Impasto is the classic technique of applying thick paint on a canvas to create depth. In Corel® Painter™ IX, impasto refers to the brush feature that allows brushes to paint with the illusion of depth. You can use impasto with different brushes to simulate different types of natural media, such as thick oil paint or chalk with texture.

Thick Tapered Flat 30 from the Impasto brush category.

Palette Knife from the Impasto category.

Using the Impasto brush settings in the Brush Creator, you can create Impasto brushes from most brush variants. The controls let you set drawing and depth methods, the amount of depth applied, and the brush interaction.

To add impasto to a brush

1. Choose a brush to which you want to add depth.
   
   For example, the Chunky Oil Pastel 20 from the Oil Pastels category does not have depth.
   
   
2. Choose Window > Show Brush Creator to open the Brush Creator.
   
   
3. On the Stroke Designer page of the Brush Creator, click Impasto.
   
   
4. Choose a drawing method from the Draw To pop-up menu:
   
   
   • Color – Applies color but not depth. You can set the color on the Colors palette.
     
     
   • Depth – Applies depth but not color.
     
     
   • Color and Depth – Applies both color and depth to the image.
     
     
   To create a depth effect, and to activate the depth controls, choose a drawing method with depth.
   
   
   
5. Choose an application method from the Depth Method pop-up menu.
   
   
   • Uniform – Applies depth evenly. Strokes have little texture.
     
     
   • Erase – Levels the depth layer. If you've created texture strokes that you don't like, you can use this setting to remove them. Erase applies only to depth, not to color. If the Color and Depth option is selected, Erase will still apply color while removing depth. The amount of depth removed depends on the value of the Depth slider. If you want to remove the entire impasto stroke, set Depth to 0.
     
     
   • Paper – Uses the current paper to control depth. You can choose different papers from the Paper Selector in the toolbox.
     
     
   • Original Luminance – Uses a clone source's luminance to control depth.
     
     
   • Weaving Luminance – Controls depth using the current weave. You can choose different weaves from the Weaves Selector in the toolbox.
     
     
   
   
   
6. Check the Invert or Negative Depth box if you want the depth method to be negative or inverted. The Invert option switches the luminance values of the current depth method (for example, the weave or the paper). The Negative Depth option changes the direction of depth, so that the brush digs valleys instead of raising ridges.
   
   
   Original depth and negative depth.
   
   
7. Adjust the Depth slider to set how much depth the brush applies. Higher values produce strokes that have deeper grooves.
   
   
   
8. Adjust the Smoothing slider to set the transitions in the texture. Higher Smoothing values produce less textured strokes.
   
   The first brush stroke has a low Smoothing setting, making the horizontal ridges within the brush stroke more visible. The second brush stroke has a higher Smoothing setting.
   
   
9. Adjust the Plow slider to control how much a stroke interacts with other impasto brush strokes. When a stroke with a high Plow value encounters another impasto stroke, it displaces the depth of the existing stroke. In essence, your brush stroke "plows" through existing strokes.
   
   

Your new impasto brush is now ready. Just paint with it, or save it as a custom brush variant.