This is just a quick announcement to let you know that the Intous Wacom Driver I announced here is now back up and available for download.  I didn’t check for Cintiq or other Wacom Products.  I am not sure this is available for other countries or not.  The driver I downloaded indicated it was World Wide except for Eruope, Africa, and the Middle East.  Check at the Wacom site for those countries.  Wacom added a new feature.  You can see my video about it here.

That’s all for now…post again soon,

Skip

Corel Master Painter Karen Bonaker and I had a webinar today demonstrating what is new in Painter 12.1.  Karen recorded the session and we have the recording available for you to download.  We hope you enjoy it and find it useful.  Thanks to all those that attended.

What’s new in Painter 12.1 webinar recording.

I really love Painter 12.1 and I know you will too.  The new brush management system is fantastic.  Thank you Corel Painter Developers.

Have fun with Painter 12.1,

Skip

I’m falling behind keeping you updated on the Painter 12.1.  But my best friend, Corel Master Painter Karen Bonaker is right on the mark.  Do visit Karen Bonaker Art for some terrific and exciting news about Painter 12.1.

Enjoy,

Skip

Here are the basic details:

Join Skip Allen and I as we take you through the new additions to Painter 12.1. We will cover many of the new features and take questions as well. Hope to see you there! Reserve early as seats are limited.

Date: Monday January 16th, 9am Pacific Standard Time

Topics Covered:

• Brush Management
• Brush Categories
• Exporting and Importing Variants, Categories, and Libraries
• Enhanced Brush Preview
• Workspaces
• Mixer Pad
• Plugins
• Cloning with Crosshairs showing

Be sure to jump on over to Karen Bonaker Art to register.  Once again, register early due to limited seating.

“You didn’t say limited seating, did you?”

“Hi Kevin,” he startled me but I didn’t yelp.  “Yes, I did say that.  What of it?”

 Sanctimoniously he replied, “It is a virtual meeting dummy.  There are plenty of seats at the viewer’s residence or office.  You have a limited places for attendees.”

Sometimes I hate that virus, no matter that he claims he is a good virus.

“And, BTW, where is the new computer? I am ready to move into my new home.”

“Keep it up Kevin, and I may change my mind about letting you stay.  If you must know, Dell/Alienware has delayed the order once again.  Currently, the delivery date is Jan 19.  As far as I know it is still in stage one of production.  I have order several computers from Dell and I have never gotten one delivered when promised.  I guess they over promise and under deliver.”

“Why do you keep buying from them?”

“I don’t know.  I am beginning to think misguided loyalty.  Receiving delay notifications takes all the fun out of getting a new computer.  Such a bad marketing technique,” I said with a sigh.

Don’t forget to register for the webinar…it is going to be fun.

Here’s an excerpt:

The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 76,000 times in 2011. If it were an exhibit at the Louvre Museum, it would take about 3 days for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Registration is open for the first session of 2012 at Digital Art Academy (DAA).  The first session begins on January 28 and ends on Feb 24.  DAA focuses on Corel Painter, specifically Painter 12, although we still have a few self-study courses for Painter 11 active. 

Start your New Year off right and join us and explore the wonderful world of Corel Painter. You will find out all you need to know about each class by visiting DAA, but I will give you an idea of the offerings in the first session.

Core Courses

An Image Created in Painter 12 by Elaina Moore-Kelly

If you are brand new to Painter 12 or are an experienced user that would like a refresher course, then Elaina Moore-Kelly has the classes for you.  Elaina teaches Introduction to Painter 12 – Part 1 and Introduction to Painter 12 – Part 2.  Elaina’s class is very detailed and covers all the important parts of Corel Painter 12.  Elaina uses PDFs for her lessons with a video or two mixed in.  I have worked with Elaina beta testing Corel Painter 11 and 12, but she started beta testing Corel Painter with version 7, I believe.  Elaina knows Painter 12 as well as the developers I will venture to say.  If you want detailed knowledge of Painter 12, take these classes.

Image from Week 4 Painter 12 A New Beginning

If you have a good working knowledge of Painter 11 or X and you want to know what is new in Painter 12, then my Painter 12 A New Beginning is the course for you.  I designed this course for a current Corel Painter user who is new to Painter 12.  There is a lot of new stuff in Painter 12; this course covers it all.  Discover all the mysteries of Corel Painter 12 in four short weeks.

So, you haven’t upgraded to Corel Painter 12 and want to discover all about Corel Painter 11.  Or maybe you are an experienced user of Corel Painter 11 and want a refresher course.  My three Corel Painter 11 Courses, Introduction to Corel Painter 11 the Basics, Introduction to Corel Painter 11 Beyond the Basics, and Corel Painter 11 Selections, Channels and Masks are available for self-study.

