26 Section Three Produce an Impressionistic painting

SECTION THREE

Produce an
Impressionistic
painting
We show you how to use Painter to create an
oil painting in the tradition of the Impressionist
painters, using a photograph for visual
source material…

W
hen it comes to simulating natural media via digital means, there’s no better tool than
Corel Painter 8 used in combination with a Wacom tablet and a good dose of artistic
vision and creative enthusiasm.
All the artwork included in this article was created on an Apple PowerBook G4
(1GHz, 512MB RAM) running Mac OS 10.2 with Corel Painter 8 and the Wacom
Intuos2 Platinum A5 graphics tablet.
If you have a recent version of Photoshop or Painter, or have Painter Classic, which comes
Illustration: Jeremy Sutton [w] www.jeremysutton.com

with all Wacom tablets, then you’re eligible to purchase an inexpensive upgrade to Painter 8.
By the time this article is printed, a free upgrade to Corel Painter 8.1 will be available from
[w] www.corel.com. Besides offering many bug fixes, in this upgrade Corel has reintroduced
the Custom palettes, which allow you to make buttons from any menu commands as well as tear
off your favourite brushes.
There are no right or wrong ways to create a digital Impressionistic work. Whatever you do,
you’re not going to break your computer, Painter or your tablet, so be adventurous and have fun!

Expertise provided by Jeremy Sutton. Jeremy is an internationally renowned portrait artist,

author and educator based in San Francisco. He has written a number of books, two of which are
reviewed on pages 92-93. You can see more examples of his artwork at [w] jeremysutton.com

Section Three Produce an Impressionist painting 27

28 Section Three Produce an Impressionistic painting

Part 1: Getting organised

Organise your files, folders and naming conventions…

The importance of
being organised
Being organised in saving and
naming your files is essential to
freeing yourself up to be at your
most creative. It also empowers
you to fully utilise your creative
process and conveniently access
and recycle parts of earlier
versions of your image. At every
stage in this project, use the Save
As command to save different
versions of your working image.
For this project, I ended up with
21 versions. What sort of border do you want to create?
This project involves creating an oil painting 3 Do you want the paint to blend into white
1 based on a photograph, in this case a picture for printing on watercolour paper and float
taken by Californian portrait artist Lisa Evans. For mounting,
my image, I envisioned a style of brush stroke that or do you want the paint to go right to the sharp
was both impressionistic in catching the effect of edge of the digital canvas for a matted print or
natural light and expressionistic in using colours Before you dive in and start a project, ask framed canvas print? Do you need to add extra
that came from my imagination as well as from the
2 yourself what size, medium and usage your pixels to your original source image? Since this is
original photograph. final product is going to be. an-oil painting, I decided to paint right up to the
edge of the canvas.

Decide what file size you need. Here, the

4 parameters were determined by the need to
create an artwork for a double-page spread Are you sitting comfortably at your computer
in a magazine. That, in turn, gave me the file size 5 with your tablet and screen in front of you?
of 47cm wide by 27cm high at a resolution of 300 Are you holding your stylus with the side of your
pixels per inch. If I was aiming to create a large fine palm resting on the tablet? Is the ambient light level
art print on canvas or watercolour paper, I would and location of your screen such that your eyes
have based my file size on the final desired print are comfortable? Physical comfort is important to Before starting on a project, consider where
dimensions at 150 dpi, a resolution which I find allowing you to make the computer invisible as 6 you want to save your project files on your
works fine for my expressionistic Painter images. you-create your composition. hard drive. Make a decision and stick to it.

What naming convention will you adopt for all

8 files connected with this project (for example,
YY.MM.DD-subject-01-brushused.rif or subject-01-
Think about how to organise your saved brushused.rif)? Make sure all title data to the left of At the end of your preparations, open your
7 files. How will you group saved versions? For 9 source photograph in Photoshop and, if you
the version number remains the same for all the files
example, by project, date or subject? in a given project. need to, crop it using the Crop tool.
Part 2: Setting up your canvas
Make a master file in Photoshop and prepare a canvas in Painter…

Restarting
mid-project
If you find things slowing down
as-you work then save all your
current working files, quit
out of-Painter and restart the
application. Note that after
restarting the program, you’ll
have to reopen your original
image and manually reset it to be
your Clone Source (File>Clone
Source). Your original image and In the Layers palette pop-up menu, select
Select Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Levels, 2 Flatten Image. Resave the flattened image as
your current working files both 1 Curves and Hue/Saturation to make a TIFF file with a name similar to ‘subject-flt-
need to be open at the same time
in Painter when you’re cloning
adjustments to your image. When satisfied, save adstd.tif’. If you save a TIFF with Adjustment Layers
the file in TIFF or Photoshop format (with the and then open it in Painter, the adjustments are not
colour from an original image.
Adjustment Layers) as your master file. Call it applied. You need to create a flattened version of
something like ‘subject-master.psd’. The Adjustment the file first. Ensure your master file is at least the Always restart Painter every time you start a
Layer settings in the master file can-always be size of the final image you want to create. If it needs
3 new project. This is important for clearing the
edited at any time. increasing in size, do this in 10 per cent increments. memory in your computer.

