CorelPainCorel Painter - 09 - Magazine, Art, Digital Painting, Drawing, Draw, 2d

TEXTURES | TUTORIAL REFERENCE FILES | STOCK PHOTOSEdit photos

Unearth the tools to edit and correct photos in Corel Painter

Colour theoryThe hows and whys of using colour in your artwork

MatisseRe-create one of Matisses colourful and expressive works

Issue nine Visit us online w

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.paintermagazine.co.uk

Of cial Corel Painter TM M

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FREE CD INSIDE

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ISSUE NINEISSN 1753-3155

9 7 7 1 7 5 3 3 1 5 0 0 0

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www.paintermagazine.com

6.00

Official Magazine

Inspirational tutorialsPractical drawing guides

Quick start guide on the CD

Createdigital art today!

Become a better digital artist with our guides to Corel Painters brushes and commands

How to paint hair

ART STUDY

Easy methods for painting realistic hair without getting in a tangle

techniquesMasterdigital art

DRAW MOTION

P66

P 26

CREATE CONCEPT ART

P 48

Share your work!Create a gallery on our website and let the world see your art www.paintermagazine.com

40pages oftutorials

Over

USE THE CLONE TOOLS

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Imagine PublishingImagine Publishing

5

Jo Cole, Editor in [email protected]

WelcomeIf I was given to making gross understatements, I might say something like colour is quite important in artwork. The fact is, colour is one of the deining ways to control a piece of art and make it say

what you want it to say. Colour gives you the power to manipulate the mood of the image and elicit a response from the viewer. You can use it to draw attention to some objects, while make others recede into the background. In short, paying attention to colour and how you use it is vital in perfecting your artwork. Turn to our feature on page 20, where we have put together some quality advice on what you need to keep in mind.

One artist who wasnt afraid of colour was Henri Matisse and you can discover how to re-create one of his paintings on page 38. Theres also an exquisite tutorial on painting with the Sumi-e brushes (page 60) and an invaluable look at painting hair (page 56).

Have fun!

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

ISSUE NINE

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

Edit photos

Pg 44See what tools and commands can help you perfect your photos

Impressionist landscapes

Pg 26

Use cloners to turn photos into amazing art

Drawing 101: Capture motion

Pg 66

Inject movement and action into your artwork with our guide

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Regulars in every issue

pg 32

08 Subscriptions Take out a subscription to

the magazine and save money! For non-US subs, see page 88

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 Rebecca Parker

25 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

Reviews

6

96 Readers 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 issuesfree CD

82 Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 Looking for an affordable image-

editing program? We test out the latest version of Corels popular product to see what it offers to the Corel Painter user

84 Casio EXILIM Zoom EX-Z1200 It may be a teeny compact, but this

model packs in 12 megapixels of power. See what else this camera has to offer and what kind of pictures it takes

86 Book reviews To be the best artist you can, you

need to immerse yourself in a world of creativity and load your brain with ideas and techniques. Each issue we look at the best books to instruct, inform and inspire you. See the latest ones here

WIN!YOUR WORK

PRINTED TO CANVAS

pg 96

Regulars

Pg 56 PAINT HAIRDISCOVER SOME QUICK AND EASY WAYS OF PAINTING STRAIGHT OR

CURLY HAIR IN A VARIETY OF ARTISTIC MEDIUMS

Pg 48 CONCEPT ARTSEE HOW ONE ARTIST COLLECTS IDEAS TOGETHER TO CREATE A CONCEPT SPACE SCENE WITH A NOD TO INFLUENTIAL ARTISTS

ON T

HE F

RONT

COV

ER

Sumi-e pg 60

CONCEPT ART CONCEPT ART

need to immerse yourself in a world

issue we look at the best books to instruct, inform and inspire you. See

See how professionals are using Corel Painter. This issue we look

Another merry gaggle of artistic

pg 96Original artwork by Jan David

pg 32pg 32portraitsportraitsCreate ice-cool

pg 32portraits

pg 32portraits

pg 32 Use cool colours to paint a striking portrait

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pg 48 Concept art

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66 Drawing motionMovement in art is a very tricky subject to approach, but weve put together some helpful techniques and ideas to inject some dynamism into your artwork

26 Impressionist cloner Turn photos into beautiful


32 Create ice-cool portraits Use colour to paint a cool and

serene image

38 Paint like: Matisse Re-create the colourful and

expressive world of Matisse

48 Concept art Join one artists journey into

the world of concept art

56 How to paint hair Use Corel Painters tools to

create realistic hair

60 Sumi-e brushes Take quiet and measured

steps with these brushes

PrimersGet up and running30 Brushes: Charcoal Create classic black-and-white

art with the Charcoal brushes

Feature focusGet to know your tools44 Photo-editing tools Its possible to make all your

photo corrections from within the Corel Painter interface see what the best tools are and how they work here

Traditional artistic techniques

Drawing 101

20 Colour theoryColour is a vital part of any image, so knowing how to use it is essential. Follow our feature on good colour practice and working with Painter

Practical art adviceFeature

Colour theory pg 20

www.painter magazine.co.uk

Visit ourwebsite now!

tutorialsCreate inspirational art

66 Drawing motionMovement in art is a very tricky subject to approach, but weve put together some helpful techniques and ideas to inject some dynamism into your artwork

Traditional artistic techniquesTraditional artistic techniques

Drawing 101

pg 56 Art study: Paint hair

portraits

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news even ts resources even ts resources even ts letters websites websites websites letters websites lettersTutorial xxxx

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nthusiastic photographers looking for an editing program with professional features in an easy interface will love Corel

Paint Shop Pro Photo X2. With this new version, Corel has taken suggestions directly from the users and produced a program that is packed full of creative functions.

SOFTWARE

Latest version of image editor promises professional results at an affordable price

Meet Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2

The new Express Lab allows you to edit and view a myriad of photos in double-quick time. This is basically a one-stop editing resource with its own interface illed with essential editing tools. From here you can quickly perform functions such as adjusting colour, rotating and cropping images or removing red-eye, plus you can view multiple images at once. All ile formats are supported including camera RAW iles.

Retouching photos is a common procedure for most people. The new Thinify tool will erase pounds with just one click and the Eye Drop tool whitens redness in bloodshot eyes. If you want to get more creative, the new Layer Styles allow you to add bevels, shadows, glows and relections to text and images.

For photographers who are starting to experiment with their cameras settings, the new HDR Photo Merge is excellent. In situations with high contrast, you can take

photos at different exposures and then use HDR Photo Merge to layer the photos over each other, resulting in a perfect image. The Clarify slider can also be used to automatically dodge and burn the photo, bringing out hidden detail.

Anyone who regularly scans images will enjoy the new Crop as New Image function. Lets say youve scanned a few photos in one go. With this, you can automatically select one of the photos and have it open as a new document, ready to be edited. A valuable time-saver, you will call upon this tool time and time again.

Beginners will love the automatic options, but theres plenty of manual control for more advanced users. This functionality, coupled with the sleek, new graphite interface, means that Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 is a leading contender among other image editors. And with a suggested retail price of 79, you can experiment without breaking the bank!

Commun ityNEWS EVENTS RESOURCES LETTERS WEBSITES INFO FORUM

The Smart Photo Fix command sorts out

photos quickly

creative functions.

The Smart Photo Fix command sorts out

photos quickly

The new, dark-themed graphite interface is perfect for showing your

images to their best advantages

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websites websites websites info news even ts resources even ts resources even ts letters website letters website letters info news even ts

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The ultimate resourceallistic Publishing is a name synonymous with quality in the digital art world and the company

has taken its irst foray into the image resource world. Artists can now purchase its Klara Medkova Ultimate DVD Set a dual-DVD that boasts 300 high-quality photos of character reference images.

The royalty-free photos are produced in collaboration with 3D.SK, a company with a strong name in human reference resources. Buyers get to enjoy clothed and semi-clothed photos of bodies, heads, weapons and action. Each image comes in TIFF and RAW format, so you can edit and tweak to your hearts content.

The Klara Medkova Ultimate DVD Set costs $65 and can be yours from www.ballisticpublishing.com.

High-quality DVD packed with image assets for artists

hile the majority of people log onto YouTube to see what outrageous videos have been uploaded, the

next time you are on there, do a search for Corel Painter. Youll be whisked away to a plethora of tempting videos showing artwork being created in the program.

