Here's a new illustration just published in the May '07 issue of Cricket. It's done in the same "sketchy style" as TEA WITH MRS. ROSENBERG
I've had quite a few people lately telling me that they would like to learn to use Painter, but are too worried about a high learning curve.
While in reality Painter may be a complex program (there are a lot of things it can do using filters and brush building and "shapes"for example) In all the years I've used this software, I have been ignoring every tool but the few I actually need. I am only doing three basic things for each picture.
- Setting a size (usually 300 DPI) for my image and choosing the canvas texture
- Choosing a brush tool and color so I can actually sketch/draw/paint
- Using layers to keep my pencil drawings separate from my watercolor layer while I work.
Then I just save it as a .tif if it's to be uploaded to my FTP site for the client to grab. If it's just a sketch, at a smaller resolution, I will just compress it and email it to the art director.
I don't recommend attending classes or sitting through tutorials or heaven forbid, reading the manual. I think the best way to learn Painter is to sit down and play with it. If you get stuck somewhere, Google your specific question. Even the most basic questions have been asked and answered on the internet. Or, you can just send your question to me and I'll try to help.
6 comments:
I appreciate your comments about Painter. I am a Painter geek with very little patience for a manual or a tutorial. I find after the number of years I have used Painter and continually upgraded it, there are some seven or eight tools I use consistently with some of the oil brushes being my favorites. I like that you can set the bristles on a brush apart and grab a range of colors at one time.
Your work shows a mastery of the program but more than that a mastery of painting, composition and good illustration.
This image is computer created?? My gosh! Hmm.....should I give digital art a try?
I like the idea that I could learn a program from 'playing around with it'. Tutorial and manuals cause ADD in me.
Paige, you can download a free 30 day trial of Painter X from the Corel website -- course you do need a tablet to get the real effect of a pencil or brush.
Try it! It'll cut your "busy work" in half and you can always go to paints when you want to give a job more love.
Thanks for info on the trial! I'm downloading it now - I think I have my old wacom tablet around here somewhere from years ago...
I wanted to thank you so much for your wonderful content you have here.
Best
Ernie
http://www.erniefidanza.com
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