June 2010 Issue of Digital Painting Magazine

June 2010

Creating Sunsets with Watercolor

Exploring Imaginary Places.

With Marco Bucci

Creating Textures Basic Tools

What an incredible month! I love publishing Digital Paint Magazine because it is the one time I have the opportunity to just chill and enjoy. I don’t have to peek at my to do book or worry about being productive when I read the content for the magazine...I just relax and enjoy.

The June issue has a great line-up of good tutorials and articles. Barb’s column with Brush and Pen highlights creating textures for your paintings and turned out to be great timing.

Last week the tip of the week was using the paper mover in Corel Painter and currently registration is open for a brand new Pastel class at Digital Art Academy, both of those are congruent with Barb’s timely article and tutorial.

Karen Bonaker wrote a nice tutorial for painting landscapes in Artrage (also a class available at DAA, NOT LANDSCAPE SPECIFIC), and Skip provided a much needed look at some basic Corel Painter tools, Victor created a toon, and the cover is Illustrated by Matte Painter extraordinaire Marco Bucci.

Marco will be doing a webinar for us in a week or so and is teaching a class at DAA in Session 5 (August) entitled From Traditional to Digital: Painting Fundamentals. The webinar will be announced via email and will go to anyone one the list.

With the kids out of school I am ready for summer. My garden still is not planted, and the landscape beds are in need of tending but I am there in spirit. I hope you enjoy this issue.

As always a thank-you goes out to the very gifted and knowledgeable artist who provide you with this information.

I’ve been living with the iPad for two months now. I continue to be amazed at just how versatile this groundbreaking device is. Armed with various “apps”, the iPad can seemingly do anything. For digital painting, I’ve got Brushes, Layers, Adobe Ideas, LiveSketch, and Sketchbook Pro. Each app has its unique strengths and imagery can be saved as a layered Photoshop PSD file.

While the guitar is my favored musical outlet, I can noodle around on musical apps like Pianist Pro, Pocket Organ, miniSynth PRO, Pocket Drums, and Ellatron (a faithful reproduction of the legendary Mellotron). With earbuds or through my stereo, the sound quality is incredible.

When I’m away from my studio, I can connect directly to my Macbook Pro with iTeleport. This app enables me to access my documents from any WiFi hotspot, as well as remotely control my Mac. With AirVideo, I can stream video that I have on a hard drive at home—in other words, I can watch movies on the road without filling up the iPad’s available storage.

This magazine is free to distribute by any medium.

You can print it, e-mail it, upload it on your web server. You may however not edit any part of this PDF, copy the content, or split the pages. This PDF must re-main whole at all times, the content of which belongs to Digital Paint Magazine. All art and trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

Digital Paint Magazine - June 2010

Then there’s Star Walk, which you hold up to the night sky and the iPad becomes an educational window into astronomy.

Or RadarScope which transforms the iPad into a real-time national high-resolution radar display. And this is all from the first wave of iPad apps. I can’t wait to see what developers will dream up given more time to absorb this technological wonder.

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In This Issue: Exploring Imaginary Places With Marco Bucci Basic Tools

by Skip Allen ArtRage Pro Creating Sunsets With Watercolor

by Karen Bonaker Tony Merrithew With Brush & Pen

by Barb Hartsook Cartoons

by Victor Lunn-Rockliffe

Cover

Snowscape

By Marco Bucci Digital Paint Magazine - June 2010

Marketing Buzz: Your attitude stinks up the process

by Tim O’Neill

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Exploring Imaginary Places With Marco Bucci

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Method 1: Starting With A Sketch

Step 1: In this approach, a quick sketch is done to establish an overall picture and very rough value placements before I begin painting. You can do this drawing as detailed as you need it to be. I like it rough, so I don’t lock myself down too early. I will reach those conclusions I explore the picture further with paint.

drawing, so I ahve to be careful to keep sight of the big picture, as the brushstrokes begin to cover my original drawing (this is why the drawing was kept so rough). As a general rule when working this way, I work on the whole picture at once, bringing everything up at the same time. The success of a painting is usually determined by how areas relate to all other areas, rather than how nicely you rendered each part individually. It took me a long time to learn that.

