastels
41
2/5/07 11:53:47
Tones and shading

Dont hide in the shadows
03 Establishing tones
Were going
to be covering a lot of these areas with
other colour later so dont worry about being too
accurate here, just establish a kind of tone map.
Scribble in the greenery around the central area
using a dark green from the swatches. Remember
to use the sketch as a guide, and reference the
nished image when placing the main colours.
Layer upon
layer!
There is no right or
wrong time to add
a new layer, but you
should use them
to your advantage.
Layers can be used
logically, so for
instance, you can
sketch background
elements on one layer,
and sketch objects
which are nearer
the foreground on
another. By working
this way, you can
easily add more
tones or shading
to the background
elements, without
having to worry
about shading over
foreground elements
by mistake. Also,
layers are useful for
trying out additional
marks towards the
end of your drawing.
If you dont like your
additions, simply
delete the layer that
contains them!
04 More base tones
Still just
establishing the overall colours, use the
brush at a fairly small size to colour in the three
central gures. All of the colours you need are in
the supplied swatch. For the faces and limbs use
warm oranges and ochres, cooler colours for the
clothes and a selection of warm greys for cooler
areas on the gures.
06 Dark foreground
On a new layer,
and using dark neutral colours, start to
shade in the main foreground elements. Again, at
this stage youre only sketching in the darker parts
of the image. Leave any highlights as plain paper
showing through your shading. Lively diagonal
scribble is key to these areas, changing your colour
regularly for the same shade of another colour.
05 Fill and shade
Establish the gure in the distance using diagonal

scribble, using a light pink for the head and pale blues and greys for
the gure itself. Dont be tempted to draw any detail or outlines at this stage,
we still want everything to be quite loose. Well sharpen up later.
07 Establish the shadows
Build the
shadow areas on the ground using a mix
of midtone blues, greys and lilacs. Its best to lay
down a scribbled area of one colour, then overlay
it by scribbling here and there with another colour.
Follow the shape of the shadows as shown by
the sketch. To add interest, create areas of rough
cross-hatching (see annotated screenshot, p43).
08 Sunshades
Now well establish

the dark and midtones in the yellow
sunshades. Increase the size of the brush a little
and choose a mid yellow from the swatches. Now
shade in the darker yellow areas, again using a
mixture of diagonal and vertical shading. Make
sure to leave the underlying drawing visible within
the shades so you can follow this later.
09 Varying
grain
Choose a lighter yellow

and scribble in the
paler areas. You can
always decrease the
Grain slider for this
pastel in the Properties
Bar to introduce
more texture into
the shading. Now,
establish the red
canopy using two
or three deep reds.
Remember, this variant
responds to pressure
so the harder you
press with your stylus,
the wider and more
intense your strokes
will become.
10 Complete the underpainting
Finish the shading for the other

areas still blank in the painting, using mid to dark tones of suitable
colours. Keep the distant areas very simple, just adding some rough scribble of
fairly light, neutral colours. Try and view your image as a whole and dont be
concerned with carefully outlining individual areas and objects within it.
42
2/5/07 11:54:26
Overview The progress so far
Here, the darkest tones

in the main gures are
established using loosely
shaded blocks of dark
tones. Notice, there are
no actual outlines drawn,
as all were doing here is
establishing tones. Were
using lots of diagonal
hatching here, with just a
little pressure on the stylus.
Sketch with pastels
The distant gure is simply indicated

with ne diagonal hatching.
Although it looks fairly detailed in
the nished image, most of the tones
within the gure are actually made
by the colour of the paper showing
through. Diagonal hatching around
the edges give the impression of the
gure being out of focus.
Tutorial
ESTABLISHING TONES
SUBTLE SUGGESTION
COLOURS WITHIN THE SHADOWS

These darker areas could be at and
uninteresting, but lively cross-hatching
and different dark colours laid over each
other give these shadow areas interest,
vitality and sparkle. Later on, small
highlights here give these areas form.
LOOSE SCRIBBLE
To establish the base for the
greenery and bushes, the
shading is applied more loosely.
As you shade here, change
direction frequently to give a
loose natural feel that lends
itself to organic structures. The
use of various shades of green
adds interest.
DRAWING FROM THE WRIST

Again, to save these cast shadows from
appearing too at, use lively brushwork
here. The great advantage of using a
pressure-sensitive stylus is that you can
draw with good movement and vitality.
Always try to draw from the wrist.
11 Sharp
pastel
Now
the main tones are
established, we can
get into the really juicy
pastel work that will
bring the painting
to life. Add a new
layer and choose the
Round Hard Pastel 10
variant. Set the Grain
slider to around 25%.
In the Brush Controls
(Window>Brush
Controls>Show
General), set the
Minimum Size to 75%.
12 Vibrant accents
Using the brush at

a small size (around 15 pixels), begin to
add the lighter tones and highlights to the central
area of interest, Use the nished image as a guide,
using bright oranges and yellows for warm areas
within the sunlit gures, and cool, neutral shades
in shadow areas. Remember, youre working from
dark to light, so add the brightest highlights last.
13 Fine hatching
In larger areas, use

very ne hatching strokes, and give the
impression of detail by adding small ticks of really
bright colour here and there, particularly in ne
areas such as the heads of the two central gures.
While we want the darker areas we applied here
to be loose and sketchy, these bright areas can
benet from being ne and razor sharp.
43
2/5/07 11:55:17
Add the highlights

Awash with beautiful colour
Grain gain!
the
14 Into
light
Remember, the Grain

slider has a vital effect
on the look of your
pastels. If you want to
see more paper grain
in your pastel strokes,
use the Grain slider at
a low value. For more
dense, opaque strokes
that show less paper
grain, give the Grain
slider a moderate to
high setting. Also, the
Bleed slider plays a
big part in the look
of pastels. At high
settings, your pastel
strokes will be softer
and blend into each
other more easily.
Most of the pastel
variants can be used
straight out of the
Variant Picker, but its
worth playing with
these settings for
different looks.
In
the very brightest
highlights, use pure
white, increasing the
Grain slider a little rst
so that these areas
are more solid. These
very light shades are
also very useful for
delineating the sunlit
outlines of the gures
and the table. Add
some very ne strokes
and small ticks of white
and pale blue to the
distant gure to rene
his shape.
15 Finer details
At this stage, using the same brush, you can also add
some darker colours to describe ner areas, such as the chair and to
indicate more detail in the gures. Remember, a lot of the charm of a pastel
painting comes from lots of broken colour, so change your colours regularly,
within similar tones, overlaying hatching of each colour.
17 Softer
pastel
Add
another layer and
its time for another
brush change! Choose
the Round X-Soft
Pastel 10 variant. In
Brush Controls, set
the minimum Size to
80%. Choose a bright
yellow and, using the
brush at around 30
pixels, begin to add
some lighter tones to
the lower areas of the
yellow sunshades using
vertical strokes.
16 Foliage shading
Choose the Round Soft Pastel variant. Now,

using the brush at 20-30 pixels and choosing a very dark green, begin
to add some darker tones to the surrounding greenery. In these areas, use
loose, random scribble rather than hatching to give the impression of shading
within the foliage. Change to a very light green and add some touches of this
to indicate lighter foliage.
From the darkness there is light!

In these three screenshots, you can see the
progression of the painting. Its important when
working with pastel that you work from dark to
light. If you attempt to lay down light colours
and highlights first, not only do you run the risk
of obliterating them later on with dark colours
you apply, but youre also likely to end up with a
muddy image, lacking the spontaneity typical of

pastel paintings. By comparing the three stages,
you can see how the painting progressed. First,
the dark and midtones were shaded in, and then
a sharper, more intense pastel was used to clarify
the central area of interest. Finally, the absolute
highlights were added and detail built in.
18 Painting sunshine!
Add some more strokes of this colour within

the lighter parts of the shades. Make sure your strokes follow the
general contours of the shades. You can use some even paler yellows for the
very lightest areas where the sun is catching the shades, again using small
dabs of white for the absolute lights. Use the brush at a small size with a bright
blue to indicate the decoration.
44
2/5/07 11:57:28
it
19 Paint
red!
20 Between the shadows
Using light
yellows and lilacs and using the brush
at a small size, add the light areas to the ground
between the shadows. Again, use ne hatching,
making sure your strokes follow the perspective of
the ground. Overlap the shadow areas here and
there with these light tones to break up the edges.
Hatching out the details

Finishing with a flourish
and
22 Add
rene
21 Illuminate the darkness
Also add some lighter blues and cool

colours, using the brush at a small size to add suggested detail and
interest to the foreground dark areas. Again, you can use some very subtle
bright highlights in these areas to indicate form and shape. The menu board is
simply indicated with very loose shading in various light colours.
Nows the time to

add the nishing
details to the painting.
Remember, the
detail wants to be
concentrated mostly
in the central area, so
use the brush at a tiny
size here to add some
more hatching in
really bright colours to
the gures, and some
more highlights to the
surrounding greenery.
Add these touches
onto another layer.
Traditionally, in
pastel painting,
an artist would
smudge selected
areas of pastel work,
particularly towards
the outer edges of
the picture. This
would be done either
by smudging with
your fingers, or with
a tight roll of paper
known as a Stump.
Obviously, working
digitally means we
cant actually use
our fingers, but
we do have access
to various digital
stumps! These stumps
are held within the
Blenders category
of variants. These
stumps have Opacity
and Grain settings
just as pastels do, and
you can blend pastel
already applied with
them. The blending
around the edges in
this image was done
with the Soft Blender
Stump variant. Try it!
Sketch with pastels
Add
some lighter red
strokes to the canopy
using long, owing
strokes. Also add
some ner, darker
vertical lines to
indicate details and
contours on the front
part of the canopy.
Small highlights can
be added here and
there with some very
light pinks.
Tutorial
Ole Stumpy!
a
23 From
distance
The distant
background areas are
added with simple,
vertical hatching in
very light tones. The
great advantage of
pastel is that you can
give the impression
of detail very simply,
using the colour of
the paper to serve as
the midtone. All thats
needed here are a
few lines to fool
the eye into seeing
indicated details.
24 Collapse layers and smudge
Hold down the Shift key on the

keyboard and click each of the layers in turn, apart from the sketch
layer, to highlight them. Now go to Layers>Collapse. Choose the Blenders
category and select the Soft Blender Stump variant. Now carefully smudge
around the edges of the image using the brush at a fairly large size.
45
2/5/07 11:58:00
Feature focus Selection tools
Selection
tools
COMPOSITE METHODS
Composite methods let you change how
your current layer behaves with those
beneath. In this case it helped us to tint the
background, whilst simultaneously having
the effect of bringing the gures forward.
To get the most out of Corel Painter its

essential to master these tasty tools
f youre really determined to use
Corel Painter to its full potential,
then experimenting with, and
ultimately perfecting the use of
various selection tools, really is a must.
One of the reasons for their importance
is how they integrate with layer masks
and channels. Because if youre shading
the edge of an object with a big brush, for
instance, you dont necessarily want to
see your strokes spilling over the edge
of the object, and you dont want to have
to worry about erasing the whole time
either. If you have marked out the edges of
your object with a layer mask, via one
of the selection methods, then you
can use those chunky brushes to
your Wacoms content.
If youre familiar with
the selection methods in
Photoshop, then youll have
some idea of what to expect,
although it should be noted
that whilst the end result is
similar in Corel Painter, the
methods are not the same.
We came up with an illustration
that would lend itself well to revealing
the various ways in which selection tools
can be used. Some methods are better
in particular situations than others, but
if you learn them all then youll never be
stuck when youre using them in your
own work.
FEATURE
FOCUS
REAL TEXTURE
You dont have to create
all your textures from
scratch in Corel Painter just
because you can in theory.
Occasionally its good to
use something real, like
this wooden texture we
photographed on our desk
at home.
Why masks and not erasers?
Pixel paths or shapes?
Decisions decisions
Avoid those rough edges
In simple terms, its always good to use masks

instead of rubbing out, because youre hiding
something instead of losing it permanently.
This means that if you change your mind later
you can reveal something without having to
create it again. Plus, in Corel Painter there
are only a few erasers you can use, but on a
layer mask you can use any brush to add to
or subtract from a mask. Therefore you can
create all manner of interesting texture edges
to your masks, all the while leaving the actual
contents of the layer intact.
In some ways, whether its best to use pixel-based

paths (via the Magic Wand or Lasso for instance)
or vector-based shapes will depend on what youre
using them for. But in general, when accuracy
and a smooth finish are paramount, be sure to
use shapes. It can be faster making a Magic Wand
selection and filling it with a colour or turning it
into a mask, but the chances are, when you zoom
in to 100% size, the edge could be a little ragged.
Creating a shape point-by-point takes time, but
its the only way to have complete control over
your selections.
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Choosing perfect colours

