Hello Everyone,
A week or two ago, Marie left a comment about the Traditional Colors of Japan. She posted two links; The Traditional Colors of Japan from Wikipedia and from Ki Do Raku Japan – Traditional Colors of Japan. They are both terrific but the first one gave RGB equivalents for the colors. That meant that I could create the color in Painter and add it to a color set. Why would I want to, I hear you saying. Good question.
I’m fond of the art of Japan and China, well all of Asia. The color is a major part of the attraction for me. So, when I saw a site that had all the colors listed, I had to make a color set for myself. I cannot tell you that the set is accurate. Color management on the Web is non-existent, which doesn’t matter in this case, as long as the RGB numbers are correct. I have no way of knowing if they are.
The Traditional colors of Japan have an interesting history. Apparently they date back to 603…that’s quite a history. That is all I know. I haven’t taken the time to research the colors.
Once I made the set, I tried a simple watercolor with colors only from the set. I can’t say the painting was a rousing success, but I can say that I do love the color set. While painting, I used several new brushes that have not been published. Last time that disappointed many folks because they wanted to follow along. So this time I provided a brush category that has all the brushes used. Look for all the downloads at the end of the post.
Here is the image that I created. After finishing, I did use the default equalize and then faded it by 50%. I didn’t show that in the video. The flowers are forsythia.
Forsythia Flowers, Corel Painter 12.2, Watercolor
And for your viewing pleasure…or not…here is the video of painting process. Sorry it is so long; I hadn’t planned on it being over 25 or 30 minutes…oh well. I hope you enjoy it.
You can get the color set, the brushes used for the Forsythia Painting and the Airbrush Wet’s Paper category from the following links:
I hope I remembered all the brushes and stuff. If I left something out, please let me know.
Enjoy,
Skip
Beautiful colors…thanks for the video, really appreciated.
Hey Banana,
I hope you enjoy those colors. I really like them and hope others will.
Big Hugs,
Skip
Hi Skip! You helped me with my art pen; now, you have given me inspiration to do a watercolor. I’m taking traditional watercolor, and I feel so limited with them. Now, I’m going to try digital. Thank you.
Hey…glad I was able to help with the art pen…hope you are enjoying it. Traditional watercolor is tough, and digital isn’t much easier, but we do have undo and layers, layer masks, and pause diffusion to control the flow. There are definitely advantages to digital.
Have fun,
Skip
Hi Skip,
Love this. I’m in the process of learning to use traditional watercolors and this video gives me some great ideas. Thanks so much.
Elaina
Hey Elaina,
I’m jealous. I really need to go and buy some traditional watercolors. I haven’t painted with traditional watercolor in at least 40 years…LOL…my how time flies. I can’t wait to see your traditional work. Will you post them on your blog or at Painter Talk?
skip
Oh boy, this is exactly the inspiration I need to try out some watercolor painting in Painter Skip. Thanks so much for the brushes and color palettes. I saw the colors at the TAQ meeting and was hoping you were going to share them….Wonderfu….Emms
Thanks Emms,
You always amaze me. You are a natural at whatever you do, and now that you have your brand new shiny cintiq, there will be no stopping you. I will be looking forward to seeing your watercolor done in Painter. It was the interest that was generated at the TAQ meeting that prompted me to finish the color set and make it available.
Big hugs,
Skip
Wow Skip! This was so inspiring! I have really been burned out on digital painting, but after seeing this I am eager to plug in my Wacom again. I don’t have an Art Pen, but I still want to give it a try. What you have done here is the closest to traditional water effects that I have ever seen. Well done!
Hey Eva,
You don’t have to have an art pen. If the Filled 3 – Fixed 3 variant doesn’t work for your grip pen, try changing the expression in the Angle brush control panel to direction. I thought I was subscribed to your blog; I know I had visited before. I just took another look and it is a wonderful blog. I subscribed for sure this time. Hope to see some Painter watercolors displayed soon.
Skip
Wow Skip, what a treasure of colors you have created. They are rich and luscious. Thanks so much for all your time and effort to create this wonderful color set as well as sharing it with others. You are so generous.
Thanks Kathy,
I’m really enjoying the color set, too. I’ve been playing with some opaques this morning and I love the colors with opaque paint, too. I know these colors are not any different from other colors created in Painter, but for some reason I am drawn to them. I think a lot of it has to do with the history of the colors as well as the tradition. Some apparently were forbidden to all but the royal families. I don’t know which ones. I really need to do some research on the Traditional Colors of Japan.
Big Hugs,
Skip
Brilliant stuff, Skip! Thank you so much!
You are most welcome “H”.
Big Hugs,
Skip
Hi Again Skip. I just did a quick doodle with them with a brush variant I made from one of your brushes. Mine is opaque with a tad of watercolor accents. For me it is the rich saturation of the colors that are just so dynamic and exciting. Oh, and I posted my doodle on Painter Talk in the Doodle thread. Thanks again for all the work it took to put these together in a palette that we can use digitally. Your the best!