Open a new canvas by selecting File>New

5 (Cmd/Ctrl-N). Change the new file dimension
units from pixels to cm (or inches). Specify
your desired final print size and resolution.
Resolution is typically 150 to 300 pixels per inch,
depending on your media and style of artwork. If
Open your source photograph (flat TIFF or in doubt, check with your printer – before starting. It’s time to start painting on your canvas, so go
4 JPEG file) in Painter. Select OK in the New File window. You’ll now see a
6 to Artists>Sargent Brush.
blank canvas.

Part 3: Getting the best out of your stylus

It’s time to get stuck into the creative process…

Brush libraries
Illustrator has a number of tools
and features that can help in
the creation of natural media
effects. Possibly the most useful
is the ability to create and edit a
variety of brushes, which can be
saved and stored in custom brush
libraries for future use.

Copy your photo into the memory by clicking

3 on your original image so it’s the active image
Make a single test brush stroke starting with in Painter (you can always tell which is the
1 low pressure and gradually increasing to high If the stroke diameter jumps suddenly, choose active image by looking at which image name has
pressure. You can do this on your image and just 2 Corel Painter 8/Edit>Preferences>Brush a checkmark by it at the bottom of the Windows
Cmd/Ctrl-Z immediately afterwards. You should Tracking. Make a single light stroke in the menu), then choosihng Select>All (Cmd/Ctrl-A)
be able to get smooth transition from small to large Brush Tracking scratch pad. Click OK and try your followed by Edit>Copy (Cmd/Ctrl-C) followed by
brush stroke diameter as you paint, by adjusting the brush stroke on your canvas again. If needed, File>Close (Cmd/Ctrl-W). Close the original image
pressure you apply to the stylus from low to high. repeat the process till you’re satisfied with the stylus without saving changes.
response.
Section Three Produce an Impressionistic painting 29
30 Section Three Produce an Impressionistic painting

Getting the best out of your stylus continued…

Use Free Transform
to resize down
It’s better to use Free Transform
to resize down in size rather
than resize up, since the image
quality will be adversely affected
by significant resizing up. Any
increases in size are best done
in Photoshop in 10 per cent
increments prior to opening the
source image in Painter.

Save As button
In the Painter 8.1 Custom palette,
make a Save As button. This will
be useful for saving versions as
you work. You can always use
When you’re satisfied with the composition in
the Save As keyboard shortcut
Now click on your new blank canvas so it If you find you need to slightly reduce or 6 the new canvas, choose Drop from the Layers
Shift-Cmd/Ctrl-S. Be wary of 4 becomes the active image. Choose Edit>Paste 5 increase the size of your pasted layer, choose palette pop-up menu. This option can be accessed
accidentally updating your file
(Cmd/Ctrl-V). This pastes your original image as a Effects>Orientation>Free Transform. This by clicking on the small solid black triangle in the
with a File>Save or Cmd/Ctrl-S.
layer in your new canvas and automatically selects converts your layer from a regular image layer to a top-right corner of the Layers palette, or from the
the Layer Adjuster tool in the Tools palette. Click reference layer. Hold down the Shift key and drag pop-up menu which appears when you click on the
Clone button and drag the layer to reposition it, producing a in the corner handles to resize the layer without Layer Commands icon (the left-hand of the six icons
In the Painter 8.1 Custom palette, satisfactory composition. distortion, keeping the aspect ratio (width to height) at the bottom of the Layers palette).
make a Clone button. You’ll
constant.
find this a useful tool anytime
you’re working with photographs
in the program.

When you’ve dropped the layer into your new

7 canvas, choose File>Save As. Name this file
with a consistent file name prefix, and then add a
version number: 00-original. Save into your project
folder. All subsequent versions of this file should be
saved into the same folder location with consistent
file names and consecutive version numbers. Doing Choose Window>Screen Mode Toggle (Cmd/ Make a clone copy. With your flat, resaved
this ensures you have easy access to your original
8 Ctrl-M). This mounts your working image so 9 original image active, choose File>Clone. This
image and all intermediate versions any time you your desktop is as uncluttered as possible. Work in creates a duplicate image that has Clone of… at the
wish to continue working on the project. Screen Mode whenever possible. beginning of the file name.

