Corel Painter - 05 - Magazine, Art, Digital Painting, Drawing, Draw, 2d

Artistic advice and inspirationExplore Esoterica effectsGet graphic with Art Pens

Tips and trick for artistsOfficial Magazine

www.paintermagazine.co.uk

ISSUE FIVE 6.00ISSN 1753-3155

9 7 7 1 7 5 3 3 1 5 0 0 0

0 5

Free CD insidePHOTOS | VIDEO TUTORIALS | BRUSHES

Water artGreat techniques for painting a fluid underwater scene

Oil illustrationCelia Yost reveals how she merges pencil and oils for stunning results

New brushesHow to create, save and load custom brush variants

PC and Mac

Special tutorial! See page 40

Concept designExpert advice on turning a sketch into

beautifully rendered product art

Capture the tranquillity of the countryside by creating your own John Constable masterpiece p22

Learn to paint digitally today!

Capture the tranquillity of the

landscapesDrawing still lifeDiscover the rules of this traditional art technique

Pain t En glish

Issue ve Visit us online w

ww

.paintermagazine.co.uk

Of cial Corel Painter TM M

agazine

Official Magazine

OPM_05-Cover2.indd 1 30/5/07 12:24:18

Imagine PublishingImagine Publishing

5

Jo Cole, Editor in [email protected]

WelcomeWelcome once more to another packed issue of the Oficial Corel Painter Magazine. Weve got a great selection of tutorials and inspirational art, starting with our cover image. Jeff Johnson has reinvented

the traditional Constable style and produced an exquisite landscape scene. Immerse yourself in the English countryside and see how he did it on page 22. And to really stretch your imaginations, check out the concept car tutorial on page 40. Learn the fundamentals here, and then start designing your own futuristic vehicles. And if the hot weather (maybe?) is getting to you, cool off by taking a dip in page 58 and learning how to create a fantastic underwater scene, courtesy of a fellow reader! If it inspires you to write a tutorial, let us know and well see if we can print it.

Our Drawing 101 this issue looks at whats involved in making a still life masterpiece, and we give you advice on the Art Pen brushes and Esoterica effects.

Happy painting!

This is THE magazine for anyone wanting to further their Corel Painter skills or learn how to become a better artist

ISSUE FIVE

Visit our website!If you find that the magazine isnt enough to satisfy your Corel Painter appetite, you can always visit our website. Pop on over to www.paintermagazine.co.uk and register as a user. Once this is out of the way, explore the pages and enjoy great content such as: Downloadable resources Online galleries to share your work Special forum for meeting other Corel Painter users

Art Pens

Pg 52Explore your graphic side by loading up the new Art Pen brushes

Sketch and oils

Pg 32Create great illustrations

by combining pencil sketches with oils

Drawing 101: Still life

Pg 66

Set up and draw a successful still life scene

005_OPM_05_welcome.indd 3 1/6/07 12:51:15

Regulars in every issue

Pg 34

08 Subscriptions Take out a subscription to

the magazine to save money and ensure your copy of the magazine

10 Corel Painter Community The best sites and

companies for creatives, and your letters page

20 Painter showcase The rst in our special pages

dedicated to outstanding Corel Painter art

74 Art Class Another merry gaggle of artistic

problems sorted out

92 Readers Gallery Discover more about what a

fellow reader is getting up to in our gallery section

Reviews

6

97 Readers Challenge Havent done one of

our challenges? Turn here and get started

98 On the disc A full breakdown of

the content on this issues free CD

82 Pentax K10D We put the K10D through its paces,

to see how the advanced amateur DSLR shapes up when it comes to getting great reference shots

84 Wacom Cintiq 21UX The mightiest graphics tablet you

ever did see. We take a look at this huge LCD screen that lets you draw directly on the monitor

86 Books Another inspirational dose of

literature to re your creative imagination so what are you waiting for?

88 Japanese Fibre paper Try your hand at this unusual way

of presenting your work. The heavily textured and transparent paper is just the thing for delicate watercolour or ink work

WIN!YOUR WORK

PRINTED TO CANVAS

pg 96

Pain t like Constable Pain t like

Regulars

Pain t like P66 DRAWING

STILL LIFESIX-PAGE GUIDE TO DRAWING

STILL LIFE, WITH EXPERT TIPS AND SKETCHES TO HELP YOU LEARN

P40 CONCEPT DESIGNOUR DIGITAL EXPERT TAKES YOU THROUGH DESIGNING AND DRAWING A CONCEPT CAR ENTIRELY IN COREL PAINTER X

ON T

HE F

RONT

COV

ER

Celia Yost masterclass pg 32

Try your hand at this unusual way

paper is just the thing for delicate

Another merry gaggle of artistic

fellow reader is getting up to in Original artwork by Ryan Mauskopf

Immerse yourself in Constable country with this fantastic tutorial

pg 22

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pg 40 Concept car design

7

66 Still life scenesCapturing a still life scene is a great way of practising and improving your drawing skills. Discover how to set up a classic scene and then draw all the elements

22 Paint like Constable John Constable produced

some of the most famous scenes of English country life. Learn to re-create his style

32 Celia Yost shows you how Discover how this talented

artist work here

40 Design a concept car Our expert walks you through

the essential skills that go into designing a concept car

52 Create, load and save brushes in Painter

More creative options

58 Paint an underwater scene Make a splash with this

intriguing tutorial

PrimersGet up and running38 Effects: Esoteric They are a strange bunch of

effects. See what they do here

64 Brushes: Art Pen They are new in Corel Painter X,

so get the lowdown on them

Feature focusGet to know your tools48 Get the most from our website We give you a guided tour of the

Of cial Corel Painter Magazine website, and the resources available to you for free

Traditional artistic techniques

Drawing 101

14 Daniel ConwayWe catch up with the young, self-taught artist to nd out about is inspirations and motivations for creating his stunning images

Getting to know Painter artistsInterview

Daniel Conwaypg 22

www.painter magazine.co.uk

Visit ourwebsite now!

tutorialsCreate inspirational art

66 Still life scenesCapturing a still life scene is a great way of practising and improving your drawing skills. Discover how to set up a classic scene and then draw all the elements

Traditional artistic techniquesTraditional artistic techniques

Drawing 101

pg 58 Underwater scenes

Drawing 101

Original artwork by Daniel Conway

006-007_OPM_05_contents.indd 7 1/6/07 13:08:19

news even ts resources even ts resources even ts letters websites websites websites letters websites lettersTutorial xxxx

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ou dont have to wait for art galleries to open in order to get inspiration the internet houses lots of online galleries

that are bursting with beautiful images. Tokarta is one of the best, and offers

visitors the chance to peruse a variety of

PORTFOLIO

Online art gallery offers creatives inspiration and a place to sell artwork

Make an exhibit of yourself

artworks, make purchases and even set up their own online gallery. All of the work seen on the site has been uploaded by artists, and all of it can be bought. You can browse according to category or medium, and ind out more about the artist as well as any history behind the painting.

In addition to the fact that you can browse and buy some truly breathtaking work, you can also upload your own creations to sell on the site. For a monthly fee (starting at 10 a month), you can use Tokartas space to exhibit your own work. There is a Digital category that will happily hold any Corel Painter creations you may have produced.

We wanted an international site that specialised in all kinds of art, says co-founder Girts Gailans. But most important, it had to be a site where the artist charges the right money for their work, not bargain-basement rates. A site that is not forbidding and exclusive,

but accessible and welcoming, with a wide range of artworks. We dont charge commission on sales, or listing fees. Just a modest monthly rental for the space used.

If youd like to become part of the Tokarta empire, head over to www.tokarta.com and sign up for an account. Alternatively, pay it a visit if youre lacking inspiration, or if youre on the lookout for the perfect image to hang in your room.

