Category Archives: Skip Allen & Painter 12

Corel Painter 2022 Released Today

Posted by Skip Allen on

OMGosh, you are going to love the new Painter. Don’t even think about it…buy it. In my opinion, this is the best version since Painter 2012-1. And as usual, I will have a “What’s New Class” called Corel Painter 2022, the Year of the Dab. You can register at :

https://www.digitalartacademy.com/courses/For-Sale-Painter-2022-Year-of-the-Dab

Multiple media painted on compatible layers.

Check out this quick video:

Following is a list of new features.

List of Features:

New! Brush Library experience

The first thing you’re likely to notice in Corel Painter 2022 is the new brush library. It has been meticulously overhauled in every way. There are fresh, modern icons designed for every brush category. And the categories themselves have been renamed, reorganized, and streamlined to present a diverse set of brushes and tools in each singularly focused category.

New and enhanced! Cover methods

The versatile cover methods are the foundation of many popular brush categories, such as Acrylics, Chalk, Charcoal, Conte, Gouache, Pastels, and Pens. Cover methods are also used for some Oils and Blenders, and with many stamp-type brushes.

The Enhanced Cover methods, available only in Painter 2022, take advantage of the latest technology advancements for an improved brushing experience. For Flat methods, anti-aliasing support has been increased resulting in opaque dab rendering. Noise has been added for artifact reduction in all Enhanced Cover methods, and it is especially pronounced for Soft brushstrokes with feathered edges.

Alpha Blend technology has been added to improve color precision when blending adjacent brushstrokes, reducing the likelihood of unexpected color shifts near the edges. Grainy methods feature new options for grain control, opacity, and enhanced layer blending. In addition, brush loading support has been added to all Enhanced Cover methods to give your brushstrokes that smeary, oily look.

New and enhanced! Smoothing

A new Jitter Reduction option joins the Smoothing controls, along with updated names for existing options that are more indicative of their respective effects. The panel also provides updated tooltips and graphics that make it easier to soften the appearance of brushstrokes. 

New! Brush filters and favorites

Quickly build your very own list of favorite brushes, and then use the My Favorites filter to trim the brush library down to your personal essentials. Take advantage of the Painter Masters filter to experience a wealth of brushes curated by distinguished Painter artists. You can also quickly isolate stamp-type, Watercolor and Thick Paint compatible, and Cloner brushes. 

New! Captured dab libraries

The new Captured panel provides boundless possibilities for experimenting with customizing the appearance of brush dabs. There are 12 new captured dab libraries to choose from: Bristles, Concept, Flat, General, Graphic, Hard Media, Hatch, Knives, Light, Natural, Splatter, and Sponges. You can instantly alter the dab shape of any brush, adjust settings, apply a new Dab Effect, and even capture your new dab for use with other brushes.

New! Import Photoshop Brush Stamps (ABR) as dabs

When you import Photoshop brush stamps with Painter 2022, you now have the option of importing only the brush stamps. They will be added to a new captured dab library so you can use them with other brushes. 

New! Dab Effects

The new Captured Dabs flyout on the property bar offers Dab Effects that you can use to customize captured dabs. You can choose from Feather, Threshold, Blur, Dilate, and Erode effects, and adjust the strength of each applied effect. 

New and enhanced! Dab profiles for Circular dab types

You can now experience improved anti-aliasing for Circular-type brushes by using the new Hardness slider in the Dab Options flyout. This lets you fine-tune the opacity of dab profiles so you can create brush marks with soft edges, or with crisp anti-aliased edges, or even somewhere in between. In addition, you can try the new Soft Profile that provides a strong core, with a large falloff area towards the edge. Last but not least, you have the ability to reduce the opacity in the center of Watercolor dabs, which produces a stronger-looking fringe along the edge of the stroke.

New! Rotate and Squeeze Static Bristle

You now have additional shaping options when you’re painting with a Static Bristle brush and a stylus. You can use the Angle controls to rotate and squeeze the brush, providing new, creative dab and brushstroke possibilities. 