Step 2: I scan the drawing in (or take a digital photo, in this case), and set it to ‘multiply’ mode in Photoshop. I now make a layer underneath the drawing, and using a big soft brush (a basic airbrush will do), I loosely block in a general color scheme. The multiply layer will keep your values in tact, so I’m just glazing color at this stage. I’m establishing the idea that this painting is going to modulate from warm, yellow-green hues into cool cyan-blues.

Step 3: I flatten the entire image, so I’m now painting on one layer.

I slow down and start articulating smaller areas of light and shadow within the larger masses. I am now painting on a layer over top of my

Step 4: Since the big picture is established, I can focus in on smaller areas. In this step, the most noticeable work has been done on the right side of the picture, articulating that cool light hitting the forms.

Notice that even though this side of the painting is overall a cooler cast than the left side, there are still warm/cool relationships happening within it. However, the strongest warm tones are reserved for the left side of the painting. Again, I’m always trying to keep sight of the whole picture, not compromising my original idea.

Step 5: A painting is finished when you’ve said what you set out to say.

That sounds vague, so allow me to clarify. Could I have rendered stuff

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out more? Of course. But the important things, like values, color temperatures, and relative detail are all now at a degree that I find satisfying as a finished statement. It’s okay for areas to have less ‘finish’ than other areas (I want that to be the case, actually). But I do think every area should still read as something. If something doesn’t read as anything recognizeable, it can actually become hold the viewer’s eye there (in an undesired way) while their brain tries to make sense of it. And it’d be a shame to let that happen, after all the hard work and planning required to get here in the first place!

Futurelandscape, by Marco Digital Paint Magazine - June 2010

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the picture is headed, much like a jigsaw puzzle gets easier as you connect more and more pieces. This method of painting feels a bit like a dance...sometimes I lead, but sometimes the painting leads me. The abstract background that was laid in at the very beginning can actually show through in areas. So long as you have a good level of finish in your focal point area(s), some controlled abstraction can be a nice thing. Compare this block-in to the finished painting to see how much further I took some parts, but also notice how little I did to other parts!

I recommend trying this approach. I’ll warn you that it’s scary at first, but with experience, I guarantee it is a very fun and creative way to work.

My Book: Imaginary Places - The Art Of Marco Bucci

Method 2: The Direct Approach In this method, I start with a blank canvas with no drawing at all. I have a rough idea of the picture I want to create, but really the goal is to ‘discover’ the picture as I paint. This is my preferred way of working, but I will warn you that it is a little more advanced. When working this way, I like to cover the canvas with what I affectionately refer to as “garbage”. Just abstract patterns (sometimes even chopped up bits of random photographs), all mashed together and covered with textured brushstrokes. Naturally, my brain will begin to make sense of this mess, and sometimes I will see shapes that will inspire an entire painting. Other times, I’ll just start painting in one area, seeing what happens. It is like walking a tightrope without a net. I like to establish a focal point early on (unlike the sketch method, where I work on the whole thing at once), and bring it to a near finish. This is the stage that that this image is in. At this point, it’s clear where Digital Paint Magazine - June 2010

I am pleased to announce that I am releasing a book of digital paintings. I called the collection ‘Imaginary Places’, because every painting in the book was inspired by my imagination, rather than reference photographs. It has 45 pages of artwork, an essay on light and color, and a bonus DVD with digital painting demonstrations! It will be released in July 2010, and will be announced and available to order online from my website: www. marcobucci.com.

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Right Click

Skip Allen

Basic Tools This month’s theme for Digital Paint Magazine is landscapes. I decided to mention a couple of basic tools that might be useful for landscapes. The first tool is one of my favorites. I was so happy when I found out how to use this one.

Rotate Page This little tool is hidden in the Toolbox on a fly-out menu with the Grabber Tool. That may be why many of us miss this little gem. Any Toolbox icon that has a dark rectangle in the lower right corner is part of a fly-out menu. Click on the icon and hold down the left mouse key until the fly-out opens; then click on the Rotate Page Tool.

It also has a shortcut key, “e”. Activate it from the Toolbox or by using “e” and the cursor will change to a pointing hand. Now grab the page and rotate it to an angle that is comfortable.

