April 2011
Dance Rehearsal Jeremy Sutton Paint Like the Impressionist Edgar Degas
Š2010 Jeremy Sutton
A Blast from the Past Marilyn Sholin
Where do I start this month? Spring is here! It is time to get out into the yard and garden and get some things stirring. Here in Nebraska...we are still expecting another large snowfall in the next few weeks, but I still am getting Spring Fever. For us here it means getting out from behind the computer and creating some other types of art as well. I was just chatting with Skip about my 16-hour days sitting in front of the computer…not good. It not only takes a toll on your body but now is the time I should be shooting more reference images for painting. Spring storms, floral and garden as well as wildlife opportunities abound. We also are doing some more testing and prepping for our fall embellishment workshop. I have been spending a lot of time with handmade paper, digital grounds (digital grounds are a liquid material one coats on various substrates that will allow absorbtion of digital printing pigments.) and various transfer processes. Cool stuff! Inside this issue you will find some great articles and tutorials. Our regular contributors have done an awesome job as always and we have a few surprises from guests. I think you will enjoy it. Also spring is a big season for several birthdays in our family. Amber, (oldest daughter) had hers on the 8th, Allison’s (my wife) birthday is the April 22, mine the 24th, Elise’s (my youngest daughter) and Noah’s (my youngest son) are in May. The reason I bring up the birthdays is because we will be celebrating by having a 50% sale for one day, the 24th. Details are inside and it will be one day only. Enjoy the magazine. Be sure to stop by the blog and say thank-you to your favorite contributors. Live well, love much and laugh often.
Tim
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Digital Paint Magazine - April 2011
PS-Digital Art Academy classes start at the end of April so registration is in full swing.
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In This Issue Dance Rehearsal By Jeremy Sutton
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Paint like the Impressionist Edgar Degas By Karen Bonaker The Old Masters
Finding Similarities between Degas’ and Cassatt’s Personal Backgrounds By Nadia Lim
Cartoon
by Victor Lunn-Rockliffe
Truly Scene
by John L. Stevenson
A Blast From The Past by Marilyn Sholin Cover
Dance Rehearsal By Jeremy Sutton
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Marketing Buzz: by Tim O’Neill
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Dance Rehearsal by Jeremy Sutton, Corel Painter Master Main figure (Figure 1) description: Dance Rehearsal, 2010 pigment and acrylic on canvas 32 inches x 30 inches www.jeremysutton.com/degas.html Inspiration This painting was inspired by the beautiful dance class and rehearsal paintings of the French Impressionist artist Edgar Degas. One such painting, La Classe de Danse (The Dancing Class, 1873 – Figure 2), was displayed at the de Young Museum in San Francisco during the summer of 2010 as part of the exhibition Birth of Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Museé d’Orsay. That particular painting shows the ballerinas of the Opéra with their teacher, Jules Perrot, who is positioned on the right of the canvas. Other versions Degas made of similar scenes include musicians (Figure 3), a music stand (Figure 4) and instruments on the left, and some (Figure 5) depict the tall elegant windows and high ceilings of the old Opéra Le Peletier, with trees visible through the windows. It was these compositional elements that inspired the composition of my Dance Rehearsal painting shown here.