Commun ityNEWS EVENTS RESOURCES LETTERS WEBSITES INFO FORUM

This image, New England by John

Harris, is just one of the many works

available to buy on the Tokarta website

visitors the chance to peruse a variety of as any history behind the painting.

browse and buy some truly breathtaking work, you can also upload your own creations to sell on the site. For a monthly fee (starting at 10 a month), you can use Tokartas space to exhibit your own work. There is a Digital category that will happily hold any Corel Painter creations you may have produced.

that specialised in all kinds of art, says co-founder Girts Gailans. But most important, it had to be a site where the artist charges the right money for their work, not bargain-basement rates. A site that is not forbidding and exclusive,

available to buy on the Tokarta website

artworks, make purchases and even set up their own online gallery. All of the work

Tokarta (www.tokarta.com) is an online gallery where you can exhibit and sell your Corel Painter creationsTokarta (www.tokarta.comTokarta (www.tokarta.comTokarta ( ) is an online gallery where www.tokarta.com) is an online gallery where www.tokarta.com

S

teve

Pra

tt

John Harris

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websites websites websites info news even ts resources even ts resources even ts letters website letters website letters info news even ts

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Stock up on photosf you pay a visit to this issues disc, youll ind 50 glorious images taken from the Crestock image library. This

site is a fantastic place to come and gather source photos for your digital paintings, and you can be sure of inding whatever you need.

You can either buy credits to purchase images individually, or take out a special subscription to download up to 20 extra-large images a day. You can ind pretty much anything you need here, and with thousands of photos to browse through, youll ind loads of options for any search query you enter. And be sure to check out the best and worst images of the day for an idea of what to do and not to do!

Head over to www.crestock.com and see how you can beneit from the site.

Take advantage of Crestocks bank of affordable images

JULY

In shortCreative happenings from around the world

Karen Sperlings Artistry Online websiteIf this magazine isnt enough for you, pay a visit to Karen Sperlings Artistry Online site. Here you can subscribe to her monthly e-zine ($10 month-by-month) to enjoy lots of tutorials and articles about using Corel Painter and learn about the special Artistry Retreats. See www.artistrymag.com.

Become a student at the Manga University Fans of manga will love this great site an online learning resource for drawing manga! You can take a tour through the free tutorials, picking up advice on drawing things such as hair and clothing, in addition to getting advice from manga professionals as well as buying drawing packs. Find out more at www.howtodrawmanga.com.

19 Issue 6 of OPM goes on sale!Get the latest issue of Official Corel Painter Magazine from your newsagent today! Guarantee your copy every month or just save yourself the effort of leaving the house by taking out a subscription via www.imaginesubs.co.uk.

ombining 3D models with the brushes in Corel Painter is a fantastic way of creating art turn to page 58 for an

example of how its done. But you dont have to learn a 3D program

to do this. Just call upon the services of JLStock (http://jlstock.deviantart.com). Here you will nd a glorious array of 3D models that can be downloaded absolutely free and used in your projects. You can immerse yourself in winged creatures, mermaids, nymphs, owers and buildings all of which are nished to the highest quality. If you do use any of the stock, be nice and credit JLStock, as the excellent work deserves as much attention as you can give it.

Get creative with 3D stock images and backgrounds

hen it comes to giving Corel Painter users extra content and help, one of the best

sites is Jinny Browns Pixelalley (www.pixelalley.com). On here, visitors can enjoy a wealth of tips and tricks, as well as valuable tutorials and links to great websites. Now visitors can enjoy even more content, as Jinnys site is in the process of a rebirth.

I never had a plan with the site, says Jinny. The main goal was to share content with other users. I hoped people would ind the site accessible and wanted to keep it very simple.

There are no irm dates for the new content, so keep checking back!

Find goodies at Pixelalley.com

Immerse yourself in some watercolour skillsThe excellent Watercolor Painting.com site (www.watercolorpainting.com) is packed with tutorials and helpful advice for painting with watercolours, many of which can be adapted for Corel Painters own brushes.

Use models as the basis for your Corel Painter artworkRESOURCES

RESOURCES

There are plenty of Crestock images on the

disc and then visit the site for even more!

ART TOOLS

For Corel Painter help, inspiration and advice, pay a visit to Jinny Browns website

Popular Corel Painter site gears itself for new content

Make use of JLStocks creativity by

using her models in your

own workbe downloaded absolutely free and used in your projects. You can immerse yourself in winged creatures, mermaids, nymphs, owers and buildings all of which are nished to the highest quality. If you do use any of the stock, be nice and credit JLStock, as the excellent work deserves as much attention as you can give it.

models in your own work

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news even ts resources even ts resources even ts letters website letters website letters info news even ts resources resourceseven ts resourceseven ts

Good source of knowledge?Hello to you all. Just bought my irst copy of the magazine and I love it! Im hoping it will take me from fumbling beginner to a dazzling artist!

I wanted to ask you what you thought about traditional art resources. I know that the software is championed as a

our le ttersreal media tool, but how close is the relationship? I only ask because I have been given a load of old art books, but they are all about things like traditional watercolour and oil painting. I havent got any experience with traditional art whatsoever, so am completely clueless when it comes to any artistic subject. Any advice is gratefully received.

Chris Parker

As you say, Corel Painter is a real media tool but it goes far beyond mimicking how traditional art materials look. A lot of the brushes work exactly as their real world counterparts would, so it is benefi cial to have a grounding in traditional art theory and technique. You might notice that our book reviews cover traditional media as well as digital techniques, simply because the two are so closely interlinked. A lot of Corel Painter artists approach the tools as they would real brushes and paints, so you should get a lot of help from your inherited books!

Website woesIve been a member of an artists and illustrators club for a few years now, and weve got to the stage where we want to show people outside of the club what we

get up to. The obvious solution is to build a website, but we cant think up any good ideas. Have you seen any good ones?

Simone Rougele

Sketch Motel (www.sketchmotel.com) is an excellent portfolio site. It follows a motel theme, where each illustrator is a guest and you can visit their rooms to see their works. Its a great example of how a concept can be done very well, and helps raise it above the wash of other portfolio sites.

Welcome to the part of the magazine where you can come

and share your thoughts on anything you fancy!

Featured galleryFeatured galleryKobi McKenziewww.paintermagazine.co.uk/user/kobi

Kobi is a rm favourite among the OCPM team, as her mixture of subjects is very

pleasing to the eye. Now a retired graphic designer, Kobi can immerse herself in digital painting without worrying about deadlines and other restraints. The examples we have here are just three found in her gallery, so we wholeheartedly recommend you head over and view the rest. We particularly like the sports action paintings, although the animal portraits are very hard to resist!

www.paintermagazine.co.uk/user/kobi

graphic designer, Kobi can immerse

worrying about deadlines and other restraints. The examples we

view the rest. We particularly

although the animal portraits are very hard to resist! very hard to resist! very hard to resist!

Kenya Lion

Of cial Corel Painter Magazine, Imagine Publishing, Richmond House, 33 Richmond Hill, Bournemouth, Dorset BH2 6EZ, UK

If youd prefer to contact us via email, send your message to [email protected]

Send your letters to...

Everywhere you look in Corel Painter, there are examples of traditional techniques influencing

how the software works

Bright Palm Beach

Its a good idea to look at other sites for inspiration and the Sketch Motel is a great example of how a simple theme can work very well

Its a good idea to look at other sites for inspiration and the Sketch Motel is a great example of how a simple theme can work very well

Hockey Player

Our favourite readers gallery this month

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Interview Daniel Conway

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ne thing thats really inspirational is seeing an artist you admire and then inding out that they taught themselves

everything they know. It proves that not all skill can be taught in the classroom and some people are just born with talent .

Daniel Conway was one artist that we had our eye on not only is his work beautiful, haunting and technically

Though still in his early 20s, Conways work has a certain maturity fused with digital skill. We caught up with this talented artist to discover how he went from university graduate to Painter Master

Daniel Conwayperfect, but he has also joined the hallow company of Painter Masters despite having had no formal training in digital painting techniques.

Daniel graduated from Dundee University, Scotland, where he studied digital and traditional animation, which is probably where the graphic feel of his paintings comes from not to mention the patience to create his digital art.

We caught up with Daniel to discover more about how he works, where he gets inspiration from and, of course, to take a closer look at some of his spectacular and eye-catching artwork!

You can see more of his work at www.artofconway.com or visit http://arcipello.deviantart.com and order some prints before they are gone.

How do you go about creating a painting? Does it change according to what youre working on, or do you follow a set routine each time?My worklow changes a lot depending on the piece Im setting out to do. If its a simple character piece, Ill start by sketching out poses until I ind one that I like and from that point its generally

just a case of getting a good colour composition and laying the foundations. If, however, its a piece that involves characters and a lot of open scenery, I will spend a great deal longer working on the composition alone. Ive spent many a night moving elements around because they just didnt feel right.

After the painful task of balancing everything, its mainly just a great deal of time spent rendering the scene to a high and consistent level.

