CorelPainCorel Painter - 10 - Magazine, Art, Digital Painting, Drawing, Draw, 2d

Ofcial Corel Painter TM Magazine
Create
digital art
today!
Official Magazine
Record actions with Scripts

Using Painters brushes
Quick start guide on the CD
Issue ten
Over
45
pagesaolfs
tutori
Get creative
with cloning
Create your
own gallery
Produce sophisticated
paintings with the Cloners,
whatever your skill level
Sign up to our website and

show the world your work!
www.paintermagazine.com
landscapes
Get started with
Visit us online www.paintermagazine.com
PC a
nd M
ac
Make light work of complicated

landscape scenes by using the
Image Hose in your workflow
Turn to page 36
FREE CD
INSIDE
Mark-making
Achieve convincing drawings
with our guide to pencil marks
001_OPM_10 COVER landscape.indd 1
TEXTURES | REFERENCE FILES | ART STUDY PHOTOS

Cloud study
Practical advice for painting
different types of clouds
Creative strokes
Add interest to your images by
creating a painted background
ISSUE TEN
ISSN 1753-3155
6.00
10
771753 315000
17/10/07 10:44:21
Welcome
This is THE magazine for anyone wanting to further their
Corel Painter skills or learn how to become a better artist
Using Scripts
Learn how you can
record all of your Corel
Painter actions
Pg 60
Create fantasy
adventures
The tricks to creating
imaginative illustrations
Pg 56
Art study:
Painting clouds
Discover the techniques
and equipment needed
to paint realistic clouds
ISSUE TEN
Pg 46
Out of all the features in Corel

Painter, the Clone tools are
the ones that cause the most
discussion. To some artists,
they are seen as cheating no
better than tracing over an
image and colouring in. But
we think that they are a fantastic way for users
to get used to the program and can actually be
used to create very sophisticated images.
Our main feature this issue looks at cloning,
taking you through three projects, each for
different skill levels. Youll learn how to use
multiple brushes, introduce textures and also
how to clone freestyle. Turn to page 22 and
ind out more.
Elsewhere this issue, we take a good look at
the Image Hose, speciically as a way of creating
better landscape paintings. Youll ind that on
page 36. We also have a brilliant art study on
painting clouds (page 56), a tutorial on the
Scripts function within Corel Painter (page 46)
and an in-depth look at what marks to make in
your sketches and drawings (page 68).
Have fun!
Visit our website!

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

jo.cole@imagine-publishing.co.uk
005_OPM_10_welcome.indd 3
19/10/07 11:29:49
ON THE FRONT COVER
pg 50
Loose strokes
pg 22
Fea ture
Achieve striking
images using the
various Cloner tools
Get creative with the
Pg 98 FREE CD
TURN TO THESE PAGES AND FIND OUT

WHAT CREATIVE RESOURCES AWAIT
YOU ON THIS ISSUES CD-ROM. YOULL
FIND LOADS OF REFERENCE PHOTOS!
Pg 36 LANDSCAPE ART
DONT WORRY ABOUT PAINTING

EVERY ELEMENT IN YOUR LANDSCAPE
SCENE - WE SHOW HOW THE IMAGE
HOSE CAN MAKE THINGS EASIER
Regulars in every issue

08 Subscriptions
Take out a subscription to

the magazine and save money!
For non-US subs, see page 89
10 Corel Painter community

The best sites, services and
resources for creatives
14 Interview
See how professionals are using

Corel Painter. This issue we look
at Andreas Rocha
34 Painter showcase
The rst of our special pages

dedicated to outstanding art
74 Art class
Another merry gaggle of artistic

problems sorted out
92 Readers gallery
Discover more about what a
fellow reader is getting up to
96 Website challenge
Havent entered one of

our challenges yet? Turn
to this page now!
98 On the disc
A full breakdown of the

content on this issues
free CD
Original artwork by
Ata Alishahi
Clone tools
WIN!
A YEARS
SUPPLY
OF THE
MAGAZINE!
pg 96
Reviews
82 Wacom Bamboo Fun
Picking your rst graphics tablet
can be a stressful thing, but Wacom
have tried to make things easier
with this entry-level product. See
how it shapes up
84 Olympus [mju:] 820 camera

On rst glance, the [mju:] 820
looks like any other compact,
but then you discover it has eight
megapixels, boasts a 5x optical
zoom and is waterproof. It even
manages to take good pictures!
86 Book reviews
No person is a lone island and
theres nothing wrong with looking
for inspiration and advice in other
places. Books are the perfect
source and so we have brought you
another collection of the best titles
for artists
006-007_OPM_10_contents.indd 6
19/10/07 13:20:05
pg 60
Fantasy creations
Interview
pg 14
Original artwork by
Andreas Rocha
Interview
pg 36
Get started
in landscapes
Inspirational artists
14 Andreas Rocha
Discover how this talented artist incorporates so many

different styles into his portfolio and learn his tips for
creating stunning digital art
tutorials
Create inspirational art

36 Get started in landscapes
Quickly build up your
landscape scenes by using the
Image Hose
42 Painted borders
Give your paintings the
perfect setting with this guide
to creating borders
50 Loose brushstrokes
Drawing 101
Traditional artistic techniques
68 Mark-making
To get the perfect drawings, you need to master the skills of markmaking. We take a look at the best ones here and demonstrate
the best situations to use them
Relax your style and build up

a loose but very effective
digital painting
56 Art study: clouds

Make your skies the best they
can be by learning how to
paint realistic clouds
60 Fantasy illustration
Tips for illustrating fantastical
scenes in Corel Painter
Visit our
website now!
www.
painter
magazine.
co.uk
Primers
Get up and running

32 Brushes: Cloners
See what effects this mighty
brush category gives
Feature focus
Get to know your tools

46 Using the Scripts command
Did you know that its possible
to record every action you make
in Corel Painter? You can even
record common tasks to apply
on new images
006-007_OPM_10_contents.indd 7
19/10/07 13:25:51
y
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Com
Tutorial xxxx
n ews eve n ts res our ces letters web site s
NEWS EVENTS
RESOURCES
LETTERS WEBSITES
INFO FORUM
Corel claims you can now create a masterpiece

from a photo in as little as three simple steps.
Try it and see for yourself!
Corel Painter
Essentials 4
out now
Entry-level software adds new
intuitive workspace and more!
SOFTWARE
Corel has worked

with customers to
rethink the user
interface, simplifying
and streamlining for
a more intuitive and
productive experience
ith a host of new features,

Corel Painter Essentials
4 has been launched for
both PC and Mac users. A
slimmed-down version of Corel Painter,
this latest upgrade is ideally suited to new
users and those on a budget.
Version 4 introduces two distinct
workspaces, Drawing and Painting and
Photo Painting, each of which gathers
the media, paper and brushes relevant
to the task at hand from a reconigured
toolbox. A new Brush Drawer makes

brush identiication and selection a breeze,
while new Color and Mixer palettes allow
users to pick a colour with just one click.
The Photo Painting System with Smart
Stroke Technology has been redesigned
and enhanced to ease the path from photo
to artwork. Brushes within the Photo
Painting System now act as cloners that
take their colour from the source image.
Introduced in Corel Painter X, the new
RealBristle Painting System authentically
reproduces the sensation of the interaction
between paint, canvas and brush. New
pens and paper textures offer more choice
and lexibility, and 32 undo levels means
you have plenty of scope to experiment or
correct brushstrokes.
For those in need of direction, builtin video tutorials by John Derry, noted
Corel Painter Master, guide users through
a variety of digital art projects. By
further simplifying the user interface
Brushes are organised into types (thick, wet etc) and

include some RealBristle effects
and including new training videos and

tutorials, our goal is to educate and
inspire our customers while giving
them the creative freedom to develop
something truly unique, enthused Robert
MacDonald, product manager, Corel
Painter. Wacom tablet support is also
improved, including compatibility with the
recently launched Bamboo and Bamboo
Fun range. With a suggested retail price
of 39 for the full version and 29 for the
upgrade, you can ind out more at
www.corel.com/painteressentials.
10
010-011_OPM_10_news.indd 10
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ts
ews eve nJet
info n ews eve n ts res our ces letters web site info nPerma
Inkjet Paper
& Canvas
PORTFOLIO
Expose yourself at Artfair365.co.uk

Online gallery offers worldwide showcase for artists, illustrators
and photographers
STOCK PHOTOS
Picture perfect
stock from Pixel
Perfect Digital
As were not directly

involved in the sales
process, all sales are
commission free, says
site creator Taylor
original artwork by Maureen Andrews
Love illustration? Youll

love Illustrophile!
PORTFOLIO
Photography news, great links

and free stock images
ith over 5,000 free images,
online Pixel Perfect Digital
(www.pixelperfectdigital.
com) offers the budding artist plenty
of inspirational choice for your Corel
Painter creations.
You can browse an A-Z of categories
from abstract, animals and architecture,
to textures and transportation, and
view recently added images all on one
page. Signing up is free and permitted
usage is pretty relaxed but as always,
read the terms of use and disclaimer. As
an added bonus, the site includes some
useful links and plenty of photographyrelated news.
Greenwood
f your Corel Painter creations have

advanced beyond the basics, you
might be looking for a suitable place to
sell your work. Galleries and art fairs are
ine but Artfair365.co.uk offers a potential
worldwide audience for your artwork.
Created by James Taylor, the site has
been attracting artists and art lovers,
with over 3,000 images available to buy.
As an additional incentive, sales are
commission-free. Buyers contact the
artists directly through our message
system on the site, which brings the buyer
and the artist together, explains Taylor.
Sign up for free or get a premium
account for between 25/50 per year at
www.artfair365.co.uk.
Illustrophile
is the perfect
place for
illustrator fans
to get inspired
New illustration blog offers source

for artistic inspiration
llustrophile (www.illustrophile.com) is
an inspirational new blog for lovers of all
forms of illustration. Ofcially launched
in September by illustrator (and Corel Painter
Magazine contributor) Charlene Chua, the site is
updated daily with proles and interviews.
Chuas aims are to both raise the prole of
individual illustrators and to prove to some
aspiring artists that there is more to illustration
than Japanese manga and concept art. Over
the last couple of months, Illustrophile has
featured a wide range of artists, ranging from
new graduates to seasoned professionals,
explains Chua. I check various illustrationrelated websites to nd people to feature, and
we try to showcase a range of different styles
and mediums throughout the week. With new
features uploaded almost daily, Illustrophile is
certainly a site you should come to love!
original artwork by Mau

reen
E
Y
FRE
VER
I
S
DELORDER00
ON R 1
E
OV
Fine Art media

without equal
Release the true glory of
your digital masterpieces
with PermaJets Inkjet
media range.
Choose from over 25
different varieties in
many amazing finishes,
textures, weights and
sizes.
Whats more, we have put
together special online
deals, exclusive only to
readers of this magazine!
To take advantage go to:
www.permajet.com/109/
To see for yourself the
difference our papers
make to your Art
reprographics call
today for your FREE
printed sample
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Users can upload and download high-resolution

images simply by signing up to the site for free
Call: 01926 493 632

010-011_OPM_10_news.indd 11
18/10/07 12:11:44
n ts res our ces

eve
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Welcome to the part of the magazine where you can com
and share your thoughts on anything you fancy!
Send your
letters to...
Ofcial Corel Painter
Magazine, Imagine
Publishing, Richmond
House, 33 Richmond
Hill, Bournemouth,
Dorset BH2 6EZ, UK
If youd prefer to contact
us via email, send your
message to opm@
imagine-publishing.
co.uk
Which Wacom?
Im interested in buying a Wacom tablet

but really have no idea as to how to go
about it. Have you any advice on what one
is best? It would be really good if you could
have a special tutorial or something about
using a tablet with Corel Painter. Im sure
there are lots of newbies like me who
would appreciate it!
Jennifer Crouch
Hmmm, were going to need a bigger space

than this to answer your question Jennifer!
Picking the perfect tablet depends on so many
different factors, such as what you want to

use it for, what kind of desk space you have
and obviously what budget you have! We
can recommend the Intuos3 range as a safe
bet if you can afford it, as it has professional
functions for you to develop and grow into.
You may have also heard that Wacom has
recently released its Bamboo range, which is
perfect for complete beginners. At the risk of
looking like were fobbing you off, keep an
eye on this magazine in the future. We will be
reviewing the new Bamboo offerings (starting
this issue) in addition to providing a guide to
using the Wacom tablets to their full potential.
Readers tip
Share your Corel Painter wisdom
One brush wonder

I always experiment with different painting
techniques and recently tried one thats so
simple I cant believe I didnt do it before.
Try painting with just one brush. Youd be
amazed at how many different effects you
can get just by changing the brush size, yet
the image looks unied because of the similar
strokes. Its denitely changed how I paint!
Timothy Hutton
More techniques please
Out of all the tutorials you have, I must say

that I prefer the art technique ones the
most. I never went to art school and so its
really useful to learn about the rules so I
can apply them in my own work. Please
do more of these tutorials!
Kevin Cleaver
Thanks for your email, Kevin. You can rest

assured that we will always have traditional
art techniques in the magazine, as we enjoy
reading all the tricks too! We notice youre in
the US, so you may not have seen our new Art
Study section. This will incorporate traditional
techniques for painting certain objects and
translate it into Corel Painters language. Over
each issue, these pages will build up into
Choosing the right

graphics tablet for you
requires more advice than
we can fit in here!
Featured gallery
Our favourite readers gallery this month
Hilarie McNeil-Smith
www.paintermagazine.
co.uk/user/hilarie or visit www.
pbase.com/hilli
Hilarie was one of our early sign-ups to
the magazine website and with just over
20 images uploaded, at the last count
she has had over 2,000 views though
that will probably shoot up now as there
is no doubt that she has earned her spot
as this months featured reader. She has
certainly impressed us with her range of
artwork. Living in Canada, her subject
matter ranges from stunning natural
scenery through to perfectly candid
travel shots.
Hilarie McN
eil-Smith
12
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19/10/07 13:08:07
Looking to traditional art techniques will enhance your Corel Painter experience
an essential resource for painting different

elements in your projects. These pages join our
popular Drawing 101 section.
Clone come good
Here is my latest image. I have been using

Corel Painter for a couple of months and
am just starting to feel conident with
using the Cloners. When I started, I ended
up with a photo-realistic look but now I
mix up brushes and am much happier!
Jeffrey Hamilton
Perfect timing, Jeffrey! You may have noticed

that our feature is about using the Cloner tools
in different ways, so hopefully you can use this
to work your way through the options and
create even better images.
The big picture
Im a professional artist from Holland,

traditionally trained at The Royal
Academy of Arts and Design in sHertogenbosch, Holland. I got my degree
in 1982, so it was some time ago! Im 50
years old and a daily user of Corel Painter.
I believe the irst version I bought was
Painter 4. Since then, Ive been hooked
on the program; it is the largest box of
inspiration I could ever imagine, and as
fast as a wizards wand!
This week I sold my irst painting for
an entrance of a company , and Im very
happy with it so happy that I thought
you might like to see it. Its all created in
Painter. For more information, just take a
look at my home page. Visit my website at
www.advanbokhoven.nl
Ad van Bokhoven
Bloody hell, thats some painting youve

created there! A very impressive piece of
art and you must be proud that its being
displayed in such a wonderful way.
Proof that the

Cloners can be used
to create interesting
and textured paintings
bsi te info
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Come and join our

forum and website
Make yourself known!
Not only do we deliver inspirational and practical
tutorials on your favourite program every month,
we also have a dedicated Corel Painter website that
you can visit to get your artistic ix while you wait
for the next issue. From here, you can join up for a
free account and then create your own gallery for
the world to see! You can explain the process or
inspiration behind each of your images, and you
can also comment on other members artwork,
share your wisdom and take part in regular
challenges. Theres also an area to download
tutorial iles from previous issues in case your CD
has gone missing. If you feel like a bit of creative
interaction, we also have a forum for you to come
and leave your thoughts on the magazine, ask Corel
Painter questions and also pass the time with
other digital artists. So what are you waiting for?
Visit www.paintermagazine.com today!
ENTER T
WEBSITHE
CHALLE E
NGE
Dont be
shy
welcome everyones
www.pa to enter! Go to
int
co.uk/co ermagazine.
mpetitio
ns
Have you got an example of artwork you have sold?

If so, let us know!
13
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Interview Andreas Rocha
WEBSITE
JOB TITLE
CLIENTS
www.andreasrocha.com
Freelancer
Sci-Fi Channel, Pinnacle Entertainment Group, The Enigma Factory
An interview with
Andreas Rocha
With a passion for digital art, Andreas Rocha has won many admirers for
his work, ranging from matte painting to conceptual art, illustration to erotic
portraits. Nick Spence catches up with him
[BELOW]
Leaving Home
Rochas Leaving Home
started as something
completely different.
Rocha was aiming for
a 1960 sci-fi wasteland
with UFOs in a distant
planet. It ended up in an
African fantasy setting,
displaying a tribe leaving
its home
iving and working happily

together with his wife and dog
in Lisbon, Portugal, Andreas
Rocha has been painting
digitally for ten years. Having inished
an architect degree, Rocha worked in an
architecture ofice for two years, then a
3D architectural visualisation company
for three years. During this time, drawing
and painting digitally had always been a
hobby, but Rocha had hoped to turn it into
a full-time career.
Now successfully working freelance,
his work covers matte paintings,
2D illustration and 3D architectural
visualisation. Rocha has produced
illustrations for books, CD covers,
advertising and games promotions.

His work has appeared in prestigious
publications including 2DArtist, and
Expos and Exotique from Ballistic
Publishing. Rocha works predominately
with Corel Painter and Adobe Photoshop,
often combining the two to stunning
effect. A number of free tutorials are
available on his website.
Do you have a typical workow when you
paint digitally?
My typical worklow is not to have a
typical worklow. I learnt through the
years that each subject has to be dealt
with in a different way. I cannot paint
a landscape the same way I paint an
erotic subject. On the other hand, I am

also always trying out new approaches
to starting a painting. Sometimes I start
with a line drawing, other times with a
speed painting. However, there are some
steps which I have learnt are crucial for
me in the painting process. Invest time
to collect references, as the brain works
much better from visual registries than
from memory. Its amazing what our
brain can collect, but you shouldnt trust
it too much. Take your time. Painting can
be a very passionate process, but that
can often lead to addiction, blinding you
from errors that are blatantly pointed out
by others. Make pauses, sometimes for
days, and when you think youve inished
the painting, stop, leave it be, come back
the next day and you will most certainly
ind one or two things to improve. Start
small and inish big. Low resolutions in
the beginning help the creative process.
Higher resolutions midway allow you to
add details that enrich the painting.
Do you always start your work in
Photoshop, and then move into Corel
Painter, for example?
Most of the time, that is the order.
However, I tend to jump back and forth
between both programs. My policy is to
use the best of both worlds and not get
hooked to just one piece of software.
Sometimes I start in Corel Painter, and
do most of the painting there. Tools like
14
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18/10/07 10:36:13
All original artwork by Andreas Rocha
Fresh Meat
Inspired by a cold February walk through
one of Lisbons most charismatic parks,
for this striking painting, Rocha scanned
sketches into Painter and worked on
them, gradually adding colour and detail
15
18/10/07 10:36:36
In Thought
Created for CGTalks
Exotique 1 book, Rocha
didnt finish this painting
in time. One year later, he
reworked it, correcting flaws
from the previous version
and sent it to the Exotique
2 call for entries. To his
delight, it got chosen to be
part of the collection
Alley In Barcelona
One of Rochas many
conceptual paintings,
Alley In Barcelona.
Others include cityscapes,
landscapes, seascapes and
mystical settings
Snow Mountain
An example of Rochas
conceptual painting
16
18/10/07 10:37:07
Home Coming
This is a work in
progress, and an
example of Rochas
working methods.
Several tutorials
showing other works in
progress are available
on his website
the Palette Knife and the Blenders are

unbeatable, and give results which are
just not possible in Photoshop. The tools
can infuse the painting with a different
character, which is great when you are
looking for new ways to paint.
And how do you think Photoshop and
Corel Painter complement each other?
Over the years I got used to doing speciic
things in each program, although they
can basically do the same things in
slightly different ways. I tend to use
Photoshop for the initial phase. I like the
clean-edged and easily customisable
brushes of Photoshop and the layer
system. For me, it is somewhat easier to
lay down wild marks and experiment.
I use Corel Painter a lot to smooth the
brushstrokes with the Blender tools. I
also love to do slight hatching in Painter
with tools that pick up underlying
colours. The Glow brush can also bring
some wonderful surprises sometimes.
You source a lot of material from your
picturesque surroundings, including
Lisbon, but the nished results often
look other-worldly. How do you use
photographs in your work?
I use photographs in two ways.
Sometimes I use them just as a reference,
where Ill put one next to my painting
canvas where it helps to have a large
monitor, of course. Sometimes its the
actual photograph that inspires me to
do a painting, as in the paintings Fresh

Meat and Home, where I was inspired by
some of Lisbons beautiful locations. At
other times, I incorporate photos into the
actual painting. However, I usually only
do this with matte paintings and speed
paintings; in matte paintings to achieve
a higher degree of believability, and in
speed paintings mainly to experiment.
As many artists have said before,
fantasy should be based on reality to
make it believable. If you mix reality with
your imagination, you achieve fantasy.