INTEGRATING
PHOTOGRAPHY
If youve ever used the Select Color Range command in Photoshop

youll know just how useful it can be, and its the same with Corel
Painter. In our image it was perfect for setting up the skyline.
the
01 Load
photo
On
the CD youll nd a
photo of the Osaka
skyline, which was
kindly supplied by
Kevin Coffey (www.
description.me.uk/).
Select the whole
image and paste it in
behind everything else
youve created so far.
Selection Tools
Because the selection

tools let you grab the
outline of an image
in various ways, you
can integrate shapes
from real photographic
objects into your
illustrations, without
having to retain their
original colours. Drawing
the city by hand would
have been painstaking
work, but here we still
have a stylish look.
Feature focus
Making the most of the Color Selection Tools
02 Trying the technique
Go to Select>Color Select and a

dialog box will appear. Make sure that the preview is showing
some of the city. When you move away from the box onto the canvas,
your pointer will become a colour picker. Pick one of the darker tones.
and
03 Reuse
recycle
Corel Painter will show

you the selection it will
make by highlighting
in red. You can adjust
the Hue, Saturation
and Variability values.
Setting the feathering
high will give your
selection a softer
edge. Make various
selections, lling them
with a at colour each
time, stylising your city.
FADING OBJECTS
Adding layer masks to the various
elements in the piece means that you
can keep the brush strokes separate from
what looks like the edge of the object.
This meant that at the end we could fade
out the clothing to reveal the city lights
beneath, without erasing anything.
Saving your selections
Lighting Effects
Why use them just the once?
Creativity is the key

As well as Alpha Channels, which are saved in the
document you are working on, you can also save
a selection to your Selection Portfolio, and save
a library of selections for use in different images.
This would be perfect if you were working on a
large series of illustrations where you wanted to
reuse shapes as masks, but paint each variant in a
different way, for instance. When youve created a
selection, go to Window>Show Selection Portfolio.
Select the Selection Adjuster from the Toolbox, and
simply drag your selection to the portfolio, where
youll be asked to name your selection.
How you use colour and contrast is key to bringing

your final piece to life. When youre illustrating
theres no need to make everything realistic as
such. In our final piece there are a number of
elements that might not be coloured realistically,
but transform the image from a flat observational
piece to something a little more unique. Whether
its the purple tint to the background, the semitransparent underwater plants or the duplication
of the outline drawing in white, each choice has
been made to give the piece more vitality and the
Selection tools have played a crucial role in this.
49
3/5/07 17:24:44
Feature focus Selection tools
Using various Selection tool methods
FEATURE
FOCUS
Try your hand at more than one method in a single image

Over the following
steps were going
to demonstrate
some of the key
points in terms of
how we created the
inal piece you saw
on the last page.
As you will see,
theres not just
one way to use the
Selection tools!
outline
01 Anto start
Youll nd the line

drawing weve used
on the CD. Open it
up, right/Ctrl-click to
the right of the layer
thumbnail on the
layers palette and
select Duplicate from
the menu. Set the
Composite Method
to Multiply from the
drop-down menu, and
delete the contents of
the Canvas layer.
02 Making marks
Create a new layer

beneath the drawing, and choose the
Brush tool. Select the Calligraphy set of brushes,
and the Dry Ink variant. With the Opacity around
70%, the Resat around 20% and the Size around
20, loosely paint the jacket of the right gure,
deliberately going over the edges.
A good
composition
All the skills youre
learning here should
prove useful as you
move onto your own
work. But just as
weve started with a
line drawing here, its
imperative that youve
got a clear idea in your
head before you start a
new piece. Not that you
shouldnt experiment
of course, but planning
your composition
is key. Try and lead
the eye of the viewer
around the page from
one object to the next.
03 Creating a Layer Mask
Go to Layers>Create Layer Mask From

Transparency. Youll see the black and white layer mask get added
to the right of the layer thumbnail on the layers palette. Now paint some
highlights and shadows into the jacket, and notice that your strokes outside
the white area of the mask wont be seen.
04 Adjusting the Layer Mask Selection
Click the Layer Mask

thumbnail on the Layers palette. Change your Brush Set to Acrylics,
and choose the Wet Detail Brush 5. Change your paint colour to black, and
proceed to tidy up the edge of the mask. If you paint in too far, change to
white and you can increase the mask area again.
Half a mask can be useful
When to use masks and channels
Overlap away!
Its just a question of commitment

When you make a selection (ie work your way
around an element until its fully outlined)
and create a mask from it, most of your layer
mask will be black, and therefore invisible.
But sometimes its faster to do your painting,
not worrying about overlapping lower layers,
and then create a blank layer mask at the end.
Then if you paint in black on the mask, you
can just erase the overlaps where you need
to. Of course, whether you use this method or
not will depend on how meticulous or loose
your style is.
Put simply, a channel (Alpha Channel in full) is

worth creating if you think youre going to want
to reuse a selection at any point in your piece,
whereas a mask is only attached to a specific
layer. Still, they both appear as a black and white
image that is separate from the actual contents
of the layer youre on. Also, channels are inactive
until you load them to a selection, whereas a
layer mask is working all the time as you paint
on a layer. Plus, the image canvas can store up to
32 channels, whereas you can only use one mask
per layer.
50
2/5/07 11:39:27
Another method we
used in the piece is as follows. Using the
Lasso, quickly draw an outline around the jeans.
Go to Select>Convert to Shape, and your outline
becomes a vector shape.
This
means that you can
now use the Pen tools
to rene your shape,
adjusting the Bzier
curves, and adding
new points along
the path as you need
to, to get the outline
you want. When
youre ready, go to
Shapes>Convert to
Selection and you
can copy and paste/
create a layer mask
as desired.
Selection Tools
Building up your
layers with different
Composite Methods is a
great way to add colour
depth to your image.
For instance, you can
see the city lights
through the clothing
in our final image.
This was done by
having the lower layer
set to Screen, which
highlights the brighter
areas. Then this layer
was copied but set to
Normal. With a large
eraser we reduced the
image mask on the top
layer to reveal some of
the lights beneath.
to
06 Shape
path
05 Path to shape
Feature focus
Composite
Methods
Changing channels
Multiple layer madness!
No need for
perfection
07
Creating Channels Alpha Channels are similar to Layer Masks,
but theyre not restricted to one layer and can be reused. Once you
have a selection, like the face here, go to Select>Save Selection. Name the
selection, and youll see it appear in the Channels palette.
08 Send the Channel to a Layer Mask
Add a layer mask to the

layer above the basic face tone. Right-click or Ctrl-click the channel
youve just created, and select Duplicate. Set the destination to be the layer
mask on the layer you want. Now you can paint detail on the face whilst
leaving the initial skin tone intact.
Keep it separate
Perhaps in your own

work you favour a
clean, perfect style.
Thats absolutely fine,
but Corel Painter is
really best when you
free yourself up. Dont
think vector, think
texture! Yes, there are
some elements that
youll want nice and
crisp, but if you paint
over a few edges with
a big sweeping stroke
then it doesnt matter.
As your skills develop
you can integrate these
purposeful accidents
into your style.
Other selection techniques
Total isolation
A box full of tricks

Painting each element as a separate flat
colour on a separate layer is crucial when
youre starting an image like this that has
lots of distinct regions. Because you can
immediately turn the transparency on a layer
into a layer mask (via Layers>Create Layer
Mask From Transparency), it means that each
region is completely isolated from all the
others. Its likely that youll want to adjust the
colour of one element while leaving others
unchanged at some point, so this way you can
react spontaneously.
In the space available weve tried to cover

as many of the selection tools as possible.
But as you might expect, theres still more
that can be done! You can also apply effects
(Dynamic Plug-ins) to a selection, such
as a bevel or a burn for instance, which
get placed above your layer as a dynamic
layer. Also, try right-clicking (or Ctrl-click
on a Mac) when youve made a selection to
see other options. You can fill the selection,
apply a stroke, isolate a selection when
youre cloning, and much more!
51
2/5/07 11:39:54
Tutorial Watercolour masterclass
Watercolour
masterclass
Join us, as we walk you through the
wonderful world of watercolours
Tutorial info
Painter master
Karen Bonaker
Time needed
50 minutes
Skill level
Intermediate
On the CD
Reference photo
ave you always wondered how

to achieve that gorgeously
translucent quality so
reminiscent of watercolours?
Watercolours are a wonderful medium
that is often overlooked. One of my
preferred methods for achieving a beautiful
watercolour effect is the wet-into-wet
watercolour method and through this
tutorial Ill discover which brush choices
best achieve this effect and which palettes
will noticeably enhance the brush strokes.
Corel Painters Watercolor brushes give
beautiful, soft washes and effects, and
taking the time to prepare your image will
unfold the beauty of the variant.
As a natural media watercolourist, I
feel compelled and challenged to give my
digital watercolours the same beautiful
translucency and paper grain that I achieve
with traditional media. Corel Painter offers
digital artists the tools to make it happen!
Watercolor brushes paint into a layer
that enables the colours to low, mix and
absorb into the paper. In Corel Painter, you
can edit the watercolour layer as you would
any other layer and even erase or blur
without changing anything in the image
layer. For example, you can draw pencil
outlines in the image layer and then overlay
watercolour washes without smudging the
pencil lines. Your stylus pressure affects the
width of the brush stroke for all Watercolor
brush variants except the Eraser tool.
Two of the most important tools for
watercolour painting are the Grain Setting
and the Grn Soak-In located on the Water
palette. These two settings will make
all the difference in creating realistic
watercolour effects.
Let us begin our journey and discover the
power of watercolours with Corel Painter!
52
052-057_OPM_03-watercolour.indd 52
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Tutorial
Watercolour masterclass
53
2/5/07 12:19:34
The essential watercolour tools

When you open the Brush Controls palette
from the Window menu (Window>Brush
Controls>Water) you can choose the size of
the brush, diffusion, wetness, pickup rate
and other controls you may wish to apply.
These are the instruments for creating great
watercolours! Keeping this palette open
while you paint is a great tool for editing
your brush strokes and finding that perfect
look. Create a small canvas and use it to test
your strokes before you apply your paint.
Applying Wind Direction will transform
the direction the paint flows on the
canvas. Many times, you will find that the
default brushes by themselves accomplish
everything you need to do by merely
adjusting the controls on the Property Bar.
There you will find Opacity, Grain, Diffusion
and Wet Fringe.
Traditional techniques such as masking
areas and applying salt can create
wonderful added texture. The wet-intowet method is a lovely fluid approach to
applying colour to your canvas. You will
notice how colours blend with existing
moist paint to produce a beautiful blending.
Remember when painting in watercolour,
you definitely want to build up thin layers
of transparent paint to ultimately produce
dark and rich colours. Work at low opacity
settings and do not ignore the grain
settings. Higher settings reveal less paper
texture while lower ones reveal more.
Finally, if you happen to be lucky enough
to be using Corel Painter X you will discover
the new RealBristle palette. Used along
with the Water palette you will be able to
enjoy creating and saving your very own
watercolour brushes.
Top watercolour
brushes
Everything you need for great results
A dry run
Wind direction
Wind Direction is located in the Water palette. The setting for Smooth Runny
Camel Brush 30 is Opacity at 28% and a Grn Soak-In value of 56%. Keeping
your Opacity setting low will produce the best results. The brush strokes
change direction as the Wind Direction arrow is moved.
Opening a small canvas is a great tool, which

allows you to test your brush strokes before
applying them. Set the test canvas up with
the same Paper Texture settings to ensure
the most precise results. Use Ctrl/Cmd-Z to
undo a stroke or delete the watercolour layer
from the Layers palette.
White paper
A part of the charm of watercolours is allowing
some of the white of the paper to show through.
There are different ways to accomplish this from
using the Lasso tool to mask out areas, or softly
applying eraser. Using the Lasso tool you can
mask out regions that you want to remain white.
The old adage a stroke laid is a stroke played
with regards to Corel Painter is not necessarily so!
Eraser Salt
There are some wonderful brushes which you can use to create fabulous
textures in your watercolour paintings. Salt comes to mind! The Eraser
Salt, when applied to the watercolour layer, disburses the paint creating
interesting textures and patterns.
Soft Runny Wash
Simple Round Wash
Wet Camel
Pencil marks
Diffuse Camel
Water splatter effect

Splatter Water
To create the look of splattered paint, choose Watercolor>Splatter Water. On

the Size palette change the Expression setting to Direction for a traditional
splatter-paint look.
Sometimes pencil sketch marks may seem

too dark. To reduce the opacity of the pencil
sketch and to have the added flexibility
to delete the sketch layer after you have
completed your painting, float the sketch
layer and change the Composite Method to
Gel. Place the sketch at the highest point in
your layer hierarchy. When the painting is
finished, delete the sketch layer if you wish.
54
2/5/07 12:19:56
Pick your poisons
the source image from this issues disc.

