Using selections with the Photo Painting Palettes
by Steve Szoczei

With Corel® Painter™ IX.5, you can use selections with the Photo Painting Palettes to refine detailed areas of a painting. While using the Auto-Painting palette, you can use one of three selection tools—Rectangular, Oval, or Lasso—to isolate certain areas of your source image. With a selection made, you can use a smaller brush to capture more detail in the focal point of the painting.

You can also use selections to auto-paint facial features instead of using the Restoration palette.

For this tip, I'll show you how to use selections for your next auto-painting project. The first step is to choose a photo to use as your source.

Next, you can prepare your photo for painting by creating an underpainting. The Underpainting palette lets you choose from several preset Styles, and lets you add a decorative Edge Effect or Smart Blur effect before you create a clone. The clone is used by Corel Painter to pick up color from the original photo, so be sure to press the Quick Clone button before proceeding.

At this point, you can use the Auto-Painting palette to start painting. Choose a large Brush Size to lay in the first paint strokes and click the Play button. Depending on the size of your source photo, the auto-painting process may take several minutes. You can stop the process at any time by pressing the Stop button.

Next, turn off Tracing Paper by clicking the Toggle Tracing Paper button on the upper right corner of the drawing window, or by clicking Command + T (Mac OS®) or Control + T (Windows®). In the toolbox, choose one of the Rectangular Selection, Oval Selection, or Lasso tools. I've used the Lasso tool because the selection I want to make is not uniform. Make a selection around the focal point of your source photo, then right-click the selection and choose Feather from the pop-up menu. In the Feather Selection dialog box, type a value and click OK.

Now, turn on the Tracing Paper. On the Auto-Painting palette, choose a smaller Brush Size and click the Play button. Again, depending on the size of your source photo, the auto-painting process may take a few minutes. When you are satisfied with the result, click the Stop button.

At this point, I wanted to bring back more detail of the bride and you may want to do the same for the focal point of your source photo. I made another selection around the bride's upper torso, including her head, arm, and bridal bouquet. I also feathered this selection.

To finish the painting, I selected a small Brush Size on the Auto-Painting palette and clicked the Play button. You can see the results below.