I received an annual report about my blog from WordPress. I’m thrilled! If interested, do click to see the full report. According to the report, visitors to the blog represented 177 countries. Last year I had visitors from 169 countries. My mind boggles at those numbers. WordPress started tracking the countries in Feb of 2012, and since that time I have had visitors from 183 countries. The world is a smaller place today.
Happy New Year and thank you so very much for visiting and following my blog.
Love you all!
Skip
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 290,000 times in 2013. If it were an exhibit at the Louvre Museum, it would take about 12 days for that many people to see it.
I was looking through a folder where I save test or experimental images and noticed an image of a Rose that I cloned from a beautiful photograph by Melissa Gallo.…thank you Melissa for allowing me to use your photograph. I didn’t mean to finish this image; it is just a test piece. I was testing a cloner brush, and I discovered what I needed to know and stopped working on the image.
Test image created in Corel Painter X3, Custom Oil Cloner Brush
As you can see, the image is a bit rough, but interesting I think. I wondered if I could do something to the image that would complete it. I decided to video the process and share with you.
In the first video, I duplicated the canvas layer and changed the composite method to gel. Gel composite method is transparent and over the canvas layer it tends to darken the image and add richness to the colors, but the values darken. Using a layer mask, I show how to reclaim some of the lighter values.
The image after video 1
In video two I use Adjust Colors from the Effects Menu. This function allows you to change hue, saturation, and value similar to the way the Underpainting Panel works. But Adjust Colors has an extra powerful feature; it can use Uniform Color, Paper, Image Luminance, or Original Luminance as guides. Using Image Luminance is my favorite way to use Adjust Colors. Adjust colors is global, unless you use a selection and then only the area within the selection changes.
The image after video 2. Notice the subtle color changes?
Another great function under the Effects Menu is Adjust Selected Colors. It is different from Adjust Colors because you can select a single color or range of colors to change…it isn’t global. And, like Adjust Colors you can constrain the changes to within a selection, which I did not demonstrate. Video 3 will show you how to use Adjust Selected Colors.
Adjust Selected Colors I believe is more powerful than Adjust Colors. This is the image after Video 3
In the last video, I use Stroke Attributes, which is a brushes function. Not all brushes can use Stroke Attributes, but the most can. It is like painting with composite methods constrained to the brush stroke instead of covering the layer. It is a little difficult to explain verbally, but easy to explain in a video and very easy to use. After doing this video, I believe Stroke Attributes is a technique that fits well into the cloning workflow. Check out the last video.
The last painting after video 4
I think I said somewhere in one of the videos that when demonstrating I some of the time overwork an image or don’t notice a flaw. As I was posting this image, I realized that I should have reduced the scale of the Artist Canvas paper. It doesn’t look right at the present scale…so if you try these techniques…do check your scale setting on your paper to see if it looks correct with the size of your image.
OK, I guess that’s it for this post. Thanks again to Melissa Gallo for allowing me to use her wonderful photograph. Check out her site; you will be glad that you did.
I want to thank all you for visiting my blog this year. I want to especially thank folks who have thought enough of the blog to donate; I appreciate you more than you know. You encourage me to keep blogging.
I wish you all good health, good fun, prosperity, peace and happiness in the coming year. Happy, Happy New Year!!!
There are new drivers available from Wacom. It appears that I missed the ones posted on 10/15/13 for Macs. There is a new set posted on 12/10/13 for Window Users. The drivers are for Cintiq Companion Products, Cintiq Products, Intuos Pro, and Intuos. There is a driver posted 12/19/13 for Bamboo Tablets. Like I said, all the ones posted in December are for Windows users, the October posts are for Macs.
I did update to the latest driver because I was having a couple of issues and I am on an Intuos 5. If you are not having issues, I’m not sure you would need to update your driver if you are on an older tablet.
Don’t forget to back up your preferences before you uninstall and install.
I have made a new brush set called HOS 2013 Florals for Painter X3. PLEASE NOTE: These brushes are for Painter X3 only; do not try to install in any other version of Painter. I had planned to introduce the brushes to the blog first, but I was having so much fun with them, I decided to introduce them in the Holiday Open Studio class at the Digital Art Academy, which is why I named them, HOS 2013 Florals. HOS stands for Holiday Open Studio.
Anyway, I am making them available here, too, plus I have added 10 videos showing how I use some of the brushes to create this painting.
Painting created in Painter X3 using watercolors, specifically my new set called HOS 2013 Florals
I hope you enjoy the videos. I tried to make them around 5 minutes long, but toward the end, I did get a bit verbose. In the first video, I set up the paper layer and added a beautiful painting by Monet to the mixer pad, which allows me to use the color scheme of Monet’s painting.
I create a simple sketch in the second video.
Next, I create the background. Here is video 3.
In video 4, I am using two new brushes, Basic Watercolor and Basic Watercolor 2
In video 5 I show the use of a layer mask.
I create another layer mask in video 6. In both video 5 and 6 I use a new brush called Channel Painter.
In video 7 I use a new brush called Dark Edged Wash. I brought back several older favorite brushes and added them to this category. Thick and Thin 17 from Cool Springs is an example.
I use a layer command called Lift Canvas to Watercolor Layer in the eighth video. This command is a must for working in watercolor in Painter.
Finally, I bet you are tired of waiting, I use Flower Maker and Flower Painter; the two flower brushes included in HOS 2013 Florals. And, guess what? You find out that it was the paper making the flowers all along.