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Last summer I was hired by the Fine Art Museums of San Francisco, which includes the de Young and the Legion of Honor Museums, to portray Degas in a series of tableau vivant performance at both museums. In these performances, dressed up in top hat and tails, equipped with beard and moustache and a cross between a British and French accent (closer to British, of course), I drew and painted ballet dancers from two local dance schools, The Ballet School and the Academy of Ballet (Chamberdance group). In preparation for my portrayal of Degas I studied his dance art and read about his close relationship with the Paris Opéra and friendships with the ballerinas within it, a connection that continued through much of his life and was reflected in many of his artworks. An excellent book on this subject, which I highly recommend, is Degas and the Dance by Jill DeVonyar and Richard Kendall, published by Harry N. Abrams Inc., 2002. Degas was enamored by the Opéra Le Peletier (in the Rue Le Peletier), which retained many of the structures of the Hôtel de Choiseul, the core building around which it was built. He gained the confidence and friendship of the dancers, capturing their life behind the scenes as they stretched, rehearsed, performed for the ballet master, ran to and from class, waited to go on stage, performed in the Opéra and met with admirers afterwards. He made many quick Conté crayon sketches and rapid, rough oil studies from direct observation, from which he then developed more finished oil paintings in his studio. He was also an early adopter of the new technology of photography and occasionally used Figure 2: Degas dance class - de Young version photography to capture 01 Digital Paint Magazine - April 2011
Figure 3: Degas dance class - piano on left - 01
reference imagery. Most artists of his day who depicted scenes at the Opéra did so in a straightforward, predictable manner, painting the Opéra performances from the audience’s point of view. By contrast Degas’ compositions were dramatic, dynamic and frequently from unusual and unexpected points of view. He depicted dancers, musicians and instruments abruptly cropped by the edges of the canvas and with
Figure 4: Degas dance classs showing music stand - 01
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on the right, reminding me of the dance master in the Degas paintings. One of the schools had a practice room with tall windows (Figure 7) that reminded me of the practice rooms Degas depicted. I also visited one of the locations where I would perform, the Piazzoni Murals Room in the de Young Museum, and took reference photos (Figure 11) of the scene so I could incorporate elements into my painting. Before constructing my composition I first decided on the physical size of painting, looking at examples of Degas actual works and choosing a size commensurate with his typical choices for a scene such as a dance rehearsal, coming up with 32 inches wide by 30 inches high.
Figure 5: Dance rehearsal painting by Degas showing the tall windows of the Opera Le Peletier
multiple juxtaposed planes of interest in the nearby, middle and far ground. Even though the Opéra Le Peletier burnt down in 1873 and was replaced by the current Opéra Garnier, Degas always held nostalgia for the original building with its tall rehearsal room windows looking out on a tree filled courtyard. He continued to paint scenes with elements of the old Opéra Le Peletier for many years after it burnt down. Process During my portrayals of Degas I planned to make some live Conté crayon sketches on the spot (Figure 6) but also wished to prepare a painting in Corel Painter ahead of time that I could print out on canvas, stretch and place on an easel and that I could work on with acrylic paint during the performances. It was with this in mind that I visited the two local Ballet Schools from which the tableau vivant dancer performers came and made sketches (Figure 7) and took reference photos (Figures 8 - 9) of the dancers and their environment. You’ll notice that one reference photo (Figure 10) has the dance master at the Academy of Dance sitting Digital Paint Magazine - April 2011
Figure 6: Drawing Joey with Conte crayon on paper in the Piazzoni Murals Room at the de Young Museum
Once I had a canvas size set I started a photo collage process—copying pasting, moving, resizing, painting into layer masks to adjust layer visibility, and generally pulling together an original composition that emulated the style of Degas. This photo-collage process was done almost entirely in Painter. I ended up with nineteen layers (Figure 12). Notice how the pianist is on the left, cropped by the frame of the canvas, and the ballet teacher is on the right—both compositional elements that resonated with the way Degas composed many of his 6
Figure 7: Jeremy drawing dancers at academy
Figure 8: En pointe in a class at the Ballet School
compositions. If you look carefully you may also notice how several of the dancers appear repeated in different poses and scale in different locations. I included both the tall windows from the dance school (on the left) and the wide window of the back of the Piazzoni Murals Room (in the background). Once satisfied with the composition I then flattened the image and started painting in Painter using a variety of brushes, adding washes of color and gradually building up the painting until I was satisfied. Brushes I used in this painting included Artists > Sargent and Impressionist, JeremyFaves2 > Sherron’s Blender Wood, Digital Water Color > Broad Water Brush and Acrylics > Captured Bristle. I added a rough painted edge on the digital painting since I wanted to avoid a perfectly straight, harsh computer edge to the printed painting. The next step was printing out on canvas and adding acrylic gel and paint to the painting (post-print painting). I then stretched the painting, tearing the edge of the canvas for the same reason as I roughened the edge of the digital print—a more authentic nineteenth century look for the performance. During the performances I asked the dances to adopt the poses depicted within the painting and continued