Take the painting Fresh Meat for example.
One day I was going to work, but I was
too early so I decided to make a small
detour through one of Lisbons most
characteristic parks. It was winter and
the trees were naked, and on top of that, I
felt like I was the only person in the park.
Suddenly, some of the trees struck me as
looking like groping claws. I dont know
why I thought of that at the time, probably
the overall mood, but the truth is that
[ABOVE
Umbrella Dance
Another example
of painterly work
from Rocha
17
18/10/07 10:37:32

Padrone e Servi
Rochas Padrone e Servi was
created for the Master &
Servant contest, promoted
by CGTalk.com. Rochas aim
was to present the Mafia
master-servant relationship
in a comical way, in which
the boss is like the father of a
family which protects him
Little Fish
Little Fish is
an example of
Rochas female
portraits, where
he combines
sci-fi elements
with erotica
Under My Bed
Rocha creates
atmosphere with a
clever use of light in
this spooky painting
I came back the next day, took a few

photos of the trees, and I had my main
ingredients, idea and reference to paint a
fantasy-horror painting.
time to make long pauses to have a fresh

look at a painting, so lipping the canvas
horizontally some artists do it vertically
is the next best thing.
Why do you sometimes ip the canvas

during a painting?
This technique is really a classic among
digital painters. I strongly advise people
to assign a hotkey to it. It is related to
what I said before about being addicted
to the passionate painting process.
Flipping the canvas is like a slap on the
face, telling you to wake up and smell the
coffee, to see what you are really doing.
Flaws are immediately apparent, and I
tend to say to myself how I didnt notice
that before. Sometimes, there is just no
And what tips and words of advice would

you give when using Corel Painter?
Something I started doing a couple
of years ago, and which I now use
constantly, was assigning hotkeys to
the Zoom In, Zoom Out and Zoom To
Fit commands. I have F1, F2 and F3
assigned to them and I use them all the
time. The Space+Alt shortcuts are a bit
cumbersome for me, and double-clicking
the Grabber to Zoom To Fit is not that fast.
Call me lazy, but actually assigning these
hotkeys has improved my worklow.
18
18/10/07 10:37:56
Bring Em On
This is one of
Rochas striking
character paintings
Fantasy should be based on

reality to make it believable.
If you mix reality with
your imagination, then
you achieve fantasy
19
18/10/07 10:38:15
Something else I learnt through the years

is that it is easier with some tools to have
predefined variants at different sizes,
instead of using the Alt+Ctrl shortcut
to resize the brush. With one of my
favourite tools, the Soft Oil Pastel, I found
out that it was much better to have six
predefined sizes which I would intuitively
use, knowing their sizes beforehand,
instead of constantly guessing the needed
size with Alt+Ctrl. I built a new Custom
Palette with 2, 4.5, 7, 10, 20 and 40-sized
Soft Oil Pastels and it is so much quicker
and easier to use.
Your work covers many areas including

matte painting, characters, conceptual
and even erotic paintings. Is there any
area you prefer?
I think it all started with erotic paintings
and then developed to more complete
environments with stories in them. I
still love to do erotic paintings, but I
understand that I have a lot to learn in
this area. I believe matte painting is my
favourite theme now. The classic science
fiction and fantasy movies of the 1980s
have had a profound influence on me and
these were filled with matte paintings.
Which are your favourite tools to use in

Corel Painter?
My favourite tools would have to be the
Soft Oil Pastel, the Palette Knife (both
Loaded and normal) and the Just Add
Water blender. I tweaked some of them
to my liking. With the Palette Knife, I
reduced the Color Variability to almost 0
and set the Expression in the Angle tab
to Bearing, which I believe is not default
any more. With the Just Add Water tool,
I added a variant with hard edges, with
which I can do some smooth blending but
achieve brushstrokes with character at
the same time.
You have several excellent tutorials on

your website. Whats the best way to
learn Painter if you are just starting off?
The great thing about Painter is that with
such an array of tools, it is very easy to
do wonderful stuff right away, so getting
hooked up is quite easy. However, that
initial spark is sometimes lost quite
quickly if you do not have an end in mind.
Try to channel that initial enthusiasm
to make a painting you are proud of, by
using good references, asking for criticism
and advice and also taking your time to
complete it. Quantity is good for practice,
but quality is what keeps you going.
Solomon Kane
This painting
showcases Rochas
strong character
design work
Hellgate
This image mixes horror
and fantasy to great
effect, created using an
atmospheric, loose and
painterly look
20
18/10/07 10:38:35
Feature
Get creative by using Clone Color
CLONING
SPECIAL
Get creative by
using Clone Color
Not convinced you can get artistic effects with

cloning? David Cole shows how you can
022-31_OPM10_feature.indd 22
19/10/07 14:04:43
The right direction

Use the brushes in a sensitive way for the ultimate
cloned image
SCRIBBLED MARKS
Three steps for ensuring

great artwork
When it comes to cloning a photo, the battle is always
against creating something that looks very digital or
clinical. To avoid this, build your image up in three
stages. This brings a texture and depth reminiscent of
traditional media.
Just because you are using the

cloning features, you still need to
be sensitive to a photos form and
move the brush as you would if
you were painting from scratch.
Here weve used the Watercolor
brush and used a scribbling
motion. As you can see, there is no
detail at all.
Here we have applied the first stage. This is simply a case of

applying the chosen brush over the cloned picture very quickly
and loosely. You are basically doing what we said to avoid in the
left-hand box! The idea is to block in the colours and give nice rough
shapes that will be refined.
SENSITIVE MARKS
To make the painting work, its essential that you follow the lines and contours of what it is you are
painting. The Tracing Paper allows you to see the outlines, so use this to brush the paint on. How close
you stick to the lines depends on you and the kind of effect you are after. For maximum interest, mix
loose brushstrokes with more defined marks.
he dificulty facing Cloners is that

sceptical artists non-cloning
artists and others, tend to
think that its the computer that
does all the work. To some extent this is,
of course, true; the software is essential,
but colour cloning will relect as little or
as much artistic lair as you bring to it.
Making good artistic judgements is the
bit that the software, however good it
is, cannot do for you. It is for this reason
that the three demonstrations of colour
cloning that follow are in ascending order
of dificulty, not because they become
technically harder, but because the artistic
decisions they require in order to get a
satisfying result become more dificult and
require more artist input.
This shouldnt put you off. You can quite
easily make some decent clones using
just a Cloner brush or two. But you will
ind it hard to turn a source photo into
a convincing natural-media painting
if you are not at all familiar with
the way that natural media looks
in reality, for example, the way that oil

colours mix in a brush stroke or the
beautiful sedimentation that can occur
in watercolour as the pigment dries. So
to make good simulations of paintings,
you need to look at the real thing. Search
on Google for pictures by the greats for
example, portraits by John Singer Sargent
(for whom there is a speciic Corel Painter
brush), Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Wyeth
youll know who your favourites are. Go
to galleries when possible to see the real
thing. It will help enormously and will also
enhance your ability to make good and
interesting creative decisions as you tackle
your colour-cloned paintings.
Now, on to the practicalities. When you
irst see colour cloning in action, it looks
like magic. It is like magic, but it doesnt
have to be complicated magic.
At its simplest, when in Clone Color
mode, the colour of one image gets
transferred to precisely the same
place on an identically sized image, but
reinterpreted through the characteristics
With the colours blocked in, pick a smaller brush and go over the
areas again. Dont worry about pin-sharp detail the key is to
add more definition to the forms. Dont worry about covering the
canvas the areas that are missed on the top and bottom-right will
help give a more authentic look.
The final stage involves an even smaller brush being applied

to make forms sharper and to finish the painting off. Just how
detailed you go is up to you. The key is to leave some of the earlier
rough strokes showing, but add refinement where you want it.
Apply Surface Texture for the final sprinkling of realism.
23
19/10/07 14:44:54
Feature
Turn to
page 32
ll
se
to e the fu
f
o
n
io
sect
es
Cloner brush
Getting your photos ready

for the clone process
Although you can use most photos straight out of the bat, its worth
prepping them before you unleash the Cloner tools. The best way of
doing this is to alter the photos colour. Think about what style you
are emulating and edit accordingly.
The clone choices reside in the File menu. From here you can jump into a Quick Clone, set an image as the Clone
Source, or simply create a duplicate of an already-open image
of the particular brush you are using. The

small Clone Color mode button (found on
the Colors palette) decides whether you
paint in Clone Color mode or you just paint
with the colour selected. You can also
enable this to turn brushes into cloners.
The supplied option
However, you dont have to turn brushes

into cloners there is a whole category of
brushes speciically designed for cloning.
have the word Grainy in their name. This

means that they can reveal the underlying
paper you have selected for the picture
in their brushstrokes. You can adjust the
amount of Grain in the Brush Property
toolbar. Set the paper, or Surface Texture,
for your picture from the Papers toggle
switch towards the bottom of the Tools
palette. You can also apply the paper
you have chosen via Effects>Surface
Control>Apply Surface Texture. The
This photo is okay its a bit washed out, but fundamentally its okay.
However, to turn it into the perfect clone source, its going to need some
work. Corel Painter has a good assortment of photo-editing tools in the
Effects>Tonal Controls menu
CLONING LETS YOU PAINT USING

THE COLOURS AND DETAILS
DIRECTLY FROM YOUR PHOTOS
These are aptly named the Cloners. You can
access these from the Brush Selector bar, or
choose the Quick Clone option from the File
menu to load them automatically.
When it comes to picking the brushes
for your cloned paintings, there are some
things to consider beyond the obvious
choice of media. One of the most important
is how the brush behaves. Some brushes
The Tracing Paper allows you to see the photo and you
can alter the Opacity to your liking
signiicance of the paper or texture is that

with careful application, it can help to give
your image the look of a real painting on
canvas or watercolour paper, or even a
textured chalk drawing.
If you have Corel Painter X, you can set
the program to automatically clone. This
is thanks to the Underpainting, AutoPainting and Restoration functions. These
provide quick and subtle preparations for
your pictures in relation to lighting, colour
and simpliication (Underpainting), new
sophisticated hands-free painting functions
using special brushes (Auto-Painting) and
the ability to easily restore areas of your
image back to an earlier state (Restoration).
The newly-released Painter Essentials
4 also boasts Underpainting and AutoPainting features. While not the same as
doing things for yourself, they do allow you
to see how an effect will look.
Over the coming pages we are going to
see exactly how sophisticated a cloned
painting can be. We hope to prove that they
are not an easy way of creating art, but
rather a useful tool in experimenting with
effects and becoming a better artist.
The Adjust Colors command has allowed us to boost the shadows, and
give a warm glow. It looks bad now, but will make a lovely oil painting
The Auto-Painting and Underpainting commands in Corel Painter X and Essentials 4

allow you to automatically alter the colour of a photo and then paint it
al artwork by Philip Straub

Origin24
19/10/07 14:42:05
First option
Quick clone
Level: Basic
The logical place to start our journey in cloning is with the

Quick Clone facility. This enables you to prepare an image for
cloning in one step. Simply open a photo, go to File>Quick Clone
and tracing paper will appear over your image and the Cloners
brush category will automatically load. In our example here,
we are going to create a light covering of colour texture using
the Chalk cloner, then add some broader brushstrokes with
an Oil cloner. Well then bring in some detail, still keeping the
brushwork loose The aim is to keep the picture looking more
like a painting than a photograph as we add brushstrokes and
detail. The temptation is always to paint wherever there is a
gap, but the trick is not to paint too much, and not to keep all
the edges in the image. To help the illusion of an oil painting,
we need to have a little canvas texture showing through here
and there, keeping the brushstrokes free, and just adding back
detail here and there.
HERES HOW
01
Quick Clone set up Open the image from the CD and select
Quick Clone from the drop-down File menu. The image now appears
semi-opaquely. When you left-click and hold the cursor over the little square
icon below the red Close cross, a drop-down list of degrees of transparency
appears. Toggling the icon on and off switches between the transparency
you have selected from the menu and complete white opaqueness. We have
chosen complete whiteness here.
04
Smeary Bristle cloner Now bring back detail using the
Smeary Bristle cloner, set to a Size of 12 and an Opacity of 100

per cent. As we are going for an impression of the owers, we dont want
to restore all the edges and detail. Swapping between the working cloned
image and the original ( by toggling the transparency switch), bring back the
ower edges and details here and there, concentrating the restored detail in
clumps rather than evenly all-over.
TO
O
H
P
L
A
N
I
G
O RI
02 Chalk cloner
Select Artists Canvas

from the Papers icon in the Tools palette.
This determines the kind of grain that Grainy
brushes show. Use the Chalk cloner from the list
of Cloners in the brush category, and making sure
that the brush Size is around 52, Opacity is 59 per
cent and Grain 12 per cent, brush lightly, leaving
streaks of white showing through here and there.
05
Adding contrast To nish the
picture off, add a little contrast. These

sort of nishing touches, like extra brightness
and colour saturation, are entirely a matter of
personal preference. On this occasion, we have
only increased the Contrast slider to dramatise the
image a little.
FINA L
CLONE D PAIN TING
03 Oil Brush cloner
To give some body

to the brushstrokes, now apply the Oil
Brush cloner over the canvas (also in the Cloners
category). At this point, we are not yet tracing the
owers using a semi-transparent paper setting.
Think all the time about how a large, real oil brush
would be making marks on the canvas.
06 Sharpen the image
We have left
Sharpening until the last step because it
is very important. It should be the last thing you do
to the image and should not be over-applied. You
can tell when an image is over-sharpened by the
light halo effect around the edges. Less is more in
this case. The picture is now nished, so resist the
temptation to ddle with it!
25
19/10/07 14:06:15
Feature
Second option
r
e
h
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o
g
n
i
s
U
s
e
h
s
u
r
b
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i
a
p In term edia te
Level:
trickier subject.
ing to take on a
go
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ar
e
w
t to consider
n,
io
In this sect
ne, its importan
clo
e
th
g
in
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ak
m
t
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Before you star
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or
s and
w
ow
ill
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ad
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what med
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ph
es
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ontal, vertical an
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r a simulation of
s applied
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de
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ncils and some
ht transparent
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inal image a lig
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ve
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to it. Our aim w
ared photo as th
e
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th
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us
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ercolor brushe
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),
e
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th
ap
om
(p
fr
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coloured ground
and a line draw
s)
er
on
Cl
ilt
bu
purposeSketch function.
ORIGINAL PH OTO
FINAL
CLONED PAINTING
HERES HOW
03 Select
a paper
01 Bring it to life
Open up the boat photo from

the CD. To give the photo more vivacity, go to
Effects>Tonal Control and pick Adjust Color. Increase the
Saturation by 34 per cent and select File>Clone, All from the
Select drop-down menu and Clear from the Edit menu.
02 Get the cloning ready
A click on the
Transparency icon shows that the photo
is still there. Watercolour paper is often off-white
so use the Fill tool to add a light yellow colour (H:
47 per cent, S:100 per cent, V: 93 per cent) to the
white. Check under File>Clone Source that the
right source image is selected.
Choose a texture now.

We chose Hot Press
from the list, which
is a fairly smooth
watercolour paper
surface. We went for
this because a rough
watercolour paper
might interfere with
the line drawing. We
decided to pick a
Grainy brush because
it shows the paper
texture well.
26
19/10/07 14:42:40
Using texture
04 Start painting
We used the
Grainy Wash Bristle variant from the
Watercolors category with an Opacity of 26 per
cent. With a light touch, cover in most of the
image. Avoid going up to the edges and make
sure you leave some gaps where the yellow paper
shows through. The composite method changes
to Gel. This happens by default with new or
duplicated watercolour layers.
05
Develop the brushed coverage
We used the Wash Bristle brush here to

add some additional colour, with the Opacity set
to 26 per cent. The main purpose of this brush is
to suggest some of the parallel marks made by the
watercolour pencils which, at this stage, have not
yet fully dissolved.
06 Add more body to the image
Now duplicate the image to give the

picture more body via Select>All, then choosing
Edit>Copy>Paste in Place. Select this rather than
Paste. An identical, though slightly darker, layer
appears above the current layer. Reduce the
Opacity of the new layer to 30 per cent to keep the
fuller colours and values, but lower the darkening
that the Gel composite method introduces.
Pencils, paper and Corel Painter
When it comes to
art media such as
watercolour, it is
very important that
you pick a suitable
paper texture at the
beginning and be sure
to employ a brush
that has Grainy in
the title. By having
something that has
tooth and texture,
you can ensure that
your painting looks as
realistic as possible.
Whenever you pick a
paper, always make
sure that you open the
Papers palette and
adjust the sliders to
get the precise look
that you want.
Traditional media in a digital world
07
Prepare to add a grey pencil

outline With the original photo (the
adjusted one) active, again choose Select>All

and Edit>Copy. Then, with the cloned version
active, select Edit/Paste in Place (again, not Paste).
The original photo appears at the top of the layer
stack. You need to use the original photo so that
the sketch from it will have crisp outlines.
10
Save as RIFF This is worth a separate
step. Get into the habit of saving layered

images as RIFFs Painters native le format. This
will preserve your stacked layers. You should do
this after every level has been completed. You can
always delete them later. Its better to have too
many than risk losing the whole layer stack. You
can use the Iterative Save function for this, too.
08 Create the pencil sketch
Go to
Effects>Surface Control>Sketch and
the Sketch parameters box will appear. Type in the
following settings: Sensitivity: 1.00, Smoothing
1.20, Grain: 0.00, Threshold High: 40 per cent,
Threshold Low: ten per cent. This will produce a
black-on-white outline drawing. Then change the
Layer composite mode to Multiply so that you can
see the coloured image below the line drawing.
11
Add some clean yellow paper The
edges need a little more air so save the

whole image as a TIF, close the saved RIFF image
and open the TIF version. This is no longer a
watercolour layer so you can make changes easily.
Sample the background colour and use a Fine
Feathering Oils 30 brush (from the Oils) to paint in
a little more unused paper around the edges.
a new layer and more

09 Add
colour
Reduce the Opacity of the

sketch layer so that theres a nice balance between
the line drawing and watercolour layer. Then
create a new watercolour layer by clicking on
the blue droplet icon at the bottom of the Layers
palette. Use the Diffuse Bristle brush at an Opacity
of 45 per cent to add some more paint, again
making sure not to cover the whole picture evenly.
Surface Texture and nal

12 Apply
sharpening
First, add a little more

Saturation at about 14 per cent, and then some
Surface Texture, using Hot Press paper all-over as
before. The settings are shown above. Finally, add
some sharpening via Effects>Focus>Sharpen. Use
the Gaussian Opening settings with the Amount
set to 1.77, and the Highlight and Shadow both at
100 per cent.
More effects
We used the Surface
Control menu to
access the Sketch
effect here, but its
worth trying the
other ones on offer.
The Woodcut is very
interesting, especially
when used on very
bold photos. The
dark lines it applies
can give a good
depth to a painting,
but try the various
composite methods
to get the perfect
look. The key is to use
effects such as Sketch
and Woodcut as an
enhancement to the
painting not
a distraction.
27
19/10/07 14:07:24
Feature
Third option
Get creative
s
e
h
s
u
r
b
h
t
i
w
ed
Level: Ad va nc
relect the
the title does not
d Advanced, but
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In
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This
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ORIGINAL PH OTO
FINAL
CLONED PAINTING
3
WE WENT FOR A
LIGHT BLUE WHICH
WAS COMPLEMENTARY
FOR SOME OF THE SKIN
COLOURS, AND HELPED
CREATE TENSION
28
19/10/07 14:43:05
HERES HOW
03 Changing the background colour

01 Saturation
Open the photo from

the disc. Its evident that the head in the
photo needs some room to breathe, so to begin
with, add 200 pixels left and 100 pixels right to
produce the canvas dimensions you want. This
puts the head slightly off-centre in the frame.
02 Painting in missing background
From the Oils palette, use

the Tapered Round Oils 15 brush to roughly continue the existing
green background, as well as the patch of pinstripe jacket into the white
border areas. Although you probably wont use the green background, it will
ensure that the values remain consistent. Increase the Contrast a little to give
the image some more energy.
At this stage, we decided that the green

background wasnt going to work for the image.
Go to Effects>Adjust Selected Colours and use
the Dropper tool to select the green background.
Then change H Extents to 20 per cent, H Feather
to ten per cent, Hue Shift to -34 per cent, Value to
-16 per cent and Saturation to -91 per cent. This
gives us a brown background that works better.
up the
05 Set
paper
Now
you need to set up the
paper that will provide
the surface texture
for the cloned image.
Choose Artists Canvas
from the drop-down list
of papers accessed from
the Papers icon at the
bottom of the toolbox.
Then launch the Papers
palette using the Papers
y-out. This will allow
you to see all the papers
parameters and adjust
them if you want.
04
Setting up the colour cloning To
07
Customising the Sargent brush Select the General category
set up the colour cloning, head to File

and click on Clone. Then follow Select>All, and
Edit>Clear. This will create a new Clone of josh
image, which should be all white. Fill this with a
cool brown (H:40 per cent, S: ve per cent, V: 55
per cent) using the Fill tool.
from the list on the left-hand side of the Stroke Designer page in
the Brush Creator and make the following changes: Stroke Type set to Rake;
Method set to Cover; Sub Category set to Grainy Hard; Expression set to
Pressure, and the Grain set to 18 per cent. Remember that the visible paper
texture increases as the value set reduces. Aim to use about 16 per cent.
06 Customising the rst brush
Were going to use the Artists Sargent

brush to lay down texture onto the painting. This
will require some customisation. First, select the
Sargent brush in the Artists brush category. Then
open up the Show Brush Creator link, which is
accessed from the y-out arrow to the right of the
Brush Selector palette.
08
Changing the Sargent Brushs

Size settings Select Size from the left
of the Stroke Designer page. Change the brush

prole to the pointed one top-left, Size to 37.8 per
cent, Minimum Size to eight per cent, Expression
to Pressure and Size Step to one per cent.
the Sargent Brushs

09 Changing
Well parameters
Open the Well

settings and change Resaturation to 76 per cent,
Bleed to 0 per cent, Expression to 0 and Dryout to
268.6. Finally, change Rake to ten and make sure
that Impasto, which gives depth to brushstrokes,
is turned off.
29
19/10/07 14:43:35
Feature
Start painting!
Its time to lay down the first paint application
10
Saving the customised Sargent

Brush Youll need to save the
customised brush it is easy to forget to do this!