New! Watercolor compatibility

Painter 2022 breaks down boundaries for mixed-media creators who want to combine watercolor with other art forms. Many default brushes are now compatible with watercolor layers, letting you fuse dry media and watercolor brush marks on the same layer. Just look for the Watercolor Layer compatibility icon in the Brush Selector when you’re choosing a brush for mixing with watercolor media, or you can enable the Watercolor Compatible filter to see only those brushes. And for added creative flexibility, you can now transform watercolor layers while retaining special media capability. 

New! Size selector and library

You can now choose brush size presets from the new Size library. Painter 2022 offers a new collection of dab sizes, and lets you create and manage your own custom size presets. 

New! Navigator in grayscale

You can now switch the Navigator to grayscale, which is useful for doing color value studies of your compositions.

New and enhanced! Layer productivity

Painter 2022 introduces many layer productivity improvements designed to accelerate your work with layer-laden documents. It is now faster and easier to perform operations on more than one layer. You can lock, move, and convert multiple layers at once, as well as collapse visible layers. Plus, layer lock and visibility operations are recorded in your Undo steps, making it quicker and easier to change those choices.

Enhanced! Special layers compatibility dialog boxes

While many brushes are compatible with special layers, there are times when a chosen brush may produce brush marks that appear different than you would expect. There are also brushes that are simply not recommended for the current layer. In these cases, Painter will prompt you so you can choose how to proceed. We’ve redesigned these dialog boxes to present clear and concise options, so you can make a quick choice and get back to focusing on your art. 

Enhanced! Performance optimization

The Painter team is continually updating the codebase to take advantage of rapidly evolving operating system technologies.

With Painter 2022, the new Enhanced Cover methods are optimized for CPU and GPU acceleration. The Brush Accelerator makes the Enhanced Cover methods up to 18x faster on Intel multi-core processors with AVX2 extensions, and up to 50x faster when combined with GPU acceleration. Click Window  Search and type “enhanced cover” in the Search text box to find brushes that use Enhanced Cover methods.

Impasto brushes are also up to 2x faster on default layers, and 1.7x faster on Thick Paint layers. Plus, several other brush engines, plug-ins, and erasers perform up to 2x faster compared to Painter 2021.

To get the best possible performance from Painter on your system, you need to run the Brush Accelerator. This utility starts by analyzing your processor (CPU) to detect how many cores are available and whether it supports extensions, such as AVX2. It also analyzes any available graphics processor (GPU) to determine its compatibility with Painter, as well as how much memory (RAM) is installed on your system.

Don’t forget to register for my new class: Corel Painter 2022, The Year of the Dab.

https://www.digitalartacademy.com/courses/For-Sale-Painter-2022-Year-of-the-Dab

Enjoy,

Skip

New Class: Modern Calligraphy Made Easy

Posted by Skip Allen on

I am excited to announce my new class called Modern Calligraphy Made Easy. Several folks have asked me to do this class and I am glad that they did. I love to do traditional style calligraphy, but modern calligraphy is even more fun. It can be a lot looser that traditional calligraphy. To join the class or find out more information go to the following link; Modern Calligraphy Made Easy. Price is $35.00 USD.

Following is a short video that quickly describes the class:

Calligraphy can be used as a design element to create an image or it can be added to enhance an image. Either way, there is something very satisfying about calligraphy. My penmanship is awful, but I love my calligraphy. Here is a caveat. Practice is key to learning calligraphy. I am saying that practice makes or breaks a person’s ability to do calligraphy. There is nothing hard or impossible to do; practice makes it easy.

I teach one basic style and from that you will be able to expand your base. Using modern calligraphy is a very creative experience. Bouncing letters, adding flourishing, and writing with a base color, gradients or patterns is easily accomplished. The following images uses flourish, bouncing, and various colors, gradients and patterns.

I provide a custom Corel Painter variant called modern calligraphy pen – 18 that is compatible with Painters 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021. Along with the pen, I provide practice sheets and two images with guide lines suitable for starting a project. The class consists of 26 videos, which can be downloaded to your computer.

