You can use the Corel® Painter™ IX brushes as they are, or you can adjust them to suit your purposes. Many artists use Corel Painter brush variants with only minor adjustments—to size, opacity, or grain (how much color penetrates paper texture).

Blender brushes
Most Corel Painter brushes apply media (a color, gradient, or pattern) to an image. Some brushes, however, do not apply media. Instead, they make changes to media already in the image. The brushes in the Blenders category affect underlying pixels by moving and mixing them. Using one of these brushes on a blank area of the canvas has no effect.

The Blenders can reproduce the effects of blending paint by applying water or oil. For example, the Just Add Water brush variant smudges and dilutes existing colors in the image with smooth, anti-aliased strokes. You can also smooth drawing lines and create shading just as you would on a pencil sketch or charcoal drawing.

When you customize a blender brush, you can change any of its properties, such as size, shape, or angle, to fit your specific requirements. You can make individual changes to the brush as you work by using the Brush Control palettes or comprehensively redesign a brush in the Brush Creator. The Brush Creator provides controls for customizing and creating brush variants. It is integrated with Corel Painter but contains its own interface with different tools, palettes, and menus. Because it is a separate workspace, the Brush Creator lets you preview the brush strokes before you apply them to the canvas.

To customize a Blender brush

1. On the Brush Selector bar, choose the Blenders brush category from the Brush Category selector.
   
   
2. Choose a variant from the Brush Variant selector.
   
   
   
   
   
3. Do one of the following:
   • Choose Window menu > Brush Controls, and then choose the Brush Control palette you want to use to customize your brush. You can keep the Brush Control palettes open as you work.
     
     
   • Choose Window menu > Show Brush Creator.
     
     
     
     The Brush Creator workspace is launched. Use the Brush Creator controls to make changes to the brush. To close the Brush Creator, choose Window menu > Hide Brush Creator.
     
     
     
     
     When you want to preview the brush stroke in the Brush Creator, remember that the Blenders do not apply media to a blank canvas. Use a different brush first to apply color in the preview window, and then use a Blender brush to test its effect.
     
     
     
     
     A preview of the Smear variant in the Brush Creator.

Saving your custom brush
Changes you make to brush variants are saved until the Restore Default Variant command is selected. However, any future changes you make to the same brush will override your current custom settings. If you want to keep your custom settings for future use, you can save your custom brush as a new variant.

To save your custom brush

1. Do one of the following:
   • From outside of the Brush Creator, click the selector menu arrow on the Brush Selector bar and choose Save Variant.
     
     
     
     
   • From within the Brush Creator, choose Variant menu > Save Variant.
     
     
     
     
2. In the Save Variant dialog box, type a name for the new variant.
   If you want the current main and additional colors saved with the variant, enable the Save Current Colors check box.
   
   
   

Your new variant appears on the variant menu, in the Blenders brush category. A new XML file is created in the Brushes category folder.