[Svanur]

Well at last I received painter 6 which I ordered almost 3 months ago. I am wondering if anyone knows of any good tutorials that go into the brushes and such. Because it all seems a little weird, the airbrush gives one solid color when I am using a small size and I am so used to be able to see the size of the brush in Photoshop but in painter I can only see the size and form of the brush before I touch the canvas but after that it turns into a triangle thingy.

Any advice out there?

[Jason Manley]

good questions...

I can say that you will get used to the painter triangle...use the controls:brush to slide the brush sizes around.

I only use about four or five brushes to make my paintings.

digital airbrush
simple water
square chalk
glow (on occasion)
brushy

you will know how big it is by using it..and seeing where the brush scale slider is on the control bar.

the easiest way to figure out how to use the brushes is to play with all of them...make notes of useful ones..and play with them some more...pick ones that can help you.

jason manley

[Svanur]

I am trying to play around with it a little, I've also been trying to go through the manual.

What size(resolution) do you paint your images?

[Jason Manley]

I start very small...like 220x330 or 400x600 at 72dpi....then as I get the image blocked in and start using smaller brushes I double it and then double it again as I near completion. final res is usually around 1200 by something...upwards or 4000 by something.


jason

[Svanur]

I've been trying a little more, seems to be actually going somewhere

I was wondering, do you use the erase tool to smooth edges or something like that?

I also tried to use the "simple water" and I can only use it on the canvas itself. Do you work the whole picture on the canvas(that is you don't use layers)?

[ewiser]

I run a Painter 101 mailing list at

Painter 101 mailing list

Painter 101

You can also find tutorials at:
Jinny Browns

PixelAlley

[ October 11, 2001: Message edited by: ewiser ]

[ October 11, 2001: Message edited by: ewiser ]

[Svanur]

Thanks

[Jin]

quote:

---

Well at last I received painter 6 which I ordered almost 3 months ago. I am wondering if anyone knows of any good tutorials that go into the brushes and such. Because it all seems a little weird, the airbrush gives one solid color when I am using a small size and I am so used to be able to see the size of the brush in Photoshop but in painter I can only see the size and form of the brush before I touch the canvas but after that it turns into a triangle thingy.

Any advice out there?

--------------------

-Svanur Bj�rnsson-
"Fear my Bath-House Fu"

---

If you're seeing a circle that represents the brush dab, in Edit > Preferences > General, "Brush Ghost when possible" must be checked. The reason it says "when possible" is that Brush Ghosting is not available for all brushes.

There are a couple of ways you can see the brush size before starting to paint, though:

In the Brush Controls palette's Size section Preview window you can see the Brush Dab size. If the brush is a Captured Brush Variant, and you click the Preview window, you'll see the actual shape of the Brush Dab. (A Captured Brush is one whose Brush Dab is based on a selected image.)

If you hold down the Ctrl/Command and Alt/Option keys, you can click and drag to determine the brush size you want. While you're doing this, you'll see a Brush Ghost, or circle, representing the size of the brush.

It's true that while you're painting you won't see this Brush Ghost and that you'll very likely get used to that and it won't bother you at all after a short time.

In Edit > Preferences > General, there are four triangle styles to choose from and you can change the triangle's orientation (angle), or you can choose a single pixel instead of a triangle.

If you don't want your Airbrush stroke to be solid color, in the Controls:Brushes palette or in the Brush Controls palette's General section, adjust the Opacity slider to the left to lower opacity.

Jinny Brown

PixelAlley's Section Links: http://www.pixelalley.com/pixelalley-sections-pages.html
(Painter 5 and 6 tutorials, Painter 7 info, tutorials, PDF downloads, brushes)
Contact: [email protected] or,
Painter Forum at In Depth Discussions: http://www.critical-depth.com/cgi-bin/idd/
______________________________________

[Jin]

quote:

---

I start very small...like 220x330 or 400x600 at 72dpi....then as I get the image blocked in and start using smaller brushes I double it and then double it again as I near completion. final res is usually around 1200 by something...upwards or 4000 by something.

jason

---

If you intend to print your image (ever), it may be ok to do a rough sketch at 72 ppi resolution but pretty pointless to do any further work at that resolution because you'll lose image quality when you resample it to a larger dimension and resolution.