I hope to see you in class. You can join and find out more information here: Sign Up for Modern Calligraphy Made Easy (ruzuku.com)

Enjoy,

Skip

Tweaking Skip’s Ultimate Thick Paint, Making Them Work For You!

Posted by Skip Allen on

Hello Everyone,

Any new brush set comes with a learning curve and Skip’s Ultimate Thick Paint is no exception.  Plus, when I make variants, I make them for me and hope that you like them or can use them.  Most brushes can easily be manipulated especially in Corel Painter 2020.  Everything I do in the following videos can be done in Corel Painter 2018 or Corel Painter 2019, but I will access the brush controls differently than in 2018 or 2019.  Just remember all Brush Control Panels can be found under Window > Brush Control Panels regardless of your Painter version.

OK, so what might you want to change in a brush control panel?  I love texture.  My brushes will always show maximum texture.  I suspect too much texture for most people.  Not a problem, dialing back texture is easy.  I like brushes to be wet and mix easily and quickly.  Again, more than necessary for most people I venture.  All you need to do is change the bleed slider to the setting that works best for you.  Those are the types of things I show you in this set of videos.

I am brave, too.  Most of the images posted are of work done while creating the variants and should never see the light of day.  They are not excellent examples of the paintings, but show you that I struggle, too.  I have the same learning curve you do…sigh.  Let’s start with this one.  I was using 012 Thin Stiff Worn Bristle.  It didn’t take very long to complete, but it served a purpose.  It began to address the learning curve.  Don’t be afraid; paint and have fun.  Allow yourself the freedom to fail.

Skip’s Ultimate Thick Paint, Struggling Image 1, 012 Thin Stiff
Worn Bristle

Time to look at the first video:

Same theme, no more successful.  This one has almost too much texture for my tastes.

Skip’s Ultimate Thick Paint, Struggling 2, 002 Thin Wet Bristle, 007 Wet Short Bristle

OK, stop laughing and watch the next video.

Maybe the second try will be better…or not.

Skip’s Ultimate Thick Paint, Scratchy Roses, sigh, 012 Thin Stiff Worn Bristle

OK, you are hurting my feelings now.  I told you I have a learning curve, too.

I like brushes that can create single stroke imagery or flowers. Karen Bonaker is teaching a fabulous course at the Digital Art Academy called Romantic Roses.  I love the class and thought I would try to see if thick paint could work.  Thick paint can definitely paint romantic roses.  However, I can’t.  I know I will, but this type of work really takes practice and tweaking the brushes will be necessary.  This first attempt is very clunky.

 

Skip’s Ultimate Thick Paint, Single Stroke Thick Paint, Oh boy…lots of practice needed.

I love abstracted landscapes.  Thick paint works well I think.  Little by little, I am coming to grips with it.

Skip’s Ultimate Thick Paint, Back Bay, 002 Thin Wet Bristle, 016 Grainy Opaque Knife, 022 Grainy Edgy Knife

I have also been in a dark mood.  Painted this one Halloween night.

Skip’s Ultimate Thick Paint, River Moonlight, several variants, sorry don’t remember which ones.

Here is a work in progress.  The previous too images started like this.  If and when I finish it…I will  post it.

Work in Progress, Skip’s Ultimate Thick Paint, 002 Then Wet Bristles.

Now it’s your turn.  Give the brushes a try and post your work someplace I can see it.  Hey…let’s post some on my blog.  If you are willing to post an image using these variants, tell me in the comments below and I’ll contact you to make arrangements to get the digital version.  I hope somebody will send me some images.

Enjoy,

Skip

Watercolor in Painter 2019! You Can Still Join My Class: A Fresh Start: The New Painter 2019

Posted by Skip Allen on

Hello Friends,

I just added a watercolor section in my current class, A Fresh Start: The New Painter 2019.  I had forgotten how much I like watercolor in Painter.  I have focused on thick paint of late.  It was a pleasure to play with watercolor again.

Prior to a lesson, I need to practice.  This is my practice image; simple watercolor flowers.