We will use this to create a sketch. Select Italian
Watercolor Paper texture from Papers palette.
Set the Paper Scale size to 100%. This is sufcient
for larger images and will reveal texture when
you start to paint. Leave the Papers palette open
should you want to make additional adjustments.
04 Creating your sketch
Choose
File>Quick Clone. Select the Thick and
Thin Pencil from the Pencils category and set the
Opacity to 20%. Choose a grey colour and toggle
the Tracing Paper on and off so you can frequently
watch your sketching progress. Create a loose
sketch of your source image, and save this version
as Sketch.
02 Set your Brush Tracking
Your
Watercolor brush variants rely on
Brush Tracking being set correctly before you
begin to paint. To set Brush Tracking, choose
Edit>Preferences>Brush Tracking. Using your
stylus, make a few representative strokes within the
Scratchpad using your normal pressure and speed.
Set Brush Tracking each time you start Corel Painter
anew, especially when changing brush variants.
03 Preparing source image
05 Opening your palettes
06 Choosing your brushes
There are
three palettes that are important to you
as you paint; Water, Tracker and Size. You will nd
the Water and Size palettes by launching the Brush
Controls. To open the Tracker palette choose,
Window>Show Tracker. This temporarily stores
brush categories, variants and dab types when
you expressly apply brush strokes to the canvas.
Each time you use a new brush, the variant is
saved on the Tracker palette.
If you
have Corel Painter X, select Window>
Show Underpainting and apply Smart Blur at
65%. Select Apply and close the palette. Those
with later versions should apply a soft blur. Go
to Effect>Focus>Sharpen and uncheck red and
green. Set the Amount slider to 19.49 or so. This
will help to enhance the colour in your painting.
Save your source image with a new name.
There are
many brushes to choose from in the
Watercolor brush category but well use a few of
my favourites. These brushes will give you lovely
translucent washes reminiscent of traditional
watercolours. Youll be using Soft Runny Wash,
Simple Round Wash, Wet Camel and various
other brushes for added effects. Create a custom
palette by dragging the icons from each brush on
to the Corel Painter interface.
Wetness controls
the dilution and
the diffusion of
pigment. As Wetness
is increased, the
resulting stroke
spreads out over
a larger area,
eliminating the
appearance of
any individual
brush hairs.
To create great
watercolours it is
important that you
understand these
palettes and how
they can affect your
watercolour paint.
Settings that can
reveal the paper
texture as you paint
are Diffuse Amount,
Grn Soak-In and
Wetness. To reveal a
paper texture while
you paint, keep the
Grn Soak-In setting
high. For example,
if you wanted your
Simple Round Wash
to reveal strong paper
texture, then move
the slider higher.
Experiment with
all the settings as
you work. The Grain
Setting slider on the
Brushes Property Bar
when moved to the
left will reduce the
amount of paint that
is penetrating into
the grain. Move it to
the right to increase
the penetration.
01
Open your source image Open
Tutorial
The Water
palette
Preparation is the key!
Testing
07
your
brushes
Open a
new canvas and make
sure that the Paper
settings are the same
as your sketch. You
will use this canvas
to test your brushes
as you paint. This is
your digital palette!
Choose each of the
brushes noted in step
six and practise long
sweeping strokes
across the canvas. This
exercise will warm you
up and assist you to
visually see how the
paint reacts on the
watercolour layer.
08
Applying your paint With your
sketch open, we will now oat the

sketch above the Canvas layer. To accomplish this,
choose Select>All>then Select>Float. On the
Sketch layer, change the Composite Method to
Gel. The Gel method will allow you to continue to
see your sketch as you paint and act as your guide.
Lower the Opacity slider on the sketch layer if your
sketch marks seems too harsh.
09 Work from back to front
Just as
in natural media watercolours, well
work from the back of the painting forward.
Begin by making sure you have the correct clone
source selected. You will begin by using the
colours from the original source image to develop
your painting. From the Window menu choose
File>Clone Source and select your original image
as the Clone Source. Enable the Clone Color
Stamp and make sure it is greyed out.
55
2/5/07 12:20:26
Awash with colour

Something to whet your appetite
Building
12
Texture and
Grain
10 Applying your rst washes
On
the Water palette set your Grn Soak-In
factor to 92% and Wetness to 918. Disable the
Clone Color Stamp and apply your own colours as
well. Select the Simple Round Wash variant. Set
your Brush Tracking and try a few strokes on your
digital palette. Dont worry about the white of the
paper showing through, this is part of the charm
of watercolours! Notice that as you lay your paint,
the pressure you apply to your stylus has an huge
impact on how dark or light the paint ows.
11 Moving forward
To initially develop
the mountains, select the Wet Camel
brush variant and add a new watercolour layer
by clicking the water droplet icon located at the
bottom of the Layers palette. To rename the layer
right-click/Ctrl-click on the layer and choose Layer
Attributes. Rename the layer Mountains and
select OK. Naming your layers is a good habit and
assists you to stay organised, particularly if you are
working with many layers.
As you work
on the painting, create
a new layer for each
important area. To add
grain to the mountains,
pick Diffuse Camel
variant and just oat it
randomly to give the
illusion of trees in the
distance. Use colour
from the source image
by enabling the Clone
Color Stamp or use
your own!
Corel Painter
online
I wanted to take this
opportunity to tell you
a little more about
wonderful resources
available to learn
Corel Painter online! I
am a teacher for two
online schools LVS
Online and Eclectic
Academy. LVS is a
Corel Training Partner
and enrols students
from all over the
globe. I offer several
Corel Painter classes
and as a student
youre automatically
eligible to register for
Painter Talk, a Digital
Art Community that
is graced with a vast
array of talented Corel
Painter Artists.
My love for Corel
Painter continues
to grow and the joy
of discovering new
things every day! The
Painter community is
one of the most giving
and supportive I have
ever been involved
with, and with the
newest addition of
Corel Painter, even
more so! To find
out more about my
classes and Painter
Talk, simply visit my
website www.karen
bonakerart.com.
13 Painting water
This does not have to be difcult if you use the

right brush for the job. Select Soft Runny Wash variant. Size the brush
appropriately for what you are trying to accomplish. Use the Color Picker and
select some of the colours from the sky for your water. When the Grn Soak-In
setting is high it will create a surface as if the light is reecting off the water.
Set it lower for a softer look. Move the Wind Force arrows to the direction you
want the wash to ow and paint with long sweeping strokes.
14 Step back and evaluate
Step back from your painting and

assess your progress. Turn the eye off on the Sketch Layer and
evaluate the painting without the sketch marks. Does it hold together without
the sketch in place? You can decide when you are nished if you desire to keep
the sketch or not. Time to save your work!
16 Dropping
layers
15 Painting the foreground
Turn the Sketch Layer back on so it is

visible. Select the Wet Camel brush variant and commence to paint
in the foreground. Set the Opacity to 15%. Again, dont worry about the
white of the paper showing through. When you have nished painting the
foreground, select the Soft Cloner brush and reveal some lost detail, be careful
though, too much Soft Cloner will take away from the natural beauty of the
brush strokes. Keep the detail in the foreground and less in the background.
When you apply Soft Cloner, you must be working on the Canvas Layer.
First,
save this version with
all the layers intact. This
is your safety net just
in case you desire to
come back and work
further on the image.
After you save, hold
down the Shift key,
select all the layers
except the Sketch layer,
and drop them all to
the Canvas layer.
56
2/5/07 12:20:48
Talking textures
Say hello to your little friends
You will notice that

painting is now on the
Canvas layer. This is
ne if I wanted to use
other variants but not
if I wish to continue
with watercolours.
To correct this from
the Windows menu
simply choose
Layers>Lift Canvas to
Watercolor Layer.
Applying a Surface
Texture to your
watercolour from
the Effects palette
can add a nice touch.
The key is to apply
it softly. The most
important sliders
are the Amount
slider (5%) and the
Shine slider (0%). To
apply Paper Texture,
select Effects Surface
Control>Apply
Surface Texture.
18 Apply
textures
Applying textures
gives that added
bit of serendipity to
make it your own! To
convey the seaweed,
rocks and gravel in
the foreground, use
the Splatter Water
and the Eraser Salt.
The Splatter brush
can build texture as
well, such as giving
the wood of the boat
a grainy appearance.
Also, salt just lightly
ecked softly over
the water adds the
sunlight touch.
Use the Lasso tool

from the Toolbox
to mask or protect
areas of your painting
similar to how you
would use masking
fluid in traditional
watercolours. Paint
inside or outside
the initial selection
and if you are going
to include separate
selection points,
enable the Add To
Selection on the
Brushes Property Bar.
20 Across the nish line

Again, step back and evaluate
your painting. Because your sketch is on
its own layer you have the freedom to erase areas
that distract from the image. I like a bit of pencil
left in my painting, but I nd the cloud sketches
distracting so I erased some of them.
The Grain Setting on

the Brush Property
Bar is essential to
creating realistic
watercolour textures.
Higher settings
create more grain
and lower settings
result in less paper
grain. Keeping your
opacity setting low
will further help to
generate a natural
watercolour effect.
The examples show
grain applied at
100%, 50% and 10%.
Commit
17
to the
watercolour
19 Rene
Tutorial
Top tools of the trade
Liven up the last layers
Choose
Layers>Drop All. Adding an edge to
your painting is a nice way to nish it. Now choose
Canvas>Canvas Size, and add 200 pixels directly.
Add a new layer, choose the 2B Pencil, and sign
your lovely watercolour painting. If you feel your
painting is too dark, lower the Opacity setting.
To add a nice nal addition select the Tinting
Brush>Diffuser 2 and run it along the border.
The Wet Entire

Watercolor Layer
command is useful if
you want to diffuse
the paint. From the
Layers palette open
the fly-out arrow and
choose Wet Entire
Watercolor Layer. To
stop the diffusion at
any time, repeat the
process and choose
Dry Watercolour
Layer instead.
57
2/5/07 12:21:12
showcase
KUANG HONG
TITLE
WEBSITE
CLIENTS
Bride of Lucifer
www.zemotion.net
Fantasy magazine, Tenacious Games and Sabertooth Games
Kuang Hong has loved drawing since he was very young. After university,
Hong rst encountered digital arts in 2001. He has now become a top
artist in this eld. Most present works are concepts for various games,
and illustrations for magazines and publications. Currently an art director
for a game company in Beijing, he is also involved with 2D concepts arts,
including characters, monsters and environments.
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Tutorial Paint like Paul Gauguin
Paint like:
Paul
Gauguin
Gauguin is famous for leaving his
comfortable banker life to fulfil a dream
of becoming a full-time artist
Tutorial info
Painter master
Hannah Gal
Time needed
2 hours
Skill level
Intermediate
On the CD
Start sketch
aul Gauguin is associated with

the imagery of exotic Tahiti
where much of his famous work
was produced. Thanks to the
cinematic portrayal of his character in
Lust For Life, he is also known for his iery
spirit and friendship with Van Gogh.
Gauguins interest in art began as a
child and continued to adulthood where
even as a married father of ive with a
full-time banking job, he visited galleries,
collected Impressionist art, and applied
paint to canvas.
Through friendship with the artist
Camille Pissarro he entered the
Impressionist circle of artists and in 1881
and 1882, even showed some of his own
pieces. In 1884 Gauguins work took him
and his family to Copenhagen. A year later
he returned to Paris alone, leaving his
family behind.
In 1887 he left France for Panama
where he briely worked as a labourer for
the Panama Canal Company. He soon left
for Martinique, where he broadened his
artistic vision and paved the way for life
as an artist even further.
Throughout these early years, Gauguin
was involved with the Impressionist
movement and continued to search for
an individual style. His expressive works
were certainly part of the movement
but his desire for what he described
as purity had lingered. Gauguins
technique was different from that of the
Impressionists, who applied colour in
small dabs. Gauguins paintings show
wide areas of lat colour with subtle
variations of tone to create richness.
Throughout the many years of his
artistic career, Gauguins painting style
continued to evolve. His break with the
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Tutorial
Paint like Paul Gauguin
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Impressionist movement is believed by

many to have come with his 1888 painting
Vision After The Sermon, where the real
and imaginary worlds are combined,
and the meaning of the subjects is as
important as the technique used. This
painting is considered by many to mark
the start of Symbolism.
In 1891 Gauguin made the historic
move to Tahiti. This is where some of his
most famous pieces were created and
the purity he yearned for was found.
The primitive subject matter perfectly
resonated with his personal outlook and
provided endless inspiration.
His stay in Tahiti sparked vast artistic
activity and gave birth to the famous
distinctive Gauguin style. In Tahiti he
often painted on unprimed sackcloth,
with the weave of the rough fabric clearly
By building up a colour palette of Gauguins

colours, you can achieve a strong realism
visible through the paint. This, as well

as the thinness of his paint, was partly
a consequence of his poverty but also
because he found the rough surface of
sackcloth enhanced the animalistic
qualities he admired.
A great deal is known of his thoughts
and technique through his own
writing. On working in Tahiti he wrote:
Everything in the landscape blinded me,
dazzled me. Coming from Europe I was
constantly uncertain of some colour [and
kept] beating about the bush.
In a famous lesson Gauguin gave to
Paul Srusier, he encouraged the young
artist to forget what he was taught at the
academy and instead paint the colours he
saw in front of him: How do you see that
tree? Its green? Well then, make it green,
the best green on your palette. How do
you see those trees? They are yellow. Well

then, put down yellow...
For this tutorial we will work with the
artists palette of colours to re-create
Gauguins style. The colour is relatively
lat, outlined to enhance and add impact
(this is reported to originally be diluted
Prussian blue).
We will start with a drawing and use
the Airbrushes to ill in the many areas
of the painting. Artists Oils will provide
the Dry Brush and Chalk will enhance the
gritty contour lines. We will end up with
increased saturation and canvas texture.
The contoured areas are relatively lat
but not dull. Interest and warmth is added
to them with different shades blending
with one another. We will sample colours
and with a low opacity brush apply to
achieve this blending effect.
Below: Although
Gauguin dabbled in
many styles, the broad
colours of paintings
such as The Siesta have
become his trademark
The use of texture was very important in