Open the y-out menu next to the Brush Selector
and click on Save Variant. Name it Grainy Sargent
and it will then appear at the bottom of the list of
brushes in the Artists category, without replacing
the Sargent brush.
brushing with the

12 Initial
customised brush
value relationships between the face and the
11 Checking
plain background
Before you start painting, check how the face

will t in with the brown background. Use the Eye Dropper tool to conrm
that the brown for the background matches the tonal value of a number of
the background areas. If you want to let the background show through the
painted image, you now know where to do this with the correct values.
At this stage, make

some brushstrokes with the new brush with the
original image completely obscured by the brown.
This is always a very exciting part of the process
as you see the image beginning to emerge.
The later stages of restoring the facial features
following facial contours using the image in semitransparent mode is a more technical exercise.
Brush size
It sounds obvious, but
always make sure you
pick the correct brush
size for the job. In our
case, we wanted to
keep a loose style so
that means picking
the largest brush you
can get away with.
The idea is to give
recognisable form
without entering
into photo-quality
sharpness. If you
wanted more detail,
then obviously go for
a smaller brush size.
Weve given guidelines
here, but you may feel
more comfortable
with a different size.
13 Setting up the Bristle brush
Our aim is to try to keep this

portrait loose. To help achieve this, for the next stage of painting,
use the Bristle brush in the Artists Oils category. Use this as it comes, with the
following settings: Size: 5.4; Opacity: 79 per cent; Grain: 17 per cent; Viscosity:
50 per cent; Blend: 100 per cent, Wetness: 75.
15 Close-up on the eyes
Even though the image is being cloned, and

should in theory replicate exactly what is in the original photography,
the marvellous thing about some of the Corel Painter brushes like the Bristle
is that they do not deposit paint with photographic precision, but with some
randomness. This is crucial to making an image look painted. Eyes should not
be painted identically eyes are not identical, so it is important to paint them
with their own character.
14 Using the Bristle brush
The Bristles brush stroke has a streaky

nature to it, its own bristly character. Now, begin to make the
brushstrokes follow the contours of the face. This means toggling frequently
back and forth between Transparency and Opacity using the Transparency
icon. Dont worry too much about detail at this stage.
16 Developing the picture
Now you need to begin to develop

some ideas for the background. Work up some detail too, using a
smaller Bristle brush. Make sure that there are a few lost edges where the
face and background seem to merge this helps to integrate them and avoid
a stuck-on effect.
30
19/10/07 14:44:04
Merge forms
17
More work on the head and

background Using the Grainy Sargent
brush again, but with a larger Size (25.3) and

Opacity (82 per cent), restore the underpainted
brown, letting some of the original photos dark
brown show through to give the background
some energy.
18 Fixing the background
Still using
the Grainy Sargent, introduce some
blocked-in dark olive into the background.
This colour is a darker value of the subjects iris
colour. The dark tone helps to model the face by
introducing an element of chiaroscuro. Use a Size
of 37.8, Opacity of 57 per cent and Grain of 18 per
cent. The dark patch is obviously not cloned and
its developing shape, tone and colour just works.
back more detail in

19 Bringing
the face
For the details, rst select

Oils>Thick Wet Oils 10 (Size: two, Opacity: nine
per cent, Resat: ten, Bleed: 65 per cent, Jitter:
0.02. Also check that Impasto is off) to block in the
key features. Then use the Tapered Round Oils 15
to restore more precise details, set to a Size of 2.6,
an Opacity of 87 per cent, Resat set to 100, Bleed
to 83 per cent and Feature set to 2.3.
Personal touches
While the focus of

this feature is about
using photography
as the foundation for
a painting, dont be
afraid to go freestyle!
You can achieve very
realistic results if
you leave the Clone
Color environment
and paint in colours
over the cloned
areas. In our example
here, we manually
painted in parts of
the background to
complement the
colours in the face. It
didnt take great skill,
but helped elevate
the image beyond a
straight clone.
Get in that pilots seat and take control of your image
20 Developing the eyes
You can see that the brushstrokes making

up the eyes are adding to the features with streaks and slabs of
colour, and not just reproducing the photograph precisely. Now make general
strokes with the original photo showing through the transparency. Stay with
the largest brush you can. Using very small brushes will quickly remove looselooking brushstrokes, so stay away from them!
22 Finishing touches
At this stage,
you may decide that the background
needs something more. We tried various shapes
and colours to create harmonies and interest, but
went for a light blue which was complementary
for some of the skin colours. It created tension
and helped bring alive the background and push
forward the face. This is a decision you have to
make for yourself you cant clone it.
21 Painting the hair
Still using the Tapered Round Oils brush, bring

back the hair from the dark brown underpainting. Dont paint all the
hairs individually, just those strands that are crucial to getting the illusion of
hair. In this case, the hair is tricky because there are not many settled, even
areas, but lots of spikes instead. The hair is actually emerging from the dark
background which helps to integrate the picture into it.
23 Final adjustments
To give the picture

a little more contrast, follow Select>All,
and Edit>Copy>Paste in Place. This will duplicate
the rst layer. Then change the composite method
to Gel and reduce the Opacity of the new layer
to six per cent. Under the Photo menu, use a little
Dodge and Saturation Add on the irises to reveal
them a little more.
24 Finished work
For some lastminute adjustments, add some colour

Saturation to the skin (Adjust Selected Colours
Sat: 30), and a little sharpening (0.88).
Layer choices
Traditional artists
apply layer after layer
of paint to build up
depth. All you have to
do is duplicate a layer
and then experiment
with the composite
methods! These allow
you to darken or boost
a painting and you
can control the effect
using the Opacity
slider. We used the Gel
composite method in
this tutorial, but other
good ones are Darken,
Multiply, Lighten and
Screen. It all depends
on your paintings
colours and the effect
you want, so try them
out to see what works.
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19/10/07 14:47:28
Primer Cloners
QUICK CLONE
BRUSH CATEGORY
To access the Cloners automatically, open your photo

and then select File>Quick Clone. This will apply a
sheet of tracing paper over a copy of the photo, and
the Cloners will be loaded in the Brush Selector bar
Cloners
They are the first port of call for

newcomers to Corel Painter, but what
else do the Cloners offer?
PRIMER
he Cloners brush category is a

treasure-trove of options for
so many people, irrespective of
their skill level. There is a huge
choice of variants in this category that can
be adapted to any style and situation.
The Cloners work the same as any other
brush category, except they automatically
take the colour information from a clone
source. As the colour is taken from the
source, it is turned into an artistic effect
and this is what you see on the canvas.
The Cloners are perfect for
beginners because they allow you to
concentrate on the act of painting.
They are also a fabulous way of
getting used to the different media
in Corel Painter. The Cloners cover
them all, from oils and acrylics
through to watercolour and pencil,
allowing you to see how the brushes
work and the sort of effects they give.
A really useful exercise is to pick a photo
and paint it using each of the different
Cloners. This will give you an at-a-glance
look at the media effects that you can use
when planning future projects.
Its worth experimenting with the
Cloners, especially if you use photos
as a basis in your artwork. They are
perfect for painting any areas you dont
feel comfortable with, especially tricky
areas such as faces. In fact, the process
of cloning gets you used to following the
forms of objects, which actually helps
improve your drawing skills.
MAKE SURE ITS GREY

When you are using the Cloners, just make
sure that the colour wheel is greyed out. This
indicates that the colour is being selected
from the clone source
DIFFERENT BRUSHES
To really build up your artwork, mix a
couple of different media together. In
this instance, we merged looser strokes
made with the Watercolor variant with
tighter Camel Oil strokes
Obliterate or bring back
The importance of Opacity
Two brush flavours
Know when to hold back

If you forget about the media they mimic,
the Cloners can be divided into two sections
those that will obscure detail and those that
keep it. Either type isnt very successful when
used on their own but when mixed together,
you have a powerful combination of tools.
In the example here, the Wet Oils cloner has
been used and you can see that it has melted
the detail. While this gives an interesting
effect, the source has lost impact. However,
something like the Soft Cloner can be used to
bring the original back!
You may find that some Cloners are

a little overbearing when used at
the default opacity. This is especially
true of the Watercolors. Try using
them as they come chances are
you will find them way too dark and
ominous. This is why the Opacity
slider is so important. Just by
reducing it, you can get the exact
effect you want. Here you can
see the Watercolor used at a high
Opacity (top) and then a lower one.
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YOUR CLONE CHOICES

There is a delicious range of variants
in the Cloners category, covering all
the major art media. You can even
mimic famous styles, such as the
Impressionists or Van Gogh
Primer
The Cloner options

At-a-glance guide to the choices on offer
There are loads of variants in the Cloners category, giving the user a great choice of effects
and options. Heres a look at each of the variants and what look they give:
Fine Gouache Cloner 15
Soft Cloner
Bristle Brush Cloner
Fine Spray Cloner 35
Splattery Clone Spray
Bristle Oils Cloner 15
Flat Impasto Cloner
Straight Cloner
Camel Impasto Cloner
Flat Oil Cloner
Texture Spray Cloner
Camel Oils Cloner
Furry Cloner
Tick Bristle Cloner 20
Chalk Cloner
Graffiti Cloner
Thick Camel Cloner 20
Cloner Spray
Impressionist Cloner
Thick Flat Cloner 20
Coarse Spray Cloner 50
Melt Cloner
Van Gogh Cloner
Colored Pencil Cloner
Oil Brush Cloner
Watercolor Cloner
Crayon Cloner
Pencil Sketch Cloner
Watercolor Fine Cloner
Driving Rain Cloner
Smeary Bristle Cloner
Watercolor Run Cloner
Felt Pen Cloner
Smeary Camel Cloner
Watercolor Wash Cloner
Fiber Cloner
Smeary Flat Cloner
Wet Oils Cloner 10
Cloners
Original image
Instant art style

The quick masterpieces
Explore the Impressionist and
Van Gogh variants when using
the Cloners. Both of these allow
you to build up a distinctive
style very easily. We looked at
the Impressionist variant last
issue, and these are a fantastic
way of making landscapes
really shine. The Van Gogh cloner is also very interesting,
as it mimics the thick, distinctive strokes of the great
master. Its best to use long, fluid strokes with this brush,
otherwise you will get a very blocked effect.
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showcase
OVCHARENKO ALEXANDER
TITLE
WEBSITE
JOB TITLE
Vine and Sea

http://archy.digitalart.org
Digital artist
Ovcharenkos style is bold, colourful and very beautiful, so we couldnt

resist putting one of his images on our cover, especially since it tted so
well with our landscape tutorial. His work is nice and varied, so make sure
you visit his site to see more.
034_OPM_10_artspread.indd 20
19/10/07 13:02:44
Tutorial Get started with landscapes
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Artist
Hannah Gal
Time needed
1-2 hours
Skill level
Beginner
On the CD
Field image
Get started with landscapes
Tutorial info
Tutorial
Get started
with landscapes
The Image Hose is an excellent way of quickly adding detail to an image
and is a real time-saver when it comes to landscape paintings
he Image Hose has to be
one of the most useful Corel
Painter tools. This colourful
brush sprays images rather
than paint, allowing you to give the
impressions of many objects very
quickly. The images it paints on are
special iles called Nozzles and to use
the Image Hose, you need to load a
Nozzle irst. There is a selection
available to you, or you can
create your own. Just like
any other brush in
Corel Painter, the
user has full
control over Size, Spacing and other

aspects. You can test your brush on the
Brush Creator pad as you design it.
The two most important variants
to control here are Spray and Linear,
which refer to the way Corel Painter
applies the images onto the page. The
program can either scatter images on
the canvas, or place them onto a predesigned path.
There are many uses to this type
of brush. First to come to mind are
subjects like grass, made of many
similar-looking strands placed next to
each other. Other examples are rocks,
clouds, lowers or any subject which

includes a naturally occurring pattern
or repetition.
The ability to vary the Size, Opacity,
colour and nature of application
means there is no danger of pattern
appearing too rigid. Just like any other
brush though, it takes care, practice
and experimentation.
We will create one Image Hose from
scratch and use one that is provided by
the program. The grass Image Hose in
the background is made from scratch
while the red lowers are provided by
Corel Painter but enhanced by us.
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18/10/07 10:58:37
Sowing the seeds of your painting

Blades of glory
01 Fill
Open the Landscape Base.jpg le from the CD. We are going

to create a grass Nozzle as a background for the ower eld. Create
a new layer. Open a new le, 800 x 600px at 300dpi. Use any painting or
drawing tool to create a blade of grass. We used a Selection tool and went to
Effects>Fill in the main menu to add a green colour to it.
02 Make a blade
Create a new layer. With the Pen or Selection tool,

create a differently shaped blade. Sample or create a different shade
of green or brown and go to Effect>Fill in the main menu. Choose Fill With
Current Color.
04 Group
03 Forming the grass
Adjusting
Nozzle colour
Through the Grain
slider on the Property
bar, you can mix a
second colour with the
Nozzle images. This is
the Additional Color
from the toolbox. To
mix in a second colour,
double-click on the
Additional Color at the
bottom of the toolbox
to select it. Set the
colour you want
and close. Use the
Property bar to adjust
the colour levels. At
100 per cent, you are
mixing no additional
colour. The more you
reduce the original
colour value, the
more of the additional
colour is mixed in.
We are building
a group of blades to form the rst bunch
of grass. Repeat the previous steps by creating
a new layer, drawing a differently shaped blade
and Fill with different shade or colour. For greater
variety, set a lower Opacity level to the one
applied before.
05 A Group effort
From the
toolbox, click on the
Layer Adjuster tool and
move the blades closer
to each other to form
a group. Here, you
are trying to make it
look like realistic grass.
Select all the layers
of blades created so
far, and in the Layers
palette, click on the
little triangle in the topright and then from the
menu, select Group.
Continue to create another selection of different

grass blades and group them together. You should now have two
bunches of grass, each made of several blades close together, layers selected
and grouped. Make sure you do not Collapse layers, just group them.
06 A third Group
You can continue to make as many blades and

groups as you wish. We made a further third bunch. Be sure to vary
the shade, colour and Opacity of the blades to ensure realism. You should
now have three bunches of grass, each group separate from the others. Check
that your Layers palette shows three groups. Click on the little triangle next to
Group to open it. It should display the blades that make up the Group.
38
18/10/07 10:59:06
To make the Image Hose work at its very best, you need to employ some experimentation with the brush settings. You
need to think of them as you would any brush, and alter settings such as Spacing and Angle to dictate how clustered the
image your are spraying is. This is the key to realistic effects
Tutorial
Landscapes Settings and adjustments

THE BRUSHES
Get started with landscapes
You apply a hose by

choosing the Image
Hose brush category.
The variants will spray
the hose image in
different ways.
GENERAL
Just like any other brush, use
the General controls to adjust
and design your brush. This is
the rst port of call for things
such as Opacity, Grain and
Size controls.
INTRODUCING SPACE
By altering the Spacing
setting, you can have a hose
that is very spread out, or
very tight together. If we had
wanted a sparse poppy eld,
the spacing would be high.
RANK
Under Image Hose in the General
controls box, you can set Rank 1, Rank
2 and Rank 3. A Nozzle can progress in
different ways. You can, for example,
set the rst Rank to change Size and the
second Rank to change Angle.
Making the Nozzles

Put the groups to work
07 Make Nozzle From Group
Save the
le with the three bunches as Grass. Go
to the Layers palette and click on the little triangle
on the right. From the pop-up menu, choose
Make Nozzle From Group
08 Load the Nozzle
Save the Grass

le as RIFF and from the Nozzle popup menu, choose Add Nozzle To Library. The
Grass Nozzle is now available to use and can be
accessed like any ready-made one.
09 Adjust the Nozzle
Pick the Image Hose brush category and try

out the Nozzle on a blank canvas to see how it looks. Shape the
Nozzle to your needs with the brush controls. Run the brush along and adjust
the settings until the right Nozzle is achieved. Activate the provided eld
image and try the Nozzle on the grass.
39
18/10/07 10:59:55
Putting the finishing touches on

Apply the flowers
10 Grass Hose
With the provided eld

image open, go to the Layers palette and
create a new layer for the grass background. This
will be the Grass Hose layer beneath the owers
that will follow. Open the Grass Nozzle, pick the
Linear-Angle-B variant and apply grass to the eld.
11 Grass application
With a 33 per cent

Opacity, Spacing set to 55-60 per cent,
apply the newly designed Nozzle to the eld.
Run the brush over the grass in a single stroke if
possible. This is just for effect so it does not need to
be realistic in terms of size perspective.
12 Flower Hose
From the Nozzle Selector, choose the Red Poppies

Nozzle. This ower comes with a stem, so we need to apply owers
furthest away rst and move towards the front. Stay with the Linear-Angle-B
variant. Set Opacity to 100 per cent and Size to the tiniest possible. Apply to
the top of the hill and along the hill line.
14 Paint
effects
13 Poppy perspective
Increase the size of the Nozzle and apply

a little more towards the centre of the hill. If this does not look
convincing, Undo and start again. The idea is to create the illusion of owers
getting bigger the closer they are to the viewer. Opacity remains at 100 per
cent and under Impasto, select Draw To as Color.
Drop all layers and

from Brush Selector or
Brush Creator, choose
the Acrylic brush.
Set Method to Cover
and Subcategory to
Grainy Soft Cover.
Use a 80-85 per cent
Opacity, put Grain on
14 per cent and under
Impasto, set Draw To
as Color and Depth.
Sample colour of any
part of the ower and
with a brush size of
30-32, apply loosely to
the ower.
Spacing
Spacing refers to
the space between
Nozzle images. It is
best controlled via the
Brush Creator where
you can check the
effect as you set it.
In Brush Creator,
choose Spacing and
increase the level to
60 per cent. Then run
the brush and check
the effect. Adjust the
slider to try different
Spacing settings. Now
increase the brush
size and check the
new combination. As
Spacing is based on
brush size, increasing
the latter adds space
between images.
16 Painted
owers
15 Smudging the greens
Stay with the

Acrylic brush and zoom in to 60 per cent
or over. Use the Eye Dropper to sample green in
between the red owers. Use a 75-85 per cent
Opacity to smudge over these areas. Follow the
shape of the leaves with brief strokes and longer,
wider strokes for parts of the green background.
Increase Opacity to
100 per cent and set
Impasto to Color and
Depth. Zoom in to 100
per cent magnication
level. Sample part of
the red ower and go
over it with a Bristle
brush. Sample another
area and carry on.
Repeat this until all
owers are covered
in a painterly, bristly
Acrylic effect.
40
18/10/07 11:00:22
Tutorial Create painted borders
Create painted borders

In this tutorial, well take you through a step-by-step process to show how a painted border
can really add to the overall effect of a portrait painting
Tutorial info
Artist
Daniel Cox
Time needed
30 minutes
Skill level
Beginner
reat modern masters all think

carefully not just about the
subject, but also how the
subject sits in the canvas. Not
claiming to be modern masters, we do
still try, however, to think about using
painted borders effectively in our work.
These borders can add general interest
to the painting because they can be bold,
strong brushstrokes or even soft, lost
edges. Either way, because they dont
contain detail, they can help accentuate
the focal points of your painting, such

as the face and the eyes of the subject.
Or the effect can be subtle, where the
artist leaves only a few stray brush
marks sweeping away from the subject.
In a landscape painting, ields, cottages
or harbour-side, the effect can be much
bolder, using an uneven border as a major
part of the composition.
In terms of approaches, an artist could
either start with a rough border and then
render the subject tighter, purposely
leaving the border uneven and rough.

