Taking Notice of Technology
I’ve been using Corel Painter since day one, when I wrote the program’s first manual nearly 20 years ago.
And I’ve become proficient in Adobe Photoshop, which I’ve been using for several years, now.
For many years, many of Painter’s tools and features were just theory. Computers weren’t powerful enough, yet, to handle the software. You could make the images only so big and you could use only so many layers and effects and anything beyond the narrow limits would freeze the computer.
I was reminded of how far we’ve come technologically as I created my brand-new Painting for Photographers Volume 1: Portraits DVD.
For this DVD, I demonstrated, recorded, narrated and edited 75.40 minutes of tutorial movies that show step-by-step how to paint a portrait from a photo in Corel Painter, including detailed looks at painting eyes, lips, hair, faces, jewelry, clothing, furniture and backgrounds. The steps are based on one of the tutorials in my book, Painting for Photographers, and show the actual painting of a photo, brushstroke by brushstroke.
This is the featured portrait on the Painting for Photographers DVD Volume 1: Portraits:
I decided to create these live demonstrations of the actual painting because everyone who attends my Artistry Retreats tells me that watching me paint firsthand is the best way to learn how to paint their photos themselves. Since not everyone can attend an Artistry Retreat, I decided to create a DVD showing the painting so that more people could benefit from the demonstrations. Certainly, the Artistry Retreats are still the best way to get questions answered in person. Plus, I cover much more in the Artistry Retreats. This DVD shows one aspect of using Corel Painter and yes, I do plan to create more DVD’s for Painter and also for Photoshop.
And yet, in some ways, the DVD is actually better than the Artistry Retreat.
I created the DVD tutorials by recording my brushstrokes within Painter, and I included step-by-step instruction. There’s probably more brushstroke-by-brushstroke demonstrating and explaining on the DVD than there’s ever time for in the Artistry Retreat.
And speaking of time, the Artistry Retreat takes place over the course of three days and you have to be there if you’re attending, while with the DVD, you can use it on your own schedule.
And there’s no beating the price. It’s just $99.95 vs. the cost of tuition and travel for the Artistry Retreat.
My topic for this blog was technology, and having taught Painter live for the past 20 years, it was a thrill creating the tutorial movies on the DVD. Not only did Painter keep up with me, but also all the computer software for recording and editing the movies worked great.
Creating the bonus materials was especially fun.
I have two main audiences for my Painter and Photoshop tutorials, namely professional photographers and hobbyists.
I wanted to create bonus materials that would be useful for both groups for painting photos, and I think I came up with something for everyone, namely bonus brushes and backgrounds, based on the Image Hose, which paints by spraying image elements.
The bonus movie tutorials show you:
* How to use Painter’s Image Hose
* How to create custom Image Hose nozzles, which contain the image elements that the Image Hose paints with
* How to create custom backgrounds with the Image Hose
* How to combine the backgrounds with portraits in Photoshop
In addition, I’ve included bonus image hose nozzles and backgrounds on the DVD.
I’ve been taking advantage of computer horsepower to come up with unique Painter brushes and backgrounds, and I’ve been having a great time. I’ve been especially amazed at what you can do in terms of proportion and size. Check out this example.
I’ve been playing around with flowers, but you can use any object or abstract form to create interesting nozzles and backgrounds.
I started with this photo I took in Descanso Gardens, a lovely place nearby here in California.
Then I painted it and made it into an image hose nozzle and painted a background with it.
Then I edited it and combined it with a photo in Photoshop and used it as a background for a portrait.
Photo from http://www.sxc.hu/
All the Painter and Photoshop steps for how to create this magic are included in the bonus tutorial movies on the DVD in addition to the nozzles and backgrounds, too!
Here are some more examples:
Photo from http://www.emelbayram.com/index2.html
Photo by Phillip Stewart Charis
Photo from http://www.sxc.hu/
Photo from http://studiostyles.net/
The tutorials can be applied to using photos and paintings of all objects, not just flowers. For instance, here’s a background that I made with car parts:
Photo by Alfred Burgess.
and even geometric shapes:
Photo from http://www.sxc.hu/
I think flowers and plants are my personal favorite, and I can think of a zillion ways I’d like paint with them.
Photo from http://www.sxc.hu/
Photo from Sebastien Galletta
Whatever image elements you’d like to use, the Painting for Photographers DVD provides tutorials to show you the tools to come up with your own great designs. And if you happen to like my gigantic flowers, they’re yours on the Painting for Photographers DVD.
That’s one of the things that’s great about this DVD. You can have every level of creativity, from the simplest form of using the backgrounds on the DVD, to creating your own backgrounds with the brushes on the dvd to creating your own brushes. All the steps are explained in the bonus video tutorials on the Painting for Photographers DVD.
And by the way, if you don’t use Corel Painter, the background files are .jpgs that you can work with in Photoshop. Also, I do all the image editing to fit the figure with the background in Photoshop, and those steps are detailed in the movie tutorials, too.
You can order the Painting for Photographers Volume 1: Portraits DVD either at my Artistry web site or at Amazon.
I think between the main movie tutorials, the bonus movie tutorials, the image hose nozzles and the background files on the Painting for Photographers Volume 1: Portraits DVD, you’re going to get a lot of your questions about painting your photos answered and you’re going to have as great a time using technology to create portraits as I had creating the information for you!