Three Roses, Watercolor in Corel Painter 2019

I captured  the next image on seven videos and they are available in my class.  All videos are downloadable; you can save them on your computer and watch them at your leisure.

Demo painting, watercolor, Corel Painter 2019

So far, the class includes 5 sessions and I have created 125 videos with more to come.  The class is a little different from my other “what’s new” classes.  I have added a section for beginners, which makes it easy for anyone to take the class.  There is a separate section for Intermediate and Advanced users of Painter.  However, I challenge everyone to work the assignments in the beginner section.  I’m finding even advanced students are learning new things in the beginner sections.  The class is open enrollment and you can join at anytime.  You can download the videos and work at your own pace.  I watch the class and comment on work submitted and answer questions you may have.  Join us at the Digital Art Academy…click on this link to register.  A Fresh Start; The New Painter 2019  For our other classes, click this link.  The Digital Art Academy: Our Courses.

Hope to see you in class,

Skip

Painter 2018 Is Here! Check it out.

Posted by Skip Allen on

Painter 2018, New Thick Paint Palette Knives

 

Hello Everyone,

Corel Painter has released its newest version today.  As usual, I will have a “What’s New” class which will start on Saturday, July 8th.  Register here for Painter 2018: Is It Real Paint?

Paint in the latest version of Corel Painter is better than ever.  It is stunningly luscious.  The new “Thick Paint” will surprise everyone.  I used to say I could smell the paint when using Corel Painter, now I am concerned I will need to clean paint off my screen. You are going to love “Thick Paint.”

As in previous what’s new classes, Painter 2018: “Is It Real Paint?” will focus on the new or enhanced features.  The class is primarily for intermediate or advanced users, but I still encourage beginners to join. With a new version, we are all beginners, right?  I cannot cover all the older functions of Painter in a class like this, but if anyone, beginner or advanced user alike, has a question about some earlier function that helps you understand a new feature…no problem…I will help.  So…let’s talk about what is new in Painter 2018?

I think everyone is going to be very excited about the new “Drip and Liquid Technology.”  Remember how the Sargent Brush could only be used on the Canvas Layer…or a layer that already had pigment…well…not any more.  We can now use Drip and Liquid Brush methods on any layer. I can’t wait to show you the ton of possibilities this added feature allows us to do.

Do you love to clone?  Oh my gosh, wait till you see the “Enhanced Cloning Features.”  Remember how you hated to clone an object that had blank space around it…remember…it cloned white…yuck.  Not any more, Painter recognizes transparent areas…and more.

And then there are “2.5D brushes!”  What are those?  Well, they are almost 3D brushes…get it…2.5D.  OK, I didn’t get it at first.  These are basically like the texture brushes introduced last year but with added depth…sort of like a 3D effect.  These are going to be to fun play with especially when used in conjunction with other variants.

“Texture Synthesis” is surprising.  Basically, you can take any photo, texture image, whatever, and select part or all of it, and then have Painter repeat the texture in a larger area.  And you can paint with the texture using a texture variant.  Gosh…this one is hard to explain.  You will have to join the class to see this one in action, but I will tell you this, I have a secret use for the technique that I think is going to be very useful.

Oh boy…one of my favorite new things, ”Selection Brushes.”  Ready for this, you can turn almost any variant into a selection brush.  When you paint with it, it will create a selection based on the properties of the variant.  If you are using a brush that shows a lot of grain, then your selection will show a lot of grain.  I am going to use this feature a lot.

Also new is “Fill with Texture.”  Remember how we can fill with patterns, gradients, clone source, color and even weaves.  Well, now we can fill with Textures.  And since we can make neat selections with the Selection Brushes and create new textures with Texture Synthesis, filling with texture is even more powerful and useful.

Then there is this new feature called “Random Grain Rotation.”  When activated, Painter rotates the paper grain just a bit with each stroke.  It is cool…the effect is subtle but adds just a bit of spice to the image.  Of course, it only works with variants that show paper grain, which are many.

There are many new brushes, too.  As a matter of fact, there is even a completely new library dedicated to “Natural Media Variants.”  If you are a traditional painter, this library is of special interest and may be your favorite new feature.