Gauguins work and can also be done digitally
Away we go!
Tools at the ready
01 Setting up
Open the provided drawing

from the disc, or create a new document
and open the drawing as a separate layer (call it
Drawing). Also open a reference image of the
original Joyousness piece to refer to. Visit www.
artlex.com/ArtLex/p/postimp.gauguin.html for a
sample of this, and other Gauguin works.
02 Colour palette
As you work, you can

create a colour palette dedicated to this
piece. Double-click the Main colour to open the
Colors palette. Go to Colors Palette>New. Choose
a shade, drag to the empty squares at the bottom
and use the List and Color menus to name them.
03 Airbrush
With the provided drawing open, go to Window>Show

Brush Creator. Choose Airbrush>Soft Airbrush 20 or Digital Airbrush,
set brush size 45-50 and Expression to None. Under Impasto set Draw To to
Color. We are going to colour the drawing in preparation for the nal paint
application. In the Layers palette create a new layer for the paint and name it
Paint Layer.
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04
Fill in In
05 Fill in 2
Continue to select an area of

the drawing, feather and ll in to cover
the drawing with colour. This will be very useful
later on as you apply nal paint to canvas. Refer to
the nal image to get an idea of colour and dont
forget to add each colour to your palette.
Tracker is a very
useful facility for
any type of work
with brushes. The
Tracker palette keeps
a visual record of
recent brushes used.
The Tracker window
can display brushes
as a single stroke so
you can keep track
of work done so far
and use any of these
previously used
brushes without
tracing your steps.
To do this, simply
click on the brush
of your choice. This
should automatically
activate it.
the toolbox
select the Lasso tool.
Working on the
Drawing layer, use
a selection tool to
pick an area. Go to
Select>Feather and
set to 6. Set your Main
colour to the one you
wish to ll the selected
area with and go to
Effects>Fill to open
the Fill box. Here,
under Fill With choose
the Current Color
option and set Opacity
to 35-40.
Tutorial
Tracker
07 Dry
Bristle 2
06 Dry Bristle
In the Brush Creator,

go to the Artists Oils and choose Dry
Bristle. In the controls, set Opacity to 20, Grain to
3-5 and Expression to None. Brush size is 23-25
and Impasto is set to Color and Depth. Set Depth
here to no more than 30-40. Zoom in and start
applying green to the top area.
Continue this process

of focusing on an
area, setting your
colour and covering
it using the Dry Bristle
brush. Adjust Grain
and Opacity levels
as you progress and
move the brush in
any direction you like.
This layer will be partly
covered later on.
09 Slightly
darker
08 Palette power
Use the palette created in step two to guide you

and add shades to it as you progress. Set Opacity to 30 and Size
Expression to Pressure. Under Impasto set Draw To to Color and Depth. Zoom
in on an area and use the colour applied earlier to apply a heavier layer. Use
more straight orderly strokes.
Once you nish

covering an area with
one shade, use a
darker shade to add
depth to the piece.
Zoom in on an area,
sample its colour,
double-click on the
Main colour to open
the Colors palette.
Here, move the slider
on the right down
slightly to select a
darker shade. Apply
while observing the
original and adjust
if needed.
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Combining colours
Outlining the details
10 Skin 1
Zoom in to the right-hand girl in the centre of the image and

repeat the process described in step nine. Sample the skin tone, open
the Colors palette to choose a slightly darker one and apply. Strokes should
be the in the same manner and direction as the original. With Opacity set to
20-22, the new shade mixes with the layer underneath.
11 Skin 2
The skin is made of several shades

of the same colour blending together. Use
the Colors palette to move to lighter and darker
tones while observing the original. The skin colour
of the second girl is different so be sure to set
a new colour before starting the darker shade
process again.
13 Colour in colour
14 Black lines
15 Black lines 2
16 White on trees
The clearly separated areas in the piece are

enhanced by different tones and shades blended together. Right
above the dog and between its legs for example, are shades of green and
brown. Sample a green shade, reduce Opacity to 16-18 and apply short
strokes in different directions. Follow with a brown colour to the area beside it.
Switch between the two shades to cover the area.
12 Shadows
Stay with the Dry Brush to

apply shadows to the area surrounding
the two women. Sample the brown below and
around the woman on the right, set Opacity to
25-30 and apply the dark shade to accentuate the
two gures. You can go over the same area several
times to achieve a more intense shade.
A dark line contours the different areas. Open Brush

Creator and Choose Chalk>Square Chalk. Choose the Cover
Method>Grainy Hard Cover. This gives a slightly gritty appearance to the tool.
Set Grain to 12, expression to Pressure and go around the different areas.
Adjust pressure according to thickness and tone of the original.
Glazing
Gauguin used
wax on some of his
works as well as glaze.
For the latter, thin
layers of translucent
colour are added
to the final images,
giving it richness and
depth. The quickest
method to achieve
this effect is using
the Acrylic brushes
Glazing variants. This
technique requires a
lot of patience as one
glazing layer, with
its many strokes, is
gradually applied on
top of another.
The contour lines bordering different areas have

become a Gauguin trademark. Apply these sensitively to avoid a look
that is too graphic. Adjust Grain and Size as you progress. If you do not trust
your pressure sensitivity, set it to None and adjust Opacity, Grain and Size
instead. Use this tool to redraw lines like the womens face.
Stay with the gritty Chalk but change Depth to

21%. Choose a white colour and set Size to 13 and Opacity to 2. Use
one long stroke if you can to apply a light line to the main branch of the tree.
Go over the line in some areas where it is needed.
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Lighter
17 shade
Paper
Texture
Repeat steps 12, 13 and 17 to the entire painting

applying lighter and darker shades as well as tone in tone. Upon
completion, go to Effects>Tonal Control>Adjust Colors. Increase Saturation
to 16-20 and trust your eye to set the level you feel is right. Be sure to use the
Uniform Color under Using and take advantage of the Preview window.
Setting the Surface Texture

Finishing with a feather
You can apply canvas

texture to the finished
image by going to
Surface Control under
Effects. Alternatively,
imitate the real-life
process by painting
over a textured blank
canvas. To apply
texture to the canvas
before starting to
paint, open Paper
Selector, find the
texture you wish to
apply, select it and
go to Effects>Surface
Control>Apply Surface
Texture >Using Paper.
Many artists apply
surface texture to the
brush work when they
finish painting.
18 Saturation
Tutorial
Go
back to Artists Oils
and set your brush to a
20-22 size and Opacity
to 13. Under Impasto
set Depth to 15% and
zoom in on the yellow
dress of the woman
on the right. Sample
this yellow and
double-click on the
Main colour to open
the Colors palette. Set
a signicantly lighter
shade and paint the
highlight on the dress.
Try to use long and
single strokes.
20 Paper
19 Surface Texture 1
The surface canvas

texture around the edges seems a touch
rougher than that in the centre. Use the Lasso
selection tool to loosely draw a circle around
the centre of the piece. Set Feather level to the
maximum of 50.
Click
on Paper
Selector, just below
the toolbox to open
it. Out of the list that
pops up choose Artists
Canvas. Increase
Brightness to 78 and
Size to 120. You can
also try Linen Canvas
on the same list.
21 Surface
Texture 2
Go to Effects>Surface
Control>Apply
Surface Texture and
set Using to Paper. In
the Preview window
you can now see the
paper you designed
in the previous step.
Set Softness to 0,
Amount to 50, Picture
to 100, Reection to
0 and Shine to 25.
As Gauguin often
waxed and glazed his
paintings, you can
experiment with the
Shine level further.
22 Finish off
You have applied Surface Texture to your circle

selection made in step 19. Invert your selection and open the Paper
palette again. Here, increase the size even further, go to Effects>Surface
Control>Surface Texture and apply to the selection. The Feather level should
still be set to the maximum of 50.
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Primer Artists Oils
BRUSH CATEGORY
Artists Oils
If you like oil paint, youll love the Artists Oils
brush category. For the ultimate in life-like
paint effects, read on!
PRIMER
hen it comes to the Artists

Oils variants within Corel
Painter, youll ind a range
of brushes that quite
literally bristle with the ooohh! factor!
This group of brushes are so good that,
when used well, youd be hard pushed
to tell the marks they make from their
real-world equivalents. As the name
suggests, Artists Oils brushes are all
about simulating the effect of oil paint,
and feature some superbly realistic
variants. Whether you want to apply
really thick paint as if it had fallen from a
trowel, scumble areas of dry oil paint that
barely catches your painting surface, or
slosh really wet, oily paint around on your
canvas, youll ind all the tools you need in
the Artists Oils category.
There are a few vital controls which
apply to the Artists Oils variants, and
were looking at these in detail in the
boxes below, in fact, these brushes
have so much variability built in
that they have a whole panel of
brush controls all of their own
(Window>Brush Controls>Show
Artists Oils), where you can control
everything from the wetness and
viscosity of the paint they apply, and
even have control of how the bristles
within the brushes behave.
Now add to all the above the fact that
Artists Oils brushes can also paint with
impasto what more could you want?
BLEND TREND!
By using the Blender
variants, you can work
over areas of paint already
applied and subtly blend
them to break up outlines
and give a feel and look
of a real oil painting.
REALLY SMEARY
Use the Smeary variants in areas that
dont need too much detail. In these
areas, the way the paint smears and
merges can be as visually interesting
as the content of the painting itself.
Smeary variants use high Blend and
Wetness values.
Surface texture
Brush Controls
Getting the grain right
Explore and experiment

Dont overlook the importance
of the surface you paint on when
working with the Artists Oils
variants. Of course, traditional oil
painting surfaces such as canvas
work wonderfully and really give
the paint something to cling to. Your
choice of surface is particularly
important when it come to the
Grainy Artists Oil variants. Make
sure you choose your surface before
you start painting.
Another group of controls are in the Artists Oils

control palette (Window>Brush Controls>Show Artists
Oils). Here youll find three sliders where you can
control the bristles within the brush, the amount of
paint they hold and the bristles clumpiness. You can
even choose Dirty Mode, where your brush will not only
paint with the colour you choose, but also pick up the
colour of paint already on the canvas! These controls
are also available in the Brush Creator panel, and
this is the place where you can experiment with the
settings to your hearts content, and actually see the
difference the controls make to the brush.
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Selecting the brush you wish to

use is as simple as clicking the
Brush Variant menu and
choosing the brush you want.
Primer
Picking the perfect brush
BRUSH PALETTE
Prepare yourself for bristle heaven!
PAINT WITH IMPASTO

The Impasto Oil variant is ideal
for livening up otherwise plain
areas in your paintings. Because
they paint with impasto, where
the paint is raised above the
painting surface, they can give
your paintings tons of luscious,
textural interest.
INTO THE LIGHT!