Did you come from a traditional painting background, or did you delve straight in with digital painting?Before I ventured into digital painting, I had never really painted much on canvas, if at all. In fact, I think the closest I came was acrylic paints on paper. The irst image program I used was Paint Shop Pro and it was great for starting out and learning all the simple stuff, but as soon as I bought my irst Wacom (a small A6 Graphire 2), I wanted to try more advanced stuff, and thats when I found out about Painter 7. Ive been creating digital art for about ive years now and in that time Ive learnt a great deal, so

digital skill. We caught up with this talented artist to discover how he went from university graduate to Painter Master

An interview with

WEBSITE www.artofconway.com and http://arcipello.deviantart.comJOB TITLE Freelance digital artistCLIENTS Corel Corporation, Fightstar

[BELOW]Forget Me NotThis took me forever and a day to do! But it paid off, as its how I wanted it

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Motoko CloseupThis was a sketch I did while preparing to do my Fragile Shell piece

All o

rigi

nal a

rtw

ork

by D

anie

l Con

way



16

Sketch of the ColossusFan art for the game Shadow of the Colossus


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much so that I want to now go back to traditional oil on canvas so I guess it works in reverse too!

What inspires you when you are creating your works of art?Inspiration can come from anywhere really, but inspiration is just a trigger that sets off a series of other thoughts and ideas, meaning the inal image is often nothing like the initial inspiration and thats how I like it. I ind that photography has a bigger inluence on me than actual paintings. I think this is because painters are often more concerned about the visual quality of their work rather than the ideas behind the work.

Photographers dont suffer from this since the world is their canvas and it has already been painted beautifully for them. This gives a lot more freedom for creating images with much more interesting concepts.

What are your favourite Corel Painter tools and brushes?My current favourites are the Pencil tool, which I ind great for sketching; the Sumi-e brushes, because I love their textures; and, of course, the Artists Oils. Oh, and I also must mention the Blending tools since they are the best of any program Ive used.

Do you have a favourite personal piece of work?Its hard to say really; I like some work more due to the visual content and others because of the concept. I would say it would be between Broken Dawn and Bright Eyes.

Is there any kind of style that you would like to try that you havent already touched on?I think I would quite like to try my hand at combining messy oil painting with

[ABOVE] Her Silent Silhouette

Im most happy with how the sky and water turned out. I dont use

references so I just keep drawing until I feel it

looks right

crisp, clean, cell shading, simply because it would be a nice challenge to achieve the right balance.

Who are your favourite Corel Painter artists?Its actually quite hard to distinguish as to who uses Corel Painter or not these days unless they state speciically, so I would rather pick out some of my

Sub EmergenceI had this idea in my head for

months and felt I had to get it onto digital canvas. Im very

glad I did too!

Inspiration can come from anywhere really, but inspiration is just a trigger that sets off a series of other thoughts and ideas



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favourite digital artists across the whole genre. First up for me is Yanick Dusseault [check out his work at www.dusso.com]. I remember staring at his work for the irst time ive years ago and suddenly realising that digital painting was clearly the way forward to me, so his stuff was a big inspiration.

I also really enjoy the work of Jason Chan [see for yourself his inspiring work at www.jasonchanart.com]. [He has some] very nice concepts and [his work is] always wonderfully executed.

What are your plans for the future?Goals for the future would include learning a lot more about creating captivating images, and I guess to that end learning more about my new copy of Painter X.

I would also really like to become an art director within the industry of games and/or ilm; the two mediums are quickly merging together so I think its going to be easier to cross over from one to the other. My main goal, however, is to always enjoy the work I do.

[ABOVE] To SleepThis was another sketch I created for the Fightstar album booklet

Bright Eyes This was a sketch created for the Fightstar album booklet. It was also used in the Corel Painter X promotional material


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Broken DawnThis was another image created

for the album cover for Fightstar


showcase

ATA ALISHAHI TITLE Beautiful Day WEBSITE www.atadesigner.com JOB TITLE Freelance artist, photographer and designer

Atas work rst came to our attention when he joined up to the website, and weve constantly been amazed by the work he produces. Colour is a major driving force in his paintings, which is demonstrated perfectly with this example here.

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or the last two years I have been running after pictures, and seeking the truth at second hand. I have not endeavoured to represent

nature with the same elevation of mind with which I set out, but have rather tried to make my performances look like the work of other men there is room enough for a natural painter. The great vice of the present day is bravura, an attempt to do something beyond the truth.

With this statement, John Constable (1776-1837) turned his back on the prevailing styles of the time in order to re-dedicate himself to wresting some visual truths from his beloved English countryside. Born in the river village of Suffolk, young Constable had become intimately familiar with his environs, making many trips out into the ields and woods to sketch and paint. His love of simple, un-manufactured pastoral beauty never left him, and indeed many of his most famous paintings are of settings he grew up around. In fact, the area around Suffolk is called Constable country.

While his peers were busy in their studios creating their scenes of nature from imagination, he began to actually venture outside to plan and execute whole paintings based on keen observation of what he actually saw. He began to make visual notation of leeting light and weather effects for use in later works, and developed a very scientiic approach to investigating these phenomena irst hand. This was a true revolution in thinking and studio practice. Along with a handful of other like-minded artists, he ushered in an approach that led to the great Impressionist movement, which elevated the study of natural light and atmospheric effects to the same level that realistic depiction of the human form had obtained during the Renaissance.

His name brings to mind massive six-foot canvases, but did you know that most of his works were rather small? A good

Lets use digital tools to explore the methods of the great landscape artist John Constable

ConstableConstableConstable

Tutorial Paint like Constable

Artist

Time needed

Skill level

On the CD

Jeff Johnson

3 hours

Intermediate

Line sketch

Tutorial info

Paint like: ConstableConstableConstablePaint like:

022-029_OPM_05_constable.indd 22 1/6/07 09:56:37

23

TutorialPaint like Constable


24


deal of his outdoors work was done on canvases he could tuck under his arm. His oil sketches are a prized part of his legacy owing to their highly expressive and nuanced brushwork. Just look at one of his cloud studies and you will see how brave an experimenter he was. We have often thought that his ability to suggest complex form and content on small canvases with what we would call shorthand notation informed his trademark brushwork and surface treatment.

In this tutorial, we are going to use elements from three of Constables works, and add on a fair bit of our own scenery to boot. We will borrow the river and grounds from Flatford Mill (Scene On A Navigable River) 1816-17, the wagon and folks from The Haywain 1821, and the glorious sky from Wivenhoe Park, Essex 1816. You may be thinking that blending those elements into a cohesive whole would be challenge enough, but we will be given a full third of the canvas upon which we will extend the scene la Constable! This will offer a fun test of our understanding of his approach and style, for not only must our subject matter be styled in a fashion similar to that of the master, but also our very handling of paint in creating form and light.

Constable is known for innovations in painting, like using sharp dabs of white to simulate dew, putting dots of red in foliage to activate the green and using broken strokes to create facets that suggest natural light. Re-creating some of these techniques in digital media requires

making good use of the right tools. The Wet Oily brush is perfect for working up the basic values, as a loose treatment with it immediately begins to layer textures and colour variation. We will throw in a Spatter Airbrush in places (hey, the only reason he didnt use one is there was no such thing at the time!) to simulate the spattery licking of paint he sometimes used. The Grainy Blender will come in handy as we progress, as it creates a lovely texture, as well the Oily Blender and the Round Blender brushes.

The irst order of business will be to bring all of the elements together in a

simple line drawing. Then, using a colour palette sampled from a set of the best web reproductions we could ind, we will rough in the entire painting, starting with the sky and working forward in nice, manageable steps. We will be working wet on wet, always painting into midtones with darks and lights. Once we have a working rough, we will work back into the canvas, adding textures, highlights and details that help create a sense of light and atmosphere. The end result should, if we do our due diligence, be distinctly reminiscent of the work of the master himself. Good luck to all of us!

[RIGHT]Cloud study

Constable studied the sky and clouds in paint throughout his career.

His rapidly executed oil studies attempted

to capture oft-fleeting effects of light, form and

atmosphere. The result of such efforts

is perhaps the largest single body of

such studies in all of Western art

[BELOW] Simple strokesJust look at how simply this study is put together, yet how much information it holds about the kind of day and quality of light!