Painter Professional Courses

There is a new instructor at DAA.  If you are a fan of digital watercolor in Corel Painter, then I bet Joan Hamilton is no stranger to you.    I am so excited that Joan is joining us at DAA.  If you haven’t looked at her blog, then please do so.  You will love it.

Image from Joan's Watercolor Class

Joan’s first class is Learning to Paint Elements in the Watercolor Landscape with Corel Painter 12.  Joan works with both watercolor type variants in Painter 12, but steers clear of the new Real Watercolor variants because they are so memory hungry.  Trust me, you will not miss working with those variants; Joan has fine tuned her craft and shares her secretes with you.  If you love watercolor, this is a must take course.

Landscape developed from Splashes, The Basics of Watercolor in Painter 12

My watercolor class, The Basics of Watercolor in Corel Painter 12, offered again this session, focuses on Painter 12 and the new watercolor variants, Real Watercolor.  This class teaches to splash the paint around and develop landscapes from happy accidents.  Through practice, the students brush handling abilities strengthen.  As usual, I will have a few optional live classes as well, which are a lot of fun.  I plan to have Part 2 available for session 2.

Image made with variants created in The Basics of Brush Making in Painter 12

Art Rage

All Undone, Image from ArtRage Pro 3.5

Corel Master Painter Karen Bonaker’s class, ArtRage-Brush Course-Watercolor and What’s New in ArtRage 3.5, updated to include the new 3.5 version strikes my fancy.  If you love ArtRage and watercolors, don’t miss this course.  Karen is one of the best teachers around and is so very creative in all that she does.  The class includes weekly live sessions as well as videos.  How to paint, how to make watercolor brushes, and what’s new in ArtRage 3.5 are covered in the course. You need ArtRage Studio Pro version 3.5 to take this class. 

I think that about covers it.  Do check out the details of course offerings at DAA.

Hope to see you in a class,

Skip

Are you ready for Gold Leaf variants in Painter?  Do you know how to turn objects and letters into gold?  Read on, you are in for a treat.

Edit: 12/21/2011  Corel Master Painter Karen Bonaker posted about gold on Karen Bonaker Art, and she gave some beautiful examples of how the gold can work on images. Don’t delay and go visit her blog; it is wonderful. I love her work. I am especially taken with her sumi-e bamboo with added gold leaf. Then return here and enjoy my take on this technique that Karen developed. 

We just finished Holiday Open Studio at the Digital Art Academy, and it was a blast.  The first week Master Painter Karen Bonaker taught us useful techniques for making flower paintings.  She gave us some very fine brushes, too.  I taught the second week.  The subject was snow landscapes in watercolor; we used the new brush sets, Cool Spring and Drips and Runs.  Elaina Moore-Kelly showed wonderful Holiday Card techniques in the third week.  But the fourth week really caught my attention.

In the fourth week Master Painter Karen Bonaker came back to teach how to paint Holiday Wreaths.  A few days before, she showed me a technique she was going to use that she called adding gold leaf.  Her demo fascinated me.  She even used one of the Bristly Dab variants to create the brush that she used for gold leaf.  My mind filled with possibilities and I was off and running to make some Gold Brush Variants. 

They are surprisingly easy to make.  I quickly made a few and posted them for the participants in Holiday Open Studio.  My friend and brush mentor, Master Brush Maker David Gell, graciously took the brushes and made them backward compatible for Painter IX and above.  But that is not all; he added a number of gold variants of his own.  And they are so super!!!  Thank you David for all that you do for us.

David gave me permission to post his brushes along with mine for you to download.  I know you will have fun with them.

The variants use Window > Brush Control Panels > Color Variability Panel command “From Gradient,” but I am getting ahead of myself.  I have a video for you.  Enjoy!

Hope you enjoyed the video and like what you saw.  Since the brushes use “From Gradient,” I decided to do two videos about making gradients in Painter.  This first video shows you how to capture a gradient.  It is very easy.  Enjoy!

There is a second method for making gradients called “Edit Gradient.”  I demonstrated using the Two Point gradient, but you could edit any default gradient.  Enjoy!

The final video explains how to turn text into gold or any object for that matter.  To do it, you need a “Reflection Map.”  Don’t let that strange-sounding name throw you.  I’ll explain all about it in the video.  Oh, OK, it is just another term for clone. You’ll see.  Enjoy!

OK, that’s it for the videos.  I will provide a download link for the brushes and reflection maps at the end of this post.  But I promised Painter 11 and X users I would explain how to delete a gradient.  Here goes:

1. Open the Gradient Palette, Window > Library Palettes > Gradients.
2. Click on the Options Button or Fly Out Menu and select Gradient Mover.
3. When the Grad Mover opens, you can select any gradient and hit delete. 