Some of the videos set out to teach a speci c toolset or skill, while others are recordings of how a particular piece of art was made. All sorts of styles can be found here, and someone has even uploaded a whole series of videos on getting used to the program, which weighs in at over 100 les! We really recommend that you have a look at whats there you can literally see a painting take shape and its a wonderful way of seeing how other artists work. Visit www.youtube.com and discover what you can learn.

Theres more to YouTube than talking cats!

sing a graphics tablet with Corel Painter is the most intuitive way of working, and Wacoms

new Bamboo tablets are a great starting point.

For those taking their irst steps in the world of tablets, the Bamboo One is ideal. This brushed silver model comes with a cordless, battery-free pen that has 512 levels of pressure sensitivity.

For a bit more functionality, the Bamboo Fun is a white tablet available in small or medium wide formats. Also with a 512-level pressure sensitive pen, this has four ExpressKeys that can be set to commonly used commands in addition to a Touch Ring for quick zooming and scrolling. The small model costs 69.99 and the large version is 139.99. For more information and dimensions, see www.wacom.co.uk.

New consumerWacom tablets

Popular website has plenty for Corel Painter usersTUTORIALS

RESOURCES

The results will display

educational videos and

artists works

The 16-megapixel pictures are perfect for anyone wanting

to improve their life-drawing skills

HARDWARE

The Bamboo Fun starts at 69.99 and offers good functionality at a better price!

Bamboo range brings tablets to the masses

NOV

In shortCreative happenings from around the world

Dead goodFor quality, free photos, you would have to go a long way to beat the choice on morgueFile (www.morguefile.com). This is a massive online depository of photos that are free for personal or commercial use. It is embraced by creatives as a place to find and share useful photos.

Harvest free fontsYou may not use text much in your day-to-day artwork, but having a good stock of fonts is useful for when you want to title your work. One of the best sites weve found is Font Garden (www.fontgarden.com). As well as free Mac and PC fonts, you can find a splendid array of handwriting fonts perfect for creative pursuits.

08 Issue 10 of OPM on sale!Mark this date in your diary as it heralds the release of the latest issue! Learn how to create quick and easy landscapes, loosen up your art style, see how cloning can create great artwork and get tips from the best Corel Painter artists in the business.

Pick of texturesTexture can be used in digital art in many ways. To make sure you have the perfect one for the job, take advantage of some of the free texture sites online. One of the best is CG Textures (www.cgtextures.com). There are over 15,000 texture files for personal or commercial use and you can search according to different categories.

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news even ts resources even ts resources even ts letters website letters website letters info news even ts resources resources resources even ts resources even ts

Riding the wavesHello painters! I wanted to thank you for the awesome article Paint Dramatic Seascapes in issue seven. I personally ind the water rendering to be quite dificult because waves combine two opposing features; they are very strong and deined forms, but they also change quickly. And that includes their colours as well!

our Letters

So I found the article to be very useful and full of interesting tips. Will there be more workshops regarding the nautical theme?

Please ind included my contribution to the marine theme Iron Seahorse. By the way, I was happy to learn that this piece was selected to be displayed at the Southampton Boat Show 2007.

Dee Slavinskas

Thanks for sending your artwork in Dee, and obviously thanks for the kind words, theyre enough to make us blush! We had a great time arranging the seascapes feature and its fantastic to hear that you enjoyed it too. Weve passed your letter onto Jeff Johnson the man who wrote the feature and no doubt hell be pleased to hear hes appreciated! Any kind of water brings so much potential to the artist, and you can rest assured that we will return again to marine landscapes in the not-too-distant future. Congratulations on getting your image displayed as well, especially at an event as big as it was. It must have been quite a thrill and, after seeing your picture, we think it was defi nitely well-deserved.

Welcome to the part of the magazine where you can come

and share your thoughts on anything you fancy!

Featured galleryOur favourite readers gallery this month

Patty Nicewww.paintermagazine.co.uk/user/majikatPatty is one of the most recent members to the Featured Galleries set on our website and got her place thanks to her incredible use of patterns. Its a technique that a lot of people forget about, but Patty shows that they can be used to create great artwork. As her username suggests, Patty is a fan of the felines, and her gallery comprises of a combination of animals and a variety of patterns and textures to create striking images.

Patty Nicewww.paintermagazine.co.uk/user/majikaPatty is one of the most recent members to the Featured Galleries set on our website and got her place thanks to her incredible use of patterns. Its a technique that a lot of people forget about, but Patty shows that they can be used to create great artwork. As her username suggests, Patty is a fan of the felines, and her gallery comprises of a combination of animals and a variety of patterns and textures to create striking images.

Of cial 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 [email protected]

Send your letters to...

Above: Dees nautical number deservedly

scooped a place at this years Southampton Boat

Show

Readers tipReaders tipShare your Corel Painter wisdom

Feeling dynamicI have been using Corel Painter for quite some time, but it was only recently that I started to take advantage of dynamic layers. I cant recommend them enough. They allow you to make changes and apply effects without harming the original image. Lots of commands can be used as a dynamic layer, so I really do urge you to try them. Simon MallardWe completely agree the dynamic layers give a great deal of freedom.

The middle image, entitled Triller, was voted the Editors Pick of the week and has been praised by fellow artists for its texture and visualisation

Our favourite readers gallery this month

Patty is one of the most recent members

Patty Nice

Patty Nice

Patty Nice

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The latest from our forum and website

resources resources resources letters website letters website letters info news even ts resources letters website letters website letters info

Making an impressionI realise this is jumping the gun a bit, but I saw your Next Month page in issue eight and was intrigued by the Impressionist brush. I hadnt used it before, but its the kind of style I would normally favour. Anyway, I tried the brush out and cant stop using it! It used to take me ages to individually paint on small strokes and now I can quickly see if something is going to work. I love the effect it gives and how everything is so soft. I thought you might like to see this image of some clouds I did. I like the abstract quality and plan to create a larger version using oils and canvas.

Natalie Moore

Youre preaching to the converted when you sing the praises of the Impressionist cloner, Natalie! Like you, we are big fans of the soft

effect it gives and love how you can adjust the angle to build up interesting effects. If youre after some more tips on using the brush, head over to page 26 and you can see the very tutorial that was mentioned on the Next Month page!

So many questions, yet so little timeIve only bought the past two issues of your magazine but wanted to say how much I like the Q&A section. Its good to see so many problems and Ive learnt a lot from them. But it got me thinking. I was wondering if it might be more useful to just have a series of tips for different aspects of Corel Painter and artwork in general? Maybe it could also have some quick tutorials?

Irve SeacrestThanks for your email Irve, and also thanks for the suggestions. We set the Q&A pages up to be almost like a collection of tips, and they are there to answer your specifi c questions. With a lot of Corel Painter problems, its very diffi cult to give advice in just a few words, so the Q&A format is staying! However the idea of quick and easy tutorials is an interesting one and may appear sometime soon.

Natalies cloud image makes perfect use of the Impressionist cloner and its recognisable effect

www.paintermagazine.com

Those of you who regularly visit our website will know that we have a regular challenge that runs over a couple of months. Challenge number three is now closed and we wanted to show you the winner and close contenders. It really was dificult to pick between the entries this time, as they all showed different skills and styles.

Grace Kelsos entry caught our eye (top) due to the clever way she used most of the photos. Mikhael Markanson (middle) impressed us with his use of the butterly photo, especially all the lovely marks on the background. But Ken Small (bottom) stole our hearts with his lobster-pot robots. The whole feeling of the piece is excellent, with good use of tone and composition. If youd like to take part in the latest challenge, head over to www.paintermagazine.com and click the competition link. Good luck!

Website challengeSome of the best so far

Natalies cloud image makes perfect use of the Impressionist cloner and its recognisable effect

Do you agree with Irve? Are you after the Q&As as they are, or would you prefer a barrage of tips?Do you agree with Irve? Are you after the Q&As as they are, or would you prefer a barrage of tips?

Dont be shy everyones welcome to enter! Go to www.paintermagazine.co.uk/competitions.php

ENTER THE WEBSITE CHALLENGE

Patty Nice

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Interview Rebecca Parker

ow residing in Wales, Rebecca Parker has been many things in recent years, from self-employed retailer to

professional lookalike. Originally from Birmingham, Parker developed a passion for digital art with the help of online communities like deviantART. Recently, her work has received deviantART Daily Deviation and National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) Image of the Week awards.

