I guess I am back. I had planned to be back in a couple of days, but I got a note from Deb, which I felt needed answering via a video. So here we are posting a little early. You can read the exchange between Deb and me here. Go to the bottom of the page; you will find her questions there.
Basically, Deb installed a couple of categories, but when she did, she couldn’t find her Painter 12 brushes anymore. She did a shift start and that allowed her to see Painter brushes again, but not my brushes.
This is one of the most common questions I get. Actually, I get the most questions about brushes in general. I have decided that I am going to do a series of videos about Painter Brushes in general. Not just installation, but everything I can think of that I might know about brushes. I hope you enjoy them.
So, Deb, let’s start this thing off with answering your question via this video.
I really hadn’t planed to post today. But I thought we needed to take a break from kitties and start working. I started playing with the new thick brushes, and I decided to record it. After recording, I thought, this is silly…I’m not telling anyone about anything. It is just me blathering away trying to create single stroke petals and leaves for a flower.
I guess I got inspired. I thought about doing a video on Window > Arrange Palettes > Save Layouts. I did the recording. Then I did another one. This one is about Hide Panels and Hide Application UI. I like to do both when I am painting by myself…not demonstrating or making a recording.
Just for fun, I decided to let you view the silly recording of me playing with the brushes. Don’t spend a lot of time with it unless you want a boring few minutes. The other two videos I think you may like.
The next one is about making multiple layouts for your Workspace. It is very handy to have several.
And the final video is about Hiding Panels and Painter’s UI. This is very useful because you can get a lot of extra space for painting and your workspace is not cluttered at all.
Hi Friends,
Corel Master Painter Greg Newman just blogged some fantastic information on backing up your computer data. The post, Who’s Got Your Back, is very well thought out and easy to understand. Backups are my bane. I hate to do them. I opted for mirror drives, which keep your data fairly safe. Greg’s post may change what I do.
Greg is working on a Mac, but he tells me the information is the same for PCs except the symlinks part. I was thinking that the post would be only for Mac users, but that isn’t the case. I am most excited for Mac users. As you know, I don’t use a Mac, so it is great to find a post that is perfect for them.
It’s that time of year again. WordPress provides an annual report for all the blogs. Below you will see mine. It is amazing to me. Last year I got about 75,000 hits, but this year the numbers increased to around 260,000. People in 169 countries have visited the blog. Isn’t that incredible. I don’t know the total number of countries in the world, but I think it is around 195.
When I started the blog, I had no idea that it would grow like it has. I am so thankful for the blog followers. I believe the blog has grown thanks to the followers spreading the word. You folks are the best! I want to send a special thanks to Corel Master Painter Karen Bonaker. Her blog, The Art of Karen Bonaker, referred many folks to my blog. As a matter of fact, of all the referrers, she ranks in second place. Thank you so much Karen.
Take a look at the report. The map is a little hard to read; the countries that are darkest blue generated the most hits. Lighter blue indicates fewer. There has been only one visitor for 10 or so countries and another 10 have two hits. Those will be almost white. Regardless of the color, the blog has had visitors from 169 countries. I know I said that in the first paragraph. Guess what? I’m going to say it again. Folks in 169 countries visited Skip Allen Paints. I’m sorry, but that just blows my mind.
Thanks everyone for making my 2012 a fabulous year. And thanks WordPress for preparing the year-end report.
Happy New Year,
Skip
“Hold on mister! Are you going to mention me and tell everyone that I wish them a Happy New Year, too.? I didn’t get a chance to wish anyone a Merry Christmas, nor did I get any presents from you. I think that is just tacky!”
Those who are new to the blog may not have met Kevin, the resident “good” computer virus. According to Kevin, a good virus is sort of like the good witch in the Wizard of Oz. I’m not so sure.
“Hello Kevin, I was wondering when you were going to show up. I don’t have much time today, so get it out of your system. Wish everyone a Happy New Year.”
With a snort, he said, “No need now…you blurted it out already!” And with that he turned and vanished.
I think I really hurt his feelings this time. I’ll make up later.
Enjoy,
Skip
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
About 55,000 tourists visit Liechtenstein every year. This blog was viewed about 260,000 times in 2012. If it were Liechtenstein, it would take about 5 years for that many people to see it. Your blog had more visits than a small country in Europe!
Happy New Year!!! I hope you all have the best New Year ever.
I enjoy making decorative paintings, and this impasto painting of roses is a good example. To do the painting I had to make a few brushes. I want to make a brush that works like a palette knife, and I think I am pretty close. Here is the painting that I recently finished.
