With numbers dancing in my fuzzy head, I’ve forced myself to think of something pleasant…like making art! I haven’t painted in quite some time now, but I think I would like to take on a digital painting project – it has been awhile since I’ve painted a digital painting and thought it would be the perfect medium for creating a Morro Bay collage painting.
Here is my preliminary drawing…
For those of you who are unfamiliar with digital paintings, I’d like to share the process for making a digital painting.
First, I work with a software paint program called Corel Painter (version 11).
Wikipedia’s defines Corel painter as “a raster-based digital art application created to simulate as accurately as possible the appearance and behavior of traditional media associated with drawing, painting, and printmaking. It is intended to be used in real-time by professional digital artists as a functional creative tool.”
Translation…Corel Painter is a paint program that allows me to paint directly into the computer. I start with a photo reference and my line drawing and paint a painting, just as I would if I were using watercolor paper, brushes and paint. The program offers greater diversity though and I can paint in watercolor, oil, acrylic, pastel, colored pencil, or a number of different mediums. It also offers a number of brushes specific to each medium. There is a palette that allows me to select my colors and paint and mix them directly on the computer screen, or I can mix them prior to application – again, just like if I were painting with paper, brush and paints.
There are three things I absolutely love of about creating digital paintings:
1. I don’t have to wait for the paint to dry between layers.
2. There is an “undo” key, so if I do change my mind (or make a mistake), I can press the undo key and no harm no foul.
3. I can save the painting at different iterations. This allows me to be more experimental with my painting process, and I can try different backgrounds, color schemes, etc.
I could never pull off painting digitally using a mouse – why that would be like trying to paint with a bar of soap! Instead, I use a Wacom Intuoso 3 tablet.
The tablet comes with both a mouse and a stylus, and I use the stylus to draw and paint directly into the computer, via the tablet. The stylus and tablet are sensitive to hand pressure, stroke speed, etc., and it really does mimic the painting experience.
Once the painting is complete, I print out the finished artwork on an Epson R2400 printer. I print onto watercolor paper and the paper and ink are archival quality, with time studies stating that with proper care, the artwork is expected to last 100+ years.
Another advantage to digital painting is that you do have the option of printing additional copies of the finished work, with each “copy” being an exact color and quality replica of the “original.”
I learned how to paint digitally a few years ago, when I took an extended workshop from Fay Sirkis. Fay is a New York artist and she is one of Corel’s Master Painters. She is a wonderful lady and I found her to be very generous and encouraging. Her work is beautiful and I encourage you to check out her website: http://www.faysartstudio.com/.
Well, April 15th is coming soon, so my first priority is getting our taxes done…then it’s on to painting. I’ll post images as I work on the Morro Bay collage painting.
Bye for now…Deborah
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4 comments:
I look forward to seeing the finished painting. It's amazing what can be done with technology. I think Laurie who works with me at church has a Wacom tablet that she has never used.
Robin, thank you so much for your comment! Yes, technology is absolutely amazing. I have to say, Laurie doesn't know what she's missing...as soon as she plugs that tablet in and starts using it, she will never want to use a mouse for artistic computing again!
I may have to make her talk to you.
Robin, I would be happy to talk with her. Also, after finding out that you are a digital scrapbooker, you might be interested in a tablet also. I hear Wacom has come out with a "home" version, called Bamboo. I don't know what scrapbooking program you are using, but with a tablet, it is quite easy to make selections around objects/people in your photographs for editing, (removing, enhancing, color adjustments), etc.
Deborah
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