As someone self-taught, how easy was it to get to grips with Corel Painter?I must admit that I found Corel Painter

Self-taught digital artist Rebecca Parker has created a distinctive evocative style in a short time with support from online communities. Nick Spence meets her

Rebecca Parkerreally daunting to start with; I had never seen Painter in action before I bought it. The huge amount of brushes it contains is incredible. At irst I didnt know where to start, but after some persistence the Cloner tools had me hooked.

Before the launch of the Corel Painter Magazine, I found the video tutorials at Lynda.com (www.lynda.com) a particularly valuable place to learn, but nothing beats actually playing with it yourself. Its slightly surreal to paint in oils when you have never actually painted with the real thing. Although I am not trained as an artist, the way that Painter allows for mistakes by using lots of layers makes things less daunting. Painting digitally allows room for errors and this is what the appeal of digital art is for me.

Painter is a pleasure to use. I would recommend it to anyone, even those teaching themselves with a limited art background like me.

You work with both Corel Painter and Adobe Photoshop. How do they complement each other? The two programs both have enough of their own distinct merits for me to switch between the two. I basically prepare my image in Photoshop by manipulating features such as enlarging eyes, extracting the main igure and also retouching any unsightly areas. I then take it to Painter. Here I will draw more hair, blend skin and draw whatever I see it really. The brush quality is by far superior, leaving you with more

options and effects, and they are more realistic in appearance. I can then use the Cloner tools to stylise backgrounds and edges rather than use lots of textures in Photoshop. I always end up going back into Photoshop to do any inal adjustments, such as colourising, resizing and sharpening my image. I feel Photoshop is great for restoration, adjusting or adding colour, clarity and distortion. There are certain effects I like that can only be produced in Painter, such as the Impasto brushes. I use the Depth Lofter carefully for painting hair and I love the amazing Pattern Emboss tool. I dont think I could work at all without the help of Corel Painter, the method of working I have evolved is now dependent on using the two applications side by side.

professional lookalike. Originally from Birmingham, Parker developed a passion for digital art with the help of online communities like deviantART. Recently,

Self-taught digital artist Rebecca Parker has created a distinctive evocative style in a short time with support from online communities.

Rebecca ParkerAn interview with

professional lookalike. Originally from Birmingham, Parker developed a passion

Self-taught digital artist Rebecca Parker has created a distinctive evocative style in a short time with support from online communities.

WEBSITE www.rebecca-parker.co.uk and http://rebecca-parker.deviantart.comJOB TITLE Digital artist, photo restoration artist and image retouching artistCLIENTS Greenways Pembrey, CK Introductions and get Confident.com

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A Ray Of LightThis image was created with source images from friends and admirers. Some images I work with have been given to me to use by very generous photographers who have approached me or vice versa

[RIGHT]TogetherParker created this stunning image for a competition

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All o

rigi

nal a

rtw

ork

by R

ebec

ca P

arke

r

Seascape Parker used model

Fritha for this portrait. I take my own photos

from time to time. But this is sometimes

fraught with difficulties, for example living in a

remote area, finding the right model and getting

model releases



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What does Corel Painter offer that Adobe Photoshop doesnt? Corel Painter allows the artistically minded, who do not necessarily have any training, to achieve true artistic effects. Everyone talks about how fantastic the Oils and Acrylics are, but while I agree, Im also particularly keen on the Digital Watercolor brushes. The Airbrushes are superb and I use the Fine Detail Airbrush constantly. The Smeary Round brush is

good for the distortion of backgrounds, however at the moment, the style and look I prefer for my own work involves a more subtle and delicate use of the tools available. Currently, I use Painter for making my characters blend properly into the manipulation.

What would you say are your favourite Corel Painter tools? Ive mentioned cloning as a love of mine.

[ABOVE] TangledParker sells prints like this via the deviantART shop. When you are doing something in Photoshop, or whatever application you use, take the time to hop on over to Corel Painter and see how it tackles the job there

The tools I use the most are the Detail Airbrush, the Soft Airbrush 50, the Just Add Water blender and using paper in the Apply Surface Texture method. As my work changes and evolves, I ind more and more tools in Painter that are invaluable. I really love the way Painter can create subtle artistic borders and frames to an image. Some effects such as rotating the layer by increments to make painting easier and adding surface textures are speciic to Painter, as is creating real depth with the Impasto painting tools and image warp. The ability to save your workspace between sessions with all the carefully mixed colour on your palette is a real help too.

Do you have a typical work ow?Honestly, I never really have a speciic end goal in mind unless a client spells out exactly what they want. I get a feel for a particular image and take it from there. My images seem to evolve independently. Its so great that Painter opens up easily and can be saved as a PSD ile with all the layers. This means that I can lip back and forth between them very easily while working on a piece, usually when I start tidying up and blending features like hair, skin and clothing.

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The long, cold walk homeAnother image Parker built up from friends and stock images,

including a background from Christophe Libert and birds from

Roberto Segate

SunsetParker used a stock image

from Sitara-LeotaStock, part of the deviantART

community, as the basis for this portrait


The method of working I have evolved is now dependent on using Photoshop and Painter side by side

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HopeParker again used stock

images for this digital image.I always use stock images

of the same quality together. They all have to have the

same sort of size and resolution. You eventually find the confidence to put

across what you hope is an original concept



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You use some stock images in your work. How do you avoid them looking clichd?I can and do take my own photos from time to time. But this is sometimes fraught with dificulties. I use stock images from many different sources. Some I purchase from Crestock (www.crestock.com) and some I download for free from Stock.XCHNG (www.sxc.hu). However, I mainly use the very generous stock artists at deviantART (www.deviantart.com).

Your work features some beautiful and ornate textures. Do you scan these in and whats the best way to create your own?I have used a lot of textures from the talented people at deviantART. Its very easy to ind them online but really the

best way is to create your own. You can go out with a digital camera anywhere at all and ind a dozen totally original textures in ten minutes. Recently, I went to my local art shop and purchased lots of different handmade papers and heavy watercolour papers and scanned them into my Mac. I wish I had started doing this a long time ago, as its so easy and far more rewarding.

As youve mentioned, youre a member of the increasingly popular deviantART. What do you like about it?DeviantART was one of the irst online communities I joined. It has something for everyone and is not elitist or ageist. A total amateur can display their work alongside some of the great names. The

galleries contain styles of art from every media imaginable and its enlightening to ind artists that you admire. On the whole I ind it very useful for feedback. I have very few real-life friends who share my enthusiasm for digitally created art, so some of my earlier work had its irst outing on deviantArt. I have some very supportive watchers who make me feel good about my work. Without the positivity and support from this community, I doubt I would have achieved my current learning curve.

And nally, what tips and words of advice would you give when using Corel Painter?Play with it as much as you can and dont give up. Also remember that there are thousands of people out there to help!

[ABOVE] Summer Belle

The model Eveliina formed the central

figure of this wonderful summery portrait

[BELOW] Dont look backAnother great use of light and textures, once again drawn from stock photos found from searching and spending time in online creative communities


Creating from the

colour wheel

Feature Creating from the colour wheel

Having a basic understanding of how colour works will help you create better art. Cat Bounds gets you started

ussian abstract artist Wassily Kandinsky once declared that, colour is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmonies, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another, to cause

vibrations in the soul. We think in colour, communicate in colour and many of us

dream in colour. We have preconceived ideas about colour. What colour are the leaves on the tree outside your window? Green, you say? But if you decide to paint that tree and dip one of your leafy digital brushes into green, or even several shades of green, it may not look like your tree at all. So one morning you walk outside and more closely study the leaves and realise that in addition to green, there are yellows, blues, browns and so on. If you decide to go back in the evening and check on your trees colours once more, they may be quite different. This is a discovery the Impressionists were quite keen on. Oftentimes a painter would go out into a ield to paint a landscape or stack of hay in the morning and only get to work on it for a short time, pick up a new canvas and begin again

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Creating from the

colour wheelbecause the colours had all changed. The painter would move to a new canvas at intervals throughout the day, as the sun moved across the sky. The next day, he or she would take the canvases back to the same spot and begin to paint again on them in order. How lucky we are that our forefathers created a set of logical and universally accepted instruments, like the colour wheel, for describing and working with this fabulous, elusive by-product of spectral light called colour. Although, studying colour schemes is a bit like when we learned to write in grammar school; day after day, we studied the elaborate cursive letters upon the chalkboard and painstakingly practised drawing them on our notebooks, and then we all grew up, went off and developed our own unique handwriting styles. The same goes for colour. By all means, become familiar with the rules, but never be afraid to try your own combinations or experiments.