Or you can go back and purposely paint
the border. This can be tricky though,
as the effect needs to look chaotic and
unplanned. Weve found that it takes
some time to get that effect, otherwise
the painted border can detract from the
painting because it feels staged. It needs
to look like you didnt plan it! Well take
you through how we would approach
adding a border in these steps. Its just a
quick demonstration but should be useful.
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Crossing the border
We start this tutorial after the hard part the

actual painting of the image completed. As you can see, at this
stage the canvas is actually larger than the nal image (for more about this,
see the side tip). You dont have to have it larger, but in this case it was really an
accident because we were initially planning to paint more background. Youll
also notice that weve painted her jacket all the way to the canvas, and this is
the main area that needs work.
02 Contis king!
Start by using the Cont Brush. Cmd+Alt+click to

select a neutral colour that is already present in the painting. Work
bold and fast, and dont be afraid to work back into the image. We werent
very happy with the jacket anyway, so were quite comfortable covering it up.
Creating
04
contrast
between border
As you can see, the

canvas is oversized
compared to the final
image. We do this
because it allows us
to paint the border
wider than planned,
and this then gives
us the control to crop
the image so that it
doesnt feel staged.
You dont need it to be
larger, but for this one
we werent sure how
much of the winter
scene we were going
to paint and how
much background
would be required.
As it turned out,
only the hint of
some winter trees
and a frozen pond
were needed, as the
snow and colour
temperature gave it
the required mood
and any more detail
would just have
been distracting.
01 Just the border
Use a bigger
canvas, and
crop later!
Tutorial
Where neutral colours and negative space is a positive thing!
and subject Dont
03
Negative space is your friend As
you work, always have the negative

space in mind. This is important, because the
shape is going to affect the impact of the painting.
If we paint too much negative space, her head will
look like its on a stick. The idea is to create interest
and blend these areas. Here were working from
the border inwards towards the subject.
05 Moving on
be afraid to work
back into the subject
either. Here we want
to lead the viewers
eye to her face, and
down into the rest
of the painting. To
do this, paint thick
brushstrokes using the
Acrylic brush (Size 45,
Opacity 22 per cent).
As you can see, this part of the image is already very

loose. However, its lacking a feeling of shape, so we worked some
of the darker tones that weve used to paint the background trees into the
border, and then pulled some of the neutral border colour in the subject.
Essentially, were creating a stronger frame for the subject by doing this. If its
too loose, the viewers eye gets lost.
Selecting
border
colour/value
06 Lets have a Palette Knife ght!
When you are happy with

the overall shape, its time to work on the edges. The Palette Knife is
a great art tool in Corel Painter, as it is in traditional media. Whats great about
it is that it allows you to very easily blend the Cont we laid in earlier, but also
by rst pushing the paint in one direction and then pulling it in the other,
edges are created.
Dont guess what

colours your border
will be, and dont use
white. You really only
need two to three
colours anyway,
and these should be
a similar value or
neutral colour that is
already in your image.
Anything else, and
the effect will call
attention to itself.
Dont use the stronger
blues or warms in the
skin tones as they help
focus the painting on
the subject, and using
these colours would
give the opposite
effect of what you
are trying to achieve.
Either Cmd+Alt+click a
colour in the painting,
or select from your
palette. Either way, it
should be a tone and
colour already present
in your painting.
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Tutorial Create painted borders
Borders and boundaries

Crop your image once its ready to lose unnecessary space
Soft edges
08
are good
too
07 Textured blenders and brushstrokes
Another good tool to

apply here is the Blender. We want to blend the darker value of her
collar into the border, but we dont want it to be a lost edge. Use the Coarse
Oily Blender (Size: 41.0, Opacity: seven per cent) to pull the darker value into
the light value, in doing so adding texture and therefore interest for the eye.
As the focus of
our painting is the
subjects eyes and
smile, its ne to soften
her beanie hat into the
border. This is really the
last place we want the
eye to go, so the Dry
Palette Knife (Size: 62,
Opacity: 30 per cent)
is great for this area.
Work fast, and pull the
paint in one direction,
then immediately
move the Knife at 30
degrees to it.
09 Everything is lost
Simplify the
shapes rst
This is all about
enhancing the
painting, so remember
your basic principles
of composition.
Simplify the shapes
in your head, so that
the border basically
becomes white space.
What areas need to
be painted into, and
what areas need to be
painted out from? If
youre only a beginner,
then you could paint
a thumbnail first to
see what works. In
the end though, the
painting should have
more impact with the
border and enhance
the composition. If it
doesnt, start again!
After looking at it full-frame, we decided we

want to just totally lose a few edges. Maintain contrast between the
subject and the snowy area, but totally blend the snowy area into the border
colour. Use the Loaded Palette Knife (Size 52, Opacity 22 per cent) to drag
snow into the border. Then use the Dry Palette Knife again to just blend some
of the area completely.
10 Cropping
This is where cropping comes in handy, because you can

choose the areas that have the most impact and lose areas that dont.
So to enhance the composition, crop tight on the top and back and leave more
room on the right, which allows the viewer to follow the subjects gaze.
the
12 Select
Impasto Oil
the look of
11 Creating
traditional canvas
Now that we are

happy with the border, theres still a nal step that
we can do to create a convincing canvas effect.
First, create a new layer and then set the Opacity
to 0. This is the most important step.
Choose the Artists Oil

>Impasto Oil (Size: 90,
Opacity: 100 per cent)
and begin painting.
In the thumbnail, you
will notice that you
are using paint, but it
wont show up on your
canvas. However, the
impasto-like effect will
show through, without
affecting colour. The
trick is to follow the
paint strokes youve
already placed down
for an authentic effect.
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The best brushes in the borders business

High
Low
Cont (high and low Opacity)

This brush is great for laying in colour quickly.
At low Opacity, the texture is more evident and
by laying a stroke next to another one, it creates
small edges. Also the grain is very evident. Use
it at a higher Opacity for large blocks of colour
when you want more opaque colour. Alternatives
would be the Sponge for a similar grain, and of
course any of the Bristle brushes.
Coarse Oily Blender

This is great not only for blending, but also
creating textured effects as you do so. With a
soft Blender, the area can quickly look like it
was blurred. With a textured Blender like this
one, the effect looks more like a brush was used
to blend the area, similar to dry-brushing in
traditional painting.
F-X Brush>Squeegee
Dry Palette Knife

Once again great for blending, but this tool
is also nifty when it comes to creating edges.
A handy technique is to lay in colour with the
Cont, and then work in a zigzag motion with the
Dry Palette Knife. Try it and were sure youll be
very pleased with the edges you create.
These are the brushes we mostly used while

creating the painted border, mainly because
we thought theyd give us a good mix of texture
and pigment that we required (the Cont and
Acrylic brushes), blending ability while retaining
this texture (Coarse Oily Blender and Loaded
Palette Knife) and very importantly, being able
to easily create edges (Dry Palette Knife and the
F-X Squeegee Brush). However, these are just our
personal preferences and were sure you could
get a similar effect by trying out some of the
natural Bristle brushes and the Artists Oils. Let
us now explain our choices in more detail.
Tutorial
Brush selection
Loaded Palette Knife

You may find that the Loaded Palette Knife is
similar to a dry brush technique. If you use it on
a lower Opacity, paint and colour is applied, but
texture and grain is retained.
This brush wasnt used in the tutorial, but it

deserves a mention because we could easily
have used it. Basically, the Squeegee brush
creates some really hard edges; if you just lay in
a few blobs of paint, this brush will quickly blend
it and create some dynamic hard edges at the
same time.
Online resources
Know more about your subject
Richard Schmid
Morgan Weistling
Jeremy Lipking
Painted borders can accentuate the focal

points of your portrait, such as the face and
the eyes, as in Richard Schmids portrait above
(www.greewhichworkshop.com).
Morgan Weistlings portrait shows that the

effect can also be produced subtly, where the
artist leaves a few brush marks sweeping away
from the subject (www.morganweistling.com).
In a landscape painting, something like a house, cottage, or

waterfall, the effect can be much bolder. Like here, in this Jeremy
Lipking landscape, he uses the uneven border as a major part of
the composition (www.lipking.com).
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Feature focus Using the Scripts command
FEATURE
FOCUS
Using
the Scripts
command
FASTER WORKFLOW
By creating a script, you can create the
original painting at a low resolution, which
speeds up Painters performance. Save the
script, and replay it at a higher resolution to
automatically create a high-resolution version.
Record every stroke you make by

employing Corel Painters scripts
First Export,
then edit
When you edit a
script, or choose new
materials to be used
within it, the script is
changed permanently
and all original settings
are lost. With this in
mind, its important
to preserve a copy of
the original script. To
do this, choose Open
Script from the palette
menu. Click on your
script in the list and
choose Export. Browse
to the folder where you
want to save the script
and click Save.
f youre familiar with Photoshop,

you may be aware of Actions, where
every move you make within an
image-editing session is recorded
and can be played back whenever you
want. Scripts in Corel Painter share many
similarities with Photoshops Actions, but
are actually even more powerful.
You might not know it, but Corel Painter
actually records every single move you
make, without you even knowing about
it. This fact in itself can be very useful as
if you painted an image and forgot to save
it, you can simply replay the script for that
session and re-create the piece!
Here were looking at how you can
instruct Corel Painter to record every
aspect of a paintings creation, save the
script and then play it back to your hearts
content. The power of being able to do
this is immediately obvious. First, its a
history of exactly how you created an
image, the brush variants, paper textures
and colours you used at any point during
the painting process. Second, by changing
the brushes and materials used within
a script, you can automatically repaint
the entire image using different brushes,
colours and papers.
CONTROL BUTTONS
At the base of the palette are the scripting
control buttons. From left to right they are Stop,
Play, Record, Pause and Next Step. When you
click one of these buttons, they glow brightly
while they are active.
Time-saving scripts
Playing scripts
Increase your workflow
A green glow signals the go-ahead

Scripts are not just about recording brushstrokes;
they can also record commands and effects so you
can make simple scripts which can speed up your
Corel Painter workflow. For instance, you could
create a script for rotating and resizing images, or
perhaps running two or three effects on a number
of images without having to go through the entire
process every time. Simply hit the Record button
and go through the procedure you want to record as
a script. Hit the Stop button when youre done and
name the script. Now you can run this script on other
images to create the same effect very quickly!
As ever, the Scripts palette is key to this, as

with all script operations. Open the palette
via Window>Show Scripts. Click in the
small script thumbnail at the top-right of
the palette. Youll see every saved script in
the list that expands. To choose the script
you want to play, simply click on it. Your
chosen script will be loaded. To play the
script, simply click the Play button. While
the script is playing, this button will glow
bright green, and will return to the back at
the end of the script.
46
046-049_OPM_10_featurefocus.indd46 46
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SCRIPTS PALETTE
The Scripts palette is control centre for scripting in
Corel Painter. From the small thumbnail at the top,
you can choose a saved script to play. The small
right-pointing arrow indicates the palette menu,
from where you can choose to open and close any
saved scripts.
SCRIPT WINDOW
Script instructions
Feature focus
After choosing Open Script

from the palette menu, you
can see every instruction. From
here you can edit many of the
instructions, or even copy and
paste them into the script.
Changing instructions within a script

One of the major advantages of scripting is that it allows you to
try painting using different brush variants or even paper textures.
Although there seems to be a bewildering set of instructions within
a script, they are logical and you can edit them with ease. To edit a
script, you need to open it via the palette menu, choosing Open Script.
Using the Scripts command
Variant
01
instruction
choices
To change which
variants are used for a
particular part of a painting
in a script, locate the Variant
instruction and twirl the small
arrow next to it. To change
the chosen variant category,
double-click its entry. Now
enter the new category here.
variant
02 Exact
names
Be careful
to enter the name of the
variant category exactly as it
appears in Painter, otherwise
your script will have errors.
When done, click OK. Now
double-click the Brush Variant
instruction, again entering
the name of the new variant
exactly as Painter names it
within the variant picker.
other
03 Changing
instructions
STEP BY STEP
Although there is no way to
slow down the playing speed
of scripts on playback, you
can progress through a script
one instruction at a time by
repeatedly hitting the Single
Step button. You can also
pause a script at any time via
the Pause button.
You can do the same thing

with paper textures within
the script by locating the
Paper Texture instruction and
editing it as before. You can
even edit the colours in the
painting! Expand the Color
instruction and double-click
the entry. In the dialog, enter
the new colour as RGB values.
SCRIPT SELECTOR
After clicking in the small thumbnail
within the palette, youll see the
Script Selector displayed. This
selector contains all of your saved
or imported scripts and you can
choose one simply by clicking on it.
Opening scripts
Moving scripts
View or edit the instructions
Exporting and importing scripts

When you choose a script to play, the
contents of the script are not displayed
in the palette. In order to see the
instructions within a script, or edit it, you
need to open it. To do this, hit the small
right-pointing arrow at the top of the
Scripts palette and choose Open Script
from the menu. Again, youll see a list
of all the saved scripts. To open one of
the scripts, simply choose it from the list
and click Open. The full script will now be
displayed in the Scripts palette
In order to share a script with others, youll

need to export it. Exporting a script saves it
in a location of your choice as a simple text
file. To do this, again choose Open Script
from the fly-out palette menu. Within the
dialog, this time click on the name of the
script you want and simply click Export.
Youll be asked to specify a location for
the script file and give it a new name if you
want. To import a script youve downloaded,
simply click the Import button, navigate to
the script on your PC and click Open.
47
18/10/07 11:26:50
Feature focus Using the Scripts command
FEATURE
FOCUS
Script set up
Record your progress as you paint
So now you know
all about scripts
and exactly what
theyre for, the
best way to see
the power of these
things is to hit that
Record button and
create a painting,
complete with a
full-blown script
which can be
played back again
and again.
01 Set Script Options
Before you begin work on a painting you want

to build a script for, display the palette via Window>Show Scripts.
So that the script records all of your settings and variant choices, hit the small
right-pointing arrow and choose Script Options. Make sure to check Record
Initial State and click OK.
02 Start recording
03 Paint and record!
04 Stop and name
If you want the script to include the creation of a

new document, make sure to hit the Record button before going to
File>New. Create your document in the usual way, specifying the images size
and resolution. Click OK, and youre now recording and ready to paint.
Closing
scripts
Once you have the
instructions for a
specific script open
within the Scripts
palette, they will
remain displayed even
if you choose another
script by clicking in
the Script Selector. In
order to display the
contents of another
script, you need to
close the displayed one
by clicking the small
right-pointing arrow in
the Scripts palette and
choose Close Script.
Remember, every move you make from now

and onwards will be recorded in the script, including any undos and
saves. If youre working on a full-blown painting that is likely to take some
time, make sure to hit the Stop button at convenient intervals so that you
create a number of smaller scripts.
When you hit the Stop button, youll be

prompted to name the script you just recorded. Its important to
give your scripts meaningful names, including sequential numbering if there
will be a number of scripts for a single painting, so youll know in which order
they should be played. Hit Record to record the next script session.
Resolution-independent script
Play back at a higher resolution
Recording resolution-independent scripts
Double the size of the image
In order to create a resolution-independent

script, one you can play back later at a higher
resolution, before and during recording
the script, go to Select>All. The rectangular
selection around the canvas will serve as a
reference boundary. Hit Record and then go to
Select>None. Now you can create your painting
in the usual way and create the script. This will
enable the script to be played back at a higher
resolution later. Working on a low-resolution
version to create the original script is a great
way to make Painter run more smoothly.
To play a script back at a higher resolution, its important

that you know the original pixel dimensions of your
recorded image. If your low-resolution original version
measures 1000 x 1000 pixels for instance, you need to
create a new document with pixel dimensions of 2000
x 2000 to double the size of the image. Create the new
document before choosing and playing your resolutionindependent script. Make sure that your new canvas has
the same proportions as the original painting, or the
finished image will be distorted. Once youve created the
canvas, choose your script but before playing it, go to
Select>All to create the new reference rectangle.
48
18/10/07 11:27:46
Once youve recorded your script and hit the Stop

button for the nal time, click on the Script thumbnail in the topright of the palette and youll see your saved script in the list. Save and close
your nished image before attempting to play the saved script.
Another neat aspect to

the Scripts function is
the fact you can export
it as a movie file, ready
for others to watch.
You wont be able to
see all the commands
and variants change,
but its a great way of
seeing how a painting
is built up. Choose a
script and open a new
file the size you want
the movie to be. Choose
Script Options from the
Scripts palette menu.
Enable the Save Frames
on Playback option.
Set how many tenths
of a second you want
between frames the
lower the number the
smoother the movie.
Click Play on the Scripts
palette and enter a
name. Click Save and
enter a name. Leave
the settings as they
are. Hit Save and your
script will playback.
Go to File>Save As
and select Save as
QuickTime Movie. Set
Compression Type to
Animation and then
hit OK. You now have a
QuickTime movie! You
can see the one for this
image on the disc.
Scripting in action
Open, edit then close your new script
07 Opening your script
Editing any of the instructions within

the list is easy. Hit the small right-pointing arrow and choose Open
Script from the menu. Choose your script from the list within the dialog and
hit Open. The instructions within your script will be displayed within the
Script palette.
08 Editing a script
Now you can scroll through the instructions and

edit any of them simply by twirling the arrow next to the instruction
in question. After making any alterations to the script, you can play it back
with the new instructions. Before you can display the instructions within
another script, hit the arrow and choose Close Script.
Recording and naming
Long scripts, bit by bit
Make your scripts memorable
Split em up to avoid trouble
Every time you hit the Record button in the

Scripts palette, Painter starts to record a new
script. Whilst the Record button glows, Painter
will record every stroke you make of the canvas,
and every command or effect you use. The
end of the script is marked when you hit the
Stop button. At this stage, youll be given the
opportunity to enter a name for the recorded
script. Its important that you give the script
a descriptive name. Its a good idea to include
the pixel dimensions in the name itself if youve
recorded a resolution-independent script.
Using the Scripts command
05 Script chooser
Once youve
selected the script you
want, play it back by
simply hitting the Play
button. Then watch
as your painting is
re-created on screen.
Youll see the Brush
variant change in
the Properties bar,
as the script chooses
precisely the same
variants you did during
the painting process.
You can pause the
script at any time. The
script is nished when
the Play button returns
to its dull state.
Feature focus
06
script
Export as a
movie le
Playing
your
If you want to record the developments of a

complicated full-blown painting as a script, its a
very good idea to split the scripts into two or three
sections. Long scripts can be huge in size, and very
long scripts are often more troublesome and more
likely to develop errors when played than shorter
ones. To do this, hit the Stop button every now and
then during the progress of a painting, saving a
number of chunks of the painting process as separate
scripts. Give these scripts sequential names, so they
can be played back one after another when you want
to re-create the full painting.
49
18/10/07 11:28:13
Tutorial Relax your style
Relax
your style
Work with loose brush strokes and pipe
energy into your paintings
Tutorial info
Artist
Cheryl Blanchard
Time needed
2 hours
Skill level
Intermediate
On the CD
Starter photo
oosen up, painters! Heres a

tutorial that will show you how
to paint with loose strokes, and
have some fun while youre at it.
In a busy world of stark realism and
detail, its a welcome contrast to actually
relax and enjoy painting. Building from
the foundation up, this tutorials will show
you how to paint in layers, gradually
focusing the image from beginning to
end. For those of you who are just starting
out, or have yet to pry the mouse from
your hands and replace it with the stylus,
these steps will provide you with a simple
way to create a lively painting.
If you are still mousing along, do
consider buying a tablet and stylus to
make the most of the pressure sensitivity
thats available to you with Corel Painter.
You can easily paint from barely a tint,
to a hard, bold stroke with pen pressure,
something quite impossible to achieve
with the ordinary mouse.
The main content of this tutorial is
about the process of creating a painting in
this style using layers. Well be painting
with Oil Pastels for this project, using
only one simple brush the Chunky Oil
Pastel. Nothing complicated here!
You can use this method of painting
with any medium, from the Artists Oils
to the Pens, and with any subject matter,
from a still life to sweeping landscapes. If
youve never painted a portrait, dont be
discouraged. Its no different overall than
painting a sunset or a lower, it just uses
different shapes and colours, arranged in
a different pattern.
Well be painting quickly, intuitively,
trying to capture the essence and feeling
of the scene, rather than all the facts
and details. Well leave that part to the
viewer, to ill in the detail with his or her
imagination. A painting is much more
exciting when there is something left to
be discovered.
So take a deep breath, let go of the
details, pick up your stylus or mouse and
lets get started.
50
050-054-OPM_10 loose.indd 50
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Tutorial
Relax your style
51
18/10/07 14:13:07
Free your artistic talent

Go wild on a photo
01
Set up Open up the starter photo from this issues disc. Clone
03
Block in colour Use the Chunky
the photo to make a quick copy and squeeze it into the upper-left
corner of your screen. The original le takes centre stage. Use the photo as a
reference and palette, with unlimited colour at your disposal. Heres how we
arranged things.
Focus slowly
Imagine these layers
like the focusing of a
camera lens the first
layer is out of focus,
the second layer a
bit clearer, the next
sharper, until you
reach the top detail
layers where there is
clarity and focus in
select areas.
Its important not
to have too much
detail in a loose
painting. Choose your
points of interest and
focus carefully to
create a path for the
viewers eyes to travel
along. And be patient;
this wont look like
much of a painting in
the beginning.
Oil brush at 20 per cent Opacity for

this rst layer. Create a new layer that will be
the foundation for the painting. Check Pick Up
Underlying Color so all the colours will mix and
blend as we go along. Dont worry about lights
and darks at this point. Block in basic shapes of
mid-valued colour as you begin to familiarise
yourself with the scene.
05 Darks and lights
02 Tinting the background
The rst thing to do is tint the canvas.

