Primer Art Pens

Art Pens
For a new level of intuitive, natural drawing, take a look at the Art Pen brush category in Corel Painter X
hen it comes to simulating natural media digitally, two manufacturers stand head and shoulders above any others, namely Corel and Wacom. Of course, as a Corel Painter user youll know of the strength and jaw-dropping capabilities of Corel Painter and if you use a graphics tablet, then its more than likely made by Wacom. So imagine the creative possibilities that could be born from the collaboration of these two creative giants! Well, heres some great news! The new Art Pen brushes in Corel Painter X are the direct product of this. These Art Pens, which range from markers, through to pastel brushes and even include oil and gouache variants, can be used either with your normal graphics-tablet pen, or in conjunction with the new Wacom 6D Pen. The great strength of these variants comes from the way they respond to your drawing stylus in such a way that they allow you to enjoy a much more natural and intuitive drawing experience. Using these pens really is an absolute dream, and before you know it, youll feel as if the ink or colour is quite literally lowing from your pen as you draw. If you dont have a 6D pen, dont worry, these variants will still knock your socks off. The humble pen has come of age!

BRUSH CATEGORY

USING GRAIN
The Square Grainy Pastel Art Pen, as its title suggests, responds very well to the surface of the paper currently selected in the Papers library palette. Use a low Grain setting in the Properties bar to achieve very visible grain, and higher values to make it more subtle.

FELT ART MARKER

The Felt Art Marker is ideal for making bold, spontaneous strokes that really pile on the ink. This Art Pen is best used for reinforcing your drawing with bold, dynamic lines. Being chisel-shaped, this pen can be used for both thick and thin lines.

PRIMER

WORN OIL PASTEL
The Worn Oil Pastel Art Pen is great for general shading, and for blocking in general tones. Use this variant at low Opacity and low Resat values to have more control over the tones you lay down. This Art Pen is quite smudgy due to its high Bleed value.

Use your layers!

Keep things separate
If youre using lots of different Art Pens within the same image, its a good idea to isolate each of them on a separate layer. This way, you can experiment with different variants for shading, without affecting any line work which youre already happy with. If you dont like some of the marks youve made, either just bin the layer or erase on it.

6D capabilities

Tailored to your requirements
The Wacom 6D Pen adds another dimension to these Art Pen variants. If you normally use a pressuresensitive tablet and stylus, youll be used to the variants within Corel Painter making use of pressure, tilt and velocity to control aspects of the brush, such as Opacity, Grain and Size. The new 6D Pen, however, adds Rotation sensitivity to these Art Pens, where the brush itself can be rotated through 360 degrees, adding even more versatility to your strokes. Its worth taking a look at the 6D Pen at www. wacom.com. It could add a whole new dimension to your Painter art.

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SOFT FLAT OILS PEN
The Soft Flat Oils Art Pen was used here to add some soft, broad background shading. By changing the Feature setting for this variant in the Properties bar, you can make the bristle lines within the brush either more or less visible.

Explore the Art Pens

Graphic design in an instant
If you have Corel Painter X, you may have missed the Art Pen brush category what with the excitement of the RealBristle brushes but we assure you they are definitely worth exploring. Heres a handy look at what each of the variants looks like.

Primer Primer Art Pens

Felt Art Marker

Grainy Calligraphy

ART PEN BRUSHES
It may not be the biggest brush category in the world, but theres plenty of potential in the variants. Try your hand at very graphic images with them.

Grainy Edge Calligraphy

Soft Cover Brush

Soft Flat Oils

Square Grainy Pastel

WACOM ART PEN

For the perfect accompaniment to the new Art Pen brush category, treat yourself to Wacoms 6D Art Pen. This looks and behaves just like a real art marker, from its shape to the felt feel of the nib.