Ooooo. Kathy, I just looked at the doodle at Painter Talk. It is scrumptious. I love the colors with opaque images.
Thanks bunches for posting,
Skip
Thanks for the brushes and the great color palette. Very generous of you,
Thank you so much Kerry. I hope you enjoy them.
Skip
Hi Skip. Thanks so much for the new color set and variants and for all you do.
I have an unrelated question regarding autopainting. I have seen the following happen in one of your demonstrations in one of DAA classes and it happens almost all the time when I autopaint.
You start to see the brushstrokes and then it kind of zones out and you need to wait till the process finishes to see the end result. The problem is…how can you end the process prior to completion if you can’t see the progress?
Do you know why this happens and how to prevent it? I’ve got a new system with RAM up the wah wah and a sophisticated graphics card and I just don’t know why this is happening. Any suggestions?
Thanks a bunch. Hope to see you in class soon.
Jill Balsam
Hi Jill,
There isn’t any fix for the problem that you are having and I’m not sure the reason for it. I have always said that the screen graphics cannot update quick enough. Ram helps, but not the video card. Painter doesn’t utilize the Ram on the video card. It doesn’t bother me because I can usually guess when to stop. If I miss, it isn’t hard to redo.
I should have a new class or two very soon.
Skip
Skip, great work. I was able to download the Forsythia and Airbrush categories, however, when I try and download the Japanese Traditional Colors, I get a message in Painter 12 that the file cannot be opened. Any trick to get this file to load? Thanks
Yikes, you are the second person who cannot load the color sets. But everyone else can.
1. Make sure you have the latest version of Painter 12…Painter 12.2 SP1
2. Open Painter, go to your Color Set Panel and click on the option button up in the top right corner.
3. From the list, select import Color Set
4. Then navigate to the place that you have the color set saved and select it and click open.
That should do it. If you still have trouble, please tell me the exact steps that you are using. Start from the download and what does the download file look like. Is it Traditional Colors of Japan.colors?
Skip
Skip. Great work. I was able to download the Forsythia and Airbrush categories however, when I tried to import the Japanese Traditional colors, I get a message in Painter 12 that the file cannot be opened. The two brush categories uploaded without an issue. Any thoughts about the color chart. Thanks
Yikes, you are the second person who cannot load the color sets. But everyone else can.
1. Make sure you have the latest version of Painter 12…Painter 12.2 SP1
2. Open Painter, go to your Color Set Panel and click on the option button up in the top right corner.
3. From the list, select import Color Set
4. Then navigate to the place that you have the color set saved and select it and click open.
That should do it. If you still have trouble, please tell me the exact steps that you are using. Start from the download and what does the download file look like. Is it Traditional Colors of Japan.colors?
Skip
Skip, thank you, thank you! You are the best! Always listening to us and donating these amazing brushes, papers, color sets… as well as inspiring us with the most beautiful paintings.
Thank you so much for your kind comment. I’m just having fun with Painter myself, and I love to share the joy.
Skip
Well Skip, I think it was a lovely painting! Thanks for the colorset, really just showing us how to make the set was enough but I won’t say no to it, lol. The videos on the Art Pen were great and I have now talked my husband into buying me one and it arrives tomorrow, yaa. I want to try out my decorative painting techniques with it.
Hey Debbie…so now your husband is mad at me, right? I hope you like the art pen; I do. Can’t wait to see the results.
Thanks bunches,
Skip
Thank you for your classes and for those wonderful gifts
Hey Mary,
I so enjoy looking at the work you post on FB. You are an exceptional artist. I’m so glad that you are finding my stuff useful.
Thanks,
Skip
Thanks Skip, I’m really glad that you like my work. you’re very kind. I loved your tutorial and brushes, this afternoon I made a painting following your tutorial. Thank you very much
Hey Mary,
I’m excited that you have used the tutorial. I would love to see the results, so I hope you post it.
Skip
I started my painting last night and am genuinely excited to be working with watercolors. I love watching your process as it gives me a lot of insight not only with how to use Painter, but also with actual painting techniques. I have much to learn, but that’s fine by me…the process and journey are incredibly rewarding!
Thank you, Skip, for all that you create and share – like everyone here, I, too, think you’re amazing!!
I definitely will have to follow up on the Painter Talk membership, so that I can post my work there. Would love to see what everyone else is doing!!!
Marie
Hey Marie,
So glad to hear this. Looking forward to seeing you on Painter Talk.
Skip
Hi Skip:
Thanks for the Japanese brushers and color set. I love these colors, too.
Aren’t they great. I have really been enjoying them.
Have fun,
Skip
Thanks a lot Skip for the color set. I downloaded it with hopes of using it in Painter 7. I found out I could if I changed .colors to .txt . It seems to open up ok. Looking forward to using them.
Brilliant Rick. I’ve never tried that and I should have exported the color set as a text file for earlier versions, but forgot about it. Glad you got it working.