I think that is it for the tutorials; now for the download.  This link will give you the Gold and Gold Leaf Plus brushes and Reflection Maps.  I hope you enjoy them.

Gold Stuff Download

Just to give you an idea of how these brushes work and what you can do with them.  I took an old watercolor painting and added gold lettering and gold leaf.  It isn’t all that successful, but it does illustrate the point.  And it is my way of saying to each of you, have the Happiest of Holidays!!!

An Old Watercolor done in Painter 11 and embellished with Gold in Painter 12

 ”Am I going to get a present?”

“Good grief Kevin.  You have been so quiet I almost forgot about you.”

“Yes, I am being so good, so I get a present, right?” he squealed in his high pitch computer virus voice.  The sound is so annoying.

“Why would viruses get a present…Santa Claus doesn’t like viruses.”

“But you are Santa Claus!  I’ve seen the picture!”

I was beginning to get miffed.  It doesn’t take much with Kevin.  “I am not Santa Claus, but I did get you a present.”

“Go on, you did, really?  Is it a really, really big present?  That is what I want a really, really big present.”

“I don’t know if you would describe a new home as a really big present, but that is what I got you.”

“You are sending me away?  Please don’t send me away.  I am a very good virus.”

“No Kevin, I am not sending you away.  I told you I was going to buy a new computer and I bought it yesterday.”

“But you said you were not going to let me live in the new computer.”

“I know, I know.  I guess it is the Holiday Spirit getting to me, but I decided you can stay.  The computer doesn’t arrive until Jan 6th, so you better stay good until then…or I’ll revoke my decision,” I sternly warned.  It isn’t good to let him think he is home free.

“Yippee!  I am the happiest of viruses!  What did you get?  Is it fast?  Will I be able to zip around and up and down?”

“I think you will like it.  I got an Alienware Aurora with ALX Chassis.  The basic specs are:

• Processor: Intel Core i7-3960X (Six Core Extreme, 15MB Cashe) Overclocked up to 4.2Ghz
• Memory: 16GB Quad Channel DDR3 at 16  MHz
• Hard Drive: 2TB Raid 1+0 (4x 1TB SATA 3Gb/s) 7200 RPM
• Video Card: Dual 2GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon HD 6950 – AMD CrossFireX Enabled

What do you think about that?”

He purred, “I think it is dreamy.  Are we going to play games?”

“I am, but you are not.  Don’t get pushy on me.  You are getting a bigger room and your own bathroom, so count your blessings.”

“I don’t see why you get to play and I don’t.”

“Oh good grief, Kevin.  Let’s call it a wrap.”

Happy Holidays,

Skip

I am still planning another video on cloning that will be a bit more complex than the cloning techniques with the Cardinal in an earlier post.  I will use selections, channels, and layer masks in the technique.  I thought it is best to cover those topics before we get to the cloning to make sure we are all on the same page.  I am not covering selections  in the cloning process; I will do that in the cloning video.  I designed these video tutorials to give you an understanding of selections in general.

The first video is about basic selections, which most of you will already know.  You can skip it if you like, unless of course, you are new to Painter, then I would suggest you watch it.

The next video covers a topic that is new for a lot of you.  Auto Select is a very powerful selection tool and allows you to select things like Paper Texture or Image Luminance.  It is a very cool feature; I am sure you will want to check it out.

Third video may also be new for you.  It is about Color Select, which allows you to select a range of colors.  Again, this is very cool stuff.

I wasn’t sure I wanted to add the last video using Auto Select with Off Set Sampling, but decided to include it.  Using Off Set Sampling is the only way I know to use certain parts of Auto Select.  Combining the two features is amazing.  It seems complex at first, but once you get used to setting it up, the features are very useful.

OK…that’s it for this post.  As always, please feel free to post a comment and I will try to answer any questions you may have.  Don’t forget, if you want notification via email when I make a post, be sure to become a subscriber.

Enjoy,

Skip

Corel Master Painter Karen Bonaker has posted her second post in her series about making paper.  This one is all about making a fractal pattern and then capturing as a paper.  These types of papers make great papers to show case the runny aspects of watercolor.  She has some beautiful examples of using them in a number of ways.  Here is one example:

Corel Master Painter Karen Bonaker's Example of a Special Paper Texture

I love that painting; great way to show rain.  Go visit Karen’s Blog right away.  Creating Fractal Pattern Paper Textures

Enjoy,

Skip

Karen Bonaker at Karen Bonaker Art is providing a series of video tutorials about paper.  It will be comprehensive and free…sounds great right.  I’m sure it is.  She mentions that she will be demonstrating papers that will go with Cool Spring and Drips and Runs Categories.  So head on over to Karen Bonaker Art and check it out.  You will be glad that you did.

Enjoy,

Skip