Use the Eyedropper to select a midtone colour from the photo . This
will make up the undertone for the painting. Then go to Effects>Fill and ll the
canvas using the Current Color option. This will help create a cohesive palette
as you paint, with the canvas colour blending into each colour you apply,
adding unity to the painting.
04 Begin to rene
Create a new layer

and change the brush Opacity to
somewhere between 50-80 per cent. This is a
personal preference depending on the pressure
you apply with the stylus. If you are using a mouse
and dont have pressure sensitivity, set the Opacity
between 30-40 per cent. This will give you some
level of transparency as you build the colours up.
The key here is to start adding some denition to
the painting.
Continuing on the same layer, notice where

the darkest and lightest areas are and paint them with only a few
strokes to accent these areas. Be careful not to concentrate too much dark or
light in one area. Distribute these ranges throughout to create movement in
the painting.
06 Mid layer
On another new layer, follow the smaller, more dening

shapes of the colours with smaller strokes to create volume and
depth. If you can successfully look and reproduce these shapes with a limited
amount of strokes, youll keep the spontaneity of this loose technique and add
dimension at the same time.
52
18/10/07 14:13:30
Tutorial
Relax your style
08 Sculpt with paint

07 Faces
Add strokes to dene the facial features. Again, we are only

at the mid level, so you dont need to concern yourself with a lot of
detail yet. What shape makes the eye? What colour creates the curve of that
eyebrow? With a few strong brushstrokes, you can easily bring more volume
to the faces.
Follow the planes

of the face as you sculpt the painting
along. If the lower layers need adjusting, use this
layer to make corrections as you paint, taking the
surrounding colour to reshape a nose or chin line.
Its an on-going process, always adjusting until the
nal stroke. Like shaping clay, you are moulding
the painting slowly to the nish.
09 Points of focus
Set up a new layer. Here we begin to add the

nal detail to the faces, as points of focus. You wont need many
strokes, just a few in the right places to accent a plane of the cheek, an eyelid,
or a highlight on a nose. Some very basic strokes will indicate a smile or the
curve of a lip.
Direct the focus within the picture

Highlight and distinguish the points of focus
Let the paint

y fast
10 Clothes
Use the same technique to

add some detail to the clothing, on a
new layer. Be careful not to create too much
sharpness and contrast, or the viewers eyes will
be looking at the clothes before the faces. Again
choose deliberately where you want the viewers
attention to be.
11 Background layer
Now, create a new

layer to adjust the background. Soften
some of the edges in the background gure,
reshaping every so often, here and there. There
isnt much detail in the background and the colour
is washed out; this helps to create a sense of depth
in the painting.
Work quickly; try

not to overanalyse
your strokes. You
can always adjust an
errant stroke later on
if need be. Try to work
from the right side of
the brain, creatively,
intuitively, rather
than thinking about
every stroke. Let the
paint fly, the faster
the better. Try to keep
in mind that youre
painting the essence,
not the facts.
53
18/10/07 14:13:53
Peripheral
painting
Final adjustments
Make some personal tweaks to make the creation your own
Approach the canvas

as a whole, especially
in the first few layers.
This will ensure a
pleasant trip around
the scene for the
viewer. If you paint
a small area of the
canvas for too long,
you may end up with
a section that looks
out of place. So move
about and build the
painting as a whole,
not in segments.
01
02
03
04
12 Fill layer
13 Review
14 Unsharp Mask
15 Levels
One last layer. There are some areas here that have too
much of the ground tint showing through, especially along the lower
edge of the canvas and black sleeve in the centre. Create another layer and
place it underneath the rest of the layers. This enables you to paint behind the
layers without altering all the great brushstrokes that youve already created.
When the painting is complete, take it into

Photoshop for some nal adjustments. Use Unsharp Mask to sharpen
the pastel strokes. An Amount of 40 and a Radius of four gives a nice crispness
and detail to the brushstrokes without overdoing it.
Here are the essential layers again, side by side for

comparison. Each consecutive layer has less coverage with smaller,
bolder strokes as you paint from the blocking layer to the nal detail. Weve
grouped all the detail and nishing layers together for clarity here.
Adjust the contrast using Levels in Photoshop to create more

depth and clarity. Be careful here; its easy to lose all the subtle ranges
in the lightest and darkest areas if youre not paying close attention.
Surface
texture
Its good to have an
awareness of the twodimensional surface
of your painting, the
shape and direction
of the brushstrokes
and the movement
across the canvas.
Create an interesting
surface of texture and
direction that has an
inherent quality set
apart from the subject
of the painting.
16 Saturation
A small amount of Saturation can add some pizazz to

otherwise dull colour, usually somewhere between ve and ten is
sufcient. Or if you want some hot, bright colours, go for it slide it on up!
17 Afterword
You now have a simple process for creating a loose

painting, sculpting layer by layer, from the vague shapes of colour that
lay the foundation to the details and accents that catch the eye and draw you
in. Now, stay loose when you paint and dont worry about the outcome too
much. Its in the process, in the creating where youll nd the greatest rewards.
54
19/10/07 14:49:09
Art study How to paint clouds
How to
pa in t clouds
A cloud can evoke many reactions. It can be foreboding, it can be fascinating. It can
transform into an object that only you can see, hence they can be very personal. It can
change the whole mood of a painting. Heres your chance to take control of the skies!
Brushes and value sets

We are going to take you through some
of the different brushes within Corel
Painter that can be used to create realistic
cloud formations. On top of this, we have mood or season you wish to depict, you ll be
provided a number of colour sets on the able to portray it to the viewer using one
CD to help you paint your skies. Whatever of our suggested sets of three values.
Moonlit skies
Here is a three-value set that works very well for painting those
clouds that are back lit by a bright moon.
Working with pastels

Wet Soft Acrylic
This picture shows how the Wet Soft Acrylic brush

can be used to create painterly clouds. Painted
with the same brush (and size) using the three
values for sunny skies.
This panel shows four different brushes that really

work well for pastel. The rst is the Square Hard,
perfect for details and edges. The second is the
Round Soft, which is good for quickly blocking in
major values. The third takes the Round Soft to
50 per cent Opacity and shows how well suited
it is at that point for building up shapes. The last
shows how the Soft Blender Stump can be used at
this point to blend the values together for quick,
convincing results with minimal effort.
Sunny days
This shows ve cloud value groups for different conditions. The

rst and last are for midday sunny skies, colour schemes for cooler
weather and an optimistic perfect day respectively. The second can
be used to paint a common grey, overcast sky. The third and fourth
are for painting clouds at sunset, red and orange respectively.
Using oil brushes
The rst two columns show the Glazing Round

and the Fine Feathering Oil brushes, with a
one-stroke (rm stroke, out of the box settings)
application on top and three strokes on the
bottom. The next two columns take those same
four patches and smudge them together with
the Smudge tool, using strokes that pull the darks
into the lights. The last two columns use the same
strokes and this time pulls the lights into the darks.
This highlights the latitude you have to work with
on a simple technique for very different results
with the simplest means possible.
Thunder colours
Watercolor brush
The rst trio of values is excellent for making thunderheads lit by an

orange sun. The second works well for painting the more typically
lit looming thunderclouds. The third is great for painting the lighter,
more washed-out values of a thunderstorm on the horizon.
The easiest Watercolor brush to handle for

painting clouds is the new simple Water Digital,
used in this picture exclusive of any other brush.
56
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Use perspective
Art study
Use strokes that

follow contours
LIGHT SOURCE
How to paint clouds
THINK R OUND
Step-by-step
01
02
Thunder clouds
Lets try to paint a massive
thunderhead, lit by a golden sun,
and maybe capture a bit of the
thrill associated with such a sight.
To get a nice dramatic effect, we
will start with a graded background
that is suggestive of heavy rainladen clouds. We will pick nice
complements to our background,
sticking with highlight, midtone
and dark values only. Our primary
modelling tools will be the versatile
Oil Glazing Round brush paired
with the Smudge tool.
Take the Feathering Oils 30 and loosely paint

in the rough shape of the leading edge, anvilshaped top and bottom of the cloud using the
darkest value. Blend fairly smoothly with the
Smudge tool set to 30. Add a more detailed edge
with the Detail Oil Brush 10, and feather back into
the mass with the Smudge tool.
03
Use the Oil Glazing

Round 30 loaded with
middle value to paint in
the strokes, beginning
at the edge and pulling
away. Modelling is
easier the more gradual
it is. Use the Smudge
tool to blend into the
darker tone loosely.
Repeat all this, starting
your stroke further back
from the edge.
04
Tones
Light
Middle
Dark
Take the Glazing Round and, using a circular stroke, create the
diameter of each puff you wish to represent. Begin painting in
the lightest value, this time starting a bit further from the edge
of the cloud than the last midtone. Blend with the Smudge tool
and repeat the whole process again, as in the previous step. Try
to leave only two or three areas of highlight, and keep in mind
the shape of the cloud as you model.
Start the next line of contours just behind the rst, using the
same method as in the rst step. Be careful to be spontaneous
and irregular in your drawing. Repeat the processes in the second
and third steps as well, tying the ends of each line in with the
base and top loosely. Each successive band is then painted in
using the same method. The wicked little cloud in front lends
some sense of scale and a bit of depth.
57
18/10/07 16:32:16
Art study How to paint clouds
Use the Glaze brush to lay

down the colour
LIGHT SOURCE
Cirrus and stratus clouds
The light clouds we will now be looking at are the high-flying cirrus
and the low-hanging stratus, two very common types of clouds with
distinct shapes. Cirrus clouds are very thin and wispy, and a couple
of values and the Glazing brushes combined with a Smudge tool will
represent them nicely. Stratus clouds, on the other hand, can be as
defined as any other cloud in places, so all three values will be needed,
and a bit more attention must be paid to their edges as well.
02
Step-by-step
Tones
Dark
Middle
Light
Smudge the three

values together
Copy the background

onto itself and paint
on the second layer.
Grab a Fine Feathering
Oil 30 loaded with the
middle value. Paint
long thin parallel lines
of uneven thickness.
Then, with an Eraser
sized to 20, erase
around the edges of
the clouds to ne-tune
their shapes.
03
Go back over the rst three or four clouds

with the Glazing Round 30 and add a bit more
highlight in areas that may have attened during
blending. Take a very large Smudge tool (around
100) and gently blend the furthest clouds into the
canvas a bit. It pays to squint while doing this, as
the effect is easier to judge that way.
01
After merging down, grab a Glazing Round 20 and some of the darkest value,
and paint the bottom of the clouds using light, long strokes. Then, using the
same brush, paint the lightest value just inside the top edge in skittery strokes
along the length of the rst several clouds. Use a Smudge tool with Size set
to 25 to lightly blend all the values together. Stay gestural and loose to keep
things looking natural.
04
Cirrus clouds often appear in different forms at the same

time. Here we will begin with some very faint clouds in the
background. With a Glazing Round 20 and the middle value,
paint in some sweeping shapes very lightly. Then, with the large
Smudge tool, blend those strokes together with long strokes
that accent the gesture of the clouds. Try and make these clouds
pretty smooth.
05
Now, with the Glazing Round 30 and a bit more of the second
value, paint in a few bolder wisps. Accent them with touches
of the lightest value in several places that help the gesture.
Then, with the Smudge tool reduced to around 40, blend those
strokes into the background a bit, taking care to retain the
gesture while softening the strokes considerably.
58
18/10/07 16:32:59
Art study
Erase and smudge for

fluffy effects
How to paint clouds
Use the dark value for form
LIGHT SOURCE
Step-by-step
Cumulus clouds
These clouds have well-defined

shapes with a bunch of detail, so we
will use a nice assortment of goodies
painting them. We will split time
between the Fine Feathering Oil and
the Glazing Round, with our trusty
Smudge tool as our blender. We
will use the same three values as in
the facing page and rely on technique
to create many more.
03
Grab the Fine Feathering Oil 30, this time loaded

with the middle value. Staying within the edges
and using curved strokes to suggest form, lay in
the sides of the clouds, bearing in mind to use a
single light source (this time in front and above) to
determine lighting. Use the Smudge tool to blend
the edges between the two values together.
01
Copy the background onto itself and paint on the second

layer. Using the Glazing Round 20 and the middle value,
draw in the shapes of the clouds. A typical cumulus is atbottomed, puffy on top and usually separated from one
another a bit. The top clouds are closer and therefore larger,
as well as a bit more spread out. Take the Smudge tool at
44 and loosely blend the clouds into the sky.
02
Using the Fine Feathering Oils 30 loaded with the darkest value,
paint in about two thirds of the bottom of the clouds. Be gestural,
and dont bother too much with the edges. Then, using the basic
Eraser set to about a size of 20, establish the edges of the clouds
by erasing to create lively, varied edges. When everything looks
good and harmonious, merge the layer down.
04
Next well switch to the Glazing Round 30 and an even lighter touch when
using the lightest value, as very little extra is too much. Staying well inside
the edges, add highlights in areas that the light source suggests would be
catching the most light. Use curved directional strokes to help with creating
both gesture and rhythm. Blend the highlights a bit into the rest using the
Smudge tool.
05
Using the Detail Oil Brush 15 and the middle

value, redraw any upper edges that need it. Use
the Smudge tool with circular strokes to drag the
lighter values into the new edges. Blend them
into the cloud body. Resize the Smudge tool to
20 and pull some wisps from each cloud base.
59
18/10/07 16:33:37
Tutorial Create fantasy adventures
60
060-065_OPM_10-panda.indd 60
18/10/07 16:57:53
Sam Gilb ey shows you how to
Tutorial
Create fantasy
adventures
Create fantasy adventures
Capture the magic and innocence of an animated

film by using the Airbrush and Acrylic brushes to
create a dazzling illustration
Tutorial info
Artist
Sam Gilbey
Time needed
Three hours
Skill level
Intermediate
nspiration can come from any

source and at any time. Maybe a
recent holiday has inspired you
to try a landscape scene, or an old
photo has pushed you into trying your
hand at a traditional portrait. Everyday
we are bombarded by images, sights and
sounds that can be turned into amazing
artwork.
One of the richest source of inspiration
has to be ilm, since they contain so
many visual scenes as well as moods
and emotions to form a feast for the
imagination. Animated ilms are
particularly rich in ideas, especially from
Hayao Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli, such as
Spirited Away, or Kikis Delivery Service.
These surreal worlds are bursting with
creative possibilities and have fuelled the
creation of this scene. Weve taken the
common theme of a young protagonist
travelling with a creature into a different
land. The colours are in keeping with the

feel of the image and although you cant
see the faces, theres a sense of friendship
and warmth.
I have taken a sketch as the starting
point here, although you can trace around
a photo or even assemble photos ready for
cloning. The process begins by applying
layers of colour using the Airbrush, which
can be used as the undercoat. For the
detail I turn to Acrylic brushes, as these
give a wonderfully soft feel while still
allowing small elements to be worked on.
To inish, I will go into Photoshop to
add ireworks and boost the colours. By
all means stay within the Corel Painter
interface if you prefer this is just an
example of how I work.
So settle down and see how I created
this animated ilm-inspired painting.
Youll ind lots of tips for creating
interesting illustrations.
Sketchy start
Beginning with the initial idea
01 Sketchy details
I began by opening
up Corel Painter and loading the sketch I
had made. Open the Color Mixer, Tools and Layers
palettes, which are available from the Window
menu. Click on the arrow and create a new layer
at the top-right of the Layers palette. Select the
brush from the top-left of the Tools palette.
02 Choose the right brush
From the
Property bar, you need to choose a
brush category and an individual brush variant.
Select Pens from the rst drop-down menu, and
from the second, select the Smooth Ink Pen.
Towards the left of the Property bar, set Size to
two, and Opacity to 100 per cent.
61
18/10/07 16:58:29
Creating the outline and colour

Build the base layers on the sketch
03 The rst marks
At the bottom-left
of the window is a magnifying glass.
To the right of the slider, change the percentage
to 100 per cent. I clicked on the pair of binoculars
and dragged the red border so that I focused on
the girl. Click away from the red rectangle, and
make your rst black outlines around the gure.
Brushing up
Now you have got
this far, youll have
discovered a lot of
time can easily be
wasted changing back
and forth between
two or three different
brushes. Luckily,
those kind people
down at Corel have
thought about this,
and have provided
users with the Brush
Tracker. You can
access it from the
Window menu, and its
a handy little tool to
keep on your screen.
By using it, you can
change between your
most recent brushes
with ease, and it also
will prevent you from
forgetting the brush
you used the last time
you were in Painter.
04 Completing the outline
When it comes to objects such as

the panda, dont draw the outline as a single, solid stroke. Instead,
make lots of small marks to give the impression of furry edges. Theres no
need to draw in the individual blades of grass though, as these will be painted
in later. Just follow the basic contour of the terrain to create an initial outline.
06 Under a at blue sky
Create a new layer and call it sky. Now

select the brush again and go to Acrylics, and choose the Wet Detail
Brush 5. Set the Resat to over 50 per cent and the Size to 130. With a navy
blue, paint in the sky with one solid colour.
08
Before you move

on, save the Painter le (RIF format)
to your own machine. Go to the bottom layer,
choose Select>All and delete the sketch from
the layer. This will leave a nice clean digital ink
drawing from which you can start building up
your illustration.
07 Building up the base colours
I created additional new layers

called hills, town and hill, and lled those in with base colours.
Its important that you use midtones for these areas, so that when you add
textures later you can build up the highlights and shadows. Pick a warm
slate grey for the hills, a grey blue for the town, and an earthy green for the
foreground hill.
10 Painting panda fur
Create the grass We want the
foreground hill to become lighter the

closer it gets. Set the Resat to three per cent
and in the Layers palette, make sure the Pick Up
Underlying Color box is ticked. Your brush size
should be 25. Paint downwards out of the dark
green to take the dark paint with you. Paint up
from the white to lighten. Pick colours from the
blend and build up a chunky, soft texture.
05 Making that save
09 Rening the grass
These marks
are too chunky to be blades of grass, so
add more detail. Reduce the brush size to ve and
add some midtoned blades towards the back of
the hill. Working forwards, increase the brush size,
and lighten the tone.
Create a
new layer called panda, and put the
Resaturation back up on the Acrylic brush you
are using. Paint in the at two tones of his fur. We
want a much richer texture for one of our main
characters, so choose the F-X brush category from
the Property bar and select Furry Brush as the
variant. With the Opacity below 20 per cent and
varying the brush size, colour and tone, give the
Panda a healthy coat of fur.
62
18/10/07 16:58:56
On a new layer
called girl, add basic colouring to the main
character. Set a high Resat level for the black of
the hair and shoes, or else the tone wont quite
be black. Set the Resat back down to about three
per cent to add some shape to the clothes. Use a
smaller version of the Furry Brush for her rucksack.
12 Bringing the town to life
In the town
layer, use the Acrylic Wet Detail Brush 5
and start to paint in some small yellow and orange
lights, with the brightest ones following a grid
layout. Adjust the Opacity, Size and Resat levels as
you go, to build up a shimmering backdrop. Put
some softer lights within the grid shapes.
13 Extra lights and colours
As well as
the small orange and yellow lights, the
town needs to show a bit more vitality. Add some
red and blue lights too, but then increase the
brush size to around 50, and set the Opacity really
low to add some lighter, broad highlights. This
pushes the town back a little and softens it.
Adding the scenery