Remember, always paint from
dark to light when youre
using the Artists Oils variants,
just as a traditional artist
would. Establish the dark and
midtones in the painting, and
add your highlights last with
an impasto variant.
Blender Bristle
Grainy Blender
Blender Brush
Grainy Dry Brush
Bristle Brush
Grainy Impasto
Clumpy Brush
Impasto Oil
Clumpy Thin Flat
Mixer Thin Flat
Dry Bristle
Oil Palette Knife
Dry Brush
Oily Bristle
Dry Clumpy Impasto
Smeary Impasto
Dry Palette Knife
Soft Blender
Artists Oils
The Artists Oils category contains all the brushes you could ever dream
of! To let you see the different variants in all their painterly glory,
weve constructed a juicy palette so you can get a real feel for the best
brushes to create textured artwork with.
Viscosity, blend and wetness

Three of the best
These really are vital controls for Artists

Oils brushes, and you will find them in
the Properties Bar (as displayed above).
First of all, Viscosity governs how stiff and
sticky the paint is. At relatively low values
the paint acts almost as if its a liquid,
whereas at higher values it tends to be
rather thick and sticky.
Secondly, the Blend value determines

how much the paint youre applying to your
image blends with any paint that has already
been applied on the canvas previously.
Finally, and quite predictably, Wetness
determines just how wet the paint already
on the canvas is, and works hand-in-hand
with the Blend value.
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Drawing 101 Facial proportions
Understand
Facial proportions
Read on for valuable rules and techniques for drawing faces from scratch
01
EYE AND NOSE AREA TO
BOTTOM OF NOSE
FOREHEAD AREA TO
EYEBROW LINE
02
03
LIP AND CHIN AREA TO

BOTTOM OF CHIN
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Think about anatomy

when youre drawing
Drawing 101
Start to see the forms beneath the skin

Were not going to deal with anatomy in this issue, but its worth mentioning.
The best way to get a real understanding of the gentle undulations of the
skin on faces is to draw your own copy of the facial muscles, or familiarising
yourself with how they look. This lets you get a feel for how the different
parts on a face should look basically where all the dips and curves are.
Facial proportions
rawing a face is one of

the most rewarding but
intimidating challenges art
has to offer. Many people feel
very comfortable with landscape and
still life, even using the tricky medium
of watercolour, and yet they ashamedly
admit that they cannot draw people (let
alone faces).
There are tried and tested means to
help us all draw faces, never mind how
conident you feel. It helps avoid all the
pitfalls we bring with us from childhood.
As children our low viewpoint means we
usually look straight up someones nose
when we look at a face, perhaps this is
why we tend to draw eyes right at the top
of the head and represent nostrils as two
holes. Heads tend to be round and hair is
slapped latly on top. These mistakes stay
with us unless we do two things.
The irst to take a good look at what
a face actually looks like. This is a very
dificult thing as we tend to assume we
know exactly how a face its together as
we see them so frequently. But you need
to look at faces as if youve never seen
one before. You should get that eureka
feeling when you realise, for example,
that the eyes are generally about halfway
down the head. Because they are such an
By understanding how face proportions work, you can

create great portraits
Italian Renaissance of the 16th Century

devised the so-called divine proportions.
They have been used successfully to teach
people the skill of accurate proportions
and to help people draw successful faces.
FRONT
NOTICE
THE SHAPE
OF THE
FACE
We assume we know exactly how a face fits

together as we see them so frequently
intense feature and we use them so much
in terms of communication, our brain
somehow forgets to register that the
whole rest of the head is there.
The second thing is to get hold of some
general rules and guidelines. Ancient
Western art from Italy and Greece shows
proportioned faces and the artists of
Even though the grid is generally equal, if your

subjects face is different, draw whats in front of you!
Before the Renaissance, drawings

and paintings of faces were devoid of
expression. Religious paintings depict
passive, almost genderless, igures
despite their beards being painted with
great delicacy and skill but without any
energy. Since the 15OOs Western art
especially has strived to take portraiture
from speciic representation of features
to attempting to capture personality and
individual psyches.
Leonardo da Vinci applied the golden
ratio to the human face in an attempt to
identify the ideal proportions. This idea
has been developed by artists over the
centuries to give us the guidelines we are
going to follow here. We will go through
the stage-by-stage process of drawing a
portrait from initial expressive sketch to
the inished image. Finally we are going
to look at each speciic feature, the eye,
ear, mouth and nose, in depth. You will
learn tips to improve your accuracy and
your ability to produce a realistic image
with conidence and style. Knowing and
applying these tricks of the trade will
increase your skills to characterise your
nearest and dearest; some great rewards
for taking on this challenge.
SEE HOW
THE NECK
MUSCLES
APPEAR
PROFILE
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Work out face proportions

Its easy when you know how
hese four drawings demonstrate

how the face can be divided into
a grid, which can then be used to
place the facial features. It is true that
every face is different in many subtle
ways but, as a general rule, any face can
be subdivided the following ways. The
outline of the head sits in the outside
squares and the features are arranged
within the squares. Illustrations one and
two demonstrate how features line up
together, for example the eyebrow and
the top of the ear and the nose and the ear
lobe. This avoids the common mistakes

of misplaced ears, unnaturally short
foreheads, overly large chins and other
misjudgements. It ensures the face shape
and proile contours are in the right place.
The quartered grid shows speciic
relationships between the facial
features. Triangles highlight the equal
distance between different points on
the face on the proile and also within
the central features of the face. These
various relationships can be listed and
recognised as follows.
The eyes are nearly halfway between

the chin and the top of the head.
The bottom half of the face below
the eyes can be divided into three to
measure the space between eyes, the
pudgy part of the nose, the centre of the
lips and the chin.
The head can be divided into
ive at the eye line and that should
approximately represent where the eyes
it in. The space between the eyes is
one eye length. The remaining two eye
lengths are the rest of the head.
Placing the features

This grid is divided up into
four columns and four
rows, the top row and last
column are slimmer than
the squares to emphasise
the point that the face can
generally be divided up
into three, at the hairline,
the nostrils and the chin.
Looking at the profile, in
the grid the eyes, nose and
mouth are found in one
side section, they could
almost be said to rest
in the bottom left-hand
quarter, while the ear stays
in the right-hand bottom
quarter. And of course
once these relationships
are drawn they can be
easily tweaked to achieve
likeness and character.
EYES, EAR AND CHIN
When seen in prole, the

corner of the eye, the
bottom of the ear and
the centre of the chin all
conspire to make a triangle.
Feature
relationships
First divide a square into
quarters then split the
bottom half into three
horizontally. Measure
between the chin and nose;
this is the same distance
as between the bridge of
the nose and the ear. Mark
this on each end of the eye
line and divide it by five to
show where the eyes are.
(two and a half eye lengths
on each side of the centre
of the nose).
FACE FORWARD
You can also use triangles

and lines to work out
where features need
to sit.
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Drawing 101
From sketch to portrait

Its just a case of working out the stages
STAGE 1
ROUGHLY SKETCH IN YOUR IDEA
STAGE 2
CHECK YOUR MEASUREMENTS
STAGE 1
Now you have the essence of your image, check your

measurements and proportional relationships with the
features and the head shape. Make corrections and check
features carefully with your source image.
STAGE 2
Facial proportions
Start by sketching out the oval shapes of the head in

position and use a composition that is appropriate to your
nished idea. I wanted equal space around the head to
really highlight the beautiful curving lines her nose and
mouth make.
STAGE 3
Profile
STAGE 3
ROUGHLY SKETCH IN SHADOW
Gently crosshatch the areas of major shadow. Do not

worry too much about a broad range of values; this is
very much a working drawing that is still evolving. Pay
special attention to the eyes and ears and consider how
the muscles may affect the contours.
STAGE 4
INCREASE THE DETAIL AND RECHECK
YOUR PROPORTIONS
Really analyse the spatial and tonal relationships and

begin to evaluate and record the darkest areas. Bring in
STAGE 5
STAGE 4
Frontal
the background and always try to prevent your subject from

oating on a white background. The black behind my subject
highlights the prole features and added a little drama with the
dynamic contrast.
STAGE 5
REFINEMENT AND FINISH
This stage is the payoff for all your hard work, where your
image starts to come alive. Use a 2B Pencil to create soft and
hard marks for dark shadows. Think about the nostrils, pupils,
ears and centre of the lips, which are the darkest areas and
work over all areas, sensitively.
STAGE 1
STAGE 3
STAGE 2
STAGE 5
STAGE 4
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Eyes, ears, nose and mouth

Now you know the structure, meet the finishing touches
Eyes
Ears
The face VIPs

To bring the eyes to
life, include reflected
light on the pupil and
take great care to draw
the eyeball partially
covered to avoid
staring. A shadow
below the top eyelid
and highlights on the
bottom lid open the
eye up.
Small but important

Chances are you
wont be drawing ears
very much, but if you
are, they need very
sensitive shading,
like the mouth. Use
the hair to create its
strong edge and leave
a little light next to
shadows to help the
curves take form.
01
01
The initial sketch lays down the basic shape of the eye
and how it sits
03
02
Add more detail to the basic shapes

and flesh out the features
04
02
Place the rough lines to show the ear

edges and general form
03
When youre happy with the

proportions, apply light shading
05
04
Slowly build up the shading,
taking care to pick out the
shadows and highlights that
will give the ear its swirly,
bony form
You could stop at step four, but by having darker shadows, you are treated to a much
more powerful eye
Working with the eyes

When you are planning the position of the eyes, a good rule is to space them an eyes width
apart. This will avoid any skewy faces.
05
A persons hair can do
wonders in emphasising the
ear and its form
72
3/5/07 16:30:11
Nose
The nose is really
tricky to draw, because
it changes dramatically
with the slightest
movement. The most
common mistake is to
draw too much keep
the shadow light all
over except around the
nostrils but avoid thick
lines on the bridge.
Suggestion plays a big
part in drawing noses!
A well-drawn mouth
is the most important
facial feature after the
eyes. Remember to
make the centre line
the darkest, the top lip
thinner and darker and
avoid heavy outlines
at the edge. Always
try and study what
you see rather than
drawing how you think
lips should look!
01
01
Create the basic shape and

then plump out the lower
lip and top lip. Do this by
drawing circular contour lines
02
02
Facial proportions
Lovely lips every time
Drawing 101
Mouth
Smells good to us
With a rough shape drawn,

start to visualise the cartilage
and bone and sketch these in
03
03
With the contours applied, start to
add some shading to portray the
lips fullness
04
04
Slowly begin to lay down shading,

following the forms already drawn
Carry on building up the
shading and also start to
define the centre line more
05
The only really dark parts
are right at the bottom of the
nose. This is all you need for a
realistic effect
05
Really define the centre line and also
put a small shadow underneath the lips
to lift them from the face
73
3/5/07 16:31:14
DON SEEGMILLER
TITLE
WEBSITE
JOB TITLE
Bridge, Ball, Trunk

www.seegmillerart.com
Professional artist and author
Reading through Dons achievements is a humbling experience indeed

over the past 20 years he has produced over 600 paintings, spanning
the disciplines of character design, digital painting, traditional oil painting
and gure drawing. Plus hes used Corel Painter since its earliest days, so
what can we say, except all hail to the master!
074-075_OPM_04_art spread don s.74 74
3/5/07 12:10:58
074-075_OPM_04_art spread don s.75 75
3/5/07 12:11:13
Your
questions answered
Up in flames
Im trying to paint a bonire but
was wondering if there are any
particular brushes that are good
for painting ire?
Your experts
Stewart McKissick
Stewart is a long-time user

of Corel Painter and is a
big fan of the airbrush and
illustration potential offered
by the program. Here he
answers your questions on creating cartoons
and character design.
Jeff Johnson
Jeff is an excellent artist in his

own right, and he is also kind
enough to share his knowledge
with all of you. He tackles the
general creative/technique
questions here, and has loads
of helpful tips to make you a better artist.
What youll find in this section

Software
Dont get bogged

down in a Corel Painter black hole
write to us and well help you
work harmoniously
You can paint fire with a mere handful

of hues ranging from a near-white
yellow to a deep reddish-orange. The
trick is in laying down those few colours in
a way that makes the fire more convincing.
The Tapered Round Oil Brush is one of my
favourites, and I often use it in tandem with
the Oily Blenders for painting fire. The Tapered
Round creates a stroke with a wide base that
comes to a near point, which mirrors the
shape of flames. The Oily Blenders allow you
to pull sharp little flame licks out of one area
into another. They both allow you to make the
sinuous kind of strokes that mirror flames.
Fly me to the moon

Please help!! Im desperately trying
to paint a space scene but cant
seem to get the moon right. Is there
a trick that can help me?
S M
brushes I mentioned. I
I painted this blazing bonfire with the two
the Tapered Round, and
blocked in the basic values and hues with
er adding some crissthen spent a little time with the Oily Blend
s further in places
crossing eddies and extending some flame
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
Painting the moon is no harder than

painting a ball. Well, a really big ball
that has been getting smacked by
really big rocks for a really long time. Anyway,
the same basic rules apply. The main difference
is that a brightly lit ball will have a smooth
grading while the moons surface is broken up
by the pocks and scars from that interminable
beating it has been taking. One of the clearest
ways to see how to treat the surface is to
have an edge to examine. I love the crescent
moon, as deft treatment of the textures along
the narrow band of graded values that mark
the rapid transition from bright light to pitch
dark can create very convincing realism with
maximum efficiency.
Send in your queries to

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

for our experts to answer
at opm@imaginepublishing.co.uk
A hairy situation
The intensity of the moons glow is enhanced
by using a rich blue-black that
acts as a compliment to the colour of the moon.
I have included a faint glow
around the brightest edge to suggest the atmos
phere we see the moon
through. I also hint at the rest of the globe,
as it never fully disappears.
Is there a simple way of painting

hair? I never know whether to do it
as a whole or strand by strand?
Y S
76
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2/5/07 14:25:38
The cats finally out

of the bag
Q&A
Im an animal lover but I also

like to do cartoony drawings.
I was hoping to combine these
two things and was wondering if
theres a quick and effective way to
draw cartoon cats?
Art Class
K E
Quick usually means simple. Using

basic shapes to build the character
is the quickest way.
Here weve drawn three cats in three
steps one thing that can help is to study
the real thing and notice the kinds of
behaviours that are unique to the animal.
Cats may be the most often-cartooned
creatures of all. Weve tried to choose
poses that really say feline.
02 Adding detail
Here you may use as many or as

few additional details as you wish. The minimum
would be eyes and a tail, which are very dening parts of a
cat. Weve also added noses, mouths (which split out of
the end of the nose), whiskers, and legs/feet.
03 The purrfect nish
Now you can nish the

drawings however you like. Using layers in Corel
Painter we erased the lines that we didnt wish to keep and
coloured them in a textural manner. As always, observation
and practice are keys to success.
01 Building up the shapes
For each
pose, weve broken it into a simple body,
head, and ears. Cats heads are basically rounded
and can be stylised into triangles as well. Ears are
always triangular. If this stage is successful, you
should be able to see a cat even now if not,
perhaps another pose would be better.
Personally, I come from a sculpture

background, and overall I tend to see
hair as a shape. It helps make sense
of lighting and choosing what details I should
include (and also exclude). Painting more
detail into hair than you actually see is quite a
common inclination if not practice. Ive done
a bit of research and have looked at a large
number of different artists approaches to
painting hair, and most folks whose treatment
I admire tend to paint hair as mass, just with
a few areas of greater detail, most often
restricted to highlights and areas in direct light,
to sell the illusion. I am looking at myself in the
mirror as I write this, and outside of highlighted
areas, there really is not much detail to see.
Unless you decided that the hair was going
to be the primary subject, I would, if I chose
to paint what I was looking at, have to treat
the hair in such a way as to take that into
account, or throw the logic of the painting into
a tailspin. Never try to overcomplicate things or
give yourself unnecessary work.
Here are a couple of shots of hair painted mainly as mass.