WikimediaWikimedia has 35 good-quality large images of Constables works. They have good colour and many have the kind of detail that one needs in order to see how they were painted


25


One brush at a time, pleaseAll of the various elements in this painting are going to be roughed in with the same brush (the venerable Wet Oily brush, located in Artists Oils). Brushwork and brush sizes will vary according to necessity. One of the best ways to learn what a brush is capable of is to wrestle with it in various circumstances. Change its size and/or opacity. Try short stabs with it or skitter it across the surface. Look closely at the kind of edges it creates in each circumstance. Does it work painting into another colour? Is it suitable for detail work if made small enough? Answer these questions and others before you pick up the next tool.

04 Painting some sky Each of the steps in this tutorial are designed to add texture and enliven the colour variation. This simple preliminary is no exception. The three tones of sky are applied loosely with a 60+ Variable Spatter Airbrush on a separate Darken layer. Most of the sky will be covered with clouds, but layers of paint to follow will either pick up some of those blues, or only partly cover them. Wet-on-wet painting is a process of painting into colours, so we will always rough in a ground from here on in.

05 Look at the clouds Next up are the clouds. Using a 25 Wet Oily brush and painting on a new Default layer, rough in the midtones of the clouds. Bring out the Variable Spatter Airbrush again for a few transition areas. Consult the sky references and carry the rhythms of the original into the new sky as well.

Gather together all the pieces you need for your workCollecting the elementsCollecting the elements

01 Lets go England You can try rough composition using grabs from the web. In terms of the narrative, we decided to have our boatman crossing the river with a tether (rather than a pole as in the original) as if it were a ferry crossing. There to meet him will be mom and pop, and their rickety wagon. Make your own or use the line sketch on the CD.

02 Making a line drawing First, create a new Default layer and set it to roughly 70% Opacity. Then using a size 7 Charcoal Pencil, draw in the major details. To complete the scene, place the various elements of water, land, buildings, trees and sky following the compositional themes we described earlier. Next comes a Variable Spatter Airbrush and paper white to paint back some lines in the clouds and water so they are more easily covered later.

03 Putting together a colour scheme The images on the web vary considerably in quality where colour is concerned. The same holds for reproductions in general. We scoured the net for some versions of our three Constable paintings that seemed to have a solid range of hues and values, and sampled colours directly from them using the Eyedropper tool. The result was this fairly warm colour scheme.

06 Darkness Using the same brush, lets lay in the various darks from our scheme. We still have the originals to bounce off of, so the going is still easy. In order to frame a scene, a common compositional technique is to darken the outer edges of the picture somewhat, and indeed Constable did so on many occasions, so why dont we?

One brush

07 Lighten up Now we complete our preliminary sky with our lightest tones. The red arrows show the brush direction, namely away from the light source. Using the Wet Oily brush in this way creates an easily controlled edge. It is easy to feather with soft dabs across the edge. Leave the lightest value for last and feather it back. Merge the layers.


26

SquintSharp eyesight can be a positive hindrance when one is painting details. It is all too easy to lose track of the effects those details are having on the rest of the painting. Sure, zooming out can help, but area averaging can play havoc with the finer stuff. Zooming in and stepping back from the monitor is excellent for close-up work, but the best overall way to track the effect of a painterly flourish is to have as much of the canvas visible as possible and squint. It is literally one of the oldest tricks in the book of painting.

Work your way through the image with your painting toolsPainting in the middle groundPainting in the middle ground

08 Down and out With the sky and far hills roughed in, lets move forward. Next up is the middle ground, starting with the buildings, far trees and elds. The process will begin the same way, namely roughing in midtones of each on a Darken layer. A smaller version of our Wet Oily brush is called for. Something in the range of 10-12.

09 Shadows Next comes shadows and the darker tones. These are painted on a separate Default layer. Take a little time to cover the line drawing, even reworking some of the sky if needed. Loose strokes are ne, as we are trying to build texture. The close-up shows the kind of brushwork needed.

10 Lighten up a bit Now comes highlights, starting with the buildings. It is perfectly all right to x details along the way, but this is just preliminary work so not too much time should be spent on any one thing. Try to create a uniform handling of the brush. It is a great brush for the look you see here. Merge and save.

11 More of the same Notice how quickly this all comes together? We are already halfway down the painting with our rough, and things are shaping up. Now come the near trees and shrubs, following the process of roughing in midtones on a Darken layer. Flatten the image, save and move on.

12 More shadows Here is a shot of some shadows and darker areas being blocked in rapidly. Use short strokes to create as many facets as possible for the most realistic effect, even going over longish strokes cross-wise to break them up a bit.

13 More light Now we need to add the highlights. As things get closer and more details become visible, paint more and smaller highlights as you move to the foreground. It is good at this point to take some time to make some interesting shapes at the edges of our ora.


Squint


27


Reflections and shadows create realistic waterWater worksWater works

14 Thirsty? Now we begin to paint in the water. Open up another Darken layer and bring the Wet Oily brush up to about 20 pixels. Time to start laying in horizontal strokes of midtone, starting with a greenish hue. The water is mirroring nearly everything in the picture at some place or another, so the re ections will have to, well, re ect that. That is why there are so many colours in our water palette.

15 Shadows and dark re ections Once the Darken layer is dropped and the document saved, move on to adding the darker values with the same horizontal strokes. Notice how a little brown makes the blue in our midtones come out. The Wet Oily brush leaves a fairly sharp edge at the beginning of a stroke, so when necessary go back along the stroke to a point past its beginning to soften this edge a bit.

16 Bright re ections Now, using the lightest tones, we paint into our midtones in the areas re ecting the most light, not bothering to completely cover up what is underneath. Do this stage on a separate Default layer, so you can modify some edges without disturbing the rest of the work.

FENCING, ANYONE?The retaining wall on the far side was a solid tie-in with the one on the near bank. In the original, there is a hint of just such a wall. Short gesture stabs of midtones with the trusty Wet Oily Brush were quickly followed by highlights in places to suggest the dappled light in the rest of the painting.

Whats left for you to doMidway, now what?

UP, UP AND AWAYThe diagonal these clouds make can be followed all the way to the edge of the canvas via the line of purplish clouds and details in the trees. It is nearly parallel to the ferry line and cuts across the strong diagonal of the river for some nice dynamic energy.

UH OHOriginally, we thought that a little lively play of the sparkling water and tree re ections would be enough here, but a little something else may have to be included to add a bit more to the overall level of interest.

GO TO THE (LIGHT) SOURCEThe wagon and horses are going to have to be brought into the same light as the rest of the painting. In The Haywain the light is coming from a different direction, and the values are much darker, so basic shapes will have to do. The idea is to-colour pick using the Eyedropper tool from around the canvas for some likely suspects and model the wagon in the proper light.

HOUSING DEVELOPMENTIn searching through ways to complete the composition, we decided to simply continue some of the details found elsewhere, such as placing a few more buildings on a far slope. It seemed logical to do as Constable did, and integrate them into their surroundings by obscuring parts of each of them by the hill, shrubs and trees.


28

Layer cakeNothing frees one up to experiment with paint more than the sure knowledge that what is underneath can be easily retrieved if things go south. Layers are indispensable for many other purposes as well. It can be extremely useful to create an effect on the canvas and erase passages of the unaffected top layer to reveal the effect with precise control.

Now for the carriage, horses and peopleColouring the detail

17 Riding the waves After painting in the darkest darks, lightly pull some midtones across those areas. Working back and forth with horizontal strokes plays lights and darks into one another at the edges of shadows, focusing on creating a shimmering surface.

Colouring the detail

18 A new brush! Out comes the Oily Blender 40. Worked horizontally along the waves and ripples, the Oily Blender smoothes out those harsh edges and helps create a nice glistening surface. Use a light touch, or take the opacity of the brush down a bit for control.

19 The right bank After saving the image, it is on to the right side of the river. Using a size 45 Wet Oily brush on a Darken layer, quickly block in the midtones. There is a good deal of colour variation in the original, so do a little consulting before moving on.

20 Dark shadows The darkest shadows in the painting will be in this area, but it is a good idea to build to the darks slowly, concentrating on colour variation and texture along the way. Merge and save.

21 Light on grass After blocking in the light areas with the large Wet Oily brush, reduce the size to about 9-10 and quickly paint in the brightest tones in the golden areas (as well as some light and dark colours in shadowy areas) as separate vertical strokes, creating a grass-like rhythm. Go around to all of the grassy areas in the picture and repeated this as needed.

22 Last but not least The nal laying in of midtones! Like before, a large Wet Oily brush is used with quick, vigorous strokes to start building textures. Use a purplish grey for the two horses and a slightly more reddish brown for the barge.