Refining details for added realism
14 Add shading to the hills
With the
same brush, select the hills layer and paint
in some broad strokes so that the blue of the town
layer fades into the slate grey of the hills. Select
some darker tones to give the hills more denition,
and then some smaller, lighter tones towards the
top of the hills.
17 Bring the ower to life
15 Adding clouds to the sky
Return to
the sky layer, and using the Wet Detail
brush, add some heavy clouds. Use a light blue
for a break in the clouds, and use a large brush to
mark out the changes in tone. Gradually make the
brush smaller, smudging the tones to build subtle,
soft detail.
We will now work above the ink outline

layer. Create a new layer at the top, and call it ower. Set the Size
to ten, and bring shape and various tonal styles to the petals. Make the Soft
Airbrush 30 a Size 2.5 and with a dark grey, give the ower some crisp edges.
In this tutorial weve

been able to use a few
of the brushes that are
supplied with Painter,
and make some
simple adjustments
with the options on
the Property bar. But
sometimes you will
require something
different, and thats
where the Brush
Creator comes in. Go
to Window>Brush
Creator to reveal it.
There are so many
options here that
it can be a little
overwhelming at first,
but its worth getting
to grips with. As well
as being able to adjust
the Size, Grain, and
Opacity of the brush,
the Randomizer and
Transposer options
are useful. The
Randomizer creates
random alternatives
of the current brush,
you control how
extreme you want
it to change. The
Transposer combines
the properties of
two brushes.
11 A colourful character
Tutorial
Brush
creation
in Painter
16 The owers on the hill
Add a new
layer beneath the ink outline called
ower. Using a pastel grey/purple, paint in
the main ower on the left-hand side of the
foreground, but also add several specks of colour
over the rest of the grass. Vary the brightness of
the marks as you go.
18 Add some highlights to the panda
On a new panda layer

above the ink outlines, use the Furry Brush you used previously to
cover the ink outlines. Then with the Soft Airbrush set to a low Opacity, paint
some blue highlights to the left-hand side of the panda. Then use the Acrylic
brush with a low Resaturation to add a furry edge to these highlights. Do the
same for the other side, this time with pale oranges.
63
18/10/07 16:59:18
Creating striking detail

Bringing prominence to the picture
19 Shade the girl
Use the Acrylic brush

to add some shadows and highlights to
the esh and clothing of the girl, and blend them
into each other as you go along. Next, select the
Soft Airbrush and make the outlines sharper. Then
simply add highlights to the right-hand edge of the
pleats in the skirt.
Mixing
colours
in Painter
A lot of the
satisfaction you will
get from Painter
comes from the way
that it really does
mimic traditional
media very well
without all the mess,
of course. A great
example of this is
the Mixer. As youll
find, it works just like
an artists palette.
You can paint some
different colours onto
the mini canvas, which
doubles up as a little
practice/test area,
and use the Palette
Knife to smudge them
together to find the
perfect tone.
22
20 Shade the hair and rucksack
We dont want the hair to

look at, so apply the Acrylic brush weve been using. Set its Size to
around ve and use it to add various brown tones to the hair and make it nice
and shiny. To match the lighting on the panda, add pale blue highlights to the
left-hand side, and a pale orange one to the right. Use the same techniques
you used on the big panda, but with smaller brushes, to add highlights to the
panda rucksack.
Chalk up the hills Create a new layer above the ower and panda
highlight layers and paint grass strokes to overlay these elements. For
the hills, select Pastels>Artist Pastel Chalk as the brush variant. With Opacity
below 20 per cent, use various sizes to add marks to the hills and streetlights.
21 Grass, lots of grass
At this stage
I created a new layer called grass
immediately above the ink outline layer. Using
the same method as before, add dozens of new
blades of grass. Vary the tones, and increase the
size of the brush and length of the blades the
closer you get to the foreground.
23 Additional outlines
While our original black outlines were a little

harsh and we dont need outlines everywhere, our main characters
do need a little more denition. Use a thin Soft Airbrush to add extra black
outlines. For the panda, again use short, tight strokes to represent the fur,
rather than continuous lines.
25 Adjusting
the colours
24 From Painter to Photoshop
Zoom out of your image if you have

not already and take a look at the whole piece.
Now is the time to make any improvements or
add any additional details (like eyes on the panda
backpack) using the techniques weve used so
far. When youre ready, make a nal save of your
Painter le. Then go to Save>Save As and save
your piece as a PSD le. Make sure that Color
Space is set to RGB.
Boot up Photoshop
and open the new
PSD le you have just
created with your
layers intact. Select
the main ower layer
above the ink outline
(the one with all the
details) and go to
Image>Adjustments>
Replace Color. Select
the main midtone
purple of the ower
and increase the Hue
by around 50 with
the Fuzziness value at
around 120.
64
18/10/07 16:59:42
Create a
new layer named
reworks. Select the
Brush tool and a softedged tip of about 20
pixels from the default
brush set. Open the
Brushes tab to the topright of the Options
palette, and turn on
Scattering. Drag the
scattering slider to
approximately 300
per cent. Check the
Dual Brush box and
select the brush with a
diameter of nine. This
masks the scattering
within a smaller brush.
With the sky

layer selected, go
to Layer>Layer
Style>Gradient
Overlay. Set the Blend
Mode to Color and
with the angle at
90 degrees, apply a
gradient that fades
from white at the
top (which in this
blending mode fades
to black effectively)
into a pastel pink.
This provides a much
better contrast with
the main characters.
Tutorial
26
27 Fireworks
A change
to the sky
Fireworks display
This pandas one animal that doesnt go berserk at fireworks!
28 Lights in the sky
Use your new

brush to paint the arcs of a rework
spreading out from a central point. Go to
Layer>Layer Styles and apply an Outer Glow to
the layer. The Blend mode should be set to Screen,
the Opacity should be 100 per cent, the Spread
should be two per cent and the Size around 20px.
Go to Filter>Blur>Radial Blur and apply to the
rework, ensuring the Blur centre is as close to the
centre of the rework as possible.
31
Smudging the sparks Select the
Smudge tool. Set the Strength to 100 per

cent and the Size to 12. With a soft-edged brush,
drag the sparks out to enhance the explosive
effect. Create a new layer beneath and using
a white Scattering brush without a Dual Brush
effect, add extra particles at the reworks centre.
29 Round rework
With the same

Sparkly brush, select a red colour this
time. Start painting a rework with a more
circular shape and with smaller sparks that
radiate out from the centre. Because the brush
scattering misses out different areas with each
stroke, youll need to build the shape up with
overlapping strokes.
32 Mini reworks
With a smaller version

of the Scattering Dual brush youve been
using, create a new layer for some small white
reworks. Make these ones more like sparklers,
with short sparks radiating out from their centres.
As before, add an Outer Glow to the layer, this
time with a bright yellow. Create four or ve of
these across the sky.
30 A radial gradient
Go to Layer>Layer Style and apply a Gradient

Overlay to the new rework. Set the Style to Radial so that you can
set the centre of the rework to white, and the outer edges to red. Youll also
need to apply an Outer Glow in a red or pink tone.
33 The nal nishing points
Theres not really a limit to the

amount or type of reworks you can add, so continue lling the sky
with your own creations. Youll get a great effect by duplicating the rework
layers you create, and slightly rotating them a few times. This really increases
the brightness and therefore the overall effect. Also use a layer with an Outer
Glow style to add some extra bright lights in the town.
65
18/10/07 17:07:23
showcase
ANNE POGODA
TITLE
WEBSITE
JOB TITLE
Gothic Girl
www.darktownart.de
Digital artist
Annes work has often caught our eye on the

magazine website, and this image is our favourite. Her
use of colours and texture is perfect and the smooth
skin is sublime. See more of Anne in a future issue, as
she will be writing us a tutorial!
066_OPM_10_artspread.indd 66
19/10/07 13:00:34
Drawing 101 A guide to mark-making
A guide to
mark-making
For perfect pictures, you need to pick the right marks for the job.
Read on for a guide to what works well when drawing a great sketch
PARALLEL HATCHING
TONAL SHADING
DIRECTIONAINL G
MA R K-MA K
CR OSS HATCH
Drawing
reference
photos
GO TO
www
morgue. le
.
com
esigners and artists are

constantly being challenged
to become more sophisticated
and creative in their approach
to grabbing peoples attention, and it is
the way they use their tools, be it a pen,
brush or computer to create marks on
paper, that ensure their survival in this
high-speed world. The transference of
information and the viewers ability to
interpret that information are the two
key factors that make all types of art
and design successful. But they are on a
winner above writers; if a picture paints a
thousand words, thats a three-page essay
read in an instant, and if youll pardon
the pun, mark-making is the best way to

make your mark.
The suitability and readability of the
marks need to be completely appropriate
to get the message across. These pages
set out to enhance your understanding
and your awareness of the power of
your mark-making, and how it will make
others respond. We are going to expand
our own visual dictionary of marks we
can use to describe our subject. We are
going to think about marks in terms of
words; how can we ill the image with
information and details that the viewer
will read and understand clearly? This
takes a lot of empathy and observation
on our part, choosing the right words for

an answer is just as hard as choosing the
right marks for an image.
But this isnt as esoteric as it might
sound. There are tried and tested
methods for which marks convey what
effect some are good for shadow, for
example, or theres the perfect mark for
fur. Using the correct marks for the job
will give your drawings that stamp of
authenticity. Were looking at the major
ones here, along with what they are
suitable for.
The reference photos weve used come
from MorgueFile (www.morgueile.
com), but you can practise on anything.
68
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18/10/07 16:48:29
Drawing 101
Your mark options

The best marks for the job
CROSS-HATCHING
DIRECTIONAL MARKS
Cross-hatching is the fail-safe mark within markmaking; it covers all evils, flaws and errors. You can
count on it when you arent quite sure what mark to
use. It can be very effective for furry or fluffy objects.
Directional shading is a very expressive type of markmaking, a representation of which way and length
you feel the mark should be made. It is great for fur
and vegetation, such as grassy tufts and tussocks.
PARALLEL-HATCHING
DOTTING
SMOOTH SHADING
Parallel-hatching is really a response from you as you

react to the object in front of you. Look carefully at
the surface; do the grains or hairs or cells all go in one
particular way? We used it effectively for describing
the grain in wood; da Vinci used it to suggest the sky
in about two seconds flat.
You can use dots to describe shadows as they

graduate away in the same way as cross-hatching.
The emphasis is not so much on pressure and
meaning, but size, tool and repetition. A sharp pencil
creates a tiny delicate dot; oil pastel creates a stodgy,
meaty one.
Smooth shading everyones mark-making nemesis!

The temptation to scribble can be overwhelming. Our
tip to create smooth shading and avoid stripes at all
costs is to use a B lead on its side. Shade with an even
pressure, in circles, to avoid stripes. This is very good
for metal or shiny, smooth objects with a flat texture.
TONAL RENDERING
CASUAL STROKES
Tonal rendering is the epic means of creating subtle

tones and shadows on flat or smooth surfaces. Use
the pencil as above, but apply pressure for added
depth and take the pressure off to lighten it. Always
shade at the same speed.
Casual strokes are the marks used to describe, in the

simplest terms, the maximum information as fast as
possible. Van Gogh casually marked out the clouds in
his drawings. Its perfect for working drawings and
thumbnail sketches from imagination or reality.
A guide to mark-making
All marks are dependant on pressure

(how hard you press it into the page),
softness (what H or B the lead of your
pencil is) and expression (what is the
meaning of the mark? Is it a light crosshatch to suggest a light shadow on a face,
or is it a harsh, brash, speedily drawn
cross-hatch that suggests movement,
speed or darkness?). These will vary
drastically as you might want to portray
anything from smoothness, wetness
or lufiness. While a lot is left to what
mood you want to convey, there are some
tried and tested marks that always work
wonders. Here are the best:
CIRCULAR STROKES OR CONTOURS

Circular strokes are best employed for watery or
moving objects, or if the object itself is circular in
nature; curly hair or wool for example. They can
convey three dimensions quite beautifully too. If you
are looking at a posture or a pot, a spiral description
can be very effective.
69
18/10/07 16:50:49
Drawing 101 A guide to mark-making
Contour strokes
MorgueFile ref. no.

11432
Notice that the swirls are contours like you would find in a tree trunk,
concentric circles that follow the form of the shape of each block
hen you watch water sparkle
and move continually, the big
abstract shapes and blocks
of colour that undulate harmoniously
together merge with soft and hard lines.
We chose to use curvaceous contour
lines that deine those emergent shapes with

deinition. This is not a luffy texture, it needs
structure, which is odd for something so
formless. Shading these shapes accurately
and observing their jigsaw-piece snugness
are your keys to success.
STAGE 2
STAGE 1
A LIGHT LAYER OF SHAPES
SETTING UP THE COMPOSITION
First of all you need to break down the picture space loosely,
but with care, sweeping light H pencil lines across the paper
to represent the major sections of the image. Consider areas
of light or chunks of dark.
Continue to use your H pencil to lay out the outlines of the

main shapes that the water makes. As this is a light layer,
it gives you a great amount of room to manoeuvre, the
flexibility to make mistakes and to estimate how the final
image will play out.
STAGE 3
A SECOND LAYER OF SHAPES
Use the depth of a B pencil to add some tonal variations. Keep

in mind the areas at the back which are going to demand more
darkness and the front areas which need a lighter swirling
description. Use a 4B or 5B pencil for the real depths of
darkness and an HB will do for the swirls in the foreground.
Tonal rendering
MorgueFile ref. no.

40411
Use your magical powers of observation to really look at how the

highlights create form and the shadows create depth
mooth, lat, almost textureless
objects such as those made of metal
can often be the most demanding
in terms of precision and control. Because
the surface is lawless and smooth, all
scribbles and any out-of-place marks are
to be avoided at all costs. The perfect marks

can be made with either tonal rendering
or a graduated shading. By following the
technique below, you can simulate the subtle
variations of the shadows as they merge
and overlap.
STAGE 1
SETTING OUT THE COMPOSITION AND

REAFFIRMING IT
This image is basically a composition of circles along a series

of lines; map this out with gestural lines and shapes in an H
pencil. Go over it carefully to confirm where and what size
each circle is, and ensure that all they all relate accurately.
STAGE 2
IDENTIFYING THE TONAL

DIFFERENCES ON THE IMAGE
Now you are ready to plot the areas of the greatest or least
area of tone. Pay real attention and familiarise yourself with
all the lights and shadows. Scribble in a layer of expressive
directional-hatching to identify them.
STAGE 3
SHOWING OFF YOUR AMAZING POWERS

OF OBSERVATION
Now gird up your loins to get down to the nitty-gritty. Apply
the correct amount of pressure and choose the appropriate
weight of lead to create the shadow you want. A blunt edge
and the side of your pencil will create smooth shadows.
70
19/10/07 14:46:21
Directional shading
MorgueFile ref. no
.133132
Drawing 101
Nature produces some of the most beautiful patterns in the world, so

grab your pencil and draw them
pressure to modulate these in order to
express and describe the shape and shadows
that the grains and cracks create. Careful
observation and analysis of the texture is
equal in importance to really nail down the
image accurately.
STAGE 1
STAGE 2
CORRECTING AND IDENTIFYING

MAJOR RELATIONSHIPS
SETTING UP THE COMPOSITION
Break up the blank paper with a brisk and expressive

drawing of the main players of your piece. Use an H pencil to
freely describe how the pattern flows across the page.
Build up layers of pattern and swirling shapes and add detail

where necessary. Correct and tweak with care and accuracy
the spatial relationships between the curves and curls in
the grain.
A guide to mark-making
he grainy molecular nature of

wood is perfect for exploring
marks made in speciic directions.
The layers and rings and whorls in the
wood form repetitive patterns in clear
directions. Vary your pencil and the
STAGE 3
DIRECTIONAL SHADING
On this H pencil skeleton, build up the flesh of your image with

short, stubby lines that follow the flow of the grain. Work out
how they flow together and use a pencil with more depth (4B)
to accentuate the cracks and directions the grain takes. This
will add substance and excitement to your finished image.
Cross-hatching
MorgueFile ref. no.42215
Go to town with your pencil and marvel in the glory of folds, and the
fantastic tonal variation that they provide
he most fun and satisfying things
to draw in our opinion are folds.
Folds in anything; clothes, skin,
paper. The method is almost exactly the
same for each. We generally use crosshatching, just because it does the job
perfectly well, though you can use curvy lines

or contour lines to create a certain effect, or
even straight lines to contrast with the low
of the line. But for observational purposes
and serious drawing, cross-hatching works
like a charm.
STAGE 1
SKETCHING THE OUTLINES
Sketch in lightly with an H pencil the main outlines of

folds, creases and curves of importance; be gestural and
expressive to ensure you get a feel for the movement of the
fabric. Then briefly and lightly fill in the areas of shadow so
you have a foundation to work on.
STAGE 2
THE FIRST LAYER APPLIED
Now you can really get to grips with a carefully considered

layer of light H pencil that you can thoroughly cross-hatch.
First follow the curve of the fold with one direction of crosshatching, and then give it a second layer heading in the
opposite direction.
STAGE 3
THE HIGHLIGHTS AND DEPTHS
Finally, and most rewarding, use a 2B pencil to define the

shadows and highlights quite beautifully. You are definitely
allowed to scribble and build up additional layers in the
depths of shadows, but do vary the pressure and speed at
which you cross-hatch so you create delicate hatching too.
71
18/10/07 16:52:04
JAKUB KUJAWA
TITLE
WEBSITE
JOB TITLE
Red Dragon Chase

http://kujawa-art.com
Concept art designer
Kujawas work is a joy to look at, with lovely brush
work and dark, brooding colours. His characters
and scenes are perfect for inspiring any fantasy
artists, while painters can enjoy the technique and
application of his strokes.
072-073_OPM_10.indd 72
19/10/07 12:58:59
showcase
072-073_OPM_10.indd 73
19/10/07 12:59:19
Your
questions answered
Your experts
Cat Bounds
Cat is a much-loved
member of our magazine
website and shes been
kind enough to share her
vast knowledge of art
techniques and how to
achieve them in Painter
Chris Price
Chris Price is an artist

with specialities in digital
fine and commercial art.
Through his company,
Studio|chris, he shares
his knowledge of digitally
created art online
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
Fine art
When it comes
to creating art, you often find
little niggles that ruin your
masterpiece. We sort them out
Illustration
Make sure
your illustrations are in top form
by following our advice
Send in your queries to

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
Brush Tracking
I want to get the best from my
brush work and wondered how the
Brush Tracking palette works?
D MF
It helps to set up Brush Tracking before
beginning any painting, especially
watercolours, because it increases
the expressiveness in your brushes, resulting
in smoother strokes. Painter interprets the
input of the stylus, relating to pressure and
how quickly we make brushstrokes. From the
Preferences menu, choose Brush Tracking
and make a representative brushstroke on the
scratch pad. Notice the changing positions
of the four sliders. If youre planning to
incorporate both light and heavy pressure, and
to paint quick and fast brushstrokes, make one
brushstroke in the window that includes all
of these factors, then click OK. Any time your
brush isnt behaving as you would like it to, you
might want to go back to Brush Tracking and
experiment with the speed and pressure of
your strokes.
Project mayhem
The brushes in my Painter Brushes
folder are all in alphabetical order,
but inside Painter, when I open the
Brush Category, theyre all jumbled. How
can I put them in order there as well?
B B
Its a very good idea to arrange
your brush categories in an order
that works best for you. This is the
same as if you were painting in traditional
ABOVE
In this painting, to get
soft, flowing strokes, we
opened the Brush Tracker
and made a heavy stroke
on the scratch pad. This,
combined with Brush
Control settings, resulted
in us being able to lay
down very transparent
watercolour layers.
LEFT
You may also want to hide
some categories that you
rarely use by de-selecting
the eye icon. This will
shorten the list of brushes
when you view them in
Painter, but theyre readily
available for when you
need them.
74
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18/10/07 18:18:14
First port of call