adding acrylic paint (Figure 13 shows the portrayal at the Legion of Honor Museum in the Rodin Gallery and Figure 14 the portrayal in the Piazzoni Murals Room in the de Young Museum). If you are interested to learn more deeply about my painting process in general you can do so by joining my online training web site www. PaintboxTV.com, by reading my last book Painter 11 Creativity: Digital Artist’s Handbook, and by attending one of my Painter Creativity workshops. This painting, Dance Rehearsal, was the case study in my most recent DVD Post-Print Painting The Sutton Way. The DVD shows exactly the materials, steps and techniques I used to roughen the edge of the digital painting and then how I added physical media to the digital print. Bio Jeremy Sutton, artist, author, educator and Corel Painter Master, is an internationally recognized authority and pioneer in the field of digital painting who has used Painter since soon after it’s launch twenty years ago. He has authored six books (the most recent being Painter 11 Creativity: Digital Artist’s Handbook), produced instructional videos and
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at the Vrije Academie in The Hague,The Netherlands. After a career in superconducting magnet sales and marketing that brought him to live in Silicon Valley in 1988, having his first one man show in the US in 1989, Sutton became a full time artist in 1994. Subjects who have sat for their portraits by Sutton include luminaries such as entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson, baseball legend Willie Mays, former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown and software pioneer Dame Stephanie Shirley. Sutton has been teaching photographers how to paint from their photographs using the software Painter since 1995. He has been a platform speaker at numerous conferences around the world, including SIGGRAPH, Macworld, Wedding & Portrait Photographers International and Imaging USA. He is one of 33 Corel Painter Masters and received the Photographic Craftsman award from the Professional Photographers of America in 2009. He teaches workshops in his San Francisco studios and at schools and institutions nationally and internationally. In 2010 Sutton was hired by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco to perform a tableau vivant portrayal of the impressionist painter Edgar Degas, creating drawings and paintings of ballet dancers at the de
Figure 9: Stretching in class at the Ballet School
DVDs and founded the online training web site PaintboxTV.com. Sutton’s paintings are in public and private collections on four continents. Born in London, Sutton’s background combines science and art. He has drawn since he was three and used traditional art media for over forty years. While earning a degree in Physics at Oxford University, he also studied drawing, sculpture and print-making at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, and made black and white prints in the Pembroke College darkroom. He continued to study lithography and life-drawing Digital Paint Magazine - April 2011
Figure 10: Academy of Ballet rehearsal with dance master sitting
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Figure 12: Layered collage in Painter
Figure 11: Piazzoni Murals Room de Young
Young and Legion of Honor Museums, and subsequently was hired to portray Vincent van Gogh, also painting in front of audiences at the de Young Museum. Recently Sutton was commissioned by the San Francisco General Hospital Foundation to paint a 6 foot wide, 400 lb Heart, subsequently purchased by Visa. Sutton combined digital and traditional media on the Heart, which is on public display until October 2011 in Union Square, the commercial heart of San Francisco. You can see this Heart at: www.JeremySutton.com/classicsf.html. For more information: Online lessons and video tutorials ~ PaintboxTV.com Artwork ~ JeremySutton.com Workshops, books and DVDs ~ PainterCreativity.com For an unforgettable hands-on learning experience that covers digital painting from photos plus post-print painting techniques and workflow, join Jeremy’s Painter Creativity Workshop, San Francisco, August 8 - 11, 2011. Digital Paint Magazine - April 2011
Figure 13: painting Dance Rehearsal at the Legion of Honor
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Figure 14: painting Dance Rehearsal at the de Young
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Paint Like the Impressionist-Edgar Degas Tutorial Information: Software: Corel Painter 11 Skill Level: Intermediate Artist: Karen Bonaker Edgar Degas was part of the Impressionist movement, although he also distanced himself from being called an Impressionist as he took a somewhat different approach and style. He felt that a painting should be planned and depended less on the spontaneity of many of the Impressionist painters of his time. Degas would often mix pastels with liquid fixative and create clear sheet transfers from original paintings. It was not uncommon for Degas to mix pastels and oil. As his work matured he increasingly painted in pastel. Pastel is how he achieved that quality of lightness so reminiscent of his later works, especially those of ballet dancers. In this tutorial you will endeavor to paint like Degas utilizing color and light. You will learn how to paint with the Blender brushes utilizing color and blending capabilities. You will find a video tutorial of this lesson on my website. To view the video click on the link provided. Paint like the Impressionist-Edgar Degas. Painter Tips: Create a value reference of your painting directly on a new layer. This way you can refer to it as a guide to help you to establish value. To accomplish this, add a new layer from your working copy and fill the layer with black, change the layer Composite method to “Colorize�. Lock the layer so you do not paint on it and close the Visibility Icon when not needed.