And that brings us back to “Thick Paint!”  As you can imagine, there will be lots of bristle type brushes using thick paint, but what I really love are the palette knives.  Yes, Painter has palette knives truly emulate traditional palette knives.

Download link for Free Trial

Enjoy,

Skip

Wacom New Tablet Drivers for Macs Are Posted Again

Posted by Skip Allen on

Hello Everyone,

I just noticed that Wacom has posted new tablet drivers for Macs.  A couple of weeks ago, Wacom posted the first set of drivers for Macs, but there were issues and Wacom removed the drivers.  Apparently, they have reworked them and they are available again.

Mac Drivers are Here

I know many of you wait for a while or longer to install new drivers.  I’m sure you will wait, however, if any of you are having issues with your tablet and your Mac, then I would try installing the new drivers.  You can always uninstall and go back to an older version.

If you do decide to try the new driver, do not forget to back up your current Wacom Tablet settings, disconnect your table from your Mac, uninstall your current driver completely, restart your Mac, install the new driver, restart your Mac, reconnect your tablet and you are good to go.

Enjoy,

Skip

Issues With Latest Wacom Drivers for Macs

Posted by Skip Allen on

Hello Friends,

Three days ago I mentioned there were new Wacom Product Drivers for Macs.  Apparently, there were issues with the release and Wacom has pulled the new drivers from their site.

If you did download and installed the driver, you are probably having problems.  You will want to uninstall the new driver and re-install the old driver.  The old driver is available at Wacom Drivers.

To correct the problem,

Back up your Wacom preferences

Detach your Wacom tablet from your computer

Uninstall the new driver

Restart your computer

Install the old driver

Reboot your computer

Reconnect your Wacom Tablet

Don’t be mad at Wacom…these things happen…just hold tight and I bet they will put out a new driver soon.

Enjoy,

Skip

New Wacom Drivers for Macs Now Available

Posted by Skip Allen on

Hey folks,

Wacom has posted new tablet drivers for Macs.

Drivers

If you decide to try it, don’t forget to back up your settings. disconnect your tablet, uninstall the current driver, re-start, install the new driver, re-start, and then connect your tablet again.

Enjoy,

Skip

Corel Painter 2016, Simple Watercolor with Gradients

Posted by Skip Allen on

Hello Friends,

I was playing around with the technique I used in the last posted videos.  I started the same way, but this time I tried adding gradients to a layer mask to vary the look of the black brush strokes.  I wanted color, so I added gradient to layers and changed the composite method.  On the first try, I got the following.  Not bad for a first try, right?

Corel Painter 2016, Watercolor, Gradients

Corel Painter 2016, Watercolor, Gradients

I thought the technique was worth sharing, so in the next 4 videos I created the following image.  Hope you like it.  It reminds me of flying at dusk.

Corel Painter 2016, Watercolor, Gradients

Corel Painter 2016, Watercolor, Gradients

In the first video, I make the black inky watercolor underpainting.

In the next video, I altered the look using a gradient in a layer mask.

It gets interesting in the third video.  I added gradients to several layers and change the composite method coloring the gray-scale image.

In the fourth video I planned to add another gradient to a layer mask, but tried something different and liked the results.  I copy merged the image and placed it in place.  I transformed it a bit and then changed the composite method.  I loved the moody nighttime feel of this image.

A couple of posts ago, I mentioned that did a bunch of videos for Corel about making paper in Painter 2016.  Corel released the videos yesterday.  Making and using paper in Corel Painter is very important; I can say that it is one of the most important functions in Painter.  In this set of videos and the set before, I used papers to create the landscape.  You can get papers for Painter from a lot of sources, but why?  It is so easy to make papers and it is fun, too.  Take a look at the following videos.  Some techniques are basic and perfect for the beginner, but others are for the advanced user.  Take a look and while you there, check out Painter Tutorials.  There are a ton of video tutorials.