1. Rotate Page Tool is located in the Toolbox on a fly-out menu with the Grabber Tool.

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2. Hold the left mouse key down and rotate the page to the desired angle.

Drawing Straight Lines Painter has a number of ways to draw straight lines. If you hold down the Shift Key while making a brush stroke, it will be constrained to a vertical, horizontal, or 45 degree angled line.

Try it out.

For more controlled straight lines, activate the Straight Line Strokes on the Brush Property Bar; this will allow you to draw a straight line from point to point.

1. Left click Straight Line Strokes to initiate

3. Click where you want your starting point, lift the pen and click where you want the end point, and a straight line will be drawn between the two points.

4. You can continue the straight line in segments. Just click where you want your next end point and continue clicking to add more end points.

Perspective Grid The Perspective Grid can be useful in developing a horizon line vanishing point and setting the vertical and horizontal planes. You can find it under Canvas > Perspective Grid > Show Grid. That address just turns the grid on and off; to be able to adjust the parts, go to the Toolbox and click on the Divine Proportion fly-out menu and click on the Perspective Grid Tool.

this function. Its shortcut key is “v.”

2. This icon is Freehand Strokes. Its shortcut key is “b.”

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The Perspective Grid Tool can be used to reposition the Horizon Line, Vanishing Point, Horizontal Plane, and the Vertical Plane. This tool, like others in the Toolbox has a Property Bar. For this tutorial, I will cover the main parts of the Perspective Tool Property Bar.

The cursor will turn into a cross when placed on the Vanishing Point and you can move the vanishing point in any direction. Placing the cursor anywhere on the Horizon Line will change it to a double pointed arrow. The Horizon Line can be moved up and down.

2. Placing the cursor anywhere on the outer edge of the Horizontal Plane will change it to a double pointed arrow. The Horizontal Plane can be moved up and down.

3. Placing the cursor anywhere on the outer edge of the Vertical Plane will change it to a double pointed arrow. The Vertical Plane can be moved right or left.

I hope these simple basic tools will be useful to you the next time your create a landscape.

1. The Vanishing Point is identified by the arrow pointing to the right, and the Horizon Line is indicated by the arrow pointing left.

1. This is the reset button. If you want to return to the default after you have made changes, click on reset.

2. Make sure Horizontal is checked if you want a Horizontal Plane. You can change the color of the Horizontal Plane Lines by clicking on the blue square.

3. Make sure Vertical is checked if you want a Vertical Plane. You can change the color of the Vertical Plane Lines by clicking on the blue square.

4. Change spacing between the lines here.

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ArtRage Pro Creating Sunsets With Watercolor

Aloha Sunset Digital Paint Magazine - June 2010

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I was fortunate to have lived in Hawaii for several years and learned to appreciate the sunsets that each day offered something new to behold. Often times there would be huge thunderheads on the horizon promising rain to the land later that evening. I can say I never took a sunset for granted and always paused to take it all in. For this tutorial I would like to take you through some simple steps to achieve beautiful sunset paintings with ArtRage Pro. A sunset creates high contrast between light and dark. So, do not be timid about using highly saturated colors as you paint.

A simple rule that elements will appear lighter the closer they are to the light source will help you plan your dark and light areas. For example, in the finished painting, clouds closer to the setting sun or the source of light will appear lighter while clouds further away will appear more dense and darker.

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Step 1- Create a New File Create a new file in ArtRage Pro. Work with a good sized canvas.

Working with a small canvas may limit your vision so, don’t be afraid to work big. For this painting, I started with a 1200 x 1000 pixels canvas and choose Watercolor paper. Take note of your print size and resolution if you plan on printing the painting.

Using A Reference Image It is sometimes helpful to use a reference image to help guide you as you paint. Pinning an image to the interface is done by choosing Tools > Reference Options > Load Reference Image or use the shortcut key, Ctrl-R or Cmd-R for Mac. Your image is pinned to the upper left hand corner and you can refer to it as needed.

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Step 2-Add Horizon Line

Step 4-Filling a Layer

Create the initial sketch and horizon line. To impart a perfectly straight horizon line select the Pencil presets and holding down the Ctrl key (PC) or CMD (Mac) draw a line toward the lower third of the canvas. We want to have lots of sky so keep the horizon line low.