Colour is energy. Studies have shown that blind people are able to identify colours easily with their ingertips. We only have 11 basic colour words in the English language, and yet literally

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2121

millions of colours exist; computers give us 16 million colours, and the human eye can possibly distinguish more than that. After the 11 basic colours (red, blue, yellow, green, violet, orange, pink, grey, black, white and brown), we borrow words like grape, avocado and slate in an attempt to describe the myriad of shades, tones and tints.

Colours affect us in a number of ways, mentally and physically. A strong red colour has been shown to raise the blood pressure, while blue or certain shades of pink have a calming effect. Its claimed that certain rooms in prisons or jails are painted pink for precisely that reason. We are consciously or subconsciously mindful of societal and global preferences, symbolism, myths and ideals concerning the colours we choose. Being able to create colour palettes harmoniously and with intent can help us produce spectacular results. The colour wheel is our basic tool for combining colours. The first circular colour diagram was designed by Sir Isaac Newton in 1666. Over the years, many variations of the basic design have evolved, but the most common version is a wheel of 12 colours based on the RYB (or artistic) colour model.

Traditionally, there are a number of colour combinations that have been agreed upon and are considered especially pleasing. These are called colour schemes or harmonies, and they consist of two or more colours with a fixed relation in the colour wheel, going by names like achromatic, monochromatic, analogous, complementary, split complementary, triadic, tetradic, etc. But these are merely starting points to get our creative juices flowing. Complementary colours, for example, are the Yin and Yang of colour schemes; colours painted next to their complementary counterparts set off a visual excitement, but its use can either be in your face or subtle, depending on our intent. Analogous colour schemes use shades that are adjacent to each other on the colour wheel. They give more variation than monochrome images, but still work well together. Triadic colour systems are particularly good for strong effects. These use colours that have equal distance from each other on the colour wheel, and they contrast well with each other. But dont stick with tried and tested methods effective use of colour comes with lots of experience and a good eye.

Create your own palettesTake your own photos and then transform them into a collection of sparkling colour palettesColour is absolutely everywhere, but sometimes we paint as if the world around us is set apart from our art. This is crazy! Look around you. The colours you surround yourself with are surely the colours you enjoy. The flowers youve planted, the shells youve gathered, the paintings youve bought, the clothing you wear, all of these you chose to be a part of your life. Therefore it makes sense for you to try and incorporate these into your artwork. Scan items in, take photographs of them and get them into your computer. Bring them into Corel Painter to create new and very personal colour palettes for your art. Save these palettes in a separate folder as unique colour maps of your life.

In our examples here, we have created paintings using colour sets taken from photos. This has given us the essential hues to use as the paintings, and taken away the decision of deciding which colours to use. Try the techniques for yourself we promise you wont be disappointed.

Nautilus coloursWe loved the shimmering colours inside this nautilus. The resulting colour palette is monochromatic and calming, like looking across the ocean. We tried it on a quick abstract, but it whispers of a world of possibilities.

late summer coloursWe gathered these plants from our gardens and scanned them in. Some were dried and some were fresh. We did a quick watercolour to show how the colours might work out. Bulky items scan better if a co-ordinating cloth is laid over them instead of closing the lid.

rock coloursWe spent a few minutes gathering coloured stones from rock borders, threw in a spring of wild clover and a wood chip, and our new colour palette was ready to happen.

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In addition to these set relationships, the colour wheel is often divided into halves, one side with three distinct and rigidly drawn segments of warm colours, also known as active (red, yellow and orange) and the other with three equally static segments of cool colours, sometimes referred to as passive (blue, violet and green). But it will serve our purpose better to envision a more dynamic, gradient colour wheel, where the primaries transform and mutate into tertiary colours and hues, combining and mingling, relating with their nearest neighbours. If youll notice the painting of the colour wheel on page 24, you will see that it is made up of 18 colours on the centre ring while the outer ring is reversed and consists of each hues complementary colours. This is a painterly version of the wheel that possibly best satisies our needs. How is your colour wheel arranged?

Colour temperature relationships are relative both in the way each of us perceives them and in their interrelations with other colours. In a nutshell, the closer a colour is to red/orange, the warmer it is perceived to be; the closer it is to blue/green, the

cooler it is, but it all depends on which direction we are going. If we begin at red/orange and move toward blue/green, then colours are always getting cooler. When we go the other way, they are getting warmer. Colour temperatures affect us perceptually as well as psychologically. They help in determining how objects appear positioned in space. Warm colours advance, appear closer to the observer, while cool colours recede or appear further from us. One red, for example, can be warmer or cooler than another red, so we can paint an entire painting using shades of red (that would be monochromatic) and still have receding and advancing shades and tints. Once we see this happening on the colour wheel, we begin to discern between cool and warm colours all around us and to envision them on the wheel.

Understanding how the colour wheel works is particularly handy when it comes to picking colours in Corel Painter. The Colors palette is arranged like a colour wheel, so you can easily pick similar tones, complementary hues or go for other relationships. Use the wheel to set the main colour and then work the triangle to pick out shades

Using opposing colours in your workPick strong complementary colours and youll have a vibrant paintingThis painting is all about colour, patches of vibrant hues that intermingle and flit across the canvas like a butterfly in afternoon sunlight and shadows. When you paint abstracts, start out with a colour palette, possibly one image element and little else. A painting works out best when you let the brushes take the lead. This often calls up images with no intrinsic relationship and allows the viewer to create their own connections and their own story.

BUILDING UP TEXTUREThe background here is made up of lots of tones but with similar hues. This is a very good way of making interesting backgrounds that help add depth to the overall image. A plain colour would have made the image less interesting and more clinical.

COLOR SETThis colour palette is vibrantly complementary, using teals and aquae with shades of orange and burnt sienna. A great place to begin choosing colours is the annotated Color Set, which if you havent discovered it, lives in your Resources folder. We nd having the colour names very helpful.

COOL VS WARMThe interplay of warm blues and cool aquas in the butter y give it life, but do we still have colour perspective? Yes, because the reds in the background lean toward cool, receding shades, and the red seal that suggested itself to us advances, describing layers of depth.

THINKING IN BLACK AND WHITEThe viewers eye always goes rst to areas of white, and we need shades of black and grey for depth and shadow. As mentioned before, dont use pure black, but instead a deep navy, purple or blue that reads black is indispensable. The white splashes on the wings say, start here.

SHADOWS FOR DEPTHSquint while looking at the Color Set theres a good balance among the light and dark shades. Without this contrast there wouldnt be any depth to the piece. The dark areas in the background give the butter y dimension; this is echoed by the brushstrokes.

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of that colour. Its very intuitive once you get the hang of what goes where, meaning your colours always shine through in your paintings, thanks to a little thought.

The Color Sets are also useful for picking your hues, and as we demonstrate in the examples above, creating your own is a great way of capturing the perfect mood of a painting. To see how to create your own set, check out the PDF guide on this issues disc.

Over these pages we will show how different colours affect an image, but if you want to find out more about colour theory and delve into different rules and systems, there are lots of great websites. One interesting site that allows you to play with colour schemes can be found at http://poynterextra.org/cp/colorproject/color.html. To generate colour schemes from colours you choose, pay a visit to www.wellstyled.com/tools/colorscheme2/index-en.html. And for a community feel, head over to www.colourlovers.com/blog/2007/06/20/color-inspiration-from-the-masters-of-painting, where members create colour palettes in a forum setting.

Use Color Sets for atmosphereHere we show how colour temperature can affect the mood of an imageUsing a photo taken by photographer Dave Finley, we painted three versions to illustrate how changing the colour temperatures can completely alter the atmosphere of a painting. This rusty old truck sitting in the woods can take on many personae, depending on the colours chosen.

You can see how the relationships in the colour wheel affect an image and gives different effects. Also notice how some areas recede or advance, depending on the colours. This is a very good exercise and is the best way of understanding how colour works.

You have probably acquired a nice collection of your own colour sets, but have you browsed through the ones that came with Corel Painter? Simply open up the Color Sets library and click the small arrow. Click Load Set and youll find all the hidden gems. These sets can be another great source of colour scheme inspiration. Use them as they are or as a starting point for mixing a new colour palette in the Mixer where you can save them. Then consider the painting you have in mind and how these colours will carry forward that idea and in which colour schemes.