In
both works I used very loose, broad and expressive strokes
to
create energetic shapes, blocking in the masses with
mid and
dark tones, then finishing up with some highlights
77
2/5/07 14:27:10
Q&A Art Class
Hearing your problem

Im trying to draw realistic portraits
but are there any useful tricks of the
trade for drawing ears?
L D C
A lot of folks dread having to draw

ears, but I look forward to it! If you
break the ear down to a couple of
easily remembered shapes, no matter what
position you see it in after that, you can easily
understand what you are looking at. I cant
remember whether I made this up or read it in
a book, but my choice is to see the main forms,
expressed by the curved ridges, as a letter and
a number, namely the letter Y tucked into the
number nine, which you can see in my diagram.
Something to ponder
Assume the nine and the Y are made of wire,

and
you bend them slightly to fit the contours of
the ear,
as shown here. See how easily you can unders
tand
the form from any angle? The next few ears
you
look at should make my point for me, and make
a
previously tough subject a snap to draw.
Do you have any good advice for

painting water? Im trying to draw
a big pond.
R W
If you look at a number of paintings by

veteran artists that have water as an
element, the first thing you notice is
how little blue they use. Water is very reflective,
and is predominately the colour of the sky
and surroundings. If it is shallow, it transmits
much of the colour of its bed. Painting water,
Take note of the various

elements I included in this
study to enhance the illusion of
a pond. Also note the slightly
softened reflections, which
suggest a very gentle breeze
agitating the waters surface
therefore, often involves creating clues as to

its surface properties, creating a context that
is convincing, and marrying the surface of the
water to its surroundings with use of local
colour and reflections. Little details like ripples,
reflected objects, reeds and the like offer clues
that impact our sense of what were looking at.
Shading shadows
Ive been doing some experimenting
and was wondering if I should ever
use pure black for shadows?
S R
Pure black is rarely used in painting,

either traditionally or digitally. It tends
to appear very flat and lifeless, almost
more like a hole than a shadow. Also, because
it is basically neutral it does not enhance the
colours adjacent to it, choosing to just sort
of sit there uninterested in the rest of the
Yellow/black
In the example here, a small amount of the yellow colour

has been added to the black
78
2/5/07 14:29:27
Time for reflection
01
Most surfaces have

some visible reflective
properties. The different
reflective qualities of different
surfaces is important to study and
make notes on, as little details
can have a big impact on how
convincing an image is. Looking
at the reflective properties of
water is very instructive. On a
day without any breeze, water
can reflect almost like a mirror.
Just a wisp of wind stirs up the
surface ever so slightly and
the mirror gets a little cloudy.
More breeze further disrupts
the mirror effect, and so on. The
same goes with other reflective
surfaces. Shiny but rough surfaces
will reflect objects much like water
in a breeze, for instance. A painter
will encounter more challenges
than that when painting reflections,
though. Figuring out the shape of
a reflection from ones imagination
involves perspective and can be
tricky at first. For these reasons, I
have chosen a very simple threestep demonstration of how to map
out and paint a reflection on a
moderately reflective surface, the
basic technique being universal.
03
01 Mapping in the reections
Here we have added some of the minty green to the

black to give a more harmonious match
03 Finishing up
A moderately reective surface

like the one Im painting here will create
a sharper reection at rst and taper off
rapidly. The lines that extend the panelling
suggest this. Note that I dropped a facsimile
of the base top down from the bottom of
the base itself exactly the distance from the
top to the surface of the table. I included the
junction of the conical shape and the base
surface as this is where to start my mirror
image of the ball and its support. Owing
to the fact that our eye is above the object,
there is three-point perspective involved, so
the mirror image is a bit tapered.
picture. Mixing just about any combination

of rich, dark colours one warm and the
other cool will give you a lively black with
colour potential you can easily exploit to your
advantage. Shadows
Green /black
painting in some of the colour

of the wall, which reects
down to a bit past where
the lines of the panelling
disappear. Note how this helps
dene the shape of the globes
reection, as well as tying the
table top and the wall together
better. Objects next to one
another almost always mingle
colours in this way.
Art Class
D C
02
02
Blocking in the
values Now I am
Q&A
Im just getting into the

digital side of painting
and Im rather curious
to know what your advice
would be on how to paint
realistic relections?
that are painted with a hue complementary

to the form on which they fall (which mirrors
what we see in nature, by the way) are more
vibrant and share that energy with the colour
of the form itself. Everyone wins.
Here
is the nal product.
After blocking in the values of
the reections (the reection of
the base is nearly the same hue
as the table top, as the base is
itself a reective surface), I used
a large, low-opacity pointed
Stump Blender to nesse the
edges and meld the reections
to the surface. I made a number
of strokes across the reections,
along the same angle as the top,
to suggest a directional grain.
Pure black
Blue/black
By adding light blue to the black, we have made a softer

colour that works well as a shadow
Here you can see how a pure black background lies flat against the image,
and doesnt interact in any way
79
2/5/07 14:30:25
Q&A Art Class
Neon lights
Ive always loved those really cool neon signs you see
outside cafs and clubs in ilms. Is there a way to create
this effect in Corel Painter?
N H
Neon is a gas put in glass tubes that glows when electricity

runs through it. There are a couple of ways using Corel Painter
to get this effect. Well look at the easiest one first.
Method 1: The Neon Pen
In the F-X Brush Category is the

Neon Pen. This brush creates a
pretty good version of neon just
by drawing with it. However
it does have some limits. If
you make it too large and turn
corners too sharply it will leave
small artefacts.
Remember that light reflects,
so it certainly helps to have a dark ground to show the glow around
the tubes. We started with a black canvas and to apply the effect
to the words we used a handy trick. First we set the type using the
Text tool, and then from the Layers Palette we chose Convert Text
to Shapes. This makes the individual letters into a group of vector
shapes. We then converted the shapes to selections using the Convert
to Selection command from the Shapes menu.
Finally, we chose Stroke Selection from the Select menu this
automatically strokes the active selections of the letters with the
current brush. The result is nice clean neon type.
Create a black
01
and white
drawing
Here weve
made a black and white
line drawing of a sign. A
typeface was chosen that
looks like curving glass
tubes, and the shapes were
broken and connected
to the ground with lines
representing wires.
02 Make a colour layer
The drawing was put on its own

layer and the lines lled in using bright primary colours. The
wires were made grey on a separate layer. The background was
lled in black so the glow would show up well.
the
03 Add
glow
The
layer with the colour
was copied using
the Duplicate Layer
command from the
Layers menu. The
original layer below
was then blurred using
a Focus effect from the
Effects menu (we used
Motion Blur). Finally, we
added one more layer
above the lines and used
the Digital Airbrush to
add some reections
and highlights.
Method 2: Using Blur Effects
Since neon is a gas put in glass tubes, it is more convincing to design

your art so it looks like its a series of tubes connected to each other
and the ground by wires.
Laying down lighting

What Corel Painter tools are good
for lighting a painting? Ive inished
a portrait, but it looks a little lat. I
would like to change the lighting but I cant
face doing it all over again!
K A
Before
Applying that extra
layer of lighting
managed to vastly
improve the overall
image,
making
the
ghts along a
highli
White
focal points
edge create voluminous
folded that
muchlookin
cleaner
g fabric
and crisper
After
Corel Painter has some very

nice tools for aiding a painting
that ended up a bit flat. Go
to the Effects pull-down menu and
via Surface Control open up the Apply
Lighting dialog box. Spend some time
there trying out effects. You can also
finesse the Brightness/Contrast controls
(also found via Surface Control) to great
effect with a little creativity. I often use a
few effects in tandem with one another.
One of my favourite moves is to copy the image

onto itself and apply the effects on the upper
layer, which gives me the option of changing
the opacity and erasing areas that I dont want
affected, exposing the original canvas in those
areas. I come up with new wrinkles every
painting. These are excellent tools when used
with some care to avoid making the effect
the subject of the painting, as opposed to an
enhancement of the subject matter, which
should be the intent.
If you look at the two pictures on the left,
these show the result of using the Gradual
Light effect in the Apply Lighting dialog box.
The before picture looked a little murky but
now the light is more centred and the picture
is a bit more dynamic, with a greater contrast
between the foreground and background.
80
2/5/07 14:31:28
Q&A
Adding depth to
your cityscape
03
Art Class
Im currently in the middle of trying

to illustrate a cityscape but whatever
I seem to do it still looks really lat. Is
there anything I can do to my image to make it
look more 3D?
D C
Worry no more Darran because there are

several things that can create the illusion
of depth on a two-dimensional surface.
The most important ones to remember are overlap,
contrast, and a sense of light and shadow. In this
example here, we have built three layers in Corel
Painter to try and illustrate all of these. Hope
it helps!
01
01 Basic shapes
We made a simple
drawing of the silhouettes of buildings on
the Canvas layer. These we coloured with very light
pastel hues of similar value. They will be farthest
in the distance. Weve created a sense of morning
light from the upper right, and some clouds and
mist for atmosphere.
02
02 Overlap
On a second
layer we drew more
buildings to overlap the rst. Of
course things appear bigger the
closer they are to you. We put sides
on to indicate more dimension,
and coloured them brighter to
correspond to the direction of the
light. The facing sides were shaded
darker with some texture. More
contrast makes things seem closer
to the viewer.
03 Adding dimension
On a third layer more

buildings were drawn, this time with both
dimension and details. The details make them closer
still, and cast shadows were added, as well as the darkest
tones. Care was taken to make sure the overlaps did
not align in a confusing manner since the painting is
stylised actual perspective was not used. This overall
effect is what is called atmospheric perspective.
81
2/5/07 14:34:02
Using the
cts r
produ
rel Painte
We used Co
oto
to tweak this ph t
it ou
before printing art
fine
onto one of the ed
cards we review
The creative products on test this issue
kodak easyshare
v803 camera
wacom favo
comic pack
This svelte compact offers users

seven megapixels of quality. We
see if it has anything else to offer
the digital creative
Manga fans will love this bundle

it includes a gleaming white
Graphire4 and the excellent
Manga Studio Debut 3.0 software
book reviews
output
We cast our eyes over another

quality selection of books that
will help improve your artistic
talent or give your inspiration a
nice little kick
Home inkjet printers have

come a long way and so has
inkjet papers. We look at three
companies that offer an enticing
selection of fine art papers
Reviews
Use this section to discover

what creative products can
boost your use of Corel Painter,
learn about the best artistic
books and discover ideas for
displaying your artwork
83
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Reviews Kodak EasyShare V803
Kodak EasyShare V803