23 The darkening Still on the same Darken layer as before, lay in the darker tones. Most of the wagon is in shadow, as well the posts and stump. We will be working these items a bit, so dont spend any time with edges at this point.


Layer cake


29

Variation over timeOne of the first questions when laying out a project is what kind of surface treatment will the painting have? This project was no different. In fact, surface handling was a big part of the plan. When one thinks of Constable, one thinks of atmosphere and light. His surfaces are richly varied, and his details are sometimes surprisingly sketch like. To develop a way of getting to our own set of details via painterly means, we began early by building up layers of overlapping hues and values with vigorous brushstrokes. Then more and more surface detail was added to create the kind of faceted, shimmering light one would expect to see in an image meant to evoke Constable, using smaller and smaller brushes and applying a couple of different blenders. We went so far as to layer canvas textures on top of one another in subtly amended layers to give the whole canvas a little controlled sparkle.


Tweak the colours and add the final touchesGetting it right

26 Last big colour tweaks Now for a little colour play. Open up a Soft Light layer and set it to 33% Opacity. With a large (70 or so) Variable Spatter Airbrush set to 25% Opacity, paint some light greens into the green highlights and in places on the water. It creates a subtle hue change suggestive of a warmer light. Shift the sky a bit more towards blue using the same method.

27 Canvas Create a duplicate layer and select the lower layer. Then, with Linen Canvas (located on the toolbox menu) as the paper choice, go to Effects>Surface Control>Apply Surface Texture. Go over the second layer, erasing lightly until just enough texture in just the right places shows through. Repeat the operation with Artists Canvas very lightly in order to vary up the texture.

Getting it right

24 Best for last Now for some nice details using our brightest values. The trick in painting something small that looks like something big in the distance is to get the shape, local colour and basic lighting right. A dab of the right colour with the right shape in the right place can become a very expressive arm or hat or blouse.

25 A little more focus First order of business is to copy the picture and paste. Then via Effects>Surface Control>Apply Lighting, choose Warm Globe at the settings shown. Since the effect is isolated on a separate layer, its a snap to gently erase a bit of the effect from places like the diagonal clouds and anywhere else it is not wanted.

28 The nish line Now for some smaller details added with alternating Wet Oily and Impasto Oil brushes set to about four pixels each. The idea is to search around the canvas and add dabs of light and dark to at areas. A little red in a eld of green (or vice-versa) can really liven up a patch. Then comes the Grainy Blender 30 with a light touch following the stroke direction to blend them into the picture. Finished!

Variation over timeOne of the first questions when laying out a


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showcase

RYAN MAUSKOPF TITLE Robots Best Friend WEBSITE http://rye-bread.deviantart.com JOB TITLE Digital artist

Ryans work is a glorious combination of colour and character, mixing cartoony illustration with painterly touches youd expect from an old master. Visit his website for information on how you can buy prints of his work, and email him at [email protected]

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32

orking digitally is awesome. I was trained in a wide variety of traditional media: oils, acrylics,

watercolours, charcoal and graphite. They all have their advantages, and I still enjoy using them, but Corel Painter is an incredibly lexible program that lets me not miss them too much.

In this particular image, I took three drawings and a computer-generated 3D model, combined them into one composition, and then tried to make it look as non-digital as possible. While Im a big fan of working digitally, Im not so fond of the very clean, airbrushed look that often is the result. When working in Corel Painter, I try to think of it as I would if I was using traditional media as much as

possible. Actually, thats a lie; I try to treat it like I would treat traditional media if my paper had magical layers that I could work on simultaneously and could be as opaque or transparent as my heart desired. What I really meant is that I try to keep in mind things I learned about colour when I was learning to paint, such as rendering by using complementary colours is a good thing (in this painting I use a lot of purple and yellow), to avoid true black, and to try to echo colour throughout a composition. Also, I try to keep my hand visible by letting things not be perfect. But Im probably preaching to the choir.

Im going to explain how I made this image. The 3D model makes the start a little more complicated, but otherwise this is pretty typical of how I work.

In this tutorial, Celia Yost looks at turning a sketch of a couple of figures into a full painting with an environment

Illustrate with sketches and oilsIllustrate with sketches and oils

Tutorial Illustrate with sketches and oils

Artist

Time needed

Skill level

On the CD

Celia Yost

2 hours

Intermediate

Source files

Tutorial info

Get your basics together Setting the scene

01 Setting up I started by setting all the layers with line art in them to Gel in the Layers palette. This gives me transparent pencils to paint under. The layer with the model will be my base, and I also ll the canvas layer with dark purple. Itll be visible through the window, and Ive decided its night time.

02 Figure: basic colour I need to block in the gures with opaque colour, as right now you cant see them very well. I add a new layer directly beneath the gure line art, and use the Gouache brushes to apply the colour, speci cally the Opaque Smooth and the Fine Bristle options.

Setting the scene

Celia Yost shows you how to

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TutorialIllustrate w

ith sketches and oils

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Using hot keysHot keys are your friends. These are keyboard shortcuts that can save a lot of time when painting especially these two: { and }. They adjust brush size up and down, and allow me to fuss with the size on the fly. All of the tools have associated hot keys. The ones I use the most are B for brush, G for grab and Ctrl/Cmd+ +/- to zoom in and out. Also, I find it expedient to keep a palette of brushes that I use frequently while painting open. These custom palettes are easy to create: drag the brush icon off of the selector bar. To see any palettes that arent open (theyre automatically saved), go to Window>Custom Palettes.

Small, subtle brush strokes add realismIts all in the detail

03 Clothing detail Using the Artists Oils Wet and Blender brushes, I go back in and add detail once I have the general colours for the clothing blocked in. As far Im concerned, these brushes are about the same, so Ill just keep one more opaque and switch between them. I keep a palette with my frequently used brushes open for speedier access.

Its all in the detail

04 Hair and skin detail For the gures skin, I use a modi ed Fine Feathering Oils brush. Under Window>Show Brush Creator, I change the Stroke Type to Rake and the Method to Drip, giving the brush a nice smeary-ness. Around her eyes, mouth and to pick out highlights in her hair, I used a Detail Oils brush. Since shes fair, Im using dull purples to shade her skin.

05 The ghost Im keeping the ghost translucent, so I use the Blender brush, the Fine Feathering Oils brush (unmodi ed) and the Fine Soft Glazing Oils brush at low opacities. This last tool is modi ed, changing the Method from Buildup to Cover, so that the color gets more opaque the more its applied.

06 The ghosts shadow Im giving the ghost a very transparent double following and overlapping it, so Im going to lightly go in with the Feathering Oils and Glazing Oils brushes, in a new layer set to Screen at 60% Opacity. Ive turned off the other gure layers so you can see it a bit better in the screengrab.

07 Background: rst attack Im now going to throw some paint on the background before going back to the gures. I like to move around the canvas a lot, at least touching on everything before settling down to nish anything. Ive started to add re ective shadows on the oor and detail to the furniture. Ive also used the Sponge brush to add colour to the wall.


Using

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08 More on the background I also start adding detail to the books. Youll note that the drawing and the model dont quite match up. Thats because it was far faster for me to just draw in any curves, instead of sculpting them in 3D. I draw detail a lot faster than I model it, and it wasnt necessary to see the basic form.

09 Back to the gure Im now going to go back to the girl. Ive decided that I need more of a directional light source, so I added some purple and blue shadows to her face, as well as a little more yellow in the highlights, blending this into the original skin tone. Im using the Fine Feathering Oils and the Wet Acrylic brushes.

10 Clothing detail I also went in and added some more detail to her clothing, using the Artists Oils brushes and Detail Oils brushes. Im also going in and cleaning up the slop from my rst go-round, where I wasnt too concerned about staying in the lines. The basic eraser works ne for this.

35

Going about things the wrong wayThis image started with the drawing of the ghost and the girl. Unfortunately, only afterwards did I decide on the setting. This was a mistake, as trying to make the perspective of the interior match that of the figures was deeply annoying and I should have known better. Then I realised that everything I wanted in the interior was essentially box shaped. While my 3D modelling skills arent particularly impressive, I could at least manage boxes. And, even better, once I built the model, Id be able to adjust the viewpoint without having to redo the entire thing. But now I had these pencil-drawn figures and a very hard-edged, digital background, and I needed to make them look like they belonged in the same image. So, I printed out one of my renders, traced it by hand, scanned the trace back in, and then composited the figures on top, keeping the model for lighting and color reference.