The various Color Set libraries

A NeutrAl, ComplemeNtAry Colour SChemeWanting to keep the rusty, aging metal atmosphere, we chose neutral shades but included splashes of orange and blue for contrast and to indicate traces of a past life and a sense of melancholy. The warmer shades on and around the door advance while the cool, neutral blues in the trees recede.

ANAlogouS Cool ShAdeSThis scheme pushes the limits a bit as it covers nearly half the colour wheel, but all the colours live side-by-side, and we were trying for the atmosphere and temperature of a winter night with the moon glinting off the metal. The relatively warmer shades down front still manage to advance in the frame.

WArm gloWThis palette only just makes it as a complementary scheme because we brought in the lavenders to offset the gold warmth of an early autumn afternoon. The many shades of yellow and gold give it a soft glow, like the sun warming old bones before the cold sets in.

Explore the default options for maximum creativity

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The colour wheelIt can be a liberating experience to take a colour wheel, whichever one its you best, and paint it with brushes in a style that expresses your own. We chose one, as mentioned earlier, with 18 colour segments and an outer ring of reversed, complementary colours. The blues, violets, reds, oranges, yellows and greens low from warm in

one direction to cool on the other. We painted it in a loose, splashy style that relates to our paintings better than one with hard, distinct lines.

However, you can create a colour wheel to suit your own style. Maybe you want one created solely of reds or greens, maybe one just with clashing colours. What does your own colour wheel look

like? Does neat and orderly work best for you? Whatever your style, the traditional colour schemes work as a good starting point an ideal upon which weve all agreed so that from here we can create our own versions of those colour schemes. So open up Painter, pull up the PDF from this issues disc, and get creative!

WARM AND COLDAs the colour wheel works its way round, the hues shift from warm to cold. If you want to warm up a cold colour, add a bit of a warm shade to it, such as a touch of red in a cool blue for example.

USING THE WHEELHave a look at this colour wheel and then look at the Colors palette in Corel Painter. Youll see that it uses the same principles. Adapting tones from these colours gives you unlimited possibilities.

COMPLEMENTARY COLOURSThis colour wheel here shows the primary shades in the inner ring, with the complementary tones on the outside. Using opposite colours is a safe way of creating strong, yet harmonious colour schemes.

Take a look at t

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colour wheel and

guide to picking

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Tutorial Impressionist landscapes

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s digital artists, we may sometimes feel the need to explain to our critics, those rooted in traditional art media,

that what we do is legitimate art. In that regard, we may feel a kinship with the father of Impressionism, Claude Monet.

When he and his friends began painting much of their art en plein air and without the realism that was in vogue, they met with harsh criticism that their art was merely an impression of a landscape or scene. What an immeasurable loss it would have been if they had given up their inspired vision in order to conform.

In this tutorial, we wont spend a great deal of time on Monets colours, but we know he rarely used pure white or black. Avoiding black was so inherent in Monets art that at his death, his friend Georges Clemenceau saw the black sheet

draping his cofin and exclaimed, No! No black for Monet! and replaced it with a lowered cloth.

Even more recognisable are the brushstrokes we know as Impressionistic, and the Impressionist Cloner does a great job of producing them. Like all the Corel Painter brushes, it has an array of sliders and tweaks to create enough brush variants to dazzle even Monet. He would probably feel honoured to know that with all our advancements we are, decades later, still attempting to replicate his techniques.

So, without any delusions of grandeur that our work will ever approach the ranks of the Impressionists, we press forward, grateful for their guidance and inspiration and begin our painting directly upon a photo which lends itself to a style that whispers of a bygone era.

Using the Impressionist Cloner, we can trace the brushstrokes of Monet and friends

Artist

Time needed

Skill level

On the CD

Cat Bounds

40 minutes

Beginner

Source photo

Tutorial info


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TutorialIm

pressionist landscapes


Tutorial Impressionist landscapes

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Loosen up!Painters often say they want to loosen up, to paint more freely. Spending time with the Impressionist Cloner is an excellent way to connect with your inner free spirit. It might help to know that Monet, too, was a perfectionist and was known to burn his canvases, but he sought to capture the essence of what was between him and the object he was painting, the instantaneity of nature. Toward the end of his life, the objects in his paintings almost disappeared, giving way to light, shadow, shapes and colour, and we all learned a lesson in seeing.

Start creating the bare bones of your landscapeLand and sea

01 Lets begin! Open the source photo from this issues disc. We want to get a bit closer to those posts and rock formations in the water for added interest, so crop the bottom and right side, also losing some of the beach to bring the horizon downward slightly. Be careful not to move the cliff formation to the centre.

Land and sea

03 Create an underpainting The local colour lends itself well to this photo, though we will probably paint over the lime green in the foreground grasses. Begin by selecting two colours from the image. Set the Impressionist Cloner to paint instead of clone, and the Expression to Direction, so that depending on the brush stroke, it will paint in both colours.

04 Find an outline Use the Soft Cloner, set to 20 per cent, just to locate the outer edges of your images. Having done this, you wont really need to turn on the Tracing Paper to see the photo below the painting.

06 Clouds and sky Brushstroke directions in the sky are a matter of preference, but for us vertical or slanted strokes work best. Sometimes we get carried away with the lines and swirls, and our skies take on more of a Van Gogh look, but its all fun. Because of our underpainting, we dont have to ll every pixel with strokes.

07 Water To make watery, horizontal brush strokes, slide the Squeeze setting back to 99% and drop the Opacity to 46%, leaving patches of the light underpainting as you go to read as white caps or sparkles on the water. Were still using cloned colours, adding a bit of lavender here and there.

08 On land Now were going to nd and create land features. Decrease the size of your brush and raise the Opacity. Still working with Angle set to Direction and Color set to Clone, your brush should be sensitive to each shape in the stones.

05 Grass strokes Heres the real beauty of the Impressionist Cloner. By changing the Angle setting to Direction, the strokes will follow the direction of our pen strokes, and for these grasses we want the strokes to be thin and owing, so slide the Squeeze slider to the left, change the Color setting to Clone, and then colour is picked up from the image.

02 Enhance detail The photo is full of detail that we want to make more apparent, so we pull up the contrast and sharpen slightly. These are steps that wont really show in the nished painting, but they help us decide which elements we will bring out with smaller brush strokes.


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TutorialIm

pressionist landscapes

IMPASTO AND COLOR EXPRESSIONIn order for your brush strokes to have depth and texture, choose Color and Depth from the drop-down list under Impasto and Artists Canvas in the Papers palette. Choosing Direction under Color Expression lets you alternate between two colours, depending on the direction of your stroke.

What you needThe controls

09 Back to the grasses A prominent part of this painting is the grass, and weve gone back, adding teal strokes over the lime green and off-white and pale yellow highlights overall. It has enough shadow of its own. Weve also added additional highlights using the Glow brush set to an Opacity of about 2%.

11 Monet sun The Impressionist sky keeps asking for something else, so mix up some oranges and yellows, which complement the blues and lavenders weve been using. Softly paint in a large sun, still using the same brush but set to apply colour.

10 Keeping soft detail At this point, it is very tempting to give in and recover realistic detail, but you must resist. Its far more interesting to paint an indication of something going on. Is that a building up there? Perhaps. That curving bit of white, is it a meandering road? It could be. Leave something to the viewers imagination, and youll both be richer for it.

12 Add a boat What bay is complete without a boat? Monet might have favoured a darker silhouette of a boat, but this one works for us. Our objective is not to have wide expansions with nothing going on. Theres no limit to the number of tweaks and additions we might add to our Impressionist masterpiece.

13 Strokes without colour As you near the end, look at your painting without colour. This allows you to see the shapes youve made and the movement of paint strokes better. Despite the elements youve added, the grass and sky are still the focal points in the painting. An interesting website showing Monets work without colour is http://webexhibits.org/colorart/monet.html.

ANGLE BRUSH SETTINGS AND PAPERSThe Angle Squeeze setting allows us to control the width of our Impressionist Cloner strokes, and choosing Direction from the Angle Expression drop-down list ensures that the strokes will follow the direction of the pen. Youd be hard-pressed to imagine a more true to life brush painting experience.


