1

BY CHER THREINEN-PENDARVIS

For Hibiscus, a digital water color painted in Painter 7, I used water color wet-into-wet techniques and then added a few crisp edges. Wet-into-wet is a traditional technique that can be simulated using Painter 7s new water color technology. Wet-into-wet involves keeping the paper wet as new color is applied, so new colors blend with existing moist paint. To complete the study, crisp edges and linear details were added to bring a few areas into focus.

1 Setting up.
For the best performance, Macintosh users may need to increase the RAM that is allotted to Painter when working with Water Color. Before you begin to sketch and paint, its important to set up the Brush Tracking because you can customize how Painter interprets the input of your stylus, including parameters such as pressure and how quickly you make a brush stroke. Choose Edit> Preferences> Brush Tracking and make a representative brush stroke in the window.

Setting up Brush Tracking

2 Opening a new file.

Begin by creating a new le with a white background (File> New). In the New Picture dialog box, click the Image button. For a rectangular format, set the Width and Height at 1100 x 850 pixels. Click OK. (The brush sizes that youll use will depend on the pixel size of the document.)

Starting a new file

PAINTING: CHER THREINEN-PENDARVIS

Wet-into-Wet Water Color With Crisp Edges

3a

3 Making a pencil sketch.

Choose a natural-looking grain (such as Cold Press Water Color), from the Papers section of the Art Materials palette. Choose a neutral gray color in the Color section of the Art Materials palette and select the Cover Pencil variant of Pencils to draw your line sketch. Because it uses the Cover method, the Cover Pencil allows drawing both dark lines over light, and light lines over dark.

3d

Choosing a neutral gray in the Colors section of the Art Materials palette

3b

Selecting Cold Press Water Color paper in the Papers section of the Art Materials palette

The pencil sketch drawn in Painter

3c

Choosing the Cover Pencil in the Brushes palette

4a

4 Painting the rst washes.

Plan to work from light-to-dark as you add color washes to your painting. Choose a light color in the Colors section of the Art Materials palette and choose the Diffuse Camel variant of Water Color. (Selecting a Water Color brush and making a brush stroke on your image will automatically create a new Water Color Layer in the image.) Block in large areas with the Diffuse Camel brush. When you use a light pressure on your stylus, the Diffuse Camel will allow you to smoothly lay in soft-edged washes. The diffusion built into the brush helps colors to subtly blend as you paint. Paint with strokes that follow the direction of the forms. Dont feel like you have to cover every inch of the flower with color. Leaving strategic areas of white will add beauty to your painting. Choosing a light pink for the first washes

4c 4b

The active Water Color layer shown in the Layers section of the Objects palette. Keep an eye on the animated water drop. When it stops dripping, its safe to make a new brush stroke.

Laying in light washes using the Diffuse Camel brush

5a
Reducing the Opacity of the Diffuse Camel brush

5 Building up midtones.
Using medium-value colors, begin to develop your midtones. Paint lighter colors rst, then add darker tones to create form. Keep your light source in mind and let your strokes follow the direction of the forms. Resize the brush, or change its Opacity as needed using the sliders on the Controls:Brush palette. Remember to preserve the subtle white areas. In this example, I added deeper colors of pink and gray-green. I also dabbed on subtle brush strokes of golden yellow to warm up the interior of the hibiscus flower. Keep in mind that Painter 7s water color is based on traditional water color. With traditional water color, an artist plans on drying time and this time is often used to analyze and improve the composition of the painting. Painters new water color technology uses a lot of computing power. It takes time for the digital pigment to diffuse, and settle on the canvas. This is not unlike traditional water color.

5b

Building up the midtones and adding some warmer colors

6a

6 Editing water color or the sketch.

To softly erase color on a Water Color layer, choose the Eraser, Dry variant of Water Color and choose white in the Colors section. Click on the name of the layer you wish to erase in the Layers section, and brush over the area that youd like to lighten. I used the Eraser Dry variant to lighten color on the flowers stamen. If youd like to edit your pencil sketch, target the Canvas in the Layers section, and switch to the Eraser variant of the Erasers and brush over the area that you want to remove. (You can not use a regular eraser on a water color layer. Also its not possible to use a Water Color eraser on the canvas, or on an image layer.) In the example below, the pencil sketch is hidden (by turning off the eye icon to the left of the Canvas name in the Layers section). Later, I deleted the sketch by targeting the Canvas, choosing Select> All and pressing the Delete key.

Choosing the Eraser, Dry variant of Water Color

6b

6c

Selecting white in the Colors section, to erase water color to white

Using the Eraser Dry variant of Water Color to lighten the stamen area of the flower

7a

7 Painting wet-into-wet texture.

If youd like to add nice texture by emulating a traditional water color run effect, choose one of the Runny Wash variants and dab new color on to areas with existing color. Using the Runny Wash Camel and Runny Wash Bristle, I softly dabbed varied pink color along the tips of the petals, and then added deeper color to the interior of the flower. These Runny variants allowed the new color to mix with existing color and run down the image.

Choosing the Runny Wash Bristle variant in the Brushes palette

8 Adding details.
Its often a good idea to paint detail work on a separate layer. To add a new water color layer, choose New Water Color Layer from the pop-up menu on the Layers section of the Objects palette, accessed by clicking the right arrow on the Layers section bar. Add crisp edges to areas that need denition using a tiny Fine Camel brush (45 pixels). If the Fine Camel seems too saturated for your taste, lower the Opacity to about 20%, using the slider in the Controls:Brush palette. For

7b

The runny washes painted along the tips of the petals, and in the interior of the flower, are shown in this detail of the image.

8a

more subtle edge effects, experiment with the Soft Camel and the Diffuse Camel variants, using a small size (about 6-8 pixels). Make expressive strokes, varying the pressure on the stylus. To complete the study, I used the Fine Camel variant to add a few linear details and to paint dots of color on the flowers stamen. To deepen color and break up some edges, I painted more runny washes using the Runny Wash Camel variant.

8b

The Layers section of the Objects palette: Adding a new water color layer to the image for final detail work

In this example, final linear details are painted along the edges and in the interior of the flower. To break up edges, runny washes are added in a few areas. Dots of gray and golden yellow are also painted on the stamen.

Cher Threinen-Pendarvis is a designer, fine artist, author and educator based in San Diego, CA. Cher has worked with both traditional and electronic tools for nearly thirty years. Her digital fine art and design has been exhibited as large format hand-worked prints worldwide and published in many publications including The Photoshop WOW! Book, The Official Photoshop Handbook, Photoshop 6 Magic, EFX Art and Design, Design Graphics, Digital Fine Art Magazine, Contact Magazine, MacWeek, MacUser, Publish, Step-by-Step publications and Computer Artist magazine. Cher holds a BA with Highest Honors and Distinction in Art specializing in painting and printmaking. She is principal of the consulting firm Cher Threinen Design, is an enthusiastic teacher and is author of The Painter 6 WOW! Book, the fourth edition of this highly praised volume of techniques and inspiration. Look for The Painter 7 Wow! Book, which is completely revised featuring classic Painter techniques and the coolest new features in Painter 7! Cher Threinen-Pendarviss web site: http://www.pendarvis-studios.com The Painter Wow! Book companion web site: http://www.peachpit.com/wow/painter To order the Painter 7 Wow! Book, Phone your order to 800-283-9444 or 510-524-2178, or fax it to 510-524-2221. Mail your order to Peachpit Press, 1249 Eighth Street, Berkeley, CA 94710, or order online and save on postage and Save a Tree! World Wide Web at: http://www.peachpit.com