In using the Clone command on an original

10 image, you automatically define your original
image as Clone Source and will see the image
name with a checkmark by it when you look at the Choose a brush variant that moves paint
11 around, such as the Blenders category>Oily The brush hierarchy in Painter is Library>Categ
File>Clone Source menu. This means that all cloner
brushes (brush variants from the Cloners category Blender variant, or the Distortion category>Grainy 12 ory>Variant. You’ll see this hierarchy reflected
or brushes that have the Use Clone Colour icon Mover variant. Start moving, smearing and blending in the Brush Selector within Painter, where-you
activated in the Colours palette) will look to the imagery. Use brush strokes that follow the form and first select the brush category (left-hand-pop-up),
original image for their colour. Cloning in Painter scale of the features. For instance, when painting followed by the individual variant within that
is like using the Rubber Stamp tool in Photoshop grass, use brush strokes that follow the grass stems. category (right-hand pop-up). When you first open
except it’s much more versatile. In Painter, you can With shrubbery and leaves, use dabs. The idea is the Brush Selector pop-ups, drag the-lower-right
turn almost any brush that adds colour to the canvas to create a ‘muck up’ under-painting on which you corners down as far as they’ll
into a cloner brush, simply by activating the Use can selectively bring back detail, and add colour and go so you can see the whole contents of the
Clone Colour icon in the Colours palette. contrast as required. pop-up at a glance.
Unique Painter
extras
In the example shown here,
I’m using the Jeremy Faves
category>Artists Palette Knife.
This is a blending brush I
particularly like from an earlier
version of Painter. You’ll find
Jeremy Faves category on the
CD that comes with my new
book, Painter 8 Creativity: Digital
Artist’s Handbook (see [w] www.
paintercreativity.com for details).
It’s helpful to look at the Painter application Painter’s array of hundreds of pre-built default
The CD comes with a collection 13 folder on your computer hard drive to fully 14 brushes can be overwhelming at first glance.
of unique custom brushes and art
understand the hierarchy of Painter’s brushes. Getting to lay your hands on the right brush at the
materials unavailable in Painter. The Brush Tracker (available from Window>
Look-in the Brushes folder contained within the right time to give a certain desired effect can be
application folder, which contains the default brush challenging. Build brush research into your painting 15 Show Tracker) offers a handy way to keep
Using Painter to library, Painter Brushes. Within this library folder are process. Use a section of your working image to test track of all the brush variants you’ve used
evoke feeling the brush category folders, each accompanied by a out brush strokes (you have up to 32 levels of undo during a Painter session. Just click on any listed
30 x 30 pixel icon JPEG. Within each brush category in Painter, so you can always undo your research variant to select it. Unfortunately, the Tracker list
A camera, whether digital or folder are the individual brush variant files. brush strokes). cannot be saved and is lost every time you close
film-based, responds differently Painter.
to light than the human eye. Our
eyes are sensitive to light in a
different way to the electronic
chip of a digital camera or the
chemical reaction of a film.
Therein lies the power of working
with Painter on your photographs.
You have at your fingertips
the possibility of sculpting
and controlling colour, form,
Choose Window>Show Brush Creator Whenever you come up with a brush effect
composition, contrast and focus 16 (Cmd/Ctrl-B). This Brush Creator offers 17 you like, store the settings by saving the
to evoke as closely as you wish you the ultimate in brush control, diversity custom variant. This is done easily by choosing
the exact feeling and sensation and versatility. It has three tabbed sections: the Variant>Save Variant if you have the Brush Creator
you choose to convey. Randomiser, which randomises brush behaviour; open. Alternatively, if you’re in Normal painting
the Transposer, which transposes (mixes) one brush mode (that is, not in Brush Creator mode), you can
behaviour with that of another brush; and the choose Save Variant from the Brush Selector pop-up
Stroke Designer, where you can control and adjust menu (click on the small solid black triangle in the
all the brush behaviour parameter settings. In the upper-right corner of the Brush Selector palette).
case shown here, you see the Transposer mixing the Rename your custom variant in the Save Variant You can always restore the original factory
Artists>Sargent Brush with the Sponges>Loaded window. Your newly saved custom variant will 18 settings for your current variant by selecting
Wet Sponge to create a fascinating oily spongy appear in the current brush category, although the Restore Default Variant from the Brush Selector
brush effect. currently active variant will not have changed. pop-up menu.