The tenth video shows finishing touches. I hope you enjoyed the series.
There are three downloads for this post; the brushes, the suminagashi papers, and a flow map library. I didn’t use a flow map in this demonstration, but several of the brushes can use flow maps. I would use the Paint Jam 2 Flow maps provided in a earlier post.
The suminagashi papers would not have been possible without David Gell’s wonderful Suminagashi 2 Brushes. David has a new site devoted to Painter X3 called Jitter Brush – X3 and Beyond. Thank you David for all that you do for the Painter Community. I have learned more about brushes from you than anyone else.
OK friends, I think that about covers it for this post. Enjoy and I hope each and every one of you have a Happy Holiday and a fabulous New Year.
Andy Church posted the following at Painter Factory on November 14:
“UPDATE 3 (Thursday November 14th, 5:00 pm ET)
The Painter X3 Service Pack and official 10.9 OSX support is coming out next week. Thanks for your patience and please stay tuned for more news about P12 support for Mavericks. ”
If I am reading this correctly, then we should have the Corel Painter X3 service pack and support for Mavericks sometime this week. I’ll post a note as soon as I see that the update is available.
We are now in the process of doing detailed testing in order to certify Painter X3 on OSX 10.9. Issues have been discovered and the following fixes are going through testing.
Sliders will now appear correctly.
Adding a nozzle to the library no longer causes the application to stop responding.
Adding an image to the Image Portfolio no longer causes the application to stop responding.
Capturing a pattern no longer causes the application to stop responding.
The completion of purchasing X3 from a trial will no longer cause the application to stop responding
The team will also conduct final, rigorous testing and validate the fixes across all our supported languages.
Please note, when we release the Painter X3 Service Pack 1, it will include 20 other documented issues we uncovered after the release of Painter X3. The patch will be released within one to two weeks, depending on our final set of rigorous tests. We will update you with the final release date as we progress in the coming few more days.
With regard to Painter 12 users wanting to upgrade to Mavericks (OSX 10.9)
This is something we are exploring and will get back to the community with a subsequent update. The team is very consumed with 64-bit MAC support. As you may well appreciate, patching Painter 12 for Mavericks is somewhat at odds with getting 64-bit Mac out the door in 2014.
This just in from the Andy Church and the Painter Team:
Apple announced that the new operating system, Mavericks was ready for FREE download on Tuesday October 22nd. Based on historical release practices at Apple, our team was not expecting this until late November.
As of today, October 23rd, Painter X3 does not completely support Mavericks. To maintain your current user experience with Painter, we would recommend you NOT upgrade to Mavericks at this time.
We are looking at the overall user experience of the final version of Mavericks and we are assessing any required code changes we need to make.
Later this week we will communicate when we expect to have full support for Mavericks. Thank you in advance for your consideration.
Wacom posted new drivers for the PC on 10/07/2013 and for the Mac on 10/15/2013. I had missed the posts, so thank you to my friend Miguel for telling me about the new releases.
The new releases are only for the newer products, but I do think that the site is a little confusing. So to make sure I understood what was up, I wrote Wacom Support and received excellent guidance from Travis Hackett, Tier 3 Support Technician. When you go to the driver download site, you see a rather large array of drivers listed, for instance a Cintiq Hybrid, Cintiq, Intuos Pro, Intuos (previously called Bamboo), etc. Just match your product with the proper driver.
If you have an Intuos 4 or another older tablet, then you would check the legacy driver site for the correct driver to use. Those drivers have not changed since the September 3, 2013 release.
It pleases me to announce several new Corel Painter X3 classes available for registration now. You will love them all!
Holiday Open Studio
It is time for the Digital Art Academy’s annual Holiday Open Studio. Corel Master Painter Karen Bonaker teaches two weeks with Elaina Moore-Kelly and myself each taking a week. Want four, fun-filled weeks full of painting Holiday Cheer? Then do join us for this special seasonal class. Holiday Open Studio starts November 9, 2013; closes for Thanksgiving week, and restarts on November 30, 2013. The dates are Open November 9 – November 22; Closed November 23 – November 29; Open again November 30 – December 13.
As a teaser, here is an image by Karen. She demonstrates how to create lovely images like this one.
Image by Corel Master Painter Karen Bonaker; Subject for Holiday Open Studio
Elaina Moore-Kelly is well-known for her “Intro Courses for Corel Painter.” Part 1 of her Introduction to Corel Painter X3 is open for registration.
I know, you have used Painter for a several years and you don’t need an introduction course to Painter. Or, maybe you are just starting with Painter and are utilizing all the videos you can find on You Tube or various blogs, and you don’t think you need an Introduction course. Phooey on that. Yes, I am telling you, the advanced user and beginner, that you are very wrong.
Corel Painter is a very complex piece of software, which means it is difficult to learn. Time and again, experienced users surprise me with their shallow knowledge of Corel Painter. Yes, you can get by with limited knowledge and create stunning works, but imagine what you could produce if you knew the program more intimately. Extra knowledge improves work flow, too. Trust me; a second look at Painter is a “win-win” situation. The benefits you gain will more than justify the small cost of this class. If you are a beginner, the class prepares you to properly use all the bells and whistles of Corel Painter X3.
Elaina’s classes are beautifully crafted. The class is open enrollment, which means you can register at any time and work the assignments at your own pace. You may download all materials and use them when needed. Register for Introduction to Corel Painter X3, Part 1 now.
Skip Allen Paints 