[capnvtec]

I currently an Industrial Design student and am looking to broaden my horizons a bit. I picked up painter 7 and was wondering if there were any suggestions for tutorials or books to help me learn the program. I am pretty fluent in photoshop and illustrator because they teach it to us, but painter tends to be kinda confusing. Any help is appreciated

[Trance-R]

Painter comes with a pretty rugged manual. You should read that; as good as someone teaching it to you.
Main thing is probably just getting used to it.
Lastly, search for keywords such as Painter tutorial on the forum. I remember seeing a few really good ones here.
Hope that helps.

[ August 21, 2002: Message edited by: Trance-R ]

[Jin]

Hi and welcome to the Painter community,

I'd strongly recommend looking through the Painter 7 User Guide, just to become familiar with what's in it and how the chapters are organized so you'll have an easier time of it when you need to look up specific information.. and you will need to look things up. I have the User Guides for four versions sitting within reach and refer to them frequently, even after using Painter on a daily basis since 1995.

Don't expect to remember all of it. There's way too much and, anyway, the Painter 7 User Guide is good in the beginning as long as you have experienced users available to answer questions. The User Guide itself will cause you to ask questions because it is not thorough enough sometimes. It also has a few glaring errors in it that a newcomer would not recognize as errors.

Painter 7 comes with several good tutorials installed on your hard drive and they're accessible via Help > Tutorials. Some additional tutorials accessible via Help > Tutorials are on the Procreate site but all of them are linked from the web page that opens when you use Help > Tutorials. They're in PDF format so the ones installed on your hard drive can also be opened from your file manager.

If you haven't already figured this out and you're like most folks, you may need a little hand holding when learning how to manage Painter 7 brushes. They're .XML text files and they're managed partially inside Painter but mainly in your file manager. There are three levels in the Painter brush hierarchy:

Brush Library > Brush Category > Brush Variant

Brush Libraries contain Brush Categories, or brush types, like Airbrushes, Pens, etc.

Brush Categories contain Brush Variants, like the Airbrush category's Digital Airbrush variant, for instance.

Brush Variants found in each Brush Category can range in number five to over 40.

Some Brush Variants are Captured Dab brushes which means the brush dab is based on an image (same as, or similar to, the way Photoshop brushes are sometimes made). Because of this, there is an associated .JPG image file with each of the Captured Dab Brush Variants, that has the same name as the Captured Dab Brush Variant. These .JPG image files may range in pixel dimensions, unlike Brush Category icon image files that have to be 30 x 30 pixels in order to work. They must be located in the appropriate Brush Category folder along with the .XML Brush Variant file to allow the Brush Variant to work in Painter 7.

Brush Categories each have an associated 30 x 30 pixel (again, they have to be this size to work) .JPG icon image file with the same name as the Brush Category folder and both the Brush Category folder and its associated .JPG icon image file have to be located in the appropriate Brush Library folder in order to make the Brush Category useable in Painter 7.

Here's an outline of the Painter 7 brush folder and file structure, using the default Painter Brushes Library that loads each time you open Painter 7, couple of Brush Categories, and a few Brush Variants as the example:

Painter 7 (main application folder)
..Painter Brushes (default Painter 7 Brush Library folder)
....Airbrushes (Brush Category folder)
......Coarse Spray.xml (Brush Variant file)
......Detail Airbrush.xml (Brush Variant file)
......Digital Airbrush.xml (Brush Variant file)
....Artists (Brush Category folder)
......Impressionist.jpg (Captured Dab image file)
......Impressionist.xml (Captured Dab Brush Variant file)
......Sargent Brush.jpg (Captured Dab image file)
......Sargent Brush.xml (Captured Dab Brush Variant file)
......Seurat.xml (Brush Variant file)
......Van Gogh.xml (Brush Variant file)
....Airbrushes.jpg (30 x 30 pixel Brush Category icon image file)
....Artists.jpg (30 x 30 pixel Brush Category icon image file)

Notice that the Brush Category folders and the Brush Category icon image files are at the same level below the Brush Library folder and the Brush Variants and Captured Dab image files (if any) are at the same level below the Brush Category folder.