Part 4: Refining your image

It’s time to introduce detailing, texturing and colourising effects…
Play with
those sliders
Don’t be afraid to experiment
with the sliders in the Brush
Property bar at the top of your
screen. The jitter slider, when it
appears, can give great results. If
you find a brush setting you love,
save the variant.

Pick a good dabbing brush such as

1 Oils>Bristle Oils to dab on colour where Choose Canvas>Tracing Paper (Cmd/Ctrl-T) to
3 deactivate Tracing Paper (the same command
appropriate. In this example, I used the Jeremy Choose Canvas>Tracing Paper (Cmd/Ctrl-
Faves>Jeremy’s MishMashPull. You can pull colour 2 T) to activate Tracing Paper. This feature toggles Tracing Paper on and off). The disadvantage
from the original image by clicking on the Use superimposes a 50 per cent opacity image of Tracing Paper is that it’s deceptive – you don’t
Clone Colour icon beneath the colour wheel on the of the original (Clone Source) image with a 50 per see what your image actually looks like and your
Colours palette. The Use Clone Colour icon looks cent opacity image of the current working image. brush strokes appear at 50 per cent opacity of what
like the Photoshop Rubber Stamp icon. When the The advantage of Tracing Paper is that it gives you they really are. Use Tracing Paper sparingly, because
Use Clone Colour icon is activated, the colour picker a visual reference of the original image showing it only works with Clone Source and active files of
becomes through, which you can use when painting. exactly the same pixel dimensions.
greyed out.
Section Three Produce an Impressionistic painting 31
32 Section Three Produce an Impressionistic painting

Refining your image continued…

Less is more
In deciding how much detail to
bring back into your painting
after losing detail in the ‘muck
up’ under-painting stage,
bear in mind the following
comments by legendary film-
editor Walter Murch:
”You may not always succeed, but
attempt to produce the greatest
effect in the viewer’s mind by the
least number of things on screen.
Why? Because you want to do
only what is necessary to engage Sometimes you might turn on Tracing Paper
the imagination of the audience.
4 and think, “Wow! I wish I could have that as
Suggestion is always more my actual final image”. There is a way. Click on your
effective than exposition. Past a original (Clone Source) image. Choose Select>All
certain point, the more effort you (Cmd/Ctrl-A) followed by Edit>Copy (Cmd/Ctrl-C).
Now click on your working image so it becomes
put into wealth of detail, the more
the active image. Choose Edit>Paste in Place (Shift-
6 If you want to change brush size while
painting, you can hold down Shift-Option-
you encourage the audience to
Cmd/Ctrl-V). In the Layers palette, adjust the layer
5 You can access variants through the control
become spectators rather than pop-up. Hold down the Ctrl key (Mac or PC) Cmd/Shift-Alt-Ctrl. Then click and drag and you’ll
participants.”
opacity slider to suit. Click on the eye icon to turn and click in your image. This reveals a pop-up menu see a circle, indicating the adjusted brush diameter.
the layer visibility off and on. Click on the canvas with access to incremental brush size adjustment, This shortcut enables you to rapidly make big
in the Layers palette to continue working on your variant settings and the current category variant list. changes in brush size. The bracket keys offer a small
Harmonious working image in the background canvas. This shortcut is tool sensitive. incremental brush size adjustment.
colour schemes
Here are some examples of
colour-wheel schemes that
work effectively when painting
photographs:

1) Analogous – any three hues

that are adjacent to each other on
the colour wheel (including their
tints and shades).

2) Complementary – direct
opposites on the colour wheel.

3) Secondary – combining the

secondary hues of orange, green
Intermittently tap on the Tab key to hide
and violet. 7 your palettes, hold down the Spacebar while
clicking once on your image to centre it, choose
4) Split Complementary – a hue Cmd/Ctrl-M to mount your image if it’s not yet
plus the hues on either side of its mounted and use the Cmd/Ctrl-0 (zero) to resize
complement (orange with blue- your image to fit the screen. Now step back from Choose the Cloners>Smeary Camel Cloner to
green and blue-violet, as shown your computer, stretch and take a look at your
8 work around the metalwork. Click on the Use
in this example). image. Look at the overview. Half-close your eyes Clone Colour icon in the Colours palette to turn off Choose the Artists>Impressionist brush to
to see the tonal values and assess what needs Clone Colour and add your own colour from the
9 work around the feet. Use warm colours in the
5) Tertiary Triad – consists of adjusting to improve the image. colour picker. shadows to add a sense of warmth to the image.
three tertiary hues that are
equidistant from each other on
the colour wheel (red-violet,
yellow-orange and blue-green
are tertiary triads).