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ow dont get us wrong, colours all well and good, but theres something uniquely captivating about the way in

which a black-and-white image (be it a photograph or a drawing) can strike you. Maybe its because when all you have to concentrate on is the range between light and shadow, and the composition of the piece, it somehow seems purer. Or at least, without colour to distract you, your brain can just focus on how convincingly the

subject is rendered tonally.For the same reasons, working in

black and white is also great training for the artist. And while the humble pencil is what we all started with, when youve got some strong lighting to capture, charcoal is the ideal choice. Working with digital

charcoal in Corel Painter is even better, because youve just got that

extra lexibility with it. Whether you want to reduce the Opacity of a layer, or even use the Eraser to introduce a white highlight, you can easily create something with striking contrast that incorporates more subtle details too. Its always tempting to paint that beautiful blue sky, but for once, a grey sky can actually be a good thing.

Using a textured paper can have a big effect on how your charcoal drawings look, so it is worth getting this right in the first instance. Go to Window>Library Palettes>Show Papers to browse all the different types, and then go to Effects>Apply Surface Texture to add it to your canvas, once youve adjusted the lighting and depth to your liking. You can always go back and change it if you dont like the effect you have initially chosen.

Charcoal

Essential papersYou cant draw without paper Dont just stick to the defaults

Opacity controlsOpacity controls

Most of the Charcoal brushes make a fairly strong line at their default settings and, of course, this makes them ideal for images with a high level of contrast. But its almost certainly worth reducing the Opacity so that you can build up your images with a wider range of tones. For an additional level of control, working on different layers means that you can adjust the Opacity of the layers themselves, making it easier to experiment. Youll have greater depth in your shading as a result, without worrying about working over a detail that youre pleased with.

Primer Charcoal brushes

BRUSH CATEGORY

PRIMER

THICK AND THIN STROKESWe love using the Sharp Charcoal Pencil for anything that requires a sweeping stroke, be it hair or creases in clothing. Its easy to control the width of the stroke by varying the pressure, so smooth arcs will come naturally

Put the colours away grey is in with our brush category feature this month!

SOFTLY SOFTLYWe found that the Charcoal Pencil was perfect for rendering both some of the softer shading on the face (with a large brush size and low Opacity) and some of the tighter areas too (with a smaller brush and higher Opacity)

EDGES AND OUTLINESBefore you get shading, its a good idea to de ne a few outlines and boundaries. The Hard Charcoal Pencil is perfect for this, as youll get a strong crisp line that will quickly help your composition take shape

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Primer

Charcoal

Add some shimmer and shineThis months highlightsThis months highlights

One of the real joys of working with charcoal is deciding what parts of the paper to leave showing through. This is true of real charcoal, but when working digitally in Corel Painter you can use it to your advantage even more, literally erasing the charcoal towards the end of the process, leaving shimmering bright spots that really enhance everything. Of course, you could also literally paint in white on a layer above, or use a layer mask to hide the charcoal without actually deleting any of your brush strokes.

HIGHLIGHTSCharcoal in the real world is messy stuff, and rather than erasing, its best to leave gaps where you want the paper to show through. In the digital realm though, you can easily erase in the later stages, adding bright highlights that bring everything to life

Because size mattersBrush size controlBrush size control

Because charcoal leaves such strong marks, theres less potential to build up your pieces little by little. A good charcoal image needs to have strong contrast, otherwise you may as well use a pencil. And even if it might sound obvious, using the right size of brush becomes just that little bit more important. It can all end up looking a bit streaky if youre not careful, as every time you overlap, the contrast will be more noticeable. Make the brush size as big as you dare for each area.

At-a-glance guide to the choices on offerThe Charcoal brushes

Charcoal

Charcoal Pencil

Dull Charcoal Pencil

Gritty Charcoal

Hard Charcoal Pencil

Hard Charcoal Stick

Sharp Charcoal Pencil

Soft Charcoal

Soft Charcoal Pencil

Soft Vine Charcoal

CHARCOAL OPTIONSHere is a full list of all the Charcoal options that you have open to you, some of which are illustrated in the box to the right. Experiment with the tools to nd the right one

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Tutorial Create ice-cool images

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Learn how to paint a winter-themed portrait from scratch

Create ice-cool imagesLearn how to paint a winter-themed portrait from scratch

Create ice-cool imagesrom the mood, the snow and the colours, I have always loved everything about winter. And the Snow Queen, as an archetype, is a

theme I have always had fun with.For the purposes of this tutorial, I have

aimed to portray a winter lady shown while travelling through her distant, cold domain. To begin with, I sought out winter landscapes on the internet for inspiration, to see how the colours looked and what could be a general setting for the picture. I also browsed through many illustrated childrens books to remind

Artist

Time needed

Skill level

On the CD

Gracjana Zielinska

2 hours

Intermediate

Start sketch

Tutorial info

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TutorialCreate ice-cool im

ages

Gracjana Zielin ska shows you how to...

myself how I felt about the Snow Queen when I was younger. At irst, I wanted to go for a more scary look so she would seem almost inhuman, but then I thought a pretty, yet distant, winter lady is a concept I would much prefer and understand as a child. Hence, I aimed for a portrait that would be interesting for both kids and adults.

I also had to learn a lot about using colours from similar palettes, while achieving some variety with them so the whole picture wouldnt seem dull. I decided that I wouldnt go for the all-

white look, as I saw too many pictures using only this and light shades of blue. Therefore, I went for an evening scene in an undecided place, which adds to the mysterious atmosphere.

I took some time to design her dress, as I ind this process most enjoyable. I didnt want her to be wearing a typical dress, boring and almost medieval, so I mixed various clothes styles from a few different periods in time to create something new. All of that was quite a challenge, but hopefully youll ind it as enjoyable to paint as I did!

Use this palette to apply to your own Snow Queen masterpieceThe crisp and cool colour paletteThe crisp and cool colour palette

Back ground

Coat and hair

Brushes

Blenders

SCRATCHBOARD TOOL TINTING AIRBRUSH LEAKY PEN

GRAINY WATER JUST ADD WATER BLUR

Skin tones

C: 95% M: 77% Y: 45% K: 41%

C: 91% M: 65% Y: 39% K: 22%

C: 70% M: 37% Y: 31% K: 2%

C: 56% M: 24% Y: 25% K: 0%

C: 84% M: 74% Y: 58% K: 76%

C: 81% M: 65% Y: 41% K: 24%

C: 53% M: 24% Y: 15% K: 0%

C: 88% M: 69% Y: 53% K: 53%

C: 19% M: 7% Y: 11% K: 0%

C: 23% M: 4%Y: 1% K: 0%

C: 50% M: 35% Y: 30% K: 1%

C: 4% M: 11% Y: 8% K: 0%

C: 31% M: 37% Y: 36% K: 1%

C: 54% M: 62% Y: 56% K: 31%

C: 64% M:75% Y: 58% K: 68%

C: 60% M: 72% Y: 57% K: 54%

C: 36% M: 93% Y: 71% K: 47%

C: 33% M: 99% Y: 65% K: 34%

Lips and jewellery gems

C: 2% M: 58% Y: 29% K: 0%

Corset and blouse


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Begin with a sketchStart with the basics

01 Initial concept sketch Im not a typical CG illustrator, hence most of my illustrations have their start in a pencil sketch. I did a few rough sketches before I chose one on which I decided to paint. Dont overdo your sketch. It can look very messy, but youll be only using it as a guideline. Of course, it doesnt matter if youre doing a sketch in pencil or directly in Corel Painter, this is just how I usually work. The quality of it isnt important, as it wont be visible in the nal picture. Load the start sketch off the CD.

Start with the basics

02 Preparing your workspace to start I placed the sketch on a new layer and changed its composite method to Multiply so all the white parts become transparent. I created a custom-made palette by dragging a brush into the main area. Add more brushes to this by dragging them into it. I used my general set, adding Pens, Blenders, Tinting, Airbrushes, Palette Knives and Photo. Then I lled the background layer with some dark blue to get the general tone of the picture.

03 Laying down some general colours We already have a background colour, so use any brush with low Opacity; try other ones to see how they blend with the whole picture. I tested various shades of blue for her clothes and some beige, orange and pink for the skin, although all of them will eventually have a slightly blue tint, otherwise theyll be in contrast with the rest. This is why I created a colour palette with half transparent brushes, so the colours can take over a bit of the blue from the background.