My paper videos:

01-How to use Corel Papers

02-How to use the Paper Library

03-How to use the Paper Control Panel

04-How to create a new Paper Library

05-How to use Make Paper Command

06-How to make a Fractal Pattern Command Paper

07-Helpful Paper Tools you can make

08-Capture a non-seamless paper texture

09-Create a seamless paper texture

10-Auto-paint a seamless paper texture

11-Watercolor and Pattern papers

12-How to create seamless papers from photos

13-How to use your Corel Painter Papers

I hope you enjoy the videos.

Skip

Holiday Open Studio Starts 14 Nov 2015 at Digital Art Academy

Posted by Skip Allen on

Are you ready for Holiday Open Studio Registration; I am.  OMGosh, by the looks of it, I’m really, really ready.  It all starts Saturday, 14 Nov 2015.

Santa Skip by Corel Painter Master Elite, Karen Bonaker, Corel Painter 2016

Santa Skip by Corel Painter Master Elite, Karen Bonaker, Corel Painter 2016

 

Have you registered yet?  There is still time to register before Holiday Open Studio Registration starts this coming Saturday, 14 Nov 2015.

holiday osThe instructors for this year are Corel Painter Master Elite, Karen Bonaker plus professional painter and educators, Elaina Moore-Kelly and Winifred Whitfield.  Oh…me too…I will do a bit of a song and dance the last week of the four-week class.

Karen Bonaker starts the class with Winter Trees in Snow.  Karen demonstrates watercolor, liquid ink, and how to use selections and the image portfolio to create lovely landscapes.  I am looking forward to her week; I love her artistic innovations.  Karen is always an inspiration.

Where is my peace, Watercolor, Corel Painter 2016, Corel Master Painter Elite, Karen Bonaker

Where is my Peace, Watercolor, Corel Painter 2016, Corel Master Painter Elite, Karen Bonaker

DAA closes for Thanksgiving Week, 21 – 27 Nov 2015

In the second week of class beginning 28 Nov., Elaina Moore-Kelly continues with watercolor, which is something new for her.  Since watercolor is my favorite medium, I can’t wait to learn her approach.  Elaina explains using fonts in Painter and adds creative selections to the mix.

Happy Thanksgiving, Corel Painter 2016, Elaina Moore-Kelly

Happy Thanksgiving, Corel Painter 2016, Elaina Moore-Kelly

Winifred Whitfield takes the reins in week 3 creating images inspired by Roy Lichtenstein, the American Pop Artist from the 1960s.  His work defined pop art through parody and he used comic strips as his inspirations.  He used heavy black lines, dots, checks and all sorts of patterns.  Winifred capitalizes on all aspects of Lichtenstein’s work and provides patterns and papers for your explorations.

Corel Painter 2016, Winifred Whitfield

Corel Painter 2016, Winifred Whitfield

And that brings us to week 4, my week.  I planned to demonstrate painting a poinsettia in watercolor, but that may change.  I am waffling.  I spent the last couple of months making pastel variants for Painter.  The new features in Painter 2016 add so much to the look and feel of pastel variants…so…I may switch my week to pastels…or not.  Hey…who knows, I may just do both.  Here is an example of a photograph I took while walking around my neighborhood.  I live in rural Georgia.  And following is the pastel image I did using the photograph as a reference.  It was loads of fun, but I better get with it and decide what I am doing.

Poole Road, Nikon D810, Skip Allen

Poole Road, Nikon D810, Skip Allen

And the image in pastels.

Poole Road Stream, Corel Painter 2016, Custom Pastel Variants, Skip Allen

Poole Road Stream, Corel Painter 2016, Custom Pastel Variants, Skip Allen

OK, if you have read this far, here is a bit of sad news.  Holiday Open Studio has been an annual event at the Digital Art Academy (DAA) for eight years.  But, Karen Bonaker has announced that this will be the last one.  Yes, that is right, this will be the last one.  If you have never participated in a Holiday Open Studio, then don’t miss this last one.  They are so special.  And, if you have been a regular, then do join us for a farewell to Holiday Open Studio.

OK, that’s it from Santa Skip. I hope to see all of you in the class starting Saturday, 14 Nov 2015.