Impasto painting in Corel Painter 12.2
I like a lot about this painting, but I still need to tweak the brushes a bit more. But, before we talk about the brushes, I want to demo something that folks have requested. Notice the canvas texture in the painting; that is what I want to discuss first. I have shown this technique before in the Tips and Tricks Webinar, but I do not think many saw it. So, I am going to explain it again in this post. Incidentally, I learned this technique from David Gell at Jitter Brush, his website. To create the texture, we need to make a pattern from a paper. David supplies a wonderful brush that aids in the process…Pattern Pens Plus > WYSIWYG Paper Extractor. Do go to his site and get the Pattern Pens Brushes.
To start the process, we have to make a pattern from a paper. Not just any pattern, but a seamless pattern. Then the pattern can fill a layer. We will add a layer mask, fill it with black so the pattern will not show. Then with an opaque brush filled with white paint, we will reveal some of the pattern. It seems so simple, and it is. Here are four videos that will take you through the process.
I am unsure why the videos are not showing, but click the link takes you to You Tube to view the video. I apologize for any inconvenience this causes. I’ve tried to figure this out for a couple of hours. Rather than continue, I am going to post as is. Hopefully, they will show up correctly later. UPDATE: I figure it out. For some reason the link was posting correctly to the visual tab of the blog, but not so in the Text part. So I deleted the garbage in the Text part and recopied the links and presto…the videos appeared.
That’s it for creating paper from a pattern. I hope you enjoyed them and learned something useful.But there is more. I have made some new brushes that helped me accomplish the Rose painting. I thought it might be interesting to show you the raw brushes and how I used them. I show a few brushes that are available for download, now. I hope you enjoy these videos.
That’s all folks. I hope to see you in the New Year if not sooner. I want to take this opportunity to thank you for all your support this year. The number of subscribers to the blog is amazing; you folks are the best. I sincerely wish you the health, happiness, and lots of money in the New Year. OK, if you do not get the money, I wish you happiness and good health.Skip
I have a couple of announcements before we get to the fun stuff, brush installation tips.
Today is my Birthday. 🙂 And look what I have been doing…working on this silly blog…LOL…actually it has been fun.
Holiday Open Studio starts at DAA tomorrow. Registration is still open and will remain open through Saturday week, so you have plenty of time to register, but don’t wait. Register now and start the class with the rest of us tomorrow. You can start anytime tomorrow because the lessons are all downloadable. There will be two live sessions; one during the first week and one during the third week. Of course more are possible. I like live meetings.
If you do register, one of the first things you will see is a warm-up forum. Early registrants have been posting warm-up images using Buttery Oils, Karen’s Impressionist Sky, and a couple of other things that escape me at the moment. I just got permission from my good friend, Kathy Pilgrim, to post her lovely Fall Excursion painting. Isn’t it beautiful.
Kathy Pilgrim’s Fall Excursion, Painter 12.2 > Buttery Oils
To find out more and register go to Holiday Open Studio. I hope to see y’all in class.
OK, lets talk about Corel Painter 12.1 and later brush installation. I know, I have talked about it many times, but trust me, this is something new. I am often asked how to install downloaded brush zip files and not in one of the new file types that Corel Painter uses to automatically install a library, category or variant. The files in question, look like this; Name.brushlibrary, Name.brushcategory, and Name.brushvariant. Name is the name of the library, category or variant. But the file you have to install is Name.zip, which will not work using the new automatic installation. What do you do?
Surprise, the two types of files are actually the same except for the extension. That means that they are interchangeable. Yep, that opens a whole new ballgame. Check out the video for more information.
Well that’s it. I hope you enjoyed the video. Please join us in Holiday Open Studio.
I am so excited about this post for several reasons. First, the number of followers of my blog hit 1000 a couple of days ago. I can’t believe it. I want to thank you all for visiting and commenting. We have one thing in common; a passion for digital painting, especially with Corel Painter 12. I wish I knew what to say that would let you all know how thankful I am.
The second excitement for me and I hope for you is a new set of brushes. I’ve named them Buttery Oils because that is the way they feel. Oh yes, that is right, these are not watercolor variants. I know many of you have asked for more opaque type media. I do think this is one of my best sets. After you try them, do let me know what you think.
But the real excitement comes next My friend, Tim Shelbourne, has made video using Buttery Oils. I love to watch Tim paint and talk about what he is doing. He does give you technical information that will help with any project, but more importantly in my book, he shows us how to paint. He is a traditional and digital artist and he is good at both mediums. We are in for a real treat; we will come away from the videos inspired.
Tim has a wonderful site called The Artist’s Quarter (TAQ). To gain entrance, you do have to register, but registration is free. Inside there is a store, lots of tutorials…both Painter and Photoshop, but more importantly, the TAQ community is passionate about making art and willing to share with each other. There are various levels of membership. I am sure there is one just right for you.