Use the colour picker to select colours from The next stage of this project involves
11 opposite, or almost opposite, sides of the 12 selectively adding detail, contrast and colour
hue circle (or colour wheel). One of the great around the image to draw the eye into the centre of
Choose a brush with good oily bristly structure advantages of the colour wheel representation of focus and to build up the desired atmosphere and
10 like the Oils>Bristle Oils to add grass texture. colour, as used in Painter’s standard colour picker, ambience. Choose, for example, Cloners>Smeary
In this case, I used the Jeremy Faves>Den’s Oil is the convenient access to harmonious colour Camel Cloner for adding colour and texture to the
Brush Luscious. schemes and combinations. background grass.
Part 5: Adding ‘punch’
Cast a critical eye over your image and adjust detail, contrast and colour…

Defining form
through value
Value or luminance, the
perceived lightness and
darkness of a colour, informs our
perception of three-dimensional
form. A painter develops the skill
of judging value independent
of colour. You can use Painter’s
Effects>Tonal Control>Adjust
Colours with the Saturation
slider set all the way to the left
(-139 per cent) to simulate a When you’ve completely covered your canvas
3 with brush strokes and gone back over the
luminance-only (greyscale)
version of your artwork. Choose image to add selective detail and colour, you may
Edit>Undo (Cmd/Ctrl-Z) to get find that the image is lacking a certain ‘punch’.
back to full colour. You can also
Here, I recognised that I needed to generate more
contrast and more saturated colours, so I determined
use the Dropper tool to compare
to alter my Clone Source accordingly. First, select
the luminance of different
Choose blending brushes like the your original image from the bottom of the Window
regions of your canvas (just 2 Blenders>Oily blender to blend in the colours. menu and choose Effects>Tonal Control>Equalise
observe the value setting in the
You can also use Clone Colour to blend in dabs of (Cmd/Ctrl-E). This generates a histogram of the
colour picker or the location of colour. Experiment with the effect of juxtaposing distribution of luminance in your image. Adjust the
the central circular cursor in the Choose Artists>Sargent to add light oil brush complementary colours from opposite sides of the Black and White Points and the Brightness slider until
Saturation Value triangle of the 1 strokes to the face and hands. colour wheel. you’re satisfied with the preview image. Click OK.
colour picker).

Matching the
original image
You may find it useful to unmount
your working file (Cmd/Ctrl-M)
and place it over your original
image so you can see the details
and colours in the original image
as you paint. You can also use the
Dropper tool to pick colours from
different parts of either image.

Print options
An oil painting like the one
created here will look wonderful
Choose your working image from the
as a stretched and framed canvas 6 bottom of the Window menu. Choose
print. You can add varnishes
Effects>Tonal Control>Equalise (Cmd/Ctrl-E). This
to enhance three dimensional
will automatically generate a histogram of the
brush stroke appearance. We
Select Effects>Tonal Control>Adjust Colour. distribution of luminance in your working image
don’t cover colour management 4 Leave the Using pop-up menu on Uniform and adjust the Black and White Points to increase
issues in this article, but that’s Colour. Adjust the Hue and Saturation sliders contrast in your image. Adjust the Black and White
Make sure you use the File>Save As command
an important area for any digital to generate an interesting colour scheme in the 5 to resave and rename the original, so you have Points and the Brightness slider until you’re satisfied
artist to get to grips with. Without image preview. Click OK. it saved as a distinct version. with the preview image. Click OK.
good colour management,
you’ll find your images may look
significantly different when
viewed in Painter, Photoshop
and in the final printed form. It’s
always best to run test prints to
avoid unpleasant surprises.

Add final detail touches such as foreground

9 grass (in this case, I used Jeremy Faves>Den’s
Choose the Cloners>Soft Cloner. Lower the Oil Brush Luscious). Also take a look at where final
7 opacity slider in the brush property bar to Use the Blenders>Oily blender, or a similar highlight touches are needed. Don’t forget to add
about 20 per cent. Gently brush in some of the 8 brush, to blend away any photographic grain your digital signature. I added mine with a small
newly adjusted original image. that’s appeared as a result of using the Soft Cloner. Jeremy Faves>Big Wet Luscious. ca•p

Section Three Produce an Impressionistic painting 33