UPDATE: We are back up and running. Thanks for your patience.
Hello Friends,
This is just a quick announcement to tell everyone that we had a critical server failure yesterday, and both Digital Art Academy and Painter Talk cannot be accessed. We are still down as I write this note. Expect to see us up and running later today Keep your fingers crossed and send Karen lots of positive thoughts.
Hang in there…we will be back soon,
Skip
Sue made a comment on the last post that the bamboo would look good printed on silk. It was a timely comment because I had just finished a piece with a background that looks like the piece was printed on silk. I called this one wind.
Enjoy,
Skip
Wind
I love watching You Tube videos of sumi-e paintings. There is something intriguing about the process. When I found out that Open Studio at Digital Art Academy was going to focus on sumi-e, I was delighted. I began to practice.
No matter how hard I practiced, the process felt muddled. Did I just need more practice? Of course, but who has time for practice. Good brush painters hone their skills for decades; I had a matter of weeks. Surely (tongue in cheek) with the right brush I could be a Master in less than a few days. I knew it was impossible, but what else is a hardhead good for, if not for banging it against an impossible goal.
Bang one. What is necessary for a good sumi-e brush? “Kevin?” (Dear reader, I know you do not know Kevin, but if you will bear with me, I’ll make a page explaining all about my computer Kevin, but right now, let’s just chat about the brushes.)
“Many things,” he replied rather too simply.
“Well, duh. You champion the obvious. I’m asking for one essential behavior.” Sometimes Kevin can be so obtuse.
“The ability to load the brush tip with one value of a color and the base with a lighter or darker value. But you will never remedy that conundrum.”
“Exactly, a perfect function of the brush. What? Never remedy? Don’t be rude or I’ll run the CCleaner you hate?
“What we need is the ability to sample multiple colors with one brush, and Painter has that exact function. It is located in the Mixer Pad.
“Aha…you jest. Are you telling me that you can eyeball 50 pixels on the screen? I think not,” he chuckled; well it was more like a giggle.
“No, of course not. I do a little trial and error to get the right range, but most of the time, I leave it at 50 pixels and change when needed. Check this out.
Sample Brushstrokes with 50 Pixel Range
“The slider is set for 50 pixels and I sampled color from just beyond the tips of each arrow. You can see the resulting strokes. Obviously, 50 pixels is not very big; plus, there is a bigger problem. Not all brushes can use the sample multiple function.
“Artist’s Oils Category variants can use the function, but many, for example, in the Acrylic Category cannot. The determining factor is the Brush Dab Type, which can be found in the General Palette.”
Kevin coughed, hacked, cleared his throat; he made a noise, “Sputter. Is this the first time you have mentioned this palette? Will the readers understand what it is?”
“Some, yes; others, no. But I get your point. Explain the General Palette.
“Under Window > Brush Control you will find a palette group consisting of a number of palettes relating to brush controls. The General Palette is first in the list.
Brush Controls Group Palette with Emphasis on General Palette
“If one of the following four words is listed in the first drop down menu, then the brush can sample multiple colors from the Mixer Pad: camel, flat, and bristle spray. The illustration identifies all dab types that can use this function.
“Bang one resolved. And you said it couldn’t be done. All I have to do is use Camel, Flat, and Bristle Spray Brush Dab Types.”
“You got lucky. There are many more obstacles ahead,” he said with a certain amount of glee. He delights in my struggles. I wonder if all computers are like that, or if I got the only one.
I promised to give you the Eastern Brushes. Download them here.
The Eastern Brushes conversation will continue. In the meantime, you may want to download a free webinar that Karen Bonaker and I did about how to use the Eastern Brushes. The webinar lasted for an hour and 20 minutes, so the zipped file is around 170 MB. You can download it at Painter Talk, but you will need to register. It is a free forum; lots of Painter enthusiasts are members.
April edition of Digital Paint Magazine is available. It is a free subscription.
A few paintings I did in the first week of Open Studio:
Dragon Fly and Japanese Magnolia
Orchid in a Tree
The next image is referred to as a Haiga, a combination of Haiku and ga.
My Haiku:
Parrot tulips bright
Bring spring inside the dwelling
Winter returns grey
A Haiga...Parrot Tulip
Enjoy and see you next post,
Skip