149 | Build up a reference library with this affordable compact camera
Navigating
your way around
the cameras
options
Favourites
orel Painter has always had a very

strong bond with photography just
turn to page 22 to see how three artists
merge the two disciplines so having
decent images to use as the basis of projects is a
major bonus for any artist. But its no longer the
case that quality automatically means having to
empty your bank account. Even cameras in whats
known as the budget range have more than
enough punch for users and the Kodak EasyShare
V803 exempliies this perfectly.
To begin with, it has eight megapixels under
its belt. Not only does this mean that you can
take quality photos that will have enough image
information for whatever digital task you throw
at them, it also means that you can eek out those
extra few centimetres when printing. Oh, and did
we mention you can pick it up for around 149?
Thats right, you get all those megapixels for
just under 150. This is really great value, and
something that makes this model stand out from
its peers. But it doesnt matter how blessed with
megapixels a camera may be if its a nightmare
to use, the pixels aint worth a hill of beans. So
how does it perform?
Looks-wise, its an attractive model, with subtle
curves and a pleasing thickness. Its thin enough
to it inside a pocket but isnt so thin that you

wouldnt notice if it fell out. At the risk of sounding
like a camera porn mag, it also has a really nice
texture that makes you want to touch it. And its
general design makes it easy to hold and keep
steady while you frame your shot.
Take a scoot round the back and youll ind a
2.5-inch LCD with two brushed metal panels for
the various controls. The metal contrasts very
nicely with the black, helping add to the cameras
kudos. To the left of the screen are the lash,
delete, menu, review and share buttons, while
the right side is dedicated to the zoom and
joystick. This joystick also gives you access to the
Macro mode and help button if you lose your
way. In our tests we found this layout to work
well. We never fumbled trying to ind the right
button to push and everything was big enough to
press comfortably. As youd expect, the shutter
button sits on the top of the camera, and is joined
by the video, scene and favourites buttons. Again,
these are nicely positioned so as to avoid any
accidental pushes.
One thing that did strike us about the camera
was that it was a little slow to start up. This is no
problem if you just want something to take out
on trips and snap various reference photos to be
Batteries
The rechargeable lithium-ion
battery slides neatly into its
compartment. The battery door is
relatively sturdy and reassuringly
clicks shut
Memory card
This camera is equipped with 32MB
of internal memory, which should
keep you going for some time,
but to really make the most of it
you may need to invest in an SD
memory card
Objects are nice and crisp and the colours are strong and vibrant,
which gives the photos a gorgeous paint-like quality
Flash button
Zoom
Connections
ISO
Controller
Rather oddly, the connection

port is situated right on the corner
of the cameras body, which we
found a little fiddly to open if you
are not fortunate enough to have
long fingernails!
54.5 mm
Delete
Menu
Button
Review
Main menu
Lens
Share
LCD
Scene modes
103mm
The cameras modest 3x optical

zoom lens tends to produce slight
distortion at its widest point, and
definitely works best when zoomed
in a little
84
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3/5/07 12:33:58
Price
149
Megapixels (effective)
8.0
Max resolution
3,264 x 2,448
Camera specs
Kodak EasyShare V803

CS, MP
Exposure modes
A, SCN
Flash modes
A, RE, Fon, Foff

Connectivity
AV, USB
f/2.8-4.9 (36- Weight
108mm) 141.5g (excl.
Zoom batteries)
3x opt, 4x dig Dimensions
Focus/Macro 103 x 54.5 x 25mm
5-70cm/60cm-Inf Batteries
Shutter speeds Lithium-ion
8-1/1448sec Storage
ISO sensitivity SD, 32MB int
A, 80, 100, 200, 400, LCD
800, 1600 2.5
Lens data
Metering options
A, CW,
Scene mode
think taking a macro shot is one of the best ways

of creating paper textures in Corel Painter, so
youll get plenty of use from the mode!
So there are some hiccups with the Kodak
EasyShare V803, but as a compact to take
reference photos with, it is a winner. The eight
megapixels and strong colour reproduction mean
you can enjoy images that are perfect source iles
for Corel Painter projects. The camera itself is
very well made and the design is a pleasure to
work with. Beginners will ind it very intuitive to
use and it wont dent the wallet too much.
Test shot
We were particularly
impressed with the
colour reproduction in
our test shots though
some tones appear a
little over-punchy
D-pad control
The d-pad proves to be a little fiddly
for small hands, but unlike most
cameras on the market, it only
provides access to the Macro mode
and the help index
Favourites
On/off button
Video
What we like
Attractive design
Quality results
Affordable
This camera is
everything a
compact should
be easy to
use, very
portable and
capable of some
excellent shots
Overall
score
What we dont like
Takes a while for it

to get started
ISO does suffer from
some noise
features
8.3
ease of use
we say
We never fumbled trying

to find the right button to
push and everything was big
enough to press comfortably
verdict
painted later, but it obviously becomes an issue

if you are going to need an instant response for
action shots. Once it was ired up things were
ine its not the quickest camera in the world,
but then it doesnt pretend to be.
Image quality is more than satisfactory with
this camera. Objects are nice and crisp and the
colours are strong and vibrant, which gives
the photos a gorgeous paint-like quality before
you even start doing anything with them. The
different scene modes mean that beginners
can let the camera do the hard work, while
the manual settings give more experienced
photographers something to get their teeth into.
We did notice some noise as soon as the ISO went
above the 200 mark, so keep that in mind.
The 3x optical zoom does as youd expect and
performs well even at its maximum setting.
You can use the macro at 5cm away from your
subject, which gives plenty of opportunity for
capturing interesting texture on subjects. We
on the top
Build design
We love this rounded bubble feel. Its smooth and pebble-like
and slips easily into a pocket or handbag
8.5
quality of results
8.7
value for money
8.6
8.5
85
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Reviews Wacom Favo Comic Pack
Wacom Favo Comic Pack

74.99 | Wacom turns one of its tablets into a Manga-making machine. Is it
a dream combination or a match made in hell? We find out
acoms Favo Comic Pack is a
merry bundle of manga mayhem,
boasting a Graphire4 tablet and
pen (the lovely white version),
a copy of Corel Painter Essentials 2 and the
Manga Studio Debut 3.0 software. Chances are
you wont be creating manga masterpieces
each and every time you use the tablet, so well
divide this review up into two sections. The
irst will deal with how the Graphire4 tablet
works as a creative tool, and the second will be
a look at the Manga Studio Debut 3.0 software,
speciically whether you need to use it over
other graphic applications. We wont look at the
Corel Painter Essentials 2 software, because if
youre reading this magazine were guessing
you have a copy of Corel Painter already!
So irst up is the graphics tablet. The
Graphire4 series has been around for a while,
offering all the beneits of the graphics tablet
to users who dont necessarily need the
professional options of the Intuos3 range. This
is most obvious in the size choices you get the
largest measures in at 278mm by 263mm, so
if youre a fan of massive sweeping gestures,

youll ind yourself running out of space pretty
quickly. However, the smaller tablet sizes also
translates to smaller price tags, making it a
great irst graphics tablet buy.
The tablet in this package measures 208mm
by 204mm, so will it nicely onto any desk
space. The actual tablet area is 127mm by
92mm, which is about A6. But you can do an
awful lot in this small space, especially once
you take a trip to the Preferences and set the
tablet to map the screen area. This means that
you can reach every corner of the screen with
the tablet, giving you complete creative control.
The original colour of the Graphire4 tablet
was grey, but this model is the gleaming white
version. With a white border and tablet area,
plus silvery scroll wheel and ExpressKeys,
this is a very good-looking tablet. The tablet
is surrounded by a clear plastic surround that
can be removed so you can insert a design to
personalise your tablet.
The ExpressKeys sit at the top of the tablet.
You can set these up to any command you
Set up the pen

Open your System Preferences and
you can decide how the pen behaves
plus what the side buttons do
Tools of the trade

Speciality
software
You have all the effects you need in

Manga Studio Debut 3.0 to draw out
convincing manga and comic art
Pen
Map to screen
Also in the system preferences is
the control for mapping the tablet to
your monitor screen
Tablet
Using patterns
The software comes with loads of
preset patterns, which can be used
as backgrounds or fabric detail
86
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Price
74.99
Website
www.wacom.com
Operating systems
PC and Mac
PC Requirements
Windows 98 SE, Me,

2000, XP or higher,
Pentium 800 MHz or
higher, 256MB RAM,
800MB free hard

disk space, USB port,
CD-ROM drive
Tablet specs
Wacom Favo Comic Pack

Mac Requirements
Mac OS X 10.2.8 or
higher, G3 500MHz
or higher, 512MB
RAM, 800MB free
hard disk space, USB
port, CD-ROM drive
Bring the grid tools into play and you can copy or plan your characters far more accurately
Obviously if youre a fan of manga this will strike a chord with

you instantly, but even if you arent its worth investigating
a portable and comfortable experience. The
buttons mentioned earlier are recessed into the
rubber grip area and can easily be activated
with a thumb while still using the pen.
Now onto the other part of the package
the Manga Studio Debut 3.0 software. Its
name gives away the fact that this software
is all about the manga, although you could
theoretically use it for any type of sketching.
The software allows you to sketch out your
characters or scenes, before adding tonal
values or patterns to the image. Everything is
done in black and white, ready to be exported
out and coloured up in Corel Painter. You
The software is easy to install and simple to

use after a quick read through the manual. A lot
of tools are the same as youd ind in any imageediting application and the ones that arent are
easy to igure out. Be sure to use the Materials
Catalog PDF for a look at the tones and patterns.
This is a great package. The Graphire4 tablet
is a good irst step on the graphics tablet ladder
and the Manga Studio Debut 3.0 software is
excellent. Obviously if youre a fan of manga itll
strike a chord, but even if you arent its worth
using. The ability to draw straight into a divided
storyboard is really handy, while the various
tools help reine the medium even more.
Pen controls
The buttons found on the side of the pen can be customised
to perform certain tasks
What we like
What we dont like
Tablet and software is Its awkward to use

easy to set up and use both ExpressKeys
The white design looks at once
very stylish
Doesnt take up loads
of desk space
A great pack for

the hobbyist
or more
professional
illustrator. Worth
looking out for
Features
9.0
Ease of use
we say
have everything youd expect from a drawing

program different brushes, layer capabilities
and selection methods, plus you have a number
of preset tones and patterns to give your
drawings that genuine manga feel.
In addition to doing a straightforward
drawing, you can also open up storyboard
templates and draw out a story sequence. This
is a great feature and works well not only in the
manga situation but also if you wanted to work
through a movie idea, or maybe just a sequence
of comic illustrations. In addition to the tones
and patterns mentioned already, the user also
beneits from ilters to give effects such as
motion lines and a pen correction option to ix
any shaky lines.
verdict
fancy the most useful being modiier keys.

Its easy enough to get to these when using the
tablet, although its a pain if you need to hold
down both together. That said, the pen comes
with two keys so its easy enough to set these
and the ExpressKeys to cover all eventualities.
And talking of the pen, there are 512 levels of
sensitivities, so you can control elements such
as brush size and opacity according to how hard
you press. At the top of the pen is the eraser,
which does as youd expect, and you can set
the feel of both the eraser and the tip. The pen
itself is very easy to hold, with a stylish rubber
grip to make sure you are in control.
As with other Wacom tablets, the pen is
wireless and battery-free, so you beneit from
9.5
Quality of results
9.0
Value for money
9.1
Overall
score
9.2
87
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Reviews Books
Expos 4
$49.00 | More exquisite digital art showcased by Ballistic

kay, well admit it. We have
developed a bit of an addiction
when it comes to Ballistic
books. After reviewing its
Exotique 2 title last issue and the Painter
title the issue before, we thought wed
leave it for a month. Then we started
looking through Expos 4. Then we looked
through it again. And then we thought to
hell with it a big part of this magazine
is to inspire you and when it comes to
inspiration, this books hard to beat.
Expos 4 displays artwork created in
various different applications obviously
Corel Painter crops up a lot so you are
treated to lots of different techniques
and styles. As with the other Ballistic
titles, this book is divided up into subtle
Even though the styles change throughput, the quality

is something that doesnt slip and its truly impossible
not to be impressed by the work on show
Sensitive grouping
This book could have been ruined by poor image
placement, but the Ballistic team has done an excellent
job of grouping similar images on a spread, so nothing
jars the eye
sections. Each section begins with the

work of artists who have had the Master
or Excellence award bestowed on them,
before moving into the other artworks in
that category.
One thing that we have liked about the
other Ballistic titles is that the artwork
is the prime focus and were pleased that
this is the case here. All art is displayed
on the familiar black background and
once again, the art is a mixture of smaller

examples, full page and double-page
layouts. Youre never left squinting to try
and see whats going on but if youd like to
see more by the artist, just look up their
contact details in the Index and then pay a
visit to their website.
Its impossible to do a general summary
of the artwork youll ind here but the
books 20 categories give you a good idea
of what to expect. These include Fantasy,
Portrait (Painted), Portrait (Rendered),
Action, Conlict, Faery Folk, Cityscapes,
Horror, Surreal and Whimsical, so you can
easily imagine the variety and breadth
of work featured. But even though the
styles change throughout, the quality is
something that doesnt slip and its truly
impossible not to be impressed by the
execution of the work on show.
Once again we have fallen in love
with a Ballistic title and once again we
have written a huge quantity of words
even though the review could have been
summed up in two buy it!
Bow to the master

A nice start to the book is a profile of
Stephen Martiniere, who picked up
the title of Grand Master. Discover
more about his work on films such
as Star Wars, Sphere and I, Robot
A design eye
The Abstract & Design category is
a great collection of very different
pieces of art, all of which could
kick-start your imagination. This
was certainly one of our favourite
sections of the book
Edited by
Paul Hellard and

Daniel Wade
Price
$49.00
Publisher
Ballistic Publishing
ISBN
1-921002-29-8
Expand your horizons