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Step One
Set your Brush Tracking. Stylus sensitivity is very important, so make a habit of setting Brush Tracking anytime you begin a new painting. Before you begin your sketch or apply any paint set Brush Tracking by going to Edit > Preferences > Brush Tracking.
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Step 2
Select a paper to use. I will show you a way to apply paper texture non-destructively later in the lesson, but for now, choose the Thick Handmade paper from the Papers palette. Paper textures can be changed any time during your painting process so feel free to experiment with additional textures and settings. From the Papers palette choose Launch Palette and adjust the various paper settings to your liking.
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Step 3
Make sure that your reference image is the size and resolution you want for your final image. You will find many wonderful examples of Degas’s work on line, so take the time to observe carefully before you begin your painting. For this tutorial I used the painting called “Dancers in Blue”. Alternatively use an image of your own, follow the tutorial and paint in the style of Degas. From the File menu select Quick Clone and create a copy or reference to guide you. Using a reference image does not mean you must slavishly follow it; let go and use your own creativity and depend less and less upon the reference as your painting progresses. Do not expect to finish this painting in 20 minutes; it will take time and your efforts will be worth it. Brushes for Sketch Pencil- Thick Thin variant Digital Paint Magazine - April 2011
Charcoal- Soft Charcoal variant. Blender- Smudge variant Use the Soft Charcoal for sketching stronger or highly textured lines. If you are using your own resource image, choose File > Quick Clone to develop your sketch. The example sketch was developed from the painting called “Dancers in Blue”. This painting is a wonderful example of just how strong a painter Degas was. Composition and very fine line work made for a fascinating and highly developed painting. The line work helped to build the texture into the painting. Degas placed strong emphasis on line. Step 4
Begin painting on the Canvas layer. You are developing the under painting on the Canvas layer. Additional layers will be added for fine detail work. Here you will develop the texture of the oil brush. Degas often started with oils and finished by embellishing with Pastels. To mix colors utilize the Mixer pad; keep it open as you paint to mix colors. Alternatively you may want to create a Color Set from the original reference image. 13
From the Brush Selector choose Artists Oils brush category, and the Bristle Brush variant. Set the Opacity to 6-8%. From the Impasto setting located in the Brush Controls panel, set Depth to 10%. Start to paint and build color. You can use Clone Color or better yet, use your own color choices.