Let’s start this post with Tim’s videos. I was going to show mine about the technology of the variants, but realized that Tim talks about that too. His will probably be all that some need. If you want a bit more technical information, then look at my two videos.
In concert, I present Tim Shelbourne with Buttery Oils.
OK…need more information? In the next video I take one of the Buttery Oils variants and tweak it in different ways. It really is a brush lesson for these types of variants. If you are at all interested in brush making, this video is for you.
The last video and the shortest, is a quick rundown of the other variants in the set.
Well folks, that is about it, but I have one more bit of news. I have purchased the Wacom Intuos 5 and I love it. The next set of videos will be about installation and set up for Painter 12. I can’t wait to do the videos…the new tablet is that nice.
PS: a note from our favorite good computer virus, Kevin.
Skip has completely ignored me on this post. I’m a good virus so I cannot retaliate. He is so mean. When he bought the new computer I thought we would have lots of room to play…and there is lots of room, but I play alone. Does anyone know another nice computer virus that might like to room with me. Let me know.
Don’t forget to register for the webinars tomorrow. Links for registration are in the previous post.
I’m getting very excited about sharing in the webinar. I haven’t worked a lot with real wet oil variants and they are fun to use. You can make the oil run down the page with a flow map or combination of flow map and paper. They do tend to look milky or thicker than what I think of as runny oil, but I think I have answers for that little problem thanks to David Gell and Tim Shelbourne. Both of these friends have techniques that I will use…tweaked just a bit.
Here are a couple of examples to let you know what I am trying to do. This isn’t the only look you can get, but I am having the most fun with the gessoed canvas look. Please understand these are not finished, but test pieces that I have started.
The first one is showing the runny background and impasto paint on the top.
Corel Painter 12.2 Real wet Oils test
The next one is similar…again, I am focusing on the background…so the painted object is very small for the canvas. Remember these are only tests.
Corel Painter 12.2, Real Wet Oils and flow maps.
I was trying to add thick and thin paint to the background in the next test. I can do it a lot better than the example; I just need to practice. I need to work on building a painting with this technique. With these examples I have made the background without any thought of the finished painting. This technique will work best if I plan the image. 🙂
Corel Painter 12.2, Testing thick and thin oil on background
OK..that’s it for now. If you like this look or are curious about it, do come to the webinar. I am sure you can take the technique and run with it; you can take it to the next level.
Corel Master Painter Karen Bonaker has announced a change at the Digital Art Academy (DAA). We now have a type of class that has open enrollment. This means that you can enroll in the class at anytime, starting tomorrow and continuing through October 2012. When you enroll, all class materials will be available for download immediately, which means you do not have to wait for a week to download week 2 materials, all will be available once your registration is confirmed. You can work the course at your leisure. The instructor will be available to answer questions posted in the question forums. Please post your questions in the appropriate question forum; post week one questions in week one forum, etc.
Registration begins tomorrow, Jun 1st.
Session 3 of instructor lead courses starts August 4 and ends Aug 31st. Registration for these courses will be open on Jun 30th.
Here is a list of current courses, but others are being developed.
Registration for the Introduction to Painter 12 series of Open Enrollment classes opens on June 1 and will remain open through October 15, 2012.
Tomorrow is the big day. My first live webinar via my blog…well…actually via Go To Webinar, but organized for blog followers. As I mentioned, it isn’t exactly planned; just want to make sure there are no unforseen kinks in the production. I have some ideas of things to cover, but, the webinar is for you, so if you have any specific question, please post it in a comment below. Try to make the questions somewhat specific. Tell me how to use channels is a bit broad. 🙂 Narrow the scope of the question and I’ll have a better chance of answering it in the time alloted.
Corel Master Painter Karen Bonaker’s Open Studio…Summer Skies…is in its third week. I showed you a pastel I did for the first week in my last post. For the second week I did this watercolor using mostly Desert Oasis brushes. It was a lot of fun. Strangely for me, I worked on the painting over several days. I wasn’t working as fast or loose as I would like. I am not sure if I am developing a new direction or I am still working out the kinks with the way I use Desert Oasis. Anyway…none of that matters now. Here is the painting.
Bronze Sky, Watercolor in Painter 12.1, Mostly Desert Oasis Variants, Created During Open Studio Summer Skies
See you tomorrow, I hope. BTW, more people have signed up than I have space. But, I suspect everyone that wants to attend will be able to get in because many folks register and then can’t make it. Also, folks do not stay the whole time, so if you don’t get in with your first try keep trying. I better go practice. 🙂
Skip Allen Paints 