04 Using the sketch as a guideline With the sketch layer on, I sketched general guidelines and a basic shape of the girl onto the layer below, then I turned the sketch layer off. You only need to go back to it to check if youre still following the general concept. Also, dont create too many layers. I worked with three; one each for the background, girl and the pencil sketch. Use the Basic Round Tinting brush to apply some of the shadows to the dark areas on the face. This is just rough and ready at the moment.

05 The general shape of the face I laid down colours for the face with the Scratchboard tool, found under the Pens menu, set to 13 per cent Opacity. I blocked in the general shadows, taking the light source into consideration, and some red on the lips and dark brown on the eyes. Nows a good time to block in general lights and shadows on the whole picture.

06 Adding details to the face I usually use Airbrushes for this as theyre really precise. I work with them like I would with a pencil, drawing lots of lines, crossing them and blending colours. I used one of the Blenders afterwards, but only to touch things up. The colour mixing happens here with the Airbrushes. I also outlined a bit more of the lips and eyes.


Rotating the canvas a marvellous little featureOne of the best features in Corel Painter is the ability to simulate rotating the canvas. I dont know about you, but when Im drawing something traditionally I rotate a piece of paper very often to draw at the angle I feel most comfortable with. In Painter, when you hold together Space+Alt, you can rotate the canvas and paint at any angle you like without changing the actual picture. Holding Space+Alt+Shift will rotate the canvas 90 degrees, so its quick and easy to go back to the initial state.

Rotating the


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ages

Blur great for achieving good realism Blur, a tool hidden in the Photo category, is a very useful thing I discovered not so long ago. When you look at some photos or paintings, youll see that the further something is, the more blurred it seems, which is a nice thing to remember while drawing. Very often, blurring some details is the final touch needed to add more depth and make other things stand out more. Of course, you have to be careful because its very easy to overdo it, but carefully used, it can really add a lot to the picture.

Theres snow rushTake your time applying the details

09 General shape of the hair Work from darker to lighter colours, as you can achieve more depth in the hair this way. Dont worry about painting each individual strand, as they look blurred in photos but you just know its all there. I still worked with Tinting brushes, detailing the strokes more. A trick is to use the Blur tool, under the Photo category, to soften the parts of the hair that are further away, so the ones at the front stand out more.

10 Detailing the hair To nish the hair, I used various blenders to make them look more uffy. A nice idea is to add some single strokes in various directions at the end. It will give the whole haircut more depth and it will seem more realistic. Very often in photos, you can see that the hair as a whole seems blurred, yet there are just some single strokes visible.

Take your time applying the details

07 Final touches to the face Its easy to get carried away with the Blenders and to make everything look at and smudged, so beware. I always use more than one, constantly changing their Opacity to get more texture. The two I used most here were Just Add Water and Grainy Water. After that I added some more details, including highlights, using an airbrush.

08 Getting started with the hair For the hair, I used the Basic Round brush from the Tinting category. It mixes colours really well, a bit similar to traditional pastels. To begin, I blocked in the shape using dark blue not black and then marked a general shape of how the strokes will ow outwards.

11 Getting started with the clothes Now its time to work on her dress. I lifted colours from the colour palette at the beginning of the tutorial, and mixed them while marking the folds. A nice tool to use for that is Mixer, but I got used to mixing them on a layer with colours so I can see at the same time how they mix with the background. As before, I blocked in the general shape with the Scratchboard tool.

Blur great

12 Working on folds Working on folds can be fun and irritating at the same time. Remember each material folds in its own way. Usually I just repaint it until Im quite satis ed with the result, while here I mostly used Tinting with the help of many blenders. Also try to remember that not everything has to be shiny. In this case the dress is rather matted, so no strong highlights are needed.


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Color Correction lends a handCorel Painter offers a wide variety of tools under Effects>Tonal Control. Whenever you feel something goes wrong with the colours, you dont necessary have to repaint it. Sometimes using the tools there will fix everything thats wrong with the tones in a second.

Remember, you can also always use the Selection tools to choose exactly which parts on any layer youd like to change, if the piece that needs to be adjusted is merged with some other you want to remain untouched.

The icing on the cakeIce Queen or nice queen?Ice Queen or nice queen?

13 Working on the corset For getting a general shape of the corset, I used the same methods as described before. Remember you can work diagonally on it by rotating the canvas once you get used to it, you wont imagine you couldve lived without it! Also, now is a good time to clean up the mess a bit before starting the fur collar, so you can see how the general proportions and shapes are turning out.

14 Queens fur coat Working on the fur is very similar to the way I painted everything else. Although, as theyre less blurry than hair, the shape of the strokes matter more. To add patterns to the dress, I painted some owery shapes, then began copying and pasting them to create a pattern. After that I changed this layers settings to Overlay, so it blended with the dress in a more realistic way.

15 Avoiding a winter chill I thought that it was a bit illogical that shes in winter scenery wearing a dress with an opened bust, so I added a white blouse. Since its made of a lighter material, I painted many folds on it as it crumples easily. I also wanted it to be shinier, therefore I added many highlights to the more convex parts.

16 Corsets pattern In this picture I wanted her corset to have quite a delicate pattern. I invented my own patterns, later drawing something similar on the picture and copying and pasting it to get the whole design. When nished, I erased it where needed and lowered the Opacity to blend more with the corset.

17 Jewellery and details Using the Airbrush tool, I added some more strokes of fur, using some Blenders and Blur to give it a softer effect. I also painted icicles pointing out from her fur collar to emphasise her role as Snow Queen. As for jewellery, I sketched some ideas out before applying them with the Airbrushes.

18 Finishing the clothes To add some shadows underneath the jewellery, I copied the layer with it in, checked this new layers Preserve Transparency option and lled it with a dark blue colour. After that I changed its blending mode to Multiply and lowered the Opacity. While holding Ctrl/Cmd, I moved the shadow below the jewellery and unchecked the Preserve Transparency box.

19 Background The background not a key feature here, as the focus is on the character, therefore I left it in a more painterly way, using Tinting and Blenders mostly. After nishing, I thought it looked too desaturated, so I used Effects>Tonal Control>Adjust Colors to saturate it a bit more, so the whole picture looks uni ed with regard to tones.


Color


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ages

22 Last step the check ups After nishing the picture, its always good to check it. One of most useful is converting the image to greyscale to see if the tones are properly saturated. Flipping it horizontally often uncovers aws in anatomy not usually visible while viewing the picture normally. Add some additional details and if everything looks okay, youre done!

21 Adding the snow Time now to set up the Snow Queen in a proper winter landscape. I chose the Scratchboard tool and used an Airbrush on a new layer to paint some bright dots for the snow, painting them using a very light blue while having my brush set to low Opacity. Dont paint all the dots in the same size, it never looks like that in real life as some are closer, some are further. After youre done with the general shape, add some life to it. Use Effects>Focus>Motion Blur and change the angle to create an impression of movement among the snow akes.

20 Painting realistic eyes Here I decided human eyes would suit her better than demonic ones. I started with blocking in the white part; the best place to pick up the colour for it is the brightest spot on the face, as it wont ever be just pure white, it all depends on the general lighting. I blocked in the eyeballs shape with a dark colour and worked on it with Tinting brushes, nishing up the details using an Airbrush.

LEAKY PENWhenever I need some brocade like structure or to create a foggy, textured impression, this one always comes in handy. It leaves many random dots and with a bit of practice, can become much more useful to imitate depth in picture than some textures made out of photos.

SCRATCHBOARD TOOLOne of my favourite tools for, well, everything. It doesnt blend by itself as well as other brushes, but because of that, it lets me control the lights and shades Im drawing. Used almost everywhere, especially when beginning painting and de ning the general shape of the picture.

GRAINY WATERI use many blenders while working in Corel Painter, but this one is my favourite because it leaves a really nice texture and never seems too at. I usually blend the skin with it.

The tools used to create our Snow QueenBrush selection

GRAINY WATER

TINTINGTinting is another of my favourite tools to paint with in Corel Painter. It gives you the often sought-for painterly look, while still allowing you to mix colours in a really smooth way without using additional blenders.

impression, this one always comes in


Tutorial Paint like Henri Matisse

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TutorialPaint like Henri M

atisse

Matisses art is an exploration of colour. Seek the strongest colour effect possible, he said. The content is of no importance. Try his style for yourself

Henri MatissePaint like: Matisses art is an exploration of colour. Seek the strongest colour effect

Paint like:enri Matisse is one of the best-known artists of the 20th century. Noted for his innovative use of colour, his

mastery is undisputed, spanning over a particularly proliic career.