Tapered Camel

Tapered Gouache

Thin Smooth Calligraphy

Worn Oil Pastel

Brush tracking

Set your stylus correctly
The Art Pen brushes are especially reliant on interpreting the input from your drawing stylus accurately, so its even more vital that you set up your Brush Tracking before you begin drawing. To do this, simply go to Edit>Preferences>Brush Tracking. Within the dialog, make a stroke on the scratchpad as you normally would, and Corel Painter will set up the Brush Tracking to suit your style with the minimum of effort.

Varied effects

The joy of Art Pens
You can get an impressive amount of effects with the Art Pen category, whether you have the 6D Art Pen or not. Even if you use a mouse or a plain old stylus, you can build up great texture and style with the correct variant. Get great outlines with the Thin Smooth Calligraphy or Grainy Edge Calligraphy. Go for a more washy look with Soft Cover Brush, or Tapered Camel. And for the traditional art marker look, you need to go a long way to beat the Felt Art Marker.

Painting photos with Corel Painter X

John Derry

Smart Stroke Painting empowers people with little or no drawing experience to paint their photos.
On a recent trip, I came across an old pickup truck parked in a ramshackle farm structure. The morning light illuminated the front of the truck, creating a visually appealing subject, so I took a few photos. When I reviewed the photos, I realized that the scene would make a nice drawing or painting. Corel Painter X provides the solution for effortlessly transforming photos into a wide range of convincing artwork. In this tutorial, I will create a chalk rendering from a photo. In this tutorial, you will learn about choosing a color scheme adding a border adding color to a border applying brushstrokes to the edges of a border creating a clone auto-painting with Smart Stroke Painting adding final touches

Original photo

Choosing a color scheme
I could have worked with the colors in the original photo, but by adjusting the colors, I enhanced the visual appearance of the chalk rendering. I adjusted the colors by using a color scheme from the Underpainting palette. Color schemes map an existing color range to the colors present in a target image. The Underpainting palette lets you test various color schemes. I liked the Impressionist color scheme but felt that it needed additional refinement, so I used the Photo Enhance controls to fine tune the image.

To choose a color scheme

1 From the Window menu, choose Show Underpainting.
This displays all three photo painting palettes: Underpainting, Auto-Painting, and Restoration.
You can test various color schemes and Photo Enhance settings by applying settings, then clicking the Reset button on the Underpainting palette to undo the changes. 2 From the Color Scheme box on the Underpainting palette,
choose Impressionistic Scheme.
3 To refine the color scheme, adjust the sliders in the Photo
Enhance area of the Underpainting palette. I used the Contrast slider to increase the contrast and the Saturation slider to reduce the saturation.
4 When you are satisfied with the color scheme, click the Apply
button near the bottom of the Underpainting palette.
The Underpainting palette lets you prepare your image before you clone and auto-paint the image.
The color scheme applied to the original photo makes the colors richer and more vibrant.

Adding a border

Many chalk and pastel drawings are rendered on colored paper. This gives greater contrast between the lighter tonalities, like white, and the darker tonality of the paper. By choosing a colored paper that is related to the colors in the photo, any unpainted areas will show through the drawing in a very realistic way, and act as a framing element.

To add a border

1 From the Canvas menu, choose Canvas Size. If the resulting border is too wide or too thin, you can undo the border by clicking Command + Z (Mac OS) or Ctrl + Z (Windows). 2 In the Canvas Size dialog box, type the number of pixels you
want into the boxes in the Adjust Size area. I added 200 pixels to each of the four borders. The number of pixels varies depending on the size of your image and the effect you want to achieve.
3 In the Canvas Size dialog box, click OK to apply the border.
You may need to enlarge the Document window to view the border. To resize the image window, drag the bottom-right corner until you can view the entire border. The color of the border is determined by the current paper color. The default color is white.

Adding color to a border

I want to change the color of the border so it compliments the photo's color range.
I filled the border with a steel blue color by using the Paint Bucket tool. Depending on the image colors, the fill can flood into areas of the photo. To avoid this problem, use a selection to protect the photo. The selection isolates the border and constricts the fill to the border area.

