Sensitive brushwork with the Artists' Oils
by Cher Threinen-Pendarvis

Quiet Moment at Schwetzingen

This month's Corel® Painter™ Wow! tip focuses on using the brushes in the Artists' Oils category to produce sensitive, expressive paintings and on customizing the brushes for your own needs.

With the revolutionary Artists' Oils medium and brushes in Corel Painter IX.5, you can paint expressive, gestural strokes. Like traditional oils, Artists' Oils paint is malleable and viscous. When you paint a new stroke on the canvas, you mix the new paint with the existing paint, just as you would with conventional media. The painting Quiet Moment at Schwetzingen (see above) was produced with the Dry Brush, Blender Brush, and Blender Palette Knife variants of the Artists' Oils brush category.

The fluid blending of wet Artists' Oils paint can be seen from this detail of the trees and sky as the painting progresses.

This tip can help you create an Artists' Oils painting of your own. Portions are excerpted from "The Artists' Oils Primer" in The Painter IX Wow! Book.

The Artists' Oils palette in the Brush Controls is organized into the Paint, Brush, and Canvas areas. The seven sliders in the Artists' Oils section work in conjunction with each other to create the character of the oily brush strokes. These controls are complex and interdependent. Dig in, and keep an eye on these controls while you try out the Artists' Oils variants.

Here are some suggestions for how to paint with the Artists' Oils brushes. Even if you're familiar with the other brushes in Corel Painter, try out these ideas and experiment with all of the Artists' Oils variants.

The Artists' Oils palette in the Brush Controls

Step 1. Paint striated strokes. Experiment with the Clumpy Brush. Brush strokes painted with a high Clumpiness setting vary in color and value. For more subtle striations, decrease the Clumpiness setting to 20%, and reduce the Blend setting to 10%.

Strokes painted with the Clumpy Brush. A high Clumpiness setting produces variations in color and value (top); lower Clumpiness and Blend settings produce more subtle striations (bottom).

Step 2. Mix colors with blender brushes. Any Artists' Oils variant with Blender in its name acts like a brush loaded with wet paint and lets you blend as you lay down new paint. Choose the Grainy Blender, and use light pressure on your stylus to make strokes that pull color up, blending while revealing the grain.

Strokes painted with the Oily Bristle and blended with the Grainy Blender

Step 3. Use grain capabilities with Artists' Oils brushes. Artists' Oils brush strokes can be smooth or grainy. Choose the Artists Canvas from the Paper Selector in the toolbox. From the Brush Selector bar, choose the Grainy Dry Brush variant of the Artists' Oils category, and paint a stroke. You'll notice the grain in the trail of the stroke. Switch to the Grainy Blender variant of the Artists' Oils category, which is useful for blending and enhancing grain. Lightly brush over the paint you applied, and then pull out from the paint to reveal more grain. Experiment with the Grain slider in the Property Bar to adjust the graininess. Move the slider to the left to reveal more grain, and to the right to cover more grain.

Strokes painted with the Grainy Dry Brush and blended with the Grainy Blender

Good work! You've completed this month's Corel Painter Wow! tip.

Content and images: © 2006 by Cher Threinen-Pendarvis

An award-winning artist and author, Cher Threinen-Pendarvis has always worked with traditional art tools. A pioneer in digital art, Cher has created illustrations with the Macintosh® computer for two decades. She has been widely recognized for her mastery of Corel® Painter™, Adobe® Photoshop®, and the Wacom® pressure-sensitive tablet, and she has used these electronic tools since they were first released. She teaches Corel Painter and Photoshop workshops around the world and is the principal of the consulting firm Cher Threinen Design.

Cher is the author of The Photoshop and Painter Artist Tablet Book: Creative Techniques in Digital Painting and all seven editions of The Painter Wow! Book. The Painter IX Wow! Book is the latest edition of this highly praised volume of techniques and inspiration.

To learn more about Cher, please visit her Web site at www.pendarvis-studios.com