If the image will never be printed and will only be used on the Web, it's ok to work at 72 ppi, but I prefer to begin my work at 300 ppi, even if it's going to be used on the Web. That way, I can see a hi-resolution image while I'm working. I hate seeing pixels where I want smooth edges! [ ]

jason,

It's hard to imagine working at "final res is usually around 1200 by something...upwards or 4000 by something". You must mean the image dimensions, right? Or did I misunderstand something? (It does happen. [ ])

Just to make it clear for a beginner, an image can, for instance, be 1200 x 1200 pixels at 72 ppi (which means it's 16.667 x 16.667 inches with 72 pixels per inch). Or, it can be 1200 x 1200 pixels at 300 ppi (which means it's 4 x 4 inches with 300 pixels per inch).

An image printed at 16.667 x 16.667 inches at 72 ppi would be pixelated (you could see the pixels along angles and curves and it would not be a pretty sight). In other words, it would not be a high quality print.

An image with 300 pixels per inch, printed at 100% would not show pixels along angles and curves and color transitions would be smooth.

It's a good idea to do some experimenting to see for yourself what results from various combinations of pixel dimensions and resolution (number of pixels per inch).

Jinny Brown

PixelAlley's Section Links: http://www.pixelalley.com/pixelalley-sections-pages.html
(Painter 5 and 6 tutorials, Painter 7 info, tutorials, PDF downloads, brushes)
Contact: [email protected] or,
Painter Forum at In Depth Discussions: http://www.critical-depth.com/cgi-bin/idd/
______________________________________

[Jin]

quote:

---

've been trying a little more, seems to be actually going somewhere I was wondering, do you use the erase tool to smooth edges or something like that?

I also tried to use the "simple water" and I can only use it on the canvas itself. Do you work the whole picture on the canvas(that is you don't use layers)?

--------------------

-Svanur Bj�rnsson-
"Fear my Bath-House Fu"

---

You can smooth edges using several brushes but for now, experiment with the following:

Airbrush Category's Digital Airbrush Variant set at a low opacity to fill in color along edges

Eraser Category's Bleach Variant set at low opacity to remove color along edges.

If you want to blend colors, try using the Liquid Brush Category's Just Add Water Variant. This, in spite of its name, is not a Water Color brush and can be used on Layers. However, if you paint onto a transparent area of the Layer, it will paint white. It's best used inside of the existing painted area where there are no gaps between the paint strokes (no transparent areas between brush strokes).

As you've already discovered by using the Water Color Brush Category's Simple Water Variant, Water Color Brush Variants in Painter 6 and earlier versions can only be used on the Canvas, not on Layers. (Actually, Painter 6 and earlier version Water Colors paint on an invisible Wet Layer that's associated with the Canvas.)

As Ed mentioned, there are many tutorials on my site in not only the Tutorials section, but in the Fun with Brush Strokes, Character Matters, and Effects sections that can be used with both Painter 5 and Painter 6. There's also one in the Painter 7 Tutorials named "Realistic Watercolor Effects with Painter 6 and 7".

You'll find all of these in the various sections linked from this page (also below my signature):
http://www.pixelalley.com/pixelalley-sections-pages.html

Though "PixelAlley" will get you a Google search and several links to my site, it's probably easier to have a real URL.

Please stop by In Depth Discussions and visit the Painter Forum. We're always in teaching and learning mode there and I think you'll find a lot of useful and interesting things there that will help you learn and enjoy Painter. (Again, the URL is below my signature... Hope to see you there.)

Jinny Brown

PixelAlley's Section Links: http://www.pixelalley.com/pixelalley-sections-pages.html
(Painter 5 and 6 tutorials, Painter 7 info, tutorials, PDF downloads, brushes)
Contact: [email protected] or,
Painter Forum at In Depth Discussions: http://www.critical-depth.com/cgi-bin/idd/
______________________________________