The artist grew up in Bohain-en-Vermandois, France, and started painting in 1889. Art became his life and he often referred to it as a kind of paradise.

A signiicant turning point in his life came upon meeting the painter John Peter Russell who introduced him to Impressionism and the expressive Van Gogh. This exposure had a major impact on Matisse whose style changed to make colour the centre of his creation, with inluences by Czanne, Gauguin, Van Gogh and Signac.

His irst solo exhibition was in 1904, but a more signiicant show came a year later when he showed work at the Salon dAutomne alongside fellow artists Andr Derain, Georges Braque, Raoul Dufy and Maurice Vlaminck.

The colours on show were so vivid they were called by one critic as fauves, French for wild beasts. A new movement was formed, carrying the Fauve name. Matisse was widely accepted as one of its prominent leaders.

Artist

Time needed

Skill level

On the CD

Hannah Gal

3 hours

Intermediate

Final piece

Tutorial info This movements prime objective was to liberate colour. They saw themselves as portrayers of colour, not imitators of nature painting pictures and not objects.

The piece Open Window was painted in Collioure, a small town on the Mediterranean coast of France and was exhibited at the Salon dAutomne in 1905. It is regarded by many as an icon of early modernism, certainly celebrated as one of the most important paintings of the Fauve group. The painting features a startling display of saturated, vivid colours.

The subject is an open window overlooking the sea. The piece is made of a multitude of strokes that at irst glance might look like they were quickly and loosely applied, but this is far from the truth. There is a careful consideration of colour scheme and placement of strokes that complete and complement each other.

The composition is worth mentioning, as it is a unique series of frames within frames. In the wall is the window, in the window are frames and at the centre is the balcony, which crops the landscape.

The interior wall surrounding the window is equally divided into broad areas of blue-green and fuchsia, a contrast that stems from the complementary green and red on the colour wheel. This contrast also features in the lowerpots at the bottom of the picture.

Open Window contains a dazzling variety of brushstrokes, from long and blended to short light touches. Many of the brushstrokes in this painting are broad too. Some areas like the glass on right and left are covered with a softer brush where strokes at the centre of the window are brisk and loaded with paint.

You will use Acrylics and Oils to re-create Matisses style. Charcoal will help create the gritty look of some strokes, while Impasto will add a 3D effect. A shiny layer will be applied using an acrylics glaze.

We used a variety of brushes, brushstrokes, paints and techniques to achieve the inal result. This process really is a celebration of the vibrant colours available to artists.

The colours on show were so vivid they were called by one critic as fauves, or wild beasts

PressureFrom the initial drawing to the final Impasto layer, the use of the Pressure setting is a major plus. Adjust the tablet or stylus settings as you go along. Take advantage of the Pressure option and move the stylus along the canvas with sensitivity

Grainy Flat CoverThe Acrylics brushes offer a wide variety of brush looks and texture. It is a highly versatile brush and we used it here extensively. The Grainy Flat Cover Subcategory perfectly imitates real-life tools with realistic grain and feel

Soft BrushThe paint in the first colour layer is very soft.Use Airbrush or any low Opacity paint. This is a reference layer that is fully covered later on. Apply this even if you feel it can be skipped

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Delve deeperGo to www.mystudios.com/art/modern/matisse/matisse-joy.html.Here you will access the National Gallery of Art collection.

There is a great insight into Matisse in general and this piece in particular. Most importantly though, it includes an excellent rendition of the painting. Click on the Detail Images option for a detailed look at this piece. You can clearly see the paint, brushstrokes and texture. This is particularly helpful when trying to work in the style of the artist.

Observe the original and create your own masterpieceGetting started

01 Layers Open Corel Painter and download the nished image from the disc. This will be your reference. This layer can be turned on and off when needed or just kept at 30-40 per cent Opacity.

Getting started

02 Drawing Go to the main menu and open Brush Creator or the Brush Selector bar. Choose Pencils and the Sketching Pencil tool. This is a very a very simple composition made of semi-straight lines. Create a new layer and sketch the lines of the nished image.

03 Airbrush In the Brush Selector or Brush Creator, select Airbrush>Soft Airbrush 20. In this step we are covering the drawing with a layer of faint paint. This will be fully covered later and is more of a preparation for the nal colour application.

04 Acrylics Choose Acrylics>Wet Acrylic 30. Under Method, choose Cover and make Soft Cover your Subcategory. With a 16-20 per cent Opacity and Size set to 25-30, start covering the areas previously painted by Airbrush. Sample colour from the previous layer or the reference layer. Alternatively, use the Mixer to achieve the perfect shade.

05 Acrylics once more Use medium to long strokes to loosely apply the paint. It is a bristly brush and you should see the bristles clearly as you go along. Stay with a maximum 20 per cent Opacity and adjust the Size according to need. Add new layers whenever you like to keep bits safe.

06 Darker shade Stay with the Wet Acrylics brush, and change Subcategory to Grainy Flat Cover. Set Grain Expression to Pressure and Grain to 14 per cent. Follow the colours applied earlier to add a layer of strong, darker colour to the painting.

Tutorial Paint like Henri Matisse

Delve deeper

07 Pre-centre strokes Increase Opacity to 40-45 per cent. Observe the original piece and set the Size to suit your need of the area you are working on. Expression can be left on Pressure or set on None at this point. Let the drawing and previous layers guide you as you work.

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TutorialPaint like Henri M

atisse

Record your workAn often-overlooked Painter option is the ability to record your work. To record a stroke, open the Brush Selector bar. Click on the little triangle on the right to display it. Choose Record Stroke. The next brushstroke you apply will be saved for you.

To play it back, click on the little triangle on right of Brush Selector bar and select Playback Stroke. Each time you click on the image, the stroke will now be replicated to your precise specifications.

From the same location on the Brush Selector bar, you can activate Auto Playback to apply the same stroke randomly until you stop it.

Its as Mat-easy as one, two, three! Show your true colours

09 Filling in The entire inside of the window has a light brown/beige background, acting as a bonding agent between colours. Sample this or use the Mixer to create it. Use the same brush as in the previous step at a 16-18 per cent Opacity to cover areas between strokes with this shade.

10 Filling more in Increase brush Opacity to 30-35 per cent and ll in any white with the brown/beige colour. Use light horizontal strokes and adjust the Size of the brush according to the areas you need to cover.

Show your true colours

08 Centre strokes It is time to paint the little strokes at the centre of the piece. Choose Oils>Opaque Flat, set Opacity to 70-75 per cent. Under Draw To, choose Color and Depth and set Depth to 15 per cent. Apply short, brisk strokes in the direction and shape of the original.

12 Thick oils Choose Impasto>Round Camel Hair. Open Brush Creator and under Impasto, set Draw To to Color and Depth. Set Depth to 15 per cent, Opacity to 35-40 per cent and apply 3D strokes over the ones applied earlier. Go with the ow of the original strokes and use their direction and feel as a guide.

Record

13 Missing gapsContinue with Round Camel Brush until the inside of the windows is painted. Short brisk strokes that are full of life and character. In Brush Creator choose Acrylics>Wet Acrylic 30. Use this brush to go over the entire image and ll in any areas that were missed or left incomplete. Use a 40-45 per cent Opacity.

11 Camel hair Create a new layer and name it Thick Oils. Using new layers for different stages is optional. It is a way of protecting yourself from having to go back in case a mistake is made. Simply drop the layer once you are happy with your work within it.

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Will this be your fauve-rite piece of art yet?Nearing completionNearing completion

14 Impasto Create a new layer and name it Impasto. We are going to apply even more oil to add a 3D painterly effect to the painting. Zoom in at 50-75 per cent and observe the original while moving from one part of the image to the next. Use the Impasto>Thick Wet Flat 20 brush at 60-65 per cent Opacity.

15 Get closer Zoom in further to a 90-100 per cent magni cation level and open Brush Creator. Under Impasto, set Draw To to Depth. Observe the original for feel and stroke direction and cover areas where paint is deep and brush loaded with thick paint. Keep the stylus/mouse pressed as you go over an area several times for this effect.

16 Zoom out Use the Hand Grabber tool to move from one area of the image to the next. The stroke is deeper with any repeat application so use cautiously to the degree you see t. To judge the effect properly, zoom out when you have nished. Admire your work so far by observing the painting at 25 per cen

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