TutorialPaint an interior w

ith featuresKeep working on different elements of your compositionBack and forthBack and forth

11 The ghost again Painting the ghost is a lot of fun. Using the Oils brushes and an eraser, Ive added some red and orange to his face. Also I use a Detail Oils brush to pick out lines because I think it looks nifty. Im mostly following my drawing, but in places allowing the color to drift away a bit.

12 Afterimage Im now going to do the same to the after effect thats following the ghost. Again, heres a shot of it with the gure layer turned off for the sake of visibility.

Going about things the wrong wayThis image started with the drawing of the ghost

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Get more out of brushesBrushes are the fun part of Corel Painter. One thing I did when I was first learning the program, which I highly recommend others do, is to just play with the brushes. Id systematically go through all of the brush families, doing a sketch using each brush just to see what it did and what it was useful for. Also, if I have a particular effect in mind that I want to show, Ill spend a lot of time trying to find the perfect brush to create that. While I certainly have my favourites, (Soft Glazing Oils, Im looking at you), other people may prefer others. Having fun and figuring out which ones work for you is the important part.

Perfect your painting with further detailingFinishing touches

17 Window The windows still bugging me. Ive gone in and put in some more re ection, but its not enough. So I created a new layer behind everything except the canvas, and used an Airbrush tool to make some vague dark shapes behind the window.

Finishing touches

18 Final touches The last thing I have to do is add some more shadows on the bookcase and the oor. I made another layer above the oor color and set it to Darken. I then picked a dark purple and used the Soft Airbrush at a low Opacity to knock back some of the space, and ground the girl and the table.


16 Floor I made a new layer for the oor so Id be able to make longer strokes, instead of trying to paint around the table. I used warm orange browns and the Artists Oils Wet Oily Blender brush. These brushes will blend long after the pigment has run out, so theyre good at smoothing without annihilating the individual marks.

15 Woodwork Another thing Im concerned about is that I have a lot of different surfaces in this painting that are wood, which need to be distinguished from one another. For the furniture, I tried to make the bookshelves darker and richer than the table, so more reds and purples for the shelves and duller browns for the table.

14 Books need to be book-like All those books still dont really look like books, so I needed to put enough detail in to make them convincing. Im not very picky with what brush Im using here, just grabbing the Artists Oils brushes and Detail Oils brushes again. I like adding little bits of hatching with a Detail Oils brush for some variety in brush marks.

13 Background again Ive decided the wall should be dark yellow. I used the Soft Fine Glazing Oils, the Square Conte and Blunt Chalk. I ended up putting the baseboard on the same layer as the colour for the gures, as I kept accidentally painting over it when it was on the layer with the rest of the background color. I used the Straight Line tool to get the edges of the baseboard, as its a detail that I didnt draw or model.

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38

he dictionary deines the word esoteric as understood by or meant for only the select few who have special knowledge or interest such

a deinition could easily apply to this particular category of effects and illustrates how these ilters came to have such a title.

However, its all too easy to dismiss a selection of seemingly obscure and strange effects without a second glance but as always with Corel Painter X, when applied with imagination and creativity, many of the effects within the Esoterica category can be used with some very interesting results.

Its true to say that there are a few effects within the category that are indeed obscure, there are as many that can raise your Corel Painter creativity to a whole new level. Here were going to examine each one individually, show you the best of them and look at exactly how to apply them to your Corel Painter art.

Were going to look at two of the most useful features Auto Clone and Auto Van Gogh in more detail. If you know just how to use them, these effects can create convincing paintings for you in just a couple of mouse clicks. Although you might not be entirely satisied with the out of the box results, both of these effects can be a great shortcut to an effective under-painting, which you can then paint on top of. And if you feel like going a little wild and experiencing the more surreal side of Corel Painter effects, well show you how you can adapt the other Esoterica effects to add the wow factor to your images.

This is a great way to give your images a real Sixties feel, and make them much more graphic in nature. It can also create the effect of a very coarse newsprint image if used in a certain way. Within the dialog, the Scale slider controls the size of the actual dots that are applied, while you can choose the Dab Color and the Background from the two colour swatches. Image Luminance is the most useful mode: you can choose it from the Using box. Adjusting the Contrast slider allows you to use the luminance of your image to mix the fill with.

Step back in timePop Art FillPop Art Fill

Not just for kitchen surfaces

Auto MarblingAuto Marbling

Auto Marbling creates an effect that simulates traditional decorative marbling, where a rake or fork is dragged across a wet surface, distorting the image in wave-like patterns. Within the effects dialog box there are a number of values that you can adjust to modify the appearance of the marbling. Its a good idea to apply this effect numerous times, using a different direction each time. Essentially, this is a decorative effect. The Quality slider is important in that it allows you to increase the smoothness and visual quality of the finished effect.

Primer Focus

Fade away!Many of these effects can be a little overpowering if they are used straight out of the box, and the results are often improved if they are toned down a little. An ideal way of doing this is by using the Fade command. Once youve applied the effect to your image, go to Edit>Fade. By default, the Fade amount is set to 50%, but you can change this to any value you want.

IMPRESSIONISTICFor more traditional painterly effects, the Impressionist variant makes a great choice. Again, make sure that in the Colors palette you have the Clone Color icon depressed, or your Auto Clone option will be greyed out in the menu. They key here is that this is automatic cloning, and the software will keep painting until you instruct it to stop.

PRIMER

Esoteric by name and by nature. Take a look at the weird world of Esoterica effects!

EFFECTS MENUEsoterica

DAB BRUSHESRemember, you can use any Captured Dab type brush in conjunction with the Auto Clone effect. Here, weve used the Sargent brush from the Artists group of variants. Again, its worth experimenting with the settings for the brush. See the tips alongside for identifying Dab brushes.

USING AUTO CLONEUsing Effects>Esoterica> Auto Clone, you can use any Captured Dab type brush and Corel Painter will actually paint the picture for you. Start by going to File>Quick Clone. On the cloned copy, choose a Captured Dab type brush, click the Clone Color icon and simply watch Corel Painter paint. Click with your mouse to stop the painting process!

Remember, you can use any Captured Dab

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39

Primer

Esoterica

Mosaics made easyCustom TilesCustom Tiles

Attack of the clonesAuto CloneAuto Clone

Using this effect allows you to split your image up into a mosaic-like pattern, where the image itself is made up of many small tessellating shapes. You can choose from many variety of shapes from the drop-down box, and adjust the size, angle and sharpness of the individual tiles with ease. By checking the Use Grout checkbox, you can create the effect of grouting between each tile. Choose the colour of the grout via the Color swatch, and modify the Thickness slider to control the width of the grout.

Choose Auto Clone and Painter will actually paint your picture for you. Start by cloning your image via File>Quick Clone. On this cloned copy, choose any Dab type brush. Adjust the brush size to suit. You must make sure that the Clone Color button is active in the Colors palette before Auto Clone will work. Once you go to Effects>Esoterica>Auto Clone, Painter will begin to paint. Watch the progress of your image and simply click your mouse button when youre happy with the result.

CHALK AUTO CLONEHere weve used the Square Chalk variant in conjunction with Auto Clone. For a more realistic effect, make sure that your brush Opacity and Resat are both set fairly low so that the brush dabs build up quite slowly, giving you chance to hit that mouse button when youre happy with the result.that mouse button when youre happy with the result.

AUTO VAN GOGHAuto Van Gogh is similar to Auto Clone but creates automatic painting in the style of the great master himself. For this you need to choose the Auto Van Gogh brush from the Artists category. This brush has colour variability dialled into its settings so as well as creating those typical Van Gogh curved strokes, it will also introduce other colours for added effect.

Primer

Esoterica

AUTO VAN GOGHAuto Van Gogh is similar to Auto Clone but creates automatic painting in the style of the great master himself. For this you need

Add some eccentricity to your imagesThe Esoterica collection

Youll see by now that the Esoterica effects are many and various, and it must be said that some of them are most definitely more useful than others. Here were giving you the complete lineup of effects, so you can see the results of each.