To choose a color

1 From the Window menu, choose Color Palettes > Show Colors to You can sample a color from your image and use it as the border color by choosing the Dropper tool in the toolbox and clicking a color in the image. The color is displayed as the Main Color swatch in the Colors palette.
display the Colors palette.
2 Click a color on the Hue Ring. 3 Inside the Hue Ring, click the Saturation/Value triangle to set
the exact shade you want. The Main Color swatch in the lower-left corner of the Colors palette displays the selected color.
3 The Colors palette: (1) Hue Ring, (2) Saturation/Value triangle, (3) Main Color swatch
To avoid color gaps between the photo and the border, place the selection along the inside edge of the photo.

To isolate the border area
1 In the toolbox, choose the Rectangular Selection tool
2 In the document window, drag across the photo to enclose it in
a rectangular selection. The selection is indicated by a dashed line called a marquee.
3 From the Select menu, choose Invert.
The photo portion of the image is now protected.
To fill the border with color
1 From the toolbox, choose the Paint Bucket tool
2 Click anywhere on the border to fill the area with the color you

have selected.

3 Remove the rectangular selection by choosing Select menu >
If you want to create a border quickly, you can choose a preset border from the Edge Effect box on the Underpainting palette and use the Amount slider to determine the width of the border.
Applying brushstrokes to the edges of a border
Chalk drawings on colored paper generally have an imprecise border rather than a straight border. Applying brushstrokes to the edges of the border helps hide the photographic source of the image. I used the Square Chalk brush variant from the Chalk Category to apply brushstrokes. It is important at this point to choose a paper grain. The grain of paper can dramatically affect the appearance of the image.
To apply brushstrokes to the edge of the border
1 On the Brush Selector bar, click the Brush Category selector, and
choose Chalk from the list.
2 On the Brush Selector bar, click the Brush Variant selector, and
choose Square Chalk from the list.
Brush Variant selector Brush Category selector
3 In the toolbox, click the Paper Selector to display the available

paper textures.

Paper Selector 4 Choose Coarse Cotton Canvas from the list. 5 Using the same color as the border, scribble along the inside
edges of the border to break up the photographic edge.

Creating a clone

Now that the image preparations are complete, I can clone the image by using the Quick Clone feature in the Underpainting palette. By default, the Quick Clone command creates the clone, also called a target image, with Tracing Paper enabled. Tracing Paper lets you see the underlying source image, which is useful for tracing and hand-cloning specific areas. For auto-painting, I turn the Tracing Paper off so I can work with a blank canvas. I fill the blank canvas with the same steel blue color that I applied to the border. This lets the proper paper color show through in any unpainted areas, which enhances the hand-drawn appearance of the final image.

To clone the image

On the Underpainting palette, click Quick Clone.
You can toggle Tracing Paper on and off easily by pressing Command + T (Mac OS) or Ctrl + T (Windows).
When you use Quick Clone, the Tracing Paper feature displays a faded version of the source image on the new document.
To turn Tracing Paper off
From the Canvas menu, choose Tracing Paper.
To fill the cloned image with the border color
1 From the Effects menu, choose Fill. 2 In the Fill dialog box, ensure the Current Color option is

enabled, and click OK.