Step 5
At this point you will want to blend, but not yet, keep building your values and subtle detail. Remember to vary the size and direction of the brush; observe closely your reference image and look at subtle brush strokes and patterns that are starting to emerge. Step 6
At the point you feel you have blocked in enough color and detail then let the blending begin! Continue to work on the Canvas layer but switch to the Blender brush category and choose the Smudge variant. Vary the Opacity and size as you blend over your Bristle brush strokes. If you need to reset your Brush Tracking, now is a good time to do it. Blend softly and in the direction of your brush strokes. Refrain from over blending; leave some of the original brush strokes which, add richness and texture to your painting Step 7
It is important to note that although you are using a reference as a guide, don’t slavishly follow it, use your own creativity and see what develops. At some point consider how the image is holding together; try Digital Paint Magazine - April 2011
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flipping it horizontally for a new perspective. Let go of the mechanical aspects and try some spontaneity as well. Remember to take a break, step back and review your painting. Smudge: Blender brushes have the unique capability of acting as both a blender and a brush for adding color. You will use this brush to both add color and to blend. To blend, keep the brush at its default settings 0%, and to add color, raise the “Resat” setting on the brush’s Property Bar. Start with a lower setting for example, 20% and raise or lower the Resaturation. The higher the Resat setting, this stands for Resaturation, the more color is deposited onto the brush. Step 8
If you over blend with the opacity set too high, you will end up with large blotchy areas instead of smooth transitions. Step 9
Use the Pointy Blender variant to add some fine line detail. Increase the Resat setting to about 30%. This is how you develop the appearance of texture and the look of fine Pastels. Yes, you could use the Pastel brush category here, but you will find that the Blender brushes are splendid for this technique. To define some of the edges increase the Resat setting and use a darker value of color. Look closely to see how Degas often outlined his work. Dramatic effects are achieved by using the darkest value, against the lightest value such as you see in the example from the neck down to the shoulder. Again, emphasize the line. I do not emphasize the facial features; faces become less important and the viewer concentrates more on shape and form. Blenders I used: Grainy Blender- For blending our ballets dancer’s tutus. Smudge- For blending as well as adding detail Real Stubby and Real Pointy- Blending and fine detail. It is important to zoom in on your work. Keep your touch light and do not bear down. Adjust the blender until it looks and feels right to you. Digital Paint Magazine - April 2011
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Step 10
Step 11
Softening We learned that you can use the Blender brush Grainy Blender to soften the tutu; now we will add a new layer and soften additional areas such as the bodice. For this technique use the Square Chalk 35 variant located in the Chalk brush category. Begin by using a very light color and highlight the bodice of the dress. Lighter areas draw the eye and help to create light. Choose a blue value but use the lightest value of the color.
Your brush tip should be relatively small; you want to continue to add detail, and enhance color and light. Quick small strokes help to create additional texture. Change brushes now and choose the Grainy Blender 10 and with quick strokes blend directly over the Chalk strokes but first, raise the Jitter setting from the brush’s property bar to 2.10. This setting creates a soft veil of texture and luminosity.
See a video tutorial of this article on Karens blog a http://paintertalk.net/video/paint-degas.mp4
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Step 12
What tone means in a painting context is simple. It is the light and dark color rather than the actual color or hue. Yet implementing tone in a painting is often bothersome to artists because of the distraction of the strong appeal of color. Step 13 A step to create some additional texture and give the illusion of pastels is achieved by “Placing “an image as an overlay. For the final effect I choose to use “Blue Dancers” by Edgar Degas. From the main menu select File > Place. Size the image so it covers your entire painting. Change the layer Composite method to Colorize and adjust the Opacity to your liking. This creates a lovely veil of color.
At this point in your painting, use your artistic license and add additional color and refinement. Again step back from your work and observe closely. Add a new layer and fill it with black. Change the layer Composite method to Colorize and take a look at how your image holds together in black and white. If a painting is going to be successful, you must get your tones right, otherwise it’s just going to be visual noise. The first step to doing this is to remove color from the equation, to create a range of tone using only black. This little trick is handy as you work on your painting. Remember to lock the layer to refrain from painting on it. Digital Paint Magazine - April 2011
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Step 14
The last step is to apply paper texture. 1. From the Papers palette choose the Hard Laid Paper or one of your own. Launch the Papers palette and adjust the Paper Scale if needed. 2. Add a new layer and fill it with a 50% gray. From your Colors palette set the RGB values to 128 for all values. 3. From the Effects menu choose, Effects > Surface Control> Apply Surface Texture. 4. Lower the Shine setting to 0%, the Amount setting to 100%. Select OK. 5. From the Layers Palette, change the Layer Composite method to Overlay and adjust the Opacity slider until the texture just barely shows. Do not overdo the texture. You want to see the painting and not the texture. Digital Paint Magazine - April 2011
Call it a Wrap Get creative as you paint and don’t let the reference image hinder you from trying new techniques. That is what Painter is all about! Don’t forget to sign your painting!
