With the Artists' Oils in Corel® Painter IX™, the application emulates the feel of traditional media more realistically than ever before! These are a few of my favorite things about Artists' Oils: the Artists' Oils paint has a natural, oily feel and you can blend, and blend, and blend to your heart's content. I also love how the Artists' Oils medium works with the Mixer palette, in that you can mix colors and pick up a mixture of colors to paint with. When teaching Painter workshops, many times I have been asked if you could pick up multiple colors just like with a conventional paintbrush. Now, you can with the Artists' Oils and the Mixer palette! I also appreciate that Painter lets me combine Artists' Oils paint with other media, such as Pastel and Gouache.

To begin Quiet Moment at Schwetzingen, I drew colored sketches on location in my sketchbook. Back at my studio, I arranged the drawings so that I could look at them while I worked. With Painter, I set up a color palette using the Mixer with colors to start my composition. The main objectives of this tutorial are to demonstrate the oily nature of the Artists' Oils and show how to take advantage of using the Mixer palette with the Artists' Oils medium. I used several brushes to paint Quiet Moment: the Oily Bristle, Dry Brush, Tapered Oils, Oil Palette Knife, and Wet Oily Palette Knife.

1. Gather references
   Create a series of color and value drawings using colored pencils or pastel, and shoot photographs if you desire. Analyze your subject carefully as you draw. When your sketches are complete, assemble your drawings and photo references near your computer so you can see them easily.
   
   
2. Build a color palette
   The next step is to create a color palette by using the Mixer palette. If the Mixer palette is not visible, choose Windows menu > Color Palettes > Show Mixer. To add color to the Mixer, use the Apply Color tool (the brush button) to click on a Color swatch in the Mixer or choose a color in the Colors palette, and then click on the Add Color tool (the brush button) on the bottom of the Mixer palette. I used the Colors palette to mix custom colors for my scene. Choose another color and then apply a dab of it to the Mixer Pad. When you have several colors on the Mixer Pad, it's easy to blend between colors by using the Mix Color tool (the palette knife button). I chose warm colors (with a few cool color accents), applied them to the Mixer Pad, and then blended between a few of the colors to create tints or shades of the colors. This palette of paint provided a good starting point while painting my late afternoon scene.
   
   
3. Tryout brushes and sketch
   Choose File menu > New to start a new image with Painter. (My image measured 2000 x 2000 pixels.) From the Brush Selector Bar, choose Artists' Oils from the Brush Category Selector. Experiment with the Artists' Oils brushes and variants to experience their wet, oily quality. Tryout the brushes on the Canvas, rather than on a layer. The Artists' Oils brushes will feel more oily and will blend more easily when working directly on the Canvas. You might want to begin by applying color to the Canvas using the Dry Brush variant. Notice how it runs out of paint, just like a traditional paintbrush. Add a few more dabs of color using the Clumpy Brush variant, and notice the natural striations in the strokes. Experiment with blending between colored areas using the Wet Oily Palette Knife and the Blender Palette Knife variants. The figure with the crisper edge strokes was painted using the Dry Brush and the Clumpy Brush variants (see below). The next example shows the strokes blended with the Oil Palette Knife and the Wet Oily Palette Knife variants. When you are familiar with the brushes and variants, choose Select menu > All, and press Delete to remove your paint experiments from the Canvas.
   
   
   
   
4. Add a new layer for your sketch
   For increased flexibility, add a new layer to your image by clicking the New Layer button at the bottom of the Layers palette. On the Mixer palette, click the Sample Color tool (the eyedropper button) and choose a dark gray color from the color swatches. In the Toolbox, choose the Coarse Pavement texture from the Papers picker. Then, from the Brush Selector Bar, choose the Pencil category and the Grainy Variable Pencil variant, and sketch the basic shapes for your composition onto the new layer.
   
   
   
   
5. Lay in overall color
   When you're pleased with your composition, choose the Artists' Oils category and the Oily Bristle variant from the Brush Selector Bar. On the Layers palette, select the Canvas layer. Using your stylus, begin to brush large areas of color onto your painting. Turn the visibility of your sketch on and off as needed, by using the eye icon on the Layers palette. Keep your subject, lighting, and atmosphere in mind as you work. Working from background to foreground, I began with the sky, trees, and water. Then, I painted the reflections and foreground plants. After laying in overall color with the Oily Bristle variant, I switched between the Tapered Oils, Dry Brush, and Blender Bristle variants. I deleted the sketch layer from the image when I had blocked all of the important shapes into the composition (see below).
   
   
   
   
6. Create activity in the color
   For more activity in the brushwork and color, practice varying the size of your brush as you work, by using the Size slider in Property Bar. At this stage, I used smaller brushes and short dabs of paint to layer varied color over color on to the foliage. To load the Dry Brush with multiple colors, I clicked the Sample Multiple Colors tool on the Mixer palette. In the screen shot of the Mixer palette (see below), I've used the Sample Multiple Colors tool to click on the gold and rust colors. When I wanted to pick up new color from the Mixer pad, I clicked on the variation of color that I wanted to pick up, and then applied it to my painting. Notice the varied color in the distant trees that was painted using the Dry Brush variant. As I worked, I alternated between the Dry Brush, Tapered Oils, and Oily Bristle variants. I also changed their size as needed by using the Size slider on the Property bar.
   
   
   
   
7. Keep depth and atmosphere in mind
   Remember that objects close to the foreground, such as the foreground grasses in Quiet Moment, are usually more detailed and more vividly colored than the distant trees. I made a proof print of my painting and decided to add a stronger focal point. I used a 20-pixel Dry Brush variant to rough in the larger swan , and then I refined its forms by using a smaller brush and shorter, dabbed strokes. The completed swan and its reflection can be seen in the final image (see below). Finally, to blend and finesse areas, I alternated between the Oil Palette Knife and the Wet Oily Palette Knife to pull and blend color. For small details, I reduced the size of the knives to about 5 pixels.
   
   
   
   

This tutorial is © 2005 Cher Threinen-Pendarvis and Corel Corporation.
www.pendarvis-studios.com

Cher Threinen-Pendarvis
An award-winning artist and author based in San Diego, California, Cher Threinen-Pendarvis has always worked with traditional art-making tools. Also a pioneer in digital art, Cher has created illustrations using the Macintosh computer since 1987. Her artwork has been exhibited worldwide and her articles and art have been published in many books and periodicals. She has taught Painter workshops around the world, and is principal of the consulting firm Cher Threinen Design. Cher is author of all seven editions of The Painter Wow! Book. Her most recent books are The Photoshop and Painter Artist Tablet Book: Creative Techniques for Digital Painting, and The Painter IX Wow! Book, the latest edition of this highly praised volume of techniques and inspiration. Cher's web site is www.pendarvis-studios.com