There's more to the brush management story, but that's an overview to give you some idea of how it all works.

You'll find lots of tutorials, Painter 7 information, and other resources on the following sites. Most of the tutorials are free and some are on CD for a reasonable price.

Karen Sperling's Artistry Online Painter Tutorial CD's: http://www.artistrymag.com

Jeremy Sutton's site (Jeremy's art gallery, lots of Painter links, resources, some tutorials.
Jeremy's new hardcover Painter book, "Painter 7 Creativity: Digital Artist's Handbook", is also due November 2002. You can read about it on his site (also mentioned below, under Books): http://www.portrayals.com

Don Seegmiller's site (more emphasis on good painting techniques, less emphasis on actual Painter software tips and techniques... well worth visiting, though): http://www.seegmiller-art.com

My site, PixelAlley (many tutorials for all versions from Painter 5 through 7 in the "Painter 7 Tutorials" section, in the "Painter 5, 5.5, and 6 Tutorials (some good for Painter 7)" section, and scattered through the other sections as well): http://www.pixelalley.com/pixelalley-sections-pages.html

Painter Can forum at In Depth Discussions (currently the best Painter-focused forum by far, anywhere in the Painter community. Loads of tutorials and illustrated demonstrations popping up daily. Very active, warm, and friendly community with Painter artists ranging from beginner to expert, many professionals, always ready to help out with answers, discussions, and/or demonstrations of Painter techniques and brushes. Many shared custom brush variants available to download. Just ask if you want to know about something and if it's already available people will point you to the appropriate threads and/or do what it takes to help out with new information. http://www.critical-depth.com/cgi-bin/idd/

Books:

"The Painter 7 WOW! Book" ($34.99 at Amazon) by Painter artist and trainer Cher Threinen-Pendarvis available at Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble. An excellent inspiration book, not especially good for the brand new beginner but still good enough to hang onto 'til you're ready. Cher's The Painter WOW! Book series have been favorites among Painter users for years.

"Procreate(TM) Painter 7(TM): A Digital Approach to Natural Art Media" ($34.27 at Amazon) - I haven't heard many reviews of this book and none especially positive. It's published by Corel's division, Procreate, that handles Painter and other graphics programs and I haven't seen it. Might want to ask around before buying it unless you don't mind taking a chance.

"Painter 7 Creativity: Digital Artist's Handbook" ($34.99 pre-order at Amazon) by Painter artist and trainer, Jeremy Sutton. Due in November 2002. I'd definitely buy this one when it's available! He's an excellent, gifted teacher, by the way, and a really nice guy as well. I think his book will cover all of the basics and then some and he'll do it thoroughly and in an easy to understand manner. I have a set of his Total Painter video tapes for Painter 5 and 5.5 and they're super.)


That should keep you busy for a while.

Ask whenever you get stuck. No one learns Painter alone.. or no one I've met has learned it well.. alone. It's more fun together, anyway, and Painter is an exciting and really fun program!

[ August 21, 2002: Message edited by: Jin ]

[capnvtec]

WOW!
Thank you very very very much for all of that. I really appreciate it, and was shocked to she how much info you typed out for me. I will keep working at it and keep checking back here for answers to my questions. Thanks again.

[Jin]

You're most welcome. I can't stand leaving someone floundering and bewildered. Painter can be daunting at first, and I spend most of my waking hours around the Painter community answering questions and also co-moderate the Painter Can forum at In Depth Discussions.

Might be good to print the info I gave you to refer to when you forget something. It's also good to keep a notebook for this stuff and also to write notes about brush settings when you find something you like.

Have fun!

[Jin]

You're most welcome. I can't stand leaving someone floundering and bewildered. Painter can be daunting at first, and I spend most of my waking hours around the Painter community answering questions and also co-moderate the Painter Can forum at In Depth Discussions.

Might be good to print the info I gave you to refer to when you forget something. It's also good to keep a notebook for this stuff and also to write notes about brush settings when you find something you like.

Have fun!

[-HoodZ-]

good ol' Jin not many people would help the noobs with questions thatCAN BE EASILY ANSWERED BY USING THE SEARCH ENGINE ON TOP OF THE PAGE....i commend you Jin