Step 3- Complete Sketch

Add a new layer and fill the layer with a solid color. We want to use a color that represents the spectrum of colors found in a sunset . Choose a soft yellow or gold value and select the F key to fill the new layer with color. On the same layer, bring the Opacity down to 50%; you can increase it later if you find it is too pale and appears washed out.

Finish the sketch by softly sketching in the foreground and background details. Keep it simple, much of your detail can be added later.

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Change the Fill layer to Tint Blend Mode, this will allow you to see the sketch and your painting on additional layers. The solid color fill will impart the overall tone to

the finished painting. Change the layer Blend mode, open the layer controls, and choose Blend Mode > Tint.

Step 3-Filling a Layer

The Fill Tool is used to pour large areas of paint on to the Canvas that expand until they find a border they cannot flow over. If you want to create large areas of solid color, the Fill Tool is the tool to use.

The Fill Tool has the following features: 1. Dryness: Although the Fill Tool pours paint in to an area, that paint dries as soon as it touches the Canvas. This means it cannot be smeared but, it can still be smudged using the Palette Knife.

2. Automatic Flood: The Fill Tool automatically fills in areas on the Canvas; you do not need to manually define the area it will fill.

The Fill Tool has the following settings: Opacity: Controls the opacity of the paint that is poured on to the Canvas. The lower this value the more transparent the paint.

Step 4-Painting The Clouds

The key to developing intense color and color separations is working consistently on a new layer. As you finish a series, merge the layers to free up memory.

Select the Delicate on Dry Preset and using a dark orange to red value loosely paint in streaks of color starting from the top and working down to the horizon line.

Keep the colors at the top highly saturated and using the Thinners slider bring the setting down as you advance closer to the horizon line. Doing so will impart a lovely 12

blending of color. Remember again that colors closer to the light source will be lighter and further away darker. Our setting sun will be just at the horizon line. On one layer start off lighter and then add a new layer and work darker. Keep your strokes loose and painterly and let the colors flow together for the traditional wet into wet approach.

Step 5- Adding Color to Water

The saying is, “Like sky, like water�. Work with the same color values as you develop the water.

Use the same brush Delicate on Dry and brush over the area leaving some canvas showing.

What this does is to add light reflections and the appearance of small waves breaking on the shoreline. Thinners setting is 83%.

Add a new layer and lower the percentage to 65%. Build color through your layers. The lower the percentage value on the Thinners Digital Paint Magazine - June 2010

setting the more saturated the paint. A higher percentage means more water on the brush and the paint will flow out from the center of the stroke.

Step 6- Blending Colors

To blend the colors, softly choose the Low Blending preset and set the Thinners to 0%. Remember to work on a new layer and build color layer upon layer. Drop layers as you complete them and blend if necessary.

Step 7-Adding Clouds

Delicate on Dry preset, the color white and setting the Thinners to 0%. With a medium brush size lift out cloud shapes, then smooth and blend as you build each one.

Other ways to lift out clouds would include the Eraser preset, then softly blending the edges with the Just Water preset.

Merge layers except the sketch layer. Using the Delicate on Dry brush add a new layer and begin to paint a wash over the ocean using long broad strokes. For this example, I used a blue shade on the cool side. Use the brush with the Thinners set to about 75% and increase the setting as you blend the paint. Next, choose the Just a Spot preset, with the color white and a small tip size brush in the suggestion of waves breaking on the shoreline.

Step 10- Background Mountains

Step Eight-Foreground Clouds Add a new layer and develop the foreground clouds. Use darker and richer colors with light overlapping dark to create the look of depth and dimension.

Step Nine-Detail

Select a blue shade and paint in the background mountains. Add a new layer before you begin to paint them. Repeat this with the foreground rocks. Use very dark blue, purple and pink tones. Rocks will appear very dark in contrast with the setting sun. For the mountains in the background use the Delicate on Dry brush with the Thinners set to a lower percentage where less light would reflect on the mountains and raise it where more light would reflect creating a more diluted color.

