Corel Painter is famous for its astounding assortment of brushes and art materials that illustrators and fine artists love - including the new Artists' Oils medium and the updated Mixer palette. Tucked away in Corel Painter, however, are dozens of other cool tools and effects that are extremely useful for graphic designers. With the Bevel World dynamic layer, you can try an endless variety of custom bevels on a selected layer quickly, without having to use time-consuming masks and channels. To create this brushed and stamped metal graphic, I applied effects that included custom lighting, texture effects, an intricate bevel, and a cast shadow.

1. Creating a background with lighting and texture
Begin by creating a new 1000 x 1000 pixel file with a white background. The size of the file determines the size of the textures you use, as well as the settings in the Bevel World and Create Drop Shadow dialog boxes. To add depth to the background, I applied soft diagonal lighting that would complement the bright, gold metal to come. The Lighting effect in Corel Painter allows you to create beautiful, smoothly colored gradients on your image. To open the Apply Lighting dialog box, choose Effects > Surface Control > Apply Lighting.

When the dialog box appears, choose the Gradual Diagonal thumbnail. Click Light Color to open the Color dialog box, and choose a green color for the light. To minimize the hot spot in the lower corner, decrease the Brightness of your light to 0.93, and reduce the Elevation to 75°. In the preview area, adjust the light source position to achieve the following effect:

To save your new light, click the Save button, and name it when the Save Lighting dialog box appears. I named mine Green Diagonal. Click OK to apply the lighting effect.

Next, give your background the look of a plaster wall. Open the Papers palette by choosing Window > Library Palettes > Show Papers. In the Papers palette, choose the Artists' Rough Paper from the Paper Selector, and increase its size to 140% by using the Paper Scale slider.

Choose Effects > Surface Control > Apply Surface Texture, and apply the following settings: In the Using pop-up menu choose Paper. Set the Amount to 50% and Shine to 5%. Under Light Direction, click the 5 o'clock light position.

2. Setting the type
Now that the backdrop is finished, you're ready to add a bevel to the graphic. From the Colors palette, choose a color that contrasts with the background to automatically fill the text with color as you type. In preparation for the brushed gold metal look, I chose a light gold color, with a bit of green in it.

From the toolbox, select the Text tool, and from the property bar, choose a font and size. For my graphic, I typed a lowercase "z" and used a 280-point character in the Woodtype Ornaments 1 font. (If you don't have the exact typeface used here, choose any symbol from a bold font with broad strokes to accommodate the beveling effect to come.) Click in the image with the Text tool, and enter the type.

3. Creating brushed metal
To give the graphic the look of brushed metal, I applied a texture by using Color Overlay. In the Layers palette, make sure that the text layer is selected.

In the Colors palette, choose a darker value of the same gold hue that you used in step 2. In the Papers palette, choose the New Streaks paper. For a finer look, reduce the size to 53% with the Paper Scale slider.

Now choose Effects > Surface Control > Color Overlay (commit the text to an image layer if prompted). In the Color Overlay dialog box, ensure that the Dye Concentration button is enabled. For a subtle, natural look, reduce the Amount to 73%. Now the metal is ready for you to build the bevel.

4. Beveling the type
With the graphic layer still selected, click the Dynamic Plug-ins button at the bottom of the Layers palette, and choose Bevel World from the menu. To build a 3D effect with an intricate stamped look that will show off the brushed look, use the following settings: Bevel Width slider, 5% (to build narrower sides and a broader top); Outside Portion, 0% (for no bevel outside the original pixels); Rim Slope, -29° (for a recessed top); Cliff Portion, 50% (the vertical distance between the base and rim); Cliff Height, 50% (to increase the height of the sides); Cliff Slope, 45° (the angle for the middle of the bevel); Base Slope, 20° (making the angle of the outermost portion a gentle slope); and Smoothing, 20% (to make any ridges on the edges smoother). The Bevel World effect warps and bends the Streaks texture around the beveled forms and adds realistic highlights and shadows. When you are satisfied with the settings, click OK.

5. Adding a shadow
To help the metal effect stand out in the composition more dramatically, I added depth and contrast by using the automatic drop shadow feature in Corel Painter. To build your shadow, select the beveled layer, and choose Effects > Objects > Create Drop Shadow. In the dialog box, set X-Offset to 20 pixels, Y-Offset to 20 pixels, and Opacity to 100%. For a softer shadow, set Radius to 30.0 pixels, and use the defaults of 114.6° for Angle (which will cast the shadow down and to the lower right of the object) and 45% for Thinness (a low Thinness setting creates a streaked look similar to a motion blur).

The Drop Shadow effect creates a layer group in the Layers palette. If you'd like to adjust the position of your shadow, open the layer group, click on the shadow layer, and use the Layer Adjuster tool from the toolbox to drag the layer in the image window. After the shadow layer is selected, you can also use the arrow keys on your keyboard to reposition the shadow.

The brushed and stamped metal effect is now complete.

A renowned artist, designer and Corel Painter master, Cher Threinen-Pendarvis is the author of all editions of The Painter Wow! Book and The Photoshop and Painter Artist Tablet Book. In The Painter IX Wow! Book, Cher features creative new techniques that use the most exciting features in Corel Painter IX. You can visit her Web site at www.pendarvis-studios.com.