Well Skip,
Your calling has been revitalized. New Painter X3 and these new colors have brought out the Shepard of the Painter flock again. Thanks for a great demonstration of these colors and for the X3 demos. Lots for you to do now.
Hey Harry,
I love your comments. And I really appreciate them.
Thanks my friend,
Skip
I just love this, very surreal to me. I haven’t worked with watercolors much, so this will be my chance. Thank you for the tool and tutorial.
I’m so glad you are finding the tutorial useful and interesting.
Thanks,
Skip
Thanks Skip, for this fine video tutorial. I have always loved working with traditional watercolor, although (like you) I haven’t done any for many years — since going 100% digital 20 years ago. Painter’s ability to simulate natural watercolor is very exciting! Painter’s watercolor brushes — especially with their Flow features — are peerless.
Hey David,
Thanks for the nice comment. I was just playing with watercolor and working on flow. I think I am getting closer and closer to the real thing. Did you hear that I broke down and bought some traditional watercolor. I can’t believe it; what was I thinking. I have played a little bit and it isn’t as hard as I remembered. But, it is giving me a new perspective on making the brushes work like traditional ones.
Loads of fun,
Skip
Hi Skip,
I just thought that you would like 465 colors from the KI DO RAKU web page (2nd link).
I wrote Python script to process those colors and make this painter pallete file.
It really took me 15 min.
Here they are (just copy and paste it from there, and name the file):
http://justpaste.it/cy4p
p.s.
I didn’t yet tested it, but I will later this evening 😉
Kind Regards,
Zen.
Hi Zen
I am not sure what is happening. When I go to the just paste it site and select all of the text, copy it, and use ctrl V to paste, I do not get the list. If I go to Edit > the paste command is grayed out as if I never copied the list. I would love to have the list, but it isn’t working for me at the Pate site.
Skip
Hi Skip,
sorry about that.
I’m sure one of these will work:
http://rapidshare.com/share/856362EC6408B8B3008F9E6B432E56CD
http://pastebin.com/n46ydXp9
Regards,
Zen.
Hi Zen…
Thank you very much. It is a beautiful color set. I was able to copy the raw data from Pastebin to notepad and saved as Kidoraku.txt. Debbie changed the extension to .colors and that worked. I didn’t change the extension because Painter can read a .txt file for a color set. I just went to my color set option button and selected import legacy color set. Once the window opens, I hit the down arrow next to file type and selected .txt and it opened flawlessly. It is fantastic. Now that I have it in Painter X3, may I share it with the followers of my blog?
Thank you again…it really is a very nice color set. Not exactly like the one I had, but I do see some of the same color names. I love it.
Skip
I’m glad you made it Skip.
I think you’re fine to share it as far as you address originator (Kudoraku website).
btw. when you have .colors extension OSX recognizes it as pallete file and render nice icon (pallete).
Then you can have it stored somewhere on HDD for future Painters 😉
I still learn how to draw properly with watercolors in Painter. They are such demanding medium. Did you understand it better, now, when you learn from traditional (physical) watercolors?
Thanks for sharing Skip.
Zen.
Hi Zen,
I sent a note to the folks of kidoraku website. I asked for permission to share the color sets with my blog followers, but as of yet I have not heard from them.
When I first started using watercolor and Corel painter, it had been 40 years since I had painted with traditional watercolor. I watched many many videos of folks working with traditional watercolor to learn how to use it in painter. Recently I purchased some traditional watercolor and have been practicing on my own. It has been very, very helpful. It has changed the way I think about brushes and Corel painter.
Thanks again for the information about the traditional Japanese colors.
Skip
Hi Skip, Have you had any luck yet? I just did a copy by selecting the top and scrolling to the bottom to select all the text. I then pasted (Ctrl-V) into Notepad. Saved as a .txt file then changed the extension to .colors and imported into Corel Painter X3. It worked. I’d post the file here but I don’t see how to.
Cheers,
Debbie
PS: Thanks, Zen.
Hi Debbie,
Sorry for the delay…I was tied up with family stuff and Painter Jam. Yes, I have copied the raw data into note book and saved as a .txt. You do not need to change the extension. Painter can read a color set as a .txt file. Go to Color sets option button like you did and select import legacy color sets. When the window opens, down in the bottom right corner you will see Color Sets (.colors,.PCS) and a down arrow. Click on the down arrow and you will see Text files (*.txt), which will bring the set in the same way you brought your set in by changing the extension. Kudos for figuring out to change the extension!!!
The set is beautiful!!!
Skip
Just to add to these Japanese colour sets, I came across this painted version of the colour over at deviant art http://mllebienvenu.deviantart.com/art/Traditional-Japanese-Color-Palette-Corel-Painter-334219857,
What with being able to place an image in the mixer pad this is another great way to use the colour set.
Very cool. I am going to tell them to come get the color set I provided.
Thanks Debbie…
Skip