[cok3]

hi! I'm not that new to digital paints but i'be always had a problem creating textures in my stuff. I hope some of u more experienced digital painters don't mind creating new video tutorial on painting with ps. No dialogue needed (would be better with some though), haven't really found great ones that show painting with textures. i think these would be great resources for beginners in here (like me ). Just need to get an idea of how the custom brushes ( i have a few, mostly the nigel series) are applied when painting, to get me started. would really love to know how those at the speedpainting posts create such awesome textures.

[Jin]

Why not ask the speed painters how they get their textures?

Ask 'em if they're using Corel Painter or Photoshop.

Painting with texture is easy in Painter, one reason being that many of Painter's brush variants either already interact with the current Paper's texture or can be adjusted to interact with the Paper texture.



Jinny Brown
TutorAlley Forums - again open for new registrations
Tutorials and Painter Info at PixelAlley

[skullmonkeys]

It's not about textures. Study drawing.

[cok3]

i have both painter and photoshop, and despite custom brushes abailable, i haven't been able to get the effect like those at the speed painting forums. i'd like to highlight the works of spooge, mathew, gecko, chapterx and many others in the speedy forum. i just want an idea of the implementation of the brushes to get that kind of result.

jin - can u give me tips on how the paper settings work in painter? haven't really played around with those

skullmonkeys - yah i agree on that its all in the drawing skill, but i just want an idea of the more technical stuff that goes into nicely textured works. although i must try to brush up (a lot) on my drawing though. i've been experimenting a bit but haven't really gotten nicely textured stuff usin the custom brushes.

sorry bout the misleading title, i was stupid to call it video tutorial request when actually any tips (ones with pictures would be better) would do. wouldn't mind video tutorials though (although not really necessary)...

[Jin]

cok3,

My guess is that a lot of those guys doing speed painting are using Photoshop and the texture comes more from the shape of the brush dab than from actual "3D" texture. In Painter, we do both, simulated texture created by custom brush dabs that paint with rough edges combined with varying opacity expressed by pressure, and thick brushstrokes that have Impasto depth and lighting. Then add in Paper textures and there are a lot of ways in Painter to create the look of physical texture. I don't know all the ways it can be done in Photoshop and expect there are more ways someone who knows Photoshop better can explain.

Painter's Paper Texture:

I'll give you a general overview of how Painter's Paper texture is applied, but you'll do much better to read the User Guide and set aside a good chunk of time to just experiment with different brush variants, Papers, brush controls, and Papers palette controls. There's a lot to know. Nothing difficult, it just takes time to learn how to get results you'll like.

Some of Painter's brush variants automatically interact with the currently chosen Paper texture, painting on the higher surfaces only, or if the Paper is inverted, painting on the lower surfaces only. Think of it like rubbing chalk on a sidewalk. Unless you press very hard, the chalk will only be applied to the higher parts of the sidewalk surface texture. Of course we can't "invert" a real sidewalk, but we can if it's in Painter. Fun, eh?

One way to know if a brush variant will interact with Paper texture is to open the Painter 8 Brush Creator, open the General section, and look at the Subcategory name. If it has the word Grainy in it, it'll work with Paper texture. (Painter 7 Brush Controls palette's General section.)

Other brush variants can be adjusted to interact with Paper texture if, in their default state, they don't already.

The degree to which Paper texture appears in the brushstroke is controlled with the Grain slider, found in the Painter 8 Brush Creator's, General section, and in the Property Bar when the brush variant is one that interacts with Paper texture. (Or in the Painter 7 Brush Controls palette's General section.) Think of "Grain" as another word for "texture". It's never appealed to me much as a description, but that's the word Painter's inventors/developers chose long ago. (Maybe I'm missing the reason?)

In the Papers palette, there are three sliders to control the Paper Scale, Paper Contrast, and Paper Brightness. There are also two buttons: Directional Grain and Invert Paper. I've only fiddled with Directional Grain a little and didn't see much effect but it could just be that I didn't spend enough time with it or didn't use the right combination of brush controls, Paper, and Paper controls.

With Painter 7 and Painter 8 Water Colors, other controls are found in the Painter 8 Brush Creator's Water section and in the Painter 7 Brush Controls palette's Water section. These controls are more complicated and more than one of them can affect how the Water Color paint interacts with Paper texture. Painter Developer John Derry's Visual Guides for Water Colors can be downloaded from both my PixelAlley site (the Painter 7 version Visual Guide) and from the Corel site via Painter 8 Help > Tutorials. They're worth taking time to read as the Water Color technology is completely new and different beginning with Painter 7. It's more complex than the Painter 6 and earlier version Water Colors and if understood and used well can be made to produce some very nice results.

