Buy a copy of Digital Painting Fundamentals with Corel Painter 12

[Figure 1.1] You’re welcome.

I made these scribbles with several of the brush variants available in Painter 12. In just a few minutes, you’ll actually be able to create digital scribbles as good as this! So, turn on your computer, plug in your Wacom tablet, launch your Painter program, and let’s get started.

For this chapter, you’ll use the following item from the website that supports this book:
[*]         Custom palette: Painter 12 Sampler

[Figure 1.2] One good squiggle.

When you see the Welcome screen, shown in Figure 1.1, you can choose Create New Image, but first notice some other options. Brush Tracking, under the Set-up section, is an essential feature for adjusting your Wacom tablet to your touch. Click it now to get the panel shown in Figure 1.2. Make a typical stroke in the blank rectangle. The colorful squiggle gives Painter the pressure and speed data it needs to optimize the tablet for you. You can access Brush Tracking at any time in Painter’s Preferences.

[Figure 1.3] Choose size, resolution, color, and texture.

Okay, now you’re ready to create that new image. The New Image dialog box, shown in Figure 1.3, lets you enter height, width, and resolution for the image. In this book, you’ll use 72 ppi (pixels per inch) most of the time, so you’ll be able to see the whole Painter Canvas onscreen without scrolling and you can work faster. (Pixels and resolution are explained in Appendix A.) Canvas color is white unless you click the color swatch to change it. Basic Paper is the default surface texture, but that tiny triangle in the lower-right corner of the paper swatch lets you choose from several alternatives. If you want to use the same settings over again, click the plus sign and you’ll be able to save the current configuration as a new preset.

[Figure 1.4] The Brush tool is good to go.

[Figure 1.5] Jewelry sold separately.

Getting Acquainted with Painter
In addition to your canvas, the Painter workspace consists of several panels offering brushes and other art supplies as well as special features and commands. All panels are listed in the Window menu. You’ll see the vertical Toolbox on the left side of your screen. I used Painter’s Preferences > Interface to make the single column of tools into a double column. Make sure the Brush tool is selected, as shown in Figure 1.4. A tool or option is blue when active. If all you want to do is draw and paint, you can ignore most of the other choices in the Toolbox for quite a while.

So Many Choices
If you’re new to Painter, the sheer number of options, palettes, tools, and menus can seem overwhelming. There are ways to control the clutter and tell Painter how you like to work. I’ll introduce you to workspace management as you go, but it might take a while before you know what some of your preferences are.

Working with Painter you will have only one actual tool in your hand[md]the Wacom pen. Hold it as shown in Figure 1.5. Avoid touching the lever on the side of the pen’s barrel. (It has click functions that won’t be useful while you’re drawing). This model is the medium-sized Intuos 4. Pressure sensitivity enables you to control the width and/or opacity of your stroke by varying how hard you press the tip of the pen to the tablet as you work. Many of Painter’s natural media brushes also respond to the tilt of your Wacom pen.