Original photo

Marbling

Blobs

Custom Tiles

Grid Paper

Growth

High Pass

Maze

Place Elements

Pop Art Fill

Auto Clone

Auto Van Gogh

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40

Tutorial Design a concept car

Back elevation


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41

TutorialDesign a concept car

Design a concept car

From sketch to final illustration, we walk you through how to sell a believable car design using just the tools in Corel Painter

othing can excite the masses quite like a sexy and futuristic concept car. Everyone can relate to them, invoking pure passion in many. As fun as it is to look upon these rolling sculptures, it

is even more exciting to create them.This tutorial will focus on the hero rendering that is

used to accurately explain the details and surfaces of the inal design. This drawing usually follows a long design process illed with pages of loose sketches and concept ideation. But nothing can sell your design to others like this kind of polished illustration.

As with most of my professional work, I draw the vehicle into a white studio setting. This means I wont be spending much time and energy on a fancy background.

This technique is fairly simple, and produces great results. Primarily sticking to the Digital Airbrush, most the tools I use are out-of-the-box Corel Painter defaults. These are automobile surface inishes in a studio environment, so we wont need to employ any wild texture techniques. The key is in the details and the design. So if you have ever dreamt of designing your own concept car, lets go!

Artist

Time needed

Skill level

On the CD

Erik Holmen

3 hours

Intermediate

Starter sketch

Tutorial info

Design a concept car

From sketch to final illustration, we walk you through how to sell a believable car design using just the tools in Corel Painter

othing can excite the masses quite like a sexy and futuristic concept car. Everyone can relate to them, invoking pure passion in many. As fun as it is to look upon these rolling sculptures, it

is even more exciting to create them.This tutorial will focus on the hero rendering that is

used to accurately explain the details and surfaces of the inal design. This drawing usually follows a long design process illed with pages of loose sketches and concept ideation. But nothing can sell your design to others like this kind of polished illustration.

As with most of my professional work, I draw the vehicle into a white studio setting. This means I wont be spending much time and energy on a fancy background.

This technique is fairly simple, and produces great results. Primarily sticking to the Digital Airbrush, most the tools I use are out-of-the-box Corel Painter defaults. These are automobile surface inishes in a studio environment, so we wont need to employ any wild texture techniques. The key is in the details and the design. So if you have ever dreamt of designing your own concept car, lets go!

Artist

Time needed

Skill level

On the CD

Erik Holmen

3 hours

Intermediate

Starter sketch

Tutorial info

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42

Many, many layersI only manage layers in the early sketch phase, when its important to keep everything under the lines. Once I start rendering the final illustration, layer management goes out the window. Every time I add a new highlight or shadow, its on a new layer so as to not disturb any previous work. By the end of the drawing, I will have made roughly 300 layers, and have had to flatten a dozen times. You might need to go back into previous layers for clean-up, so only flatten when you get to a good milestone.

From pencil sketch to the start of a digital creationStart with a sketch

01 The sketch This could be the most important part of the entire rendering. And for a tight illustration, perspective is king. If there is a perspective problem, it could throw off the believability of even the most well-rendered vehicle. Spend the time here to get it right; ip the canvas horizontally to check the perspective. Even ask somebody to check your completed line art, or use the one supplied on the disc!

Start with a sketch

02 Block in Take your completed line art and copy it to a new layer. Set that layer to Multiply and name it lines. This is the only layer I ever keep track of. Create some new layers underneath and start to block in tone. Here I use a Digital Airbrush with the 1px Edge setting (Brush Controls>Size). This is a good time to decide what colour you want your car to be.

03 De ning form Staying under the lines layer, use the standard Digital Airbrush to start shading those surfaces. This is where you determine a light source, placing the hotspot to show off an interesting part of the car. Right now all the paint should look matte, as if it has no clear coat. Dont worry the number of layers you use, as long as they are under the lines.

04 Nice sketch! Start working on top of the lines layer to clean this up a little bit. Add some crisp highlights and re ections to make the paint look glossy. This ends at what I would consider a decent loose sketch. It should represent the intent of the nal illustration. Use this opportunity to get some feedback before the time-consuming stuff starts.

05 Start rendering Because its the backbone of the design, I will start the tight rendering with the bright silver parts that run the length of the car. Using the Pen tool, draw a shape around this part. Because its a continuous surface, it will save us some time down the road to have this part selected. Go to Shapes>Convert to Selection and Select>Feather (2px).

06 Car paint It doesnt hurt to illustrate car paint like its applied in real life. I start here with the base coat, a at silver. With no hard re ections, its easier to draw, here shown with one major light source. Try not to jump around the rendering too much; this part is fairly complicated and should be focused on.

07 Clearcoat (re ections) Because the vehicle is in a studio environment, it will re ect white from all directions. I will draw these with a large 1px Edge Airbrush tool at full opacity. This will give me a nice crisp edge on the highlights and re ections. Adjust the intensity through the Opacity slider in the Layers palette. Each re ection will get its own layer.


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Online resourcesA great resource for car design is CarDesignNews.com (www.cardesignnews.com), a site that I will check every day for the latest and greatest in the car industry. Its a great source for inspiration, where you can find articles and galleries on huge auto shows or design school student shows. They have excellent design reviews, featuring sketches of concept cars directly from the studio. You can create and browse through portfolios of car design students and car design professionals. Also bookmark www.dieselstation.com as a great site for high-res car photo galleries and car news.

Techniques to give the car a three-dimensional feelShiny bumpers and reflective surfaces

11 Subtle re ections To give these surfaces a high-gloss nish, we add some hard re ections. As with the silver piece, I will draw them in as opaque white, and adjust the layer down to around 10% Opacity so they dont draw too much attention. Give these re ection shapes some interesting form; this can give a boring surface some drama.

12 Headlight Time to bring back the headlight; I draw a simple overall form, to which I will add projector beams, and a lens. All glass effects are drawn on last, so feel free to have some fun with those projectors. Draw one and duplicate it to save some time. Add some hard re ections to show off the clear lens over the entire piece.

Shiny bumpers and reflective surfaces

08 Pinpoint highlights Drawing tight highlights on a long edge is made super easy with the ability to snap to curves. Click the Align to Path box in the Properties bar, and your brush stroke will be snapped to that shape. This is a car designers best friend to hitting that perfect arc. If you go to the Properties menu and click Paint Hidden Shapes, you can snap to a hidden path.

09 Complex surfaces Because these areas are much smaller and more complex than the bright silver surfaces, it wont save too much time making selections of everything. I start by painting over the sketch to clean it up, and start fresh when it comes to the detailing. I roll over any small details like the headlight; it will be easier to draw these in later than to draw around them now.

10 Silky smooth shine Try to use bold single brush strokes when building up highlights and shadow. The Digital Airbrush will create some muddy artefacts that wont look very good on car paint. I will often make a highlight or shadow bigger than needed, and use the Eraser to bring that effect down to the desired location.

13 Cool wheels By now you can see that I am working on each part until its completed. With all the detail on this vehicle, you can burn up a lot of time by jumping around to the interesting parts. I want to nish up this corner of car, so the wheel is the next. Start cleaning it up by over-drawing the existing sketch.

Online

Photo referencePhoto reference is an awesome tool when rendering an automobile in Corel Painter. It is important to understand how highlights will react to surface forms. Before you get started on a highly detailed rendering, look at photographs of similar settings and colour. You will see how the car reflects the light of the scene, and be able to sample colours directly off of the picture. If you are having trouble landing that initial sketch, grab a photograph, drop back the opacity, and overlay your sketch. This will greatly help with any proportion and perspective problems.

Photo

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Compare with othersConceptArt.org is another fantastic place to get inspired, but its greatest use for artists and designers are the honest and valuable critiques. If your design is not confidential, go ahead and post it in the Critique Centre forum when you hit step 4. Fresh eyes can see mistakes that you have grown used to. You might also get some good design tips along the way. Just be open to the ideas and suggestions, and never get too attached to a design. The Its Finally Finished forum is a great place to see some hot concept art. If the work up there doesnt inspire you to get drawing, nothing will.

Adding those essential touchesUnder the hood

14 Concept car wheels I decided that the wheels I had going were not wild enough for the car. I wrap the tyre into the rim in true concept car fashion. Here you can see where I start to add a little surface texture to the tyre. I switch to the Simulated Woodgrain paper and use the Blunt Chalk brush to apply the texture.

Under the hood

15 Brake rotor For a brake rotor, or anything with a brushed surface nish, I will use a Round Oils brush with the Feature setting cranked up. Apply a wash of dark streaks to a new layer, and drop back the opacity. Apply a wash of bright highlight, and drop back the opacity until everything looks correct.

16 Chrome engine! Exposed engines are usually the domain of rear engine supercars. Here I want to show off a front engine GT with a chromed-out centrepiece of a motor. Start cleaning up the surfaces by washing in big elds of at colour.