Adding clouds in the distance can be achieved by selecting the 13

Step 11-Foreground Rock Formations

Add a new layer to develop the rock formations in the foreground. Use the Dried Strokes brush with the Thinners set to 50%. This brush is very effective for adding texture. Each stroke you overlay becomes darker and darker. Finish the painting by adding additional detail such as a small flock of birds or the silhouette of grasses. Consider cropping the painting. Too much foreground detail can distract from the image, less is always more. Every time I paint this scene, it is different just like the sunsets in Hawaii. Have fun with ArtRage Pro Watercolors!

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Tony Merrithew I began my career as an animator and visual development artist at Will Vinton Studios (now Laika Entertainment) over 20 years ago. Some of my projects included the California Raisins TV commercials, the Claymation Christmas Special, and animating and sculpting the Domino Pizza Noid commercials. I am now a freelance painter and sculptor, and I continue to work with Laika for commission on motion picture projects. Most recently I was a maquette sculptor for the movie Coraline.

I’m a member of two portrait societies and I approach my digital painting very much like I do with oil on canvas. Pictures of my bronzes, paintings and sketches can be seen at my website and blog.

Type of piece and its title: Character studies Client: Self Applications Used: Photoshop CS4 with Wacom Intuos pad.

Designer: Tony Merrithew Website of designer: www.tonymerrithew.com http://tonymerrithew.blogspot.com

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Adjust the grain slider until you get the look you want. Caution: use a light hand to begin brushing, and build up the pigment until you get something you can use. Brush heavy and often, and you’re likely to lose the grain altogether.

I used the Square Chalk, and (Blenders) Grainy Water brush with resat slider at 40%. Other brushes I used are mentioned under each sample.

(There are many others – just look for grain slider and brush-response to your hand pressure.)

Can you see possibilities for pieces of your painting – landscape or still life or portrait or abstract?

I’m a nut for textures. They are everywhere. We see them. We feel them.

And as artists, we use them in our work to liven up a painting, direct the eye into and around it, or just create interest. Even subtle textures can be just the thing that finishes a painting.

Painting Textures From Painter’s Paper Libraries Below are some textures made from lightly brushing over Painter Papers.

(From the Papers Palette, click on Load Library. Your papers should be in your program files, Corel Painter X or 11, Resources, Paper Textures.)

There are several libraries, and it’s worth your time to take a peek at the goodies in each.

Here I’ve used papers from three of the libraries: • Weird Papers • Wild Papers 2 • Assorted Papers 2 Choose a Brush with Grain You’ll need a brush with a grain slider in the properties bar in order to reveal the texture you’re painting over. Think of the texture (the selected paper in the papers palette) as embossed, or raised on the paper. As you brush across it lightly, your color hits only the high spots.

Or, if you click the Invert button in the papers palette, your paint will flow into the low areas.

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Here’s another set, these from Assorted Papers2 in the Papers Libraries:

Or… Paint Your Own Textures!

The beauty of Painter is the ability to mimic so many techniques used in traditional media.

Painting as we do, on real paper or canvas, we use a wet brush or dry one, a heavy hand or light touch, brushes loaded with more than one color or not. We use fan brushes or a pointy brush, or bear down on a flat brush to splay the bristles. We sprinkle salt and spritz alcohol or water, scrape dry paint with razor blades or credit cards, and paint through cheesecloth.

Well guess what? We can do those things in Painter as well.

Textures to Use in a Landscape I used the Liquid Ink brushes with their Resists to mimic painting with dry brush or scraping across dry paint. I poured salt, and mimicked spattered water or alcohol spots on watercolor patches. I simply crisscrossed lines for a grid in the first one below.

If you keep the Paper Palette open, you can adjust the size and/or lightness/brightness for each paper. Play with those sliders – you’ll make some amazing discoveries as you select various papers.

A few others to try with the Square Chalk: • Crumpled Jumble, in Relief textures – increase size to 300+ and use a very light hand.

• Spider on Caffeine, in Awesome Papers – invert. Beautiful!

• Big Raw Silk, in Textile Papers – wonderful to apply to your painting as a ground.

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I see application possibilities here for rutted roads, old buildings and barns, grates, fences, tree trunks, limbs and twigs, and wild grasses. The salt and water spots can be used in a meadow as well, suggesting places to drop in spatters of color for wild flowers. Or leave them as they are.