K W
Art class
It usually works best to paint the

background first because you can
begin layering brushstrokes and
colours with greater freedom, keeping in
mind where your foreground image will
be. If youre cloning an image, painting
the background first will also help in

simplifying the elements of your painting
because you can choose which ones
to recover as you paint. Occasionally,
however, you may paint the image first
when doing a watercolour if you plan
to paint the background around the
foreground image, but do this on
multiple empty layers so that you can
keep the paint transparent and tweak the
layers, trying out various Blending modes
and Opacities.
Q&A
Which is better, to begin

painting the background irst
or the main image?
media, where you would have your brushes

in familiar order and close at hand. To do
this, go to Window>Workspace>Customize
Workspace, and in the list of media in the left
window, choose the brush library in which
you wish to rearrange the categories by
clicking the plus sign. Your brush categories
will appear in the right window, and now
you can click-and-drag the brush category
names up or down the list, one at a time.
When finished, click the Done button to close
Customize Workspace; your brushes will now
load in the new order youve chosen.
Dynamic Plug-ins
Can you recommend any good
creative options in the Dynamic
Plug-ins menu?
a jungle
01 Itsin there
If we begin
with an original photo that
has cluttered elements like the
leaves of these irises, we dont
have to choose at this point
which ones we want to use,
but the size, crop, lighting and
composition are important
considerations now. (Photo by
photographer Dave Finley.)
J P
The Dynamic Plug-ins menu of the
Layers palette is full of creative and
very useful live plug-ins for Painter.
Along with fully non-destructive Brightness
and Contrast, Equalizing, Burn, and Posterize
effects for live colour adjustment, there are
some fun effects like Liquid Metal, Liquid Lens,
Image Slicer for web layouts, and the everinteresting Kaleidoscope effect.
Dynamic Plug-in layers work like any other
layer in Painter. To add a new Dynamic Plug-in
layer, click the Plug icon in the Layers palette
and choose your new layer type. After filling in
your preliminary settings, a new layer is created
and you can instantly see the layer at work on
your painting or drawing. Your preliminary
settings may be changed at any point without
affecting any structure to your main painting
by double-clicking on the layer in the Layers
palette. Heres an example of the Kaleidoscope
Dynamic Plug-in.
BELOW
The Kaleidoscope Dynamic
Plug-in slices your canvas
into eight triangular
sections and mirrors the
top-left triangle to each of
the other triangles. This
creates a kaleidoscopic
effect that can be used
on photos, or for a bit of
fun, can create beautiful
symmetrical patterns and
motifs as art itself or for
use in other paintings
02 Setting the stage
Weve used several layers

of colour and loose brushstrokes,
arranging them around the centre
since that is to be the focus of this
painting. At this point, you may
also want to determine your light
source and paint in lighter or darker
background areas accordingly.
Splashes of
03
lavender
and green
Once the image

begins to appear, there are
new decisions to be made
about those lost and found
edges, new colours to be
introduced, highlights, and
the movement, direction and
depth in our brushstrokes.
75
18/10/07 18:19:19
Q&A Art class
Dont work against the grain

Any advice for painting wood texture? I saw a
traditional artist paint on wood and would like to
try the same effect.
N G
A realistic wood texture can be made quickly and simply
with a little ingenuity. Most woods have the same
underlying structure, so this technique is versatile and
should be able to reproduce any type of wood needed with a few
tweaks in the colours, level of detail and texture.
01 Underlying
structure
Start by lling your

canvas with a warm
peach. Use the Pepper
Spray brush from the
Airbrushes category at
a large size to ll your
canvas with a darker
noise pattern. Then use
Motion Blur in the angle
of your nal desired
wood grain to transform
your noise into streaks.
02
Here is a composite of some Woodcut effects that can be created. This is part of a stone column, but the effects works
well on many subjects. Traditional woodcuts are often simplified but may also be very detailed
Woodcutter work
How do I get a good image with the
Woodcut effect? Enlighten me!
T B
Rening
texture
On a new layer set to

the Multiply composite
method, create your
noise pattern again.
Apply Motion Blur
now with a slightly
different angle to add
depth to your wood
grain. Create a new
layer, this time set to
the Overlay composite
method and repeat.
Taking
03
on the
nal dimension
For
the darker swirls created
by the trees rings,
choose Art Pen>Tapered
Gouache. On a new
layer, set to Multiply
again and paint your
swirls in the general
direction of your wood
grain. Adjust your layers
Opacity and apply the
Soften effect to set the
rings into the texture.
The Woodcut effect is useful for

creating woodcut or linoleum block
prints of photographs. You can save
preset Woodcut effects to apply to other
photographs or paintings by clicking Save
in the Woodcut dialog box and specifying a
preset name in the Save Preset dialog box. We
like to create several layers of duplicate images
and apply different Woodcut images to each
of them. Then we can combine using Blending
modes or discard layers that dont work for us.
Output Black uses the black part of the effect
in the final image. Disable this checkbox if you
want to use colour only in the final image. By
experimenting with the sliders, you achieve
subtle or dramatic effects, retain the colours in
the image, go black-and-white or incorporate
a new colour set. The best images to begin
with are those with defined areas of highlight
and shadow.
With the variety of Blenders available

in Corel Painter, it can sometimes be a
difficult task to find a specific Blender
that matches your painting style. There really
is not one specific Blender that can match all
styles of painting. Luckily, Corels developers
have made it very easy to transform any brush
into a Blender! This is especially useful when
painting with an obscure brush and you
just have to blend something and want to
maintain the style of your painting.
For oily, smeary brushes that use the Drip or
Plug-in Liquid brush methods or to apply paint
(Window>Brush Controls>General>Method
and Subcategory), simply change your Opacity
or Strength setting to 0 per cent. The brush
will no longer apply new colour. For those
brushes with a Grain setting, the Grain may
also be lowered to aid in blending. This is
especially useful for the Sargent brush from
the Artists brush category.
Blender mind-bender
Are any of the Blenders good for
all-purpose use or are they speciic
to certain brushes?
N G
76
18/10/07 18:20:22
Feeling edgy
Thats a good question and one that

doesnt have an answer thats carved in
01 Going over the edge
You can
see that the brushstrokes in this oil
painting go right up to the edge. We often
add a border before we begin to paint so
that we will have that extra room to crop
when its nished, and the brushstrokes ow
smoothly to the edges.
is applied. The edges may be taped, resulting in

sharp, clean edges, or the artist may paint soft,
drippy, splashy edges. Mostly its a matter of choice
or the artists own style. How the painting will be
framed may also figure into your choice of edges.
In a painting whose image contains a good deal of
unnecessary information around the edges, you may
decide to paint it anyway because your frame or mat
will cover it, and this gives you more leeway at the
end to decide just how much cropping to do.
Art class
S E
stone. We usually see oils and acrylics painted to

the edge of the canvas or to the edge that will be
wrapped around the stretcher bars. Chalks, pastels
and coloured pencils may also end at the edges of
the rough sheet of paper, or they may be vignetted
to a soft and painterly edge within those borders,
and the same holds true for watercolours. Often
the watercolour paper will be soaked in clear water
and stretched over a wooden frame to dry in order
to keep it from buckling when watercolour paint
Q&A
Im having dificulty in deciding how

to inish the edges of my paintings.
Are there differences in how the edges
of a watercolour, oil painting, or chalk/pastel
would be inished?
02 Painterly boundaries
A
watercolour edge where the paint drips
and runs transparently and irregularly onto the
white paper can be a beautiful element of the
painting. This technique requires a light touch and
some time to master in traditional as well as digital
painting.
03 A nishing touch
A neutral mat can draw attention to

a creatively uneven edge as in this pastel painting on blue
sandpaper, and its simply a matter of deciding where to stop the image
and nishing out with soft, wispy strokes.
Dont glaze over

Im new to Painter, and I was
wondering if you could tell me how
the Glazing brushes work?
L T
LEFT
To achieve the same
effect for brushes set to
the Cover method, which
is set for most of the
default brushes included
with Corel Painter, simply
lower your Resat setting
to 0 per cent to suppress
colour application, and
change your Bleed setting
somewhere in the range of
50-100 per cent. This will
cause colours to blend and
bleed together smoothly,
no matter your brush. Just
as with the Drip method
brushes, lowering the
Grain and Opacity settings
can lead to an easier, more
controlled blending action.
The Glazing brushes, found within the

Acrylics brush category, work similarly
to Painters Watercolor brushes, but
without the restriction of having to be used
on a watercolour layer. They add a transparent
layer of colour, known in traditional painting as
a glaze, to your image wherever applied. They
may be applied on either a layer or directly onto
the canvas layer. When on the canvas layer,
these brushes do not affect the paint below
them, and that means that they do not smudge
the structure of the paint below at all. The only
effect that occurs is a colour shift. As ever, you
lose nothing from painting in digital art, this
method is reminiscent of traditional art as a
wet layer would not mix when applied onto an
already-dry layer in traditional painting. They
are quite useful when only a small amount of
colour is needed.
77
18/10/07 18:21:42
Q&A Art class
Advice set in black and white

I know you dont see many black-andwhite paintings about, but are there any
tricks to painting in black and white?
R S
Working with black and white teaches us to
control the value structure of our paintings,
balance blacks, whites and greys and
master tonality and contrast, making our paintings
wonderfully readable. Many artists make preliminary

sketches in black and white to serve as maps for
shadows and highlights before they proceed to
paint the image with colour, but a finished blackand-white painting can be very powerful, partially
due to our associations with white as the essence
of light, goodness, innocence, purity and all things
positive while we often equate pure black with
mystery, evil, death, formality, the unknown and
grief. We need to create shades of grey to bridge the

gulf between black and white, and this is easily done
in the Color and Mixing palettes in Painter. You will
find a colour set in your Support Files>Color Sets
folder called Grayscale Colors thats also very useful.
Though were told black and white are not true
colours, they are considered neutral, achromatic, or
possibly the most striking of complementary colour
schemes available to an artist.
01 Gathering light and shadow
This
is a relatively easy colour set to create
as we select a colour on the Saturation/Value
Triangle by dragging the circle between black on
one end and white on the other and playing with
them in the Mixer palette, saving them as we go.
02 A closer look
From a distance, this

painting of a pair of old shoes
reads primarily as black-andwhite, but in detail we can
distinguish quite a wide range
of greys that bridge the gap
and softens the look of it.
light on
03 New
old shoes
The
end result is one that will
be noticed hanging on the
wall. Our eyes are used to
seeing images described
with colour. When colour
is absent, the part of our
brain that discerns shapes
becomes interested.
78
18/10/07 18:22:39
How does the Pen tool work in Painter? Im

inding it one of the trickiest tools to master.
A N
R H
General Brush Control

Im a bit confused about the options
available in the General Brush Control
palette which are the most useful?
S D
The most useful Brush Control options
vary with each artist, but its helpful to
have these palettes showing in your
workspace for ease in changing settings on the
fly, and in time youll have developed preferences
and favourite options. However, here are a few of
our personal favourites.
Even though there is an Impasto brush
category, many of the others can be given
impasto depth by changing the setting in the
Art class
The Pen that keeps on rollin
Whats a good way of producing a

vignette frame on an image? I really
think it will inish the piece perfectly.
There are several ways to create a

vignette around an image in Painter.
We chose this 1,700 x 1,300-pixel
image of four-year-old Ian taking off his boots
as an example. First, go to the toolbox, choose
the Oval Selection tool and drag to make your
selection. You can reposition and adjust the
size in the next step. Now choose the Selection
Adjuster tool in the toolbox to move the selection
or pull on one of the corner handles. In order to
fade the edge gradually, go to Select>Feather
and type in a number. We used 50 for this one;
you may want to experiment. Next reverse your
selection by choosing Select>Invert; now choose
Edit>Clear to delete the background, leaving a
soft transition into the white border. A vignette
draws attention to an image and gives it a feeling
of timelessness.
Q&A
Vignette fretting
The Pen tool creates vector shapes using Bzier curves

and lines with control points and control handles. Tricky
it may be, but it is also a vital tool to many illustrators.
One good use of the Pen tool is to create inked lines from a
sketch to create cell-style shading for animated characters.
The
01
beginning
sketch
Start by
opening a scanned
drawing or creating
a quick sketch to
guide your Pen tool
experience. The sketch
does not need to be
clean or rened; that is
what the Pen tool is for!
ABOVE
This photo was taken off-centre, with Ian at the edge,
so we began by cloning in some leaves and grass to fill
it out and leave room for our selection. Afterwards, we
cropped to centre it again
Impasto Brush Control palette where you can

paint with Color Only, Depth Only, or Depth
And Color.
One of the most interesting palettes is
Color Expression, and we often switch to
Direction in order to give our brushes the
ability to paint in two colours, depending on
the direction of the stroke.
Whenever a brush is behaving badly, the
first place to check is in the Spacing palette.
By making slight changes in the sliders here,
we can create a lot of brush variants.
02 Outlines
Start with
a circular area. Clickand-drag your mouse
to the left from the top
of your circular object.
Move to the opposite
side and click-and-drag
once more to the left.
Select your original
control point and drag
to the right. Keep
going until youve
outlined your sketch.
ne and
03 Re
ll
ABOVE
Brushes are the life force of Painter; the better we
understand its intricacies, the better digital artists we
become. Try variations in the Brush Control palette
theres always the Restore Default Variant option
To rene
your shapes, the Shape
Selection tool may be
used to move control
points and handles until
youre happy. Fill your
Pen-drawn shapes with
colour as you would any
other shape. To colour
your shapes, doubleclick the Shape layer
created with your shape,
check the Fill checkbox
and choose a colour.
79
18/10/07 18:23:32
Using the
products
Wacoms Ba
Discover some of the best products

out there to extend and improve
your Corel Painter experience
The creative products on test this issue
Wacom Bamboo
fun tablet
Its small size yet full feature-set
could make this the perfect entrylevel tablet. We see whether its
all it promises to be
olympus [mju:] 820
Book reviews
OUTPUT
Its waterproof, has a 5x optical

zoom and boasts 8MP, all in a
compact and sturdy case. We
took it for a test drive to see how
it performed in the field
We settled down and read

through the latest offerings
of creative titles that promise
information and inspiration
beyond your wildest dreams!
We took a look at the Memories

On Linen company, which offers
professional printing options at
a very affordable price. See what
products they offer
Reviews
m
Fun tablet wa boo
s taken
for a spin to tu
autumnal pho rn this
to in
chalky paintin to a
g
81
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Reviews Wacom Bamboo Fun
Wacom Bamboo Fun

FROM 69.99 | Wacom adds another reason for you to be cheerful when
creating great digital art, with its stylish new graphics tablet
Touch Ring
f youre doing anything creative for any

length of time on your computer, you
really should think about getting a
graphics tablet. Armed with a digital
pen, not only can you make more subtle
artistic marks but also ease the wear and
tear associated with repetitive tasks such as
dragging a mouse across your desktop.
Although other tablets are available, Wacom
has established itself as an industry leader with
an award-winning selection for all budgets and
size requirements. However, Wacom continues
to reine and diversify its range of pen tablets
and interactive displays. The Bamboo tablet
range launched this year aims to attract those
not yet seduced by the thought of some mousefree action. New styling, colours and functions
such as the ability to unlock pen-based
features, including handwriting recognition in
Microsofts Word and Apples Ink, makes each
an attractive proposition.
The Bamboo Fun is a bit of a misdemeanour
as all Wacom tablets are essentially fun, even
to the novice user. So reassuringly intuitive,
the learning curve is as lat and smooth as
the tablet itself. Install the software and plug
in the USB-powered tablet and you are away.
Creative applications, typically photo-editing
software, really come to life when you can
manipulate your images with such controlled
precision. Draw a line and you can determine its
length and stroke with added inesse, giving a
subtle tone to even the broadest of strokes. The
pressure-sensitive pen beneits from 512 levels
of sensitivity. Nicely weighted and ergonomic,
its a pleasure to use, especially for any length
of time. Although you should still take regular
computer breaks, the scourge of repetitivestrain injury should be signiicantly eased.
Two separate pen buttons, one of which can
ExpressKeys
All white
Designed to give everything you
do on your computer a more
personal touch, the new Bamboo
Fun comes all in white, giving
the tablet, pen and stand an
attractive, contemporary look
be conigured as required, are a bonus while a

digital eraser, available at a lick of the wrist,
sits at the other end of your pen.
A new redesign in a contemporary, iPodlike white adds style to an already attractive
design. Wacom tablets werent always this
design-conscious so its good to see such a high
value placed on something youll be looking at
most days. Four programmable ExpressKeys
and a new Touch Ring, resembling a smiley

face, are positioned above the main active
area. Illuminated by a blue hue, the ring lights
up when the tablet is powered by the USB.
Functions like Cut, Copy, Paste and Undo can
be accessed via the ExpressKeys, potential
short-cuts for anyone wanting to limit keyboard
usage. These can be user-customised to make
the most of your creative applications or simply
Handwriting recognition
Get illuminated
For added effect, the Bamboo Fun Touch Ring is illuminated with a
subtle blue glow that stays active when the USB-powered tablet is
plugged in, reminding you to unplug the tablet when not in use
The new Bamboo range unlocks and

works with handwriting recognition,
inking and pen features found in Windows
Vista and Apple OS X, making your
creations much more personal to you
Take control
Open the control panel and you have
the ability to adjust ExpressKeys and
Touch Ring tablet settings to suit you
Pop-up Menu
To display the Pop-up Menu, assign a
tool button to it and when you press
that button, the menu is displayed
82
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18/10/07 15:45:13
Bamboo specs
Wacom Bamboo Fun

New design
On top of the new, iPod-style white
design, the Bamboo Fun comes
with a helpful one-on-one tutorial
Price
139.99 (medium),
69.99 (small)
Website
www.wacom.com/
wacombamboo
Operating systems
PC and Mac
PC requirements
Windows 2000, XP,

or Vista
Mac requirements
Mac OS X 10.3.9
Intel or PowerPC
Processor
Grip Pen
Work area
Customise pen settings
Good to go
A new detachment
USB cable ensures
your Bamboo Fun
is the ideal travel
companion to your
artistic endeavours on
the road
for money, both sizes come bundled with Adobe

Photoshop Elements 5 (Version 4 on a Mac) and
the ever-fun ArtRage 2.0, a cheap and cheerful
drawing program. Unlike earlier models in the
Wacom range, both sizes are suitable for widescreen monitors.
The pen-tablet control panel can be easily
accessed to adjust default settings. Here you can
customise speciic functions, adjusting pen and
eraser-feel for instance, to suit each application.
Although the presets will suit most, options
like the ability to map to multiple monitors
will be essential to the pro or experienced user.
Bamboo Fun carries a Microsoft certiication
of Certiied for Windows Vista that allows
you, with practice, to convert handwritten text
to type; useful if your keyboards skills arent
up to scratch. Vista can also convert sketches,
drawings and shapes into symbols, charts and
diagrams. Apple Mac users with Microsoft Word
can annotate documents, as well as have access
to Apples own Ink handwriting-recognition
technology. These new features further widen
the tablets appeal beyond artistic endeavours,
covering more mundane but vital daily
tasks. The Bamboo Fun, then, is all things to
everyone and Wacom can be applauded for this
tremendous new edition to its tablet range.
What we like
Responsive and
precise pen control
Stylish design
and ergonomic
Wacom-quality build
Another
winner to add
to the already
superlative
Wacom tablet
range
What we dont like
we say
be left alone. The Touch Ring has the potential

to make zooming in and out and scrolling easier.
Move your inger clockwise to zoom in on an
image or document, and counterclockwise to
zoom out.
The Bamboo Fun comes in two sizes. Small, at
69.99, with an overall tablet size of 210 x 194 x
11mm and active-area size of 148 x 92mm. The
medium, at 139.99, has an overall tablet size of
280 x 235 x 11mm and active area size of 217 x
135mm. If youre buying online and unseen, its
worth considering this, as small may just be too
small for some users. To add a little more value
Pen appeal
A new white pen matches the tablet and is designed for
comfort and reliability, offering users precise control and
512 levels of pressure sensitivity. The ergonomic design
provides a good supplement to mouse and keyboard input
Features
verdict
The Bamboo Fun is a misdemeanour as all Wacom tablets are

essentially fun, even to the novice user. So reassuringly intuitive,
the learning curve is as flat and smooth as the tablet itself
Select the Pen tab to change the functions assigned to

the buttons. Each pen button can be set for a variety of
functions, the pull-down menu enabling you to select the
function when pressing the upper or lower pen button
Too small for some

White shows up dirt
No bundled mouse
9.0
Ease of use
10.0
Quality of results
9.0
Value for money
8.0
Overall
score
9.0
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Reviews Olympus [mju:] 820
Olympus [mju:] 820

180 | The tough little compact that keeps you snapping whatever the
weather. Could this be the perfect holiday companion?
Menus
The attractive menu
system is accessed via
a main screen featuring
icons that open up submenus. These feature
large, easy-to-read text
and a simple design that
makes navigation and
changing settings a breeze
Camera menu
eneath the shiny metal casing of the

