Corel Painter X
Probably the most important thing is to have a conducive workspace setup.
[Command m] puts a grey mat around your canvas – so you don’t accidently click on your desktop while navigating, and it helps your eyes perceive colour.
Menu Bar > Windows. In here you will be able to hide/show all the palettes and windows you will need. The best ones to have open at this stage are Layers, Colours, Toolbox, Brush Properties and Brush Selector.
Be conscious of Layers, i.e. what layer you’re drawing on, needing a special layer for watercolours and liquid inks. It’s a good idea to utilise layers, it gives you more control over your work, i.e. you can ‘draw’ underneath an existing layer.
Also in your Layers palette, above the list is two scroll down menus > Composite Layer Methods: this changes how the layers interact with the layer underneath it.
You can mix colours on the Mixer palette by picking up colour with the brush (second button along the bottom), and mixing it with the palette knife (third button). To select the colour you have mixed use the eye dropper (4th button) and click the area of colour. You can now paint with that colour you have created. If you want to save that colour, in the Colour Set palette, along the bottom is a button that looks like a coloured grid with a +; click on this and your colour has been added to the set.
Saving your work: Save as> RIFF (Raster Image File Format) – native format for Painter and can only be opened in Painter. The benefit of saving in RIFF means that you will be able to go back to your work at a later date and it will still be malleable, workable, i.e. the paint will still be wet and the layers will remain preserved. It’s a good idea to also save your work as a JPEG or TIFF, so that you can open them up in word or save for the net.
Your reading for this week is very, very helpful! You can borrow it or view it online from the library.