The possibilities for textures in your paintings are nearly as limitless in Painter as they are in your art studio. Just start playing with the brushes and papers, adjusting the sliders and brush opacities (as well as your touch with those brushes), and see what you can discover.

To me textures are every bit as important to telling a (painted) story as color and light values. We painters tell our stories in two dimensions, and therefore need visual ‘tricks’ to give our stories space to unfold.

Textures are a dimensional part of life, part of our stories, and are therefore necessary to our telling those stories in our paintings.

I’ve only touched a tiny corner of texture possibilities in Painter. I’d love to see what you discover as you play with your brushes.

Have fun, and happy painting!

Reach Barb in the Painter Talk Forum, www.paintertalk.net/forum, or on her blog, www.OverCoffeeBlog.com. You can see her paintings in galleries at www.pbase.com/bhartsook. (Just click on a thumbnail image to get to each gallery.)

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Hazards of Landscape Painting - Traditional and Digital Victor Lunn-Rockliffe

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http://cargocollective.com/victorlunnroc Digital Paint Magazine - June 2010

Victor Lunn-Rockliffe 25

Marketing Buzz

By Tim O’Neill

Your Attitude Stinks Up The Process I stole this from my art marketing buzz website. I have pretty much declared the site dead as I have made the Digital Art Academy and Digital Paint Magazine sites the new repository for my marketing geek rants.

The following post is in response to a conversation I overheard the other day at an art fair I was attending. The artist who whined the loudest was issuing verbal complaint regarding the lack of sales at the fair. I found it interesting because I knew that a few other artist I had talked to were doing quite well and were excited and upbeat about being there.

I overheard her loud complaints while I was standing in another artists booth space. As a bonified art and marketing geek I make it my point to check out as many spaces as possible when I go to any kind of art show. My ADD style of perusing had not yet brought me to her doorstep so I deliberately walked across to her Digital Paint Magazine - June 2010

booth so I could check out her work. (this is like a bad horror movie...you may see where this is going) As I moved over and entered her space I didn’t even get any eye contact. Not a smile a nod or a hello. Not a sneer, leer or even a snort. It was as if I didn’t even exist. No love. Wierd, I was the only one in there at the time.

After the cursory guy-type breath and pit check I decided I was clean and worked up the courage to approach her. Her work was really nice...very unique.

My question uttered forth, much like that of a school boy asking the new girls name. It was simple really, “Do you have prints available?” (I knew based on the prices of her originals that a print would be a more likely purchase for me) My skin crawled as lady Godiva turned from her interior design magazine and set her stoney gaze in my direction. I felt I would lose bladder control as the velocity from her shriek-like

Art Buyers Want To Find Your Art But Your Website Probably Isn’t Helping!

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Your website floats alone with almost no visitors.

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Make a commitment to your commercial success with the only SEO system developed exclusively for artists. Click this add or visit:

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June2010

NEBRASKA2010

answer threatened to tear my geek-glasses from my face. “I ONLY DO ORIGINALS!” Yikes! Stop,drop and roll man. I was out the doorway frantically searching for my wife and kids so I could save them.

C’mon. I hope she likes rice and beans sans beans cuz she aint selling no work that-a-way. Yep. True story by the way.

Check this out though, first at a street show, expo or fair you cant control the environment or the type of person who comes in to see you. Variety is the spice of life here. Dont cha think it might make sense to leave the nicest high-end work at home? Use some prints, small sketches and less expensive stuff if your trying to drive sales.

In my opinion, the best way to treat shows that you dont get to control the enviornment, is as an entry to your marketing funnel. Showcase a high-end piece or two but try to cover your expenses with less expensive work. Use the opportunity as a marketing venue to start the ever-so-important relationship. Ask them questions about themselves, engage in the art of conversation. Art lovers enjoy talking with artists. You are the heros. Read Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People” and apply that information in an authentic manor. Be sure to have a point of collection via cards or clipboard so you can market to them down the road.

(That should be the number one goal of most street shows or fairs).

You will find that you have more fun, make more sells on the spot and more opportunities for larger sells down the road.

Let me know what you think. Live-Love-Laugh.

Tim

Art ist ic Impressions Digital Painting Workshop June 25-27 North Platte Nebraska

308-534-2350

Elise’s Christmas Noodles Digital Painting by Tim ONeill

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