[mju:] 820, Olympus has packed in
a great set of features that is sure to
entice the entry-level user who likes to
weather the odd storm, or for those situations
when you dont want to risk your DSLR.
The stylish weatherproof exterior is available
in a choice of colours: Midnight Black, Starry
Silver, Ruby Red or Crystal Blue, which should
appeal to fashion-conscious snappers who like to
make a statement with their camera.
The shape of the body isnt exactly what wed
call ergonomic, but it is tapered to be wider at
the end where youre supposed to hold it, which
makes it a little easier to grip. The relatively small
dimensions of the [mju:] 820, coupled with the
large LCD size, means that the controls on the
back of the camera look a little cramped, with
no space to rest your thumb except on the mode
selection dial. On the positive side, the buttons
and four-way d-pad are raised enough to make
them fairly easy to operate, although those with
longer nails might ind they need to give them a
trim irst to avoid pressing more than one button
at a time.
The [mju:] 820 offers a customisable shooting
mode in which you can set the white balance,
ISO, AF and Drive Mode, or just leave everything
on its default settings. For those who prefer to
get on with shooting without worrying about
the technical details, the camera offers 20 scene

modes that cover everything from Sport and
Night Scene to Self Portrait and Fireworks. The
Scene Mode menu is really nicely set out, with a
list of icons down the left-hand side of the screen
for you to scroll through, which calls up a large
image illustrating the function of the mode. Wait
for a couple of seconds and the image shrinks to
a thumbnail, making room for an informative
explanation of that particular mode: how it works
and when its best to use it. This is an excellent
feature for complete beginners, and complements
the built-in Shooting Guide, which is accessed via
the GUIDE stop on the mode dial.
The Shooting Guide is basically an FAQ section
featuring 14 different scenarios for you to
choose from. Pick the scenario that most closely
matches your shooting situation and the camera
will display a list of suggested ixes or the most
appropriate shooting modes to suit. For example,
if you arent too sure about which white balance
setting to go for, you simply open the guide and
select Shoot W/ Effects Preview, then select
Colour Effects from the list provided. This results
in the screen being split into four, each with a
different setting displaying the results. This
allows you to directly see the effect of each setting
on the inal image, helping you to pick which one
works best. You can use this feature for a number
of other effects, from Zoom and Exposure Effects
LCD
The 2.7-inch HyperCrystal LCD
boasts BrightCapture Technology,
delivering a good deal of clarity for
shooting and playing back images,
as well as navigating the menus
Weatherproof
The cameras stylish metal body is
splash resistant and can withstand
water spray from any direction,
making it an ideal companion for
extreme users
Power button
Face Detection
Zoom in/out
control
White balance menu
The Face Detection feature keeps

focus and exposure locked onto
your subjects, while Shadow
Adjustment Technology ensures
correct exposure
Mode dial
Playback
Scene menu
Macro button
Smile shot
Menu button
Main screen
This ingenious little feature

automatically detects when your
subject or subjects are smiling and
takes a picture at that point: no
more glum-faced shots!
84
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Price
Metering options
Megapixels (effective)
Exposure modes
180 ESP, S
8 A, 20 scene modes,
Max resolution Panorama
3,264 x 2,488 34 scene modes
Lens data
Flash modes
Zoom
Connectivity
camera specs
Olympus [mju:] 820
f3.3-5.0 (36-180mm) A, RE, FI, Foff

5x opt, 5.6x dig USB, AV
Focus/Macro
Weight
70cm-inf/20cm 125g
(Macro), 3cm Dimension
(Super Macro) 6 x 56 x 24mm
Shutter speeds
Batteries
ISO sensitivity
Storage
4-1/2,000sec Li-ion
A, 50, 100, 200, 400, 47MB int, xD

800, 1600, 3200 LCD
2.7
Build design
The Olympus [mju:] 820 is a robust camera,
with that extra bonus of being waterproof
The scene modes lead to sharper, more vibrant shots, proving

that presets do work when applied to the right conditions
Versatile for different purposes
The camera also allows you to apply creative finishes to photos,
such as trying them out in a calender surrounding. Its good for
testing out different presentation ideas
What we like
What we dont like
we say
market, which appear to limit their zoom to 3x as

standard. You can boost this with the cameras
5.6x digital zoom, but obviously youll need to
weigh up the beneits of having a closer crop
against the decrease in image quality.
Overall, image quality is generally good,
although we found that bright conditions led to
washed-out images that were also a little soft.
The scene modes improve matters, leading to
sharper, more vibrant shots, proving that presets
do work when applied to the right conditions.
The [mju:] 820 is a fun camera that would suit
a budding photographer with a sense of style and
adventure, who doesnt want to get bogged down
by the technical aspects of photography.
A stylish, robust
entry-level
compact with
plenty of features
to keep budding
photographers
very happy
Features
verdict
to Colour Effects and Metering. The guide acts as

a great learning tool and an invaluable source of
information for users who are new to digital.
The [mju:] 820 also offers a Panorama mode,
although its only available when using Olympusbranded xD cards. The same goes for the 3D and
Art Effect functions, which is a bit of a shame as it
means that some users may have to replace their
existing xD cards in order to make the most of
the cameras features.
The 5x optical zoom is handy for those
situations where theres distracting detail that
you want to crop out of the frame, or you just
want to get closer without disturbing your
subject. This is more than most compacts on the
8MP sensor delivers

images up to A3
5x optical zoom for
added functionality
Face Detection
feature makes
portraiture easier
Bright scenes can

appear washed
The fact you need an
Olympus-branded
xD card to use
some functions
is disappointing
8.0
Ease of use
8.0
Quality of results
7.0
Value for money
7.0
Stunning photographs
The 5x optical zoom is a real bonus as it allows you to take shots you
might otherwise have had to miss or only get with the digital zoom.
This makes for a powerful compact
Suitable for all weather conditions

The colours are strong and true, plus you get the added bonus of
being able to take a picture in all weathers (such as this light rain)
without worrying about breaking the camera
Overall
score
7.5
85
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Reviews Books
Painter X Creativity
28.99 | Aid your technical proficiency with help from your Wacom graphics tablet
Clear layout
Making sense of a powerful interface, Suttons book
does a good job of explaining basic concepts in a
clear manner
kay, so you already know that

Corel Painter X is a powerful
program that takes plenty of
time and practice to master. An
important part of learning a new program
is to have a clear and informative manual
to work through. Painter X Creativity calls
itself the digital artists handbook.
Rather than spending time focusing on
creative tutorials, the book concentrates
on working through techniques and
results that can be accomplished with
the program, from a basic setup to
advanced techniques. Working through
the essentials in a clear and methodical
manner, it can easily be digested into
manageable, bite-size chunks. Most
pleasing is the books layout. Featured
are a batch of colourful and inspiring
illustrations, each accompanied with
useful captions, quick-to-follow menu
commands and informative text. Painter
X Creativity is split into eight chapters
that cover topics such as exploring
brushes, painting from a photograph and
collage portraiture.
Each chapter is joyfully tackled by
Jeremy Suttons relaxed and chatty style
of text. Most pleasingly, as the book is
often written in the irst person, there are
numerous tips and techniques that you
know Sutton has found to be invaluable
from experience, so rather than reading
like a school textbook, it is enjoyable and
easy to read. The only disadvantage of
the book written in this style is that the

illustrations and examples are based
heavily on the art of the author. While
its technically ambitious and inspiring,
Suttons style is extremely stylised, with
an approach that might not appeal to all.
A solution may have been to include some
guest artists as individual case studies to
expand on the potential of the program,
but this is a minor gripe.
The rear of the book includes some
helpful Appendix sections, including
project checklists for getting the
most out of the software, and a quick
troubleshooting question that answers
the most common bafling experiences
when working with Corel Painter. A
CD-ROM is also included with iles
that include source imagery so you can
follow some of the techniques and some
entertaining movies that explore Suttons
work and other artistic concepts in closer
detail. Although Painter X Creativity is
quite pricey, its a valuable resource for
any Corel Painter user.
Colourful illustrations
Although Jeremy Suttons designs
are extremely stylised, theres no
denying that theyre inspirational
alongside the screen grabs that help
you through each step
Advanced techniques
As well as exploring the basics of
Corel Painter, through practical
tutorials the book also delves into
the more complex world of Frame
Stacks and Scripts for the more
experienced user
Edited by
Jeremy Sutton
Price
28.99
Publisher
Focal Press
ISBN
978-0-240-80929-8
Menus
Throughout the book, the
screenshots are thoughtfully
composed and easy to navigate
from, with keyboard short cuts to
help make your life that bit easier
Stuck?
Stuck on a problem? Maybe the
valuable Appendix sections at the
back can help, packed with troubleshooting advice, or the quick
quizzes at the end of each chapter
that help you see what youve learnt
86
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Basics Photography: Lighting

17.95 | A short course in the rules of photographic lighting
Author
David Prkel
Price
17.95
Publisher
AVA Publishing
ISBN
978-2-940373-03-1
orel Painter users will be at an

advantage if they can capture
their own source imagery
with good lighting. Basics
Photography: Lighting is part of a series
of ive that focuses on understanding
fundamental theories and practices.
This concise paperback splits the
subject areas of lighting up into different
sections, covering topics from basic
colour theory to exposure, lash, daylight
and shaping light among others.
Unfortunately, Basics Photography:
Lighting is not an easy read. Rather than
explaining some basic technical methods,
the book gets heavily bogged down in
complex theory, reading more like a
school textbook than an artistic self-help
guide. When the book does explain the
concepts of lighting setups, the write-up
feels rushed and vague and the chapters
quickly move onto the next topic before
youve had the chance get to grips with
the concept. A dificult book to follow.
Lighting theory
Before exploring more
advanced lighting concepts,
Basic Photography: Lighting
takes some time to explain
the basics of light and
colour theory
Illustrations
Although the illustrations and diagrams should aid the
explanations of some concepts explored, the captions are
awkward and clunky
Camera kit
The pace of the book struggles between technical
explanations and some rather basic introductions to
camera equipment
Watercolour Flowers
17.99 | A guide to the techniques and colour of flora
Author
Janet Whittle
Price
17.99
Publisher
Search Press
ISBN
1-84448-132-8
till life, and in particular, lora

subjects make great candidates
for Corel Painter. Armed with
your paintbrush, acrylics or
watercolours, you have the ability to
capture their intricate details and shades
on your digital canvas.
Although Watercolour Flowers is
targeted towards traditional paint
artists, this beautifully clear step-by-step
book offers many valuable techniques to
the digital enthusiast. The most pleasing
aspect of the book is its extremely large
illustrative examples. Rather than acting
as general picture guides, the quality of
detail on each page allows you to examine
intricate details and applications.
The step-by-step guides are
thoughtfully written by the awardwinning author Janet Whittle, whose
prints are sold worldwide. Youll have
to use a little bit of your imagination
to transpose the methods onto your
computer screen, but you should sure
have fun doing so.
Bright
and beautiful
With plenty of space
dedicated to Whittles
illustrations, its easy
to try out the projects
yourself and compare
with the pros work
Step-by-step
Although the tutorials are written for traditional artists,
its easy enough to follow the techniques and apply the
procedures to your digital canvas
Explanations
Whittles clear image captions allow you to understand
how she approached her individual projects, letting you
follow each creation from the start to the finish
87
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Reviews Output
No small print
Every detail is explained so you know
what youre getting
Get inspired
Check out the large gallery
for inspiration. Many
examples show how the
prints could look in various
rooms of your home
Memories On Linen
Friendly service
Customer service is second to none,
including a direct phone number
The easy online way to transform your work into striking wall art
Tutorial info
Artist
Rosie Tanner
Time needed
Ten minutes
Skill level
Beginner
hen youre really proud of

a project, its nice to show
it off, and what better way
to do this than putting your
art on the wall? Memories On Linen offers
an online service to print your favourite
images onto linen stretched over a thick
wooden frame.
The company aims to take all the
hassle out of the ordering process, and
it certainly does a good job. The friendly
service means you can check with them
irst whether your image is suitable
for printing. You can do this by either
emailing or phoning direct. This is a nice
touch, as many companies will print your
image regardless of whether it has a highenough resolution, leaving you with a
possible dud print and hole in your pocket.
Memories On Linen specialises solely in
producing these linen prints, which does
make you feel youre in good hands. As a
result, the companys website is simple

and clean, without the clutter of adverts
trying to sell you other products.
The informative home page includes a
comprehensive price list, which is great
to have from the start. As far as value
goes, Memories On Linen is extremely
competitive, and at the time of going to
print we couldnt ind anything cheaper.
Once youve chosen your print, the easyto-use order form guides you through the
process, even offering comment boxes for
speciic requests.
Our print arrived within ive days of
ordering, well in advance of the sevenday delivery promise. It was wellprotected, with very impressive results.
The print quality is deliciously smooth
The print quality is deliciously smooth and the overall

finish of the canvas is impeccably neat and tidy
Prices start at just 19 for a 20 x 30cm
print. We ordered a 60 x 90cm print,
which came in at a bargain price of 59.
If you have an odd-sized print request,
its worth noting that you can also order
custom-sized prints. Simply email or
phone to arrange pricing.
and the overall inish of the canvas is

impeccably neat and tidy from all angles.
We hope Memories On Linen will be
able to maintain these high standards of
customer service even when the company
expands. An excellent service, which
cannot be beaten on quality and price.
88
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Readers gallery issue ten
Gallery
If theres one thing that can be said for Ata Alishahis work, its
that colour plays a vital part in its creation. His work is instantly
recognisable thanks to his confident and bold use of hues. We
caught up with the artist to see what other techniques he uses
ta Alishahi has been a part of
our website community since
the very beginning and the
one thing that has constantly
impressed us is his use of colour. Even
drab images supplied for the regular
Readers Challenges become glistening
artwork once hes applied his conident
colour palette. We thought it was about
time we found out more about how he
works, from his favourite tools and
techniques, right through to the source of
his inspiration.
If youd like to see more of
Alishahis work, visit his site at www.
paintermagazine.co.uk/user/
atadesigner or go to his home page at
www.atadesigner.com
When did you start using Painter?
I started using Corel Painter in 2005.
Do you have a favourite Painter
technique or tool?
Yes, my favourite tools are the Artists
Oils, Oil and Blender brushes. Even
though everyone has their own favourite
Painter is the largest art store you can imagine, which

means tons of colours, brushes, papers and more to use
tools in Painter, to me, Painter is the
largest art store in the world. Just imagine
if you went to that art store and you were
allowed to pick absolutely anything that
you want.
I would say that my most favourite
techniques in my work are blending and
choosing the colours to work with. Two
of the most important things in my style
are preparing and constructing the image
before I start painting. This requires
many image-editing techniques before
the preparation, choosing brushes, type
of paper, etc.
What is your favourite Painter image
that youve created?
I love all my works, but the most favourite
one is called Lady Gala, seen here: www.
atadesigner.com/mylady/slides/
ladygala.html
Who or what inspires you?

The beauty of nature, women and music
are the best inspiration for me. I also get
inspired by other artists.
Whats the most helpful tip you have
about Painter?
Never be afraid to use different tools
provided in Painter other than the ones
you are using now. As I said, Painter is
the largest art store you can imagine,
which means loads of colours, brushes,
papers and more to use. If you pick a tool
you have never used, dont worry, it wont
explode in your hand, just go ahead and
try it. Brilliantly, Painter gives you almost
22 Undos at one time. I would advise to
new users that before you start painting,
make sure you have in mind on what size
your painting will be so you dont end up
having to resize or cramp your ile.
Is there an art style you would like to try?

Yes, deinitely. I always think that one day
I want to paint in the style of John William
Waterhouse. I love his methods so much.
Do you have a favourite subject matter?
Not really, I love to paint pretty much
everything, but recently I have got more
into fantasy art.
Share your art with

other readers
These pages of the
magazine are given over
to you, as a place for you
to share your creations
with readers all around
the world and also to
publicise your gallery
on our website. If
you have a gallery
that youre proud
of, send an email
to opm@imaginepublishing.co.uk.
92
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01
Title: Small town

A friend of mine is Polish and when she went
back to visit, she brought back some images of
where she used to live. I liked one in particular
and used it as a reference for this piece.
02
Title: My lady
The lady in this painting is the lady of
my life. She is my lovely wife and we
have been married for almost 24 years.
I wanted to paint her to appreciate her
love and friendship.
03
Title: Sunrise
This is one of my dream places to live; I love
sunsets and sunrises. I did my best to use as
much natural colour in this painting. Every
time I look at this painting now, I feel like
having a coffee.
93
18/10/07 11:56:07
Gallery
Readers gallery issue ten
04
Title: Dancing
I have several Spanish and Mexican friends, and from
time to time I enjoy dancing with them. From that, I
was inspired to paint this piece.
05
Title: Ballet
I love to watch ballet dancers. The
way they move with the music is very
peaceful to me. That sensation is how I
was inspired to make this piece.
06
Title: Lighthouse
I have never travelled by sea and I
have never been on big ships, but
for some reason that I dont know, I
love lighthouses and to me they are a
beginning of a world. I think lighthouses
are the sign of hope.
94
18/10/07 11:56:46
07
Title: Seaport
This piece was painted for a
challenge organised by this
magazines website for its members.
The result hasnt been published yet,
but above all, I am interested in
painting cityscapes like this.
08
Title: Ships
This piece was also painted for a
challenge organised by this magazine
for its members, the result not yet
published. But if you visit my gallery,
you will see that I have several painting
of ships and sails as I love to paint them
all the time.
95
18/10/07 11:57:13
Website challenge
issue ten
Website Challenge
See some of the entries weve received for the fourth Creative Challenge
eve changed the format a little this
issue, and put the regular Readers
Challenge to bed. But thats not to
say weve neglected the challenge
format completely instead, we are giving these
pages over to our regular Website Challenge,
so you can see some of the entries weve had

so far and also have a sneak peek at what the
competition is up to!
If youve never tried one of our online
challenges, the format is the same as our Readers
Challenge. Download the supplied photos, open
Jodi Clark
them in Corel Painter and then see what you

can create with them! The winner from each
challenge will get a years subscription to the
magazine. The deadline for this one is actually
over, so visit www.paintermagazine.co.uk/
competitions.php and get details of the next one!
Jose Merino
WIN!
A YEARS
SUBSCRIPTION
TO
THE OFFICIAL
COREL PAINTER
MAGAZINE
How to
enter the
challenge
Visit www.
paintermagazine.
co.uk/competitions.php,
download the images and
send us an email. You can
also download the images
from the CD and email
your entries to opm@
imagine-publishing.co.uk.
If they are over 2MB, you
can send them on a CD to:
Website Challenge,
Ofcial Corel Painter
Magazine, Imagine
Publishing, Richmond
House, 33 Richmond Hill,
Bournemouth, Dorset
BH2 6EZ, UK
We cant return any CDs.
Anne Hale
Remember! You can email your entries to opm@imagine-publishing.co.uk
96
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19/10/07 12:49:15
Marcia Fasy
Torben Christensen
Bargueno
Cha llen ge
Scott Henderson
winner
But we havent completely forgotten our
Readers Challenge! We have the results
here from last issues challenge well
done to Ken LaPlante, and kudos also to
Chris and Ken.
WINNER!
Ken LaPlante
2ND
PLACE
Ken Small
3RD
PLACE
Chris Lawton
97
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19/10/07 12:49:54

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001_OPM_10 COVER landscape.indd 1

TEXTURES | REFERENCE FILES | ART STUDY PHOTOS

Out of all the features in Corel

Visit our website!

Jo Cole, Editor in Chief

ON THE FRONT COVER

Get creative with the

TURN TO THESE PAGES AND FIND OUT

DONT WORRY ABOUT PAINTING

Regulars in every issue

Take out a subscription to

10 Corel Painter community

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The rst of our special pages

Another merry gaggle of artistic

Havent entered one of

A full breakdown of the

84 Olympus [mju:] 820 camera

Discover how this talented artist incorporates so many

Create inspirational art

Relax your style and build up

56 Art study: clouds

Get up and running

Get to know your tools

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

Corel claims you can now create a masterpiece

Corel has worked

ith a host of new features,

toolbox. A new Brush Drawer makes

Brushes are organised into types (thick, wet etc) and

and including new training videos and

Expose yourself at Artfair365.co.uk

As were not directly

original artwork by Maureen Andrews

Love illustration? Youll

Photography news, great links

f your Corel Painter creations have

New illustration blog offers source

original artwork by Mau

Fine Art media

Users can upload and download high-resolution

Call: 01926 493 632

n ts res our ces

Im interested in buying a Wacom tablet

Hmmm, were going to need a bigger space

different factors, such as what you want to

Share your Corel Painter wisdom

One brush wonder

More techniques please

Out of all the tutorials you have, I must say

Thanks for your email, Kevin. You can rest

Choosing the right

an essential resource for painting different

Clone come good

Here is my latest image. I have been using

Perfect timing, Jeffrey! You may have noticed

The big picture

Im a professional artist from Holland,

Bloody hell, thats some painting youve