The variant demonstrated below does not interact with Paper texture. The "texture" you see is just the result of painting more or less in the same area with Continuous Time Deposition checked (in the Painter 7 Brush Controls palette's Sizing section/Painter 8 Brush Creator's Sizing section). This means that paint is continuously applied in the same spot as long as the cursor remains there, building up paint until the cursor is moved or the Pen is lifted off the tablet.



This custom brush category is available to download on Sandman's site. Click the Download link, on the next page click Sandman's Brushes, and on the next page, scroll down to Watercolor Toothbrush and click the appropriate icon for your Painter version (the Painter 7/8 version will work in both Painter 7 and Painter 8 and on both Mac and PC):

SANDMAN'S SITE

Default Painter 8 brush variants that, in their default state, interact with Paper texture with a few minor adjustments can be used in multiple ways. Below are a few examples:








These examples are probably not the most appropriate textures for what you want to do, but they demonstrate a few things about how we can use Papers and brush variants, and their respective controls.

Any scanned image or scanned material, painting, photo, or just about anything you can think of can be used to create a Paper. Sometimes very interesting textures can be created by applying texture from two or more Papers to the same area of the image, using Effects > Surface Control > Apply Surface Texture to the background or any selection... and painting texture onto the image.

I don't know where it is now, but I once made a Paper named "Sandpaper" using the Pens' 1-Pixel Pen variant on a blank Canvas and applying tiny dabs of paint all over the Canvas. It was quick and easy because I used Ctrl/Command+Shift+Z which makes the brush variant automatically paint randomly placed brush dabs all over the Canvas until you stop it by clicking in the image. (Need to be ready to click right away since it goes fast!) This technique won't work with all brush variants but it seems to work well with the less complex ones.

Since it was so easy, and quick, I decided to create another sandpaper Paper and named it "Jin's Son of Sandpaper" the original being "dad", of course.

Here it is in a Painter 8 Papers library (that might also work in Painter 7 but I haven't tried), if you'd like to download it:

Jin's Son of Sandpaper Custom Paper - Library with Single Paper

A few ways it can be used:



The demo image files are larger than I usually display, so if anyone's bothered by a slow download, make a loud noise and I'll edit my message to leave the URL only.


Remember, this is not by any means the limit of what you can do with textures in Painter, any full version (not so much in Painter Classic 1 and Painter Classic 2 as they are not full Painter versions). You're limited only by your imagination and the time it takes to learn how to get around in Painter. You'll soon be doing much more sophisticated and interesting things if you spend the time experimenting and understanding brushes and the rest of Painter.

Have fun!



Jinny Brown
TutorAlley Forums - again open for new registrations
Tutorials and Painter Info at PixelAlley

[Gort]

Jin - very, very thorough - good on you for taking the time to post extremely helpful information.
_________________
- Tom Carter

"You can't stop the waves but you can learn to surf" - Jack Kornfield

[cok3]

wow! thank you so so much for taking ur time to write that up Jin. I'd given up on painter for a while, but thanks to you I think I'll open it up and play around with it again. I never realized so much could be done with this piece of software. I'm sure this will be a great resource for lots of others in here. thx a bunch!

[Jin]

Hi guys,

Glad to hear you found that helpful. It was fun doing it and it's what I do all the time anyway.

I'll keep reading and posting here whenever I have the time, but you'll find loads more information already available on my two Painter focused sites, PixelAlley and her sister site, TutorAlley Forums.

Not much Painter 8 info at PixelAlley, though there are lots of basic tutorials that can easily be converted for use in Painter 8.

Lots of Painter 8 information on my message board, TutorAlley Forums. If you decide to register, be sure to read the requirements first and fill in the profile fields per those requirements. Otherwise your registration won't be approved.

There's a link on the TutorAlley home page to the page where you can read the requirements. Nothing that will invade your privacy, just info that helps us know something about your art background and experience, what you want to learn, and how we can best gear our forums to help our members.

Hope to see you there. If you want to learn Painter without too much pain, it's good to have other Painter users around to answer questions, and to have lots of tips, techniques, and answers available to read.


Jinny Brown
TutorAlley Forums - again open for new registrations
Tutorials and Painter Info at PixelAlley