In addition to the type of art you
would expect to see in a book
of this type, you can also enjoy other
genres such as interior and exterior
architecture
Perfect portraits
As you would expect from the
Portrait section, there is an
abundance of exquisite and
jealousy-inducing digital paintings.
The black background also brings
the vibrant colours into focus
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Painting Water
9.99 | Jump in and get your feet wet with this title
Author
Joe Francis Dowden
Price
9.99
Publisher
Search Press
ISBN
1-903975-00-X
he watercolour medium is
beloved among artists and art
lovers for the soft effects it
gives. Water is a particularly
good subject for painting in this medium
no irony here and this book is
packed with ideas for how to get the
best look. Although dealing with real
watercolours, pretty much everything
can be translated into the Corel Painter
world, so its deinitely worth a look.
Author Joe Francis Dowden begins with
some practical advice, such as composing
your painting and using various colour
tricks to get certain looks, before moving
onto step-by-step breakdowns of how to
create a painting.
The step-by-steps are in full colour
and clearly show the techniques being
described. At the end of each project,
youll also ind a selection of paintings
that show variations on the theme that
has just been explained. All-in-all, a
helpful and inspirational title.
Make
watercolour wet
We particularly liked the
pages explaining how to
capture the essence of
water by clever use of
colours and washes
Build up the art

Each project has plenty of beautifully large colour images
to show you exactly how to re-create the start painting
for yourself
Other examples
One aspect we really liked was that each walkthrough
ended with more examples of the technique that had just
been explained
Complete Color Harmony Workbook

19.99 | Enforce a bit of harmony in your paintings
Authors
Kiki Eldridge and

Lesa Sawahata
Price
19.99
Publisher
Rockport
Publishers Inc
ISBN
1-59253-329-9
heres something deeply

satisfying about looking at colour
swatches, which makes this book
an exceptionally satisfying title.
Its premise is simple to display what
colours work together. All you need to
do is decide on the mood youre going
for, pick a main colour and then refer to
the relevant section in the book. Here
youll ind various colour themes and
combinations that you can use to plan
your paintings colour themes.
The book kicks off with a brief
overview of colour theory that helps
explain the colour wheel and how it
dictates what colours work with which.
Once the theory is out of the way,
its time to move onto the meat
and potatoes of the book the
colour combinations. As already
mentioned, these are arranged by
mood and if youre looking for a
comprehensive art resource, we
would say this book was pretty
much essential.
Basic
techniques
Theres plenty of
advice for the complete
beginner in the book
we were particularly
fond of the guide to
different effects using
different mediums
Pick the mood

The book is divided into moods, starting with an
explanation of that mood, before moving into possible
colour schemes
Helpful tips
At the end of each mood, youll find a handy summary of
what that particular colour scheme works well in. Check
out the Fine Art tips first
89
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Output
Fine art paper
Fine art paper

Get professional prints at home
ntil recently, the paper

possibilities afforded to the
typical inkjet printer didnt go
much past some photo paper
and possibly some T-shirt transfers. It
seemed that although more creative tools
were offered to users on their computer,
be it software or hardware, the choices
for presenting the amazing work was
still shamefully thin on the ground. Sure,
there was always the professional option,
but this was obviously cost prohibitive,
especially if you had been experimenting
and just want to get an idea for how
something would look.
The times, though, they are a changin,
and the home user can now look forward
to a wealth of options when it comes to
printing out their work on their humble
inkjet printer. This is especially important
for digital artists. It doesnt matter how
long youve spent calibrating your monitor
and printer if you then use cheap paper,
all those colours you worked so hard to

preserve will just bleed and fade as if
you had painted onto tissue paper. Treat
yourself to some ine art paper, however,
and you can enjoy crisp printouts that are
true to your original vision. You can also
enjoy various types of paper inishes, such
as canvas, watercolour or different paper
thicknesses. Just as a traditional artist can
pick a paper format to best show off their
work, so too can the digital artist.
Were going to look at three paper
providers over these pages and see what
products they have to offer. If you havent
investigated the paper options available,

hopefully this will give you a taster for
the sorts of products on sale, and will also
encourage you to try something other
than that standard stack of white paper
you bought from the local stationery shop.
One thing we should mention is that the
types of paper we refer to here can be
purchased all over the world, so if you live
in another country, simply do an internet
search for ine art inket papers and see
where your nearest stockist is.
Crafty Computer Paper

www.craftycomputerpaper.co.uk
hatever type of paper
youre looking for, Crafty
Computer Paper will have
something to please. The
sites bulging with materials for the digital
artist, plus it ships internationally.
Starting with the obvious choice for
artists, the canvas inket sheets come in
packs of three for A4 and A3 printers (its

also available for wide format machines).
Its 100% cotton and is soft and lexible,
even after printing. At 305g, you can rest
assured theres a decent weight to it, and
all the colours stay strong. It costs just
5.99 for A4 or 12.99 for A3.
Another excellent product is the
watercolour paper. This 240gsm paper
has an authentic watercolour texture that
results in strong colours. A pack of ive A4
sheets costs 6.50, while ive A3 sheets
will cost 12.99.
For something a bit different, you might
care to try the Japanese watercolour
paper. Costing 7.99 for a pack of ive A4
sheets, this paper is 180gsm and has a
beautifully soft appearance. Also try the
Polish handmade paper. In packs of ive
A4 sheets (white or cream, 6.99), this
190gsm paper has a woven texture that
looks a lot like cross-stitch canvas.
Theres lots of other choices on the site,
so pay Crafty Computer Paper a visit and
see whats of use to you.
Water difference it makes

Here weve printed the same image onto watercolour
paper (left) and normal printer paper (right)
Easy navigation
All the products are arranged into groups, which makes
finding the perfect type of paper really easy
90
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on-line paper.co.uk
www.on-linepaper.co.uk
Homepage
All of the products are
organised according
to their respective
manufacturers, so dig in
and explore
his is another excellent site

that has plenty of products
to satisfy your ine art needs
and as an added bonus, it ships
internationally. Divided into different
manufacturers, there are lots of papers
to choose from, whether youre after
standard canvas sheets or a more
interesting texture.
The Hahnemuhle Art Line Papers

section has a bounty of products for ine
artists, starting with the Japan Fibres
pack. For just the small amount of 15
you can get your hands on 20 A4 sheets
of paper that looks like Japanese tissue,
complete with ibres. Theres also the
Torchon 285gsm pack (16 for 20 A4
sheets) that has a parchment surface
Unusual presentation
If youre trying to raise awareness of your work, or youre
looking for an unusual way to present your work, try
these Fine Art Photocards, in packs of 30 or 50
which is perfect for oils, watercolours

and pastels. Also , be sure to check out the
Digital Fine Art Cards section, which has
packs of plain cards ready and waiting
to receive your images. Our favourite
was the Range Pack (20 for 20 cards, 20
envelopes and two presentation wallets).
This gives you access to photo and
watercolour inishes.
Desirable cards
The fine art cards are another great way of presenting
your work and an easy way of sharing it with friends,
family or potential clients
PermaJet
www.permajet.com
he PermaJet name has long
been synonymous with quality
products, and its range of
ine art papers carries on this
tradition, offering a delicious choice of
inishes, including some new products.
One of the new products that will
appeal to digital artists is the Portrait
White 285 paper. Available in a variety of
sizes including A4, A3 and rolls, this paper
Testing, testing
If you cant decide what product is right for you, try one of
the Test Packs. The Fine Art Multi Pack will be enough to
get you started
is sturdy and has a beautiful texture that

would suit watercolour images. Prices
start at 22.95 for 25 A4 sheets, so its
very affordable. Also worth mentioning is
the Parchment 285 paper, with its rough
surface that lends itself to landscapes
(prices start at 19.95 for 25 A4 sheets),
and the Papyrus 300 product, which is
perfect for pastel portraits (starting at
24.95 for 25 A4 sheets).
Clear instructions
Its easy to see what each product offers, and the
company even gives advice on what type of work that
paper is most suited to
The homepage
Select a country from the homepage or just decide which area of the site you want to
explore first. The layout is very simple to follow and its virtually impossible to get yourself
lost when youre looking around!
91
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readers gallery issue four
Gallery
The freedom that Corel Painter affords artists

means that users can experiment with several
different styles. We caught up with one reader who
is doing just that
nna Thielke is a shining
example of what can be done if
you jump in and start exploring
all of Corel Painters brushes.
Her work is a fabulous mixture of mediums
and styles, which is all the more impressive
considering she has only been using the
program for six months.
Like many users, Anna feels that
Corel Painter is a great complement to
my traditional Fine Arts/Illustration
background. By putting in the time to
experiment with the brushes and colours,

she has created a working world where
anything is possible, be it soft childrens
illustrations or more straightforward
paint effects. Not surprisingly, all this
experimentation has resulted in Anna
developing favourite tools, which she
cites as the Round Glazing variant of
Oils, Oily Colored Pencils, Grainy Chalks,
and my customised Sketching Pencil.
For inspiration, she looks to Stewart
McKissick, Ryan Church and Mike Reed.
When asked to talk about her work and

what plans she has in the future, Anna isnt
short of ideas. I feel that my illustrative
style is still in development, she says.
In the future I would like to experiment
more with rotoscoping in Corel Painter. It
is important to me to maintain a sense of
humour and look at the world through kid
eyes, thus never lacking inspiration.
You can see more of Annas images on
this issues disc, or visit her gallery at www.
paintermagazine.co.uk/user/stellarjae.
01
Title: Dragon Fish

I loved putting these colours together. The Dragon Fish
or Arowanas are seen as symbols of luck, wealth, and
also as a reincarnation of the dragon to the Chinese.
They have beautiful and diverse colours and patterns.
94
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2/5/07 11:06:29
02
Title: Featherotic (left)

Originally I had created this gurative
drawing with Charcoal and Cont Crayon.
I scanned the image and added several
layers of ink and airbrushing.
03
Title: Patches Bear

(bottom left)
I created this while I was thinking of
concepts for a childrens book. Great things
can come from brainstorms. This was a
happy accident of sorts. Crazy little bear!
04
Title: Spiral (below)

Spiral was created using several texture
clone references and various oil brushes.
Originally, this was made for use as
desktop wallpaper.
95
2/5/07 11:07:05
Gallery
readers gallery issue four
05
Title: Cold Crane (left)

This was a total dive into mixed media. I used Chalks, Airbrushes, Colored Pencils,
Oils, Inks, Acrylics, and Pens. Another style experiment here with graphic marks.
06
Title: Aphrodite Blue (above)

Not my normal colour palette, but bright
colours seem to be making their way into my
work more and more. This image was almost
completely painted with the Round Glazing
brush variants of oils. I wanted to illustrate a
Greek Goddess and chose Aphrodite.
07
Title: Eye Colour (right)

The subtle tones and brush strokes in the skin
and intense colour of the iris make this one of
the most enjoyable works I have done thus far.
I am looking forward to using this technique
again. This was mostly done with Round
Glazing oils at low opacity.
96
2/5/07 11:07:40
Challenge
ow do you fancy having your work
printed professionally onto canvas?
All you have to do is enter our Readers
Challenge and in no time at all you could
be admiring your work hung up on your wall.
Simply visit this issues disc, download the challenge
images and then off you go! You can use them to
create anything you like merge some together into

a new composition, use one for cloning, add your
own elements all we ask is that you use at least one
of the supplied images. If youve lost the disc, visit
our website (www.paintermagazine.co.uk) to
download them. Theres no deadlines, so theres no
excuse for not entering!
This challenges materials
THE WINNER
WILL GET
THEIR PAINTING
PROFESSIONALLY
PRINTED ONTO
CANVAS!
How to enter the challenge

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

97
2/5/07 11:08:12

Corel Painter - 04 - Magazine, Art, Digital Painting, Drawing, Draw, 2d

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Ofcial Corel Painter TM Magazine

Learn to paint digitally today!

Edit with the Focus effects

Control every part of your image

Learn to draw faces

Discover how to re-create this

courtesy of the Watercolor brushes

Special feature! See page 22

Visit us online www.paintermagazine.co.uk

Visit our website!

Its impossible to identify a

ON THE FRONT COVER

DISCOVER HOW THREE

P99 GET STARTED WITH

FREE CD-ROM PACKED WITH

Regulars in every issue

10 Corel Painter community

Another bumper crop

Get all the information

Delicious pages of beautiful

86 Wacom Favo Comic Pack

90 Inkjet paper companies

Discover some of the best

Paint like Paul

Original artwork by Fay Sirkis

Combine digital art

Original artwork by Bruce Dorn

We catch up with three professional photographers

Create inspirational art

40 Paint with pastels

60 Paint like: Gauguin

Get up and running

66 Brushes: Artists Oils

For luscious brush strokes, this

Get to know your tools

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

Get creative with

he relationship between Corel

Theres no need to limit your

Stock.XCHNG (www.sxc.hu) is a fabulous place to

Finally we have to mention Yotophoto

Prepare to enter texture heaven

icking colours that work

If youre near Austin, Texas

Image*After has lots

Become part of the

Inspiration and glory await you at

Visitors to Ney Yorks Monkdogz

If you head over to Pittsfield, Illinois,

Issue 5 of OPM goes

Make a beeline to your local

n ts res our ces

Tweaking the past

I have your magazine and I would be

If youd prefer to contact

a Pearl Earring, painted by the Dutch

Thanks for the letter, Ivan, and also for sending

Has anyone else done

Quickly get back to the default

Im forever tweaking my brush variants or

Sharing the wealth

Just had to write and say that I love the

Well, keeping with the spirit of sharing the

Website challenge winner