Working with the Mixer palette in Corel® Painter™ IX
by the Corel Documentation team

In Corel® Painter™ IX, colors not found in the Color palette can be created from scratch in the Mixer palette. This innovative feature includes tools designed specifically for painting and color mixing. With an Artists' Oils brush, multiple colors can be sampled and used in the same brush stroke.

For Corel Painter IX, the Mixer palette now integrates Artists' Oils and includes a new multicolor eyedropper.

If the Mixer palette is hidden, choose Window menu > Color Palettes > Show Mixer, or press Command + 2 (Mac OS) or Ctrl + 2 (Windows). (If the Mixer palette is not expanded, click the palette arrow .) With the Mixer palette displayed, you're ready to start mixing colors!

To mix colors, click the Apply Color tool in the Mixer palette. The Apply Color tool lets you choose colors from the mixer swatch and paint with them on the Mixer pad. At any time, if you want to blend the existing colors without adding any new ones, you can switch to the Mix Color tool . To toggle between the Apply Color and Mix Color tools, just hold down Command (Mac OS) or Ctrl (Windows).

When working with the Apply Color or Mix Color tool, you can activate the Pan tool by holding down Spacebar. Holding down Spacebar + Command (Mac OS) or Spacebar + Ctrl (Windows) activates the Zoom tool in zoom-in mode, while holding down Spacebar + Command + Option (Mac OS) or Spacebar + Ctrl + Alt (Windows) activates the Zoom tool in zoom-out mode.

When you're happy with a color you've mixed, you can make it the main color in the image by clicking it with the Sample Color tool . If you want, you can even add a sampled color to the current color set by clicking the palette menu arrow and choosing Add Swatch to Color Set.

On its own, the Mixer palette mimics the traditional experience of mixing color on a palette. However, when used in tandem with the Artists' Oils brush variant, the Mixer palette offers you as much color-mixing flexibility as its traditional counterpart.

For example, you can paint with Artists' Oils color from the Mixer palette. First, mix the color you want on the Mixer palette. Next, click the Dirty Brush Mode tool , and then on the Brush Selector bar, choose an Artists' Oils brush variant. Now when you paint in the document window, the last color on the Apply Color tool or Mix Color tool is used in the brush stroke.

When working with Artists' Oils, you can also sample multiple colors. Mix the color you want on the Mixer palette, and then move the Change Brush Size slider to set the size of the sample area. (The size of the sample area is displayed to the right of the slider and measured in pixels.) Next, click the Sample Multiple Color tool , and then click the area of the Mixer pad you want to sample.

For more information about the Mixer palette, including detailed information on its tools, please see the Corel Painter IX Help file.