The color selected in the Colors palette determines the color of the fill.
Auto-painting with Smart Stroke Painting
With the clone now prepared, you can move onto the autopainting stage by using the new Smart Stroke Painting features in Corel Painter X. Smart Stroke Painting empowers people with little or no drawing experience to paint their photos. Brushstrokes are intelligently applied using the structure of the source image. I used both the Smart Stroke Painting and Smart Settings options. Smart Stroke Painting evaluates the source image and applies directional strokes to the clone. This mimics the manner in which many drawings and paintings are created.
If you do not enable the Smart Settings option, the brush size remains constant when you use Smart Stroke Painting.
The Smart Settings option progressively reduces the size of the brush. The initial brushstrokes do not necessarily resemble the source imagethese large, coarse brushstrokes block in the basic color areas. As the process continues, the brush size decreases and finer brushstrokes are applied to the areas of detail. The result is an image that appears to have been painted or drawn by hand. You can auto-paint with most brush variants, but there is an advantage to choosing a brush variant from the Smart Stroke Brushes category. Smart Stroke brush variants are optimized for Smart Stroke Painting, and like brush variants from the Cloner category, they are already set to clone the colors from the source image. If you choose a brush variant from another brush category, you must enable the Clone Color option on the Colors palette. After you choose a brush variant, you can start auto-painting. You can let the auto-painting process complete its cycle or you can stop the process when the desired visual effect is achieved.
If the Clone Color button on the Colors palette is not enabled, the brush does not sample colors from the source image; instead, the brush applies the color displayed in the Main Color swatch.

To auto-paint by using Smart Stroke Painting
1 On the Auto-Painting palette, enable the Smart Stroke Painting
check box and the Smart Settings check box.
The Auto-Painting palette is displayed below the Underpainting palette. If the Auto-Painting palette is closed, you can open it by choosing Window menu > Show Auto-Painting.
This action disables the stroke adjustment controls. This action also updates the Brush Selector bar to display the Smart Stroke Brushes category.
2 Do one of the following:
On the Brush Selector bar, click the Brush Variant selector and choose a Smart Stroke brush variant from the list (such as Chalk Texture). On the Brush Selector bar, choose a brush category and a brush variant, and click the Clone Color button on the Colors palette. I used the Square Chalk brush variant from the Chalk category.
3 On the Auto-painting palette, click the Play button
The Speed control can be used to adjust the speed with which brushstrokes are applied.

4 Click the Stop button

when you are satisfied with the

results.

If there are specific details in your image, such as faces, that you want to restore, choose the Soft Edge Cloner brush from Restoration palette (below the Auto-Painting palette), and drag over the areas that you want to restore.

Adding final touches

I decided to finish the brushwork by hand-blending areas of the image. As a final touch, I added a modest amount of surface texture to the image.
To hand-blend image areas
From the Brush Selector bar, choose the Blenders category, and choose the Diffuse Blur variant. I used this brush variant to soften areas at the border edges. This enhances the hand-drawn quality of the image.

To add surface texture

1 From the Effects menu, choose Surface Control > Apply Surface

Texture.

2 In the Apply Surface Texture dialog box, ensure Paper appears
in the Using box. The Paper texture is used to create the surface texture.
I used the same Coarse Cotton Canvas paper texture that I chose earlier.
3 In the Appearance of Depth area, adjust the sliders to get the

texture you want. I adjusted the Amount slider (set to 11%) and the Shine slider (set to 0%) to add texture without distracting from the artwork.
The Apply Surface Texture effect lets you add a three-dimensional quality to the image surface so it resembles the texture of a rough paper or canvas.
The final surface texture step is optional. For ink-jet output to a fine art paper or canvas, you probably wont need it. For publishing on the Internet or printing on a smooth-surfaced medium, however, the addition of the surface texture simulates a traditional drawing surface.

About the author

John Derry is a pioneer of digital painting and one of the original authors of Corel Painter. Since 1985, he has leveraged his background in drawing and painting to advance the look and experience of traditional art-making tools on the computer. John has a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in Fine Art and is a practicing artist and photographer. He is currently serving as Corel Painters Ambassador-at-Large. John's web site is at www.pixlart.com.
Portions copyright 2007 Corel Corporation. All rights reserved. Portions copyright 2007 John Derry. All rights reserved. Corel, Painter and the Corel logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Corel Corporation and/or its subsidiaries. Mac OS and Macintosh are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries. All other product, font and company names and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.