17 Rendering chrome Chrome can be tough to render and depict form at the same time. Photo reference would be good here. Just remember that everything needs a lot of contrast with chrome, hard re ections, and that it re ects its environment. DO NOT render desert chrome unless you draw the car in a desert.

18 Rough texture To add some interest in the engine bay, lets give this part some texture. Use the Fine Spray Airbrush and dust it with some dark sparkle. Do the same with white for a textured highlight. I use this brush all the time when showing textured plastic and cast metal.


19 Interior My original grey interior is looking a little dull, with the rest of the car being fairly monochromatic. I clean it up and add some warm colour. It wouldnt hurt to nd some photo reference of car interiors. Use an image to nd good colours, sampling highlights and shadows.

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20 Render away The process here is nothing new; add highlight and shadow over a base tone. I am paying the price for all this detail this rendering is taking a while. If you want to speed things up, just make this a coupe! But I am having fun with the different materials, so its no big deal.

21 Windshield Automotive glass has a slightly green tint; on a Multiply layer, cover the windshield with a light pale green. Add some white re ections, and drop back the layer opacity until they look good. Keep the re ection edges sharp, as automotive glass is highly re ective. For all hard re ections, I use that same Digital Airbrush with the 1px Edge setting.

22 Oops, bad perspective When I ip the canvas horizontally, something looks funky at the rear end of the car. I notice that the perspective is cranked with the headrests of the seats, and the passenger side rear fender is way too small. Flatten the image and duplicate these areas. Free Transform the pieces and move them into place.

23 Final details I saved these details until the end: side mirrors, front emblem, door cuts and shadow. They should support the overall design, and would be tough to draw around earlier. The shadow can be especially dif cult; I usually save it until the end, so it works with the values of the car itself. Use the Pen tool to make a selection that excludes the car.

Give your design a paint jobChanging the colour

01 Make it red On a Multiply layer, add your colour of choice in a single solid block. This will be shaded automatically by the silver tones underneath. Use this time to play around with different colours to see what looks best on the car.

02 Add warms and cools On that same layer, click the Preserve Transparency option in the Layers menu. This will limit your paint to cover only the pixels you already have on that layer. Where the highlight is hitting the surfaces dead on, I put down some warmer red-orange hues. On the backside of the car, I brush in a very washed-out red, as re ected by the background.

03 Highlights Add some new highlights on top of the red base coat. Make a new layer and paint in opaque white elds for your highlight re ections. Drop back the layer opacity until they look good. Do the same thing for your ground re ection and you are done!

I usually render vehicles in silver. Its easy to draw, easy to read and prints well. But you might want to do some colour options in the end. Silver is relatively easy to turn into different paint finishes, but it doesnt always work the other way around. Once again, it doesnt hurt to look at some photo references for good colour samples.

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ne of the biggest driving forces behind this magazine is to create a welcoming community for Corel Painter

users. Obviously, the majority of this takes place with the actual magazine, but when we irst sat down and came up with a masterplan, having a functional and inspirational website was always in the grand scheme of things.

So when we launched the magazine, we also launched the magazine website and offered readers a place to upload their images, comment on other readers work and have a place to come and share ideas.

However, as more and more of you started to upload artwork and create galleries, we noticed that there were certain tasks that could be improved and some that needed to be added. We set about working on an update to the site, using our experiences and also suggestions made by some of you on the forum. The result went live in May, as this issue was being put together. While the structure remains the same, users can now enjoy improved browsing capabilities in addition to extra options.

Were going to look at all the new features over these pages, as well as give a quick run through on how to actually use them. Hopefully, youll agree that these additions make the site better than ever.

Read on and discover more about the new and improved features on the Official Corel Painter Magazine website

Get the most from our website

One aspect of the site that had to change was the Latest Images function. Previously, only the past six images were displayed. Obviously, if more than six people added images, or one person uploaded more than six images, these squares would quickly fill up. However, we now have a nifty Images pane to the side of the website. Click Latest Images and you will see a great big list of the latest images to have been uploaded. There are 20 displayed at any one time, and you can access earlier images by clicking the numbers at the top of the area.

Get em while theyre hotNew imagesNew images

Make friends with membersAll the people All the people

Sometimes its good to just browse through different galleries, maybe catching up with some people you have noted from previous visits, or just to see what everyone else is up to. With the Browse All Galleries function, you can open a page displaying each and every gallery on the site. Under each thumbnail is a summary of how many images that gallery holds, as well as how many comments and the average rating for that members images. Simply click the name to be taken to that persons gallery and use the top arrows to navigate through them.

Feature focus Get the most from our website

Get the most from FEATUREFOCUS

Dont forget to rateWhen you are adding comments, dont forget to give an image a rating. Simply select a rating from the pull-down menu and then click Rate!

THE CRME DE LA CRMECheck out the Picture of the Week and Feature Galleries links and see which members we think have produced some exceptional Corel Painter artwork.

LATEST ISSUEThe home page displays a brief outline of whats in the current issue, plus theres a link at the bottom that will take you to our online shop where you can order back issues.

BROWSING IMAGESThere is a new Images section on the left-hand panel that allows you to view the images in various ways. The Galleries area also has a couple of new features, such as the Browse All Galleries link.

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Feature focusGet the m

ost from our w

ebsite

Generating interestTalk of the townTalk of the town

To see which images or galleries have struck a chord with the rest of the members, click the Most Commented link on the left-hand side panel (theres one under the Galleries section and the Images section). Youll now see a list of returns that have received comments from other members, going from the most to the least. Even though the comments are obviously aimed at a specific image, this is a great way of getting some good ideas for your own work. Plus, it will hopefully inspire you to leave some of your own messages on images.

What the stars mean on the websiteGetting awards

01 Number of images If you have uploaded between 10 and 49 images, you get a bronze star. Between 50 and 99 will get you a silver, while over 100 gets the gold star.

02 Rate an image The above parameters also applies to getting stars for number of comments youve posted, as well as the number of comments youve received. You can also get stars for your average rating. Between 3 and 3.9 gets you bronze, 4-4.7 gets you silver and 4.8-5 grabs the gold.

03 Pick up a trophy In addition to the star ratings, you can also be awarded a virtual trophy if you get selected as Pic of the Week. Theres no limit to how many times you can be awarded this, and theres no limitation on what you can do to get awarded one!

You may have noticed a few stars appearing next to your name these are to show members who have reached a certain number of posts. Heres a guide to getting your awards

MANY COMMENTSHere you can see the Most Commented Images area, which lists all the artwork that other members have left comments for. It is accessible using the link on the left.

GO TO THE GALLERYEach thumbnail has a link that will take you to that image, so you can read all of the comments. From here you can leave your own musings, or check out the other works by that particular artist.

BY CATEGORYIf youd rather search for images that follow a particular genre, use the new Category drop-down menu and submerge yourself in your favourite type of art.

IN ORDERThe images appear in the window according to how many comments they have received, going from the most commented through to the ones with least comments.

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Drop-down browsingSearch categoriesSearch categories

Youve always been able to search for other members on the site, but you can now also search according to specific genres. When you are in any of the Images areas, you will find a drop-down menu underneath the Search box. Use this to find images belonging to a specific category. And to add your images to a category, either choose one when you are uploading an image, or edit an existing image. These categories try to capture the most popular forms of artwork, and theres a Work in Progress section to encourage people to post their current doodlings.

Feature focus Get the most from our website

03 View to a change Youll see the information youve given, as well as the comments. Basically its what other member see when they view the image themselves. If you want to edit the text, click the Edit link.

Your guide to the new tools for managing your profileApply the new featuresApply the new features

Want to get stuck in with the new features added to the site? Heres a swift guide to applying them to your images, giving you better account management.

FEATUREFOCUS

01 The rst edit Your rst step in tweaking your account is to log in and then click the View Your Pro le link at the top of the page. This is where you can edit the pro le youve given, or scroll down the page to the Awards and Images area.

02 Start tweaking Now you are into your pro le, start adding goodies to your images. The easiest way of doing this is to click the image thumbnail to open the editing options.

04 Text changes To begin with, lets change the text and title of the image. This involves nothing more than highlighting the text you want to alter and then typing in new words.

05 Put in a box The other major edit you can make is to set a category for the

Documents

Corel Painter - 05 - Magazine, Art, Digital Painting, Drawing, Draw, 2d