Key Points 1. Blenders can also be great brushes simply by increasing or lowering the Resat Setting. 2. Adding a new layer and filling it with black then changing the Composite method to Colorize and you have an instant value reference. 3. Degas’s paintings emphasized strong line work. Use overlays to create added texture and interest to your work. Use patterns or images get creative! 4. Apply paper texture non-destructively to precisely control the amount of texture revealed in your painting. 18
Finding Similarities between Degas’ and Cassatt’s Personal Backgrounds By Nadia Lim As the more famous friend and contemporary of feminist and feminine writer, Mary Cassatt, it seems Edgar Degas also veered towards the same unmarried path, or to put succinctly, Degas chose to get married to his work in the same way that Cassatt did although the latter was at one time fascinated with the always-smartly dressed and debonair Degas. When the art dealer, Ambroise Vollard, asked him of this, Degas replied, "I would live in constant fear that, whenever I completed a new painting, I would hear my wife say ' That's so pretty what you've done there!”. This cheeky statement is a glimpse at the level of perfection Degas seems to have expected from himself and his art. From his early beginnings, Degas remained active in the art world 60 years out of his overall 85. Degas’ real name was really Hilaire Germain Edgar de Gas. This was derived from both his maternal and paternal grandfathers- Hilaire Degas from Naples and Germain Musson from New Orleans. He was born in Paris and was the eldest among 6 children. Like Cassatt, Degas was born in a prominent family. His father was a banker and his mother a beautiful domestic creature from New Orleans. It is interesting to note how so much of Cassatt’s and Degas’ upbringings were quite similar. Degas also started his education early, attending the lycee Louis-le-Grand for classic education. After he received his baccalaureat, Degas immediately attended Law school. In his spare time, Degas chose to copy Masters from the Louvre with his engravings. He also constantly visited the studios of then prominent artist Felix Barrias. Because he was a man, Degas was able to attend the prestigious Ecole des Beaux-Arts, a school that Cassatt wanted to attend but could not since women were not allowed to enter at that time. After which, Degas chose to travel to extend his education before setting up a studio in Digital Paint Magazine - April 2011
Blue Dancers, 1899
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Dance Class, 1871
Paris. From 1865 to 1870, Degas was able to exhibit some of his pieces at the Paris Salon. It was then that he met his other Impressionistic contemporaries such as Berthe Morisot and Edouard Manet. Among many of his Impressionistic friends including Cassatt, it was with Manet that Degas had most affinity with. They tended to be the spokespersons of the group as they were much more senior than many of their contemporaries. Unfortunately, it would seem that Cassatt and Degas could not meet as often at that time because most cafes did not allow women to frequent their establishments. Degas and Manet, on the other hand, were elite avante-garde artists from prominent social circles, and so they could have easily established a strong friendship through such meetings. Degas’ painting styles were varied and many. He played with many mediums
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Self Portrait: Degas lifting his hat
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and were mostly successful with them too. Apart from oil and pastel which he was most famous for, he also played around with printmaking and was influenced by Japanese Prints, same as Cassatt was. He also played around with sculpture and dismissed professional technique for originality. Whereas Cassatt was well-known for her paintings of women and children as well as domestic scenes, Degas was most well-known for being a painter of dancers, probably influenced by his elitist love for the opera and music. Unlike other Impressionist painters, Degas was more intent on capturing artificial light than natural light. He also went on to capture horsejockeys, bathers and opera attendants. The only part of Degas’ painting period where he featured domestic work was probably during the end of the 1870s when he used laundrywomen and milliners as his subjects. Indeed, Degas was always known to experiment with many mediums, and so along with Cassatt, Degas ventured into printmaking with many of his etchings and lithographs becoming significant contributions to the history of the art. Like Cassatt, Degas died in anonymity, his blindness robbing him off some painting years until his death. The Tub1
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http: //cargocollective.com/victorlunnroc Digital Paint Magazine - April 2011
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TrulyScene a column for Digital Paint Magazine John Stevenson jstvnsn@photoscena.com Introduction An Overview of Auto-Painting in PostworkShop 2.0 This is the latest in a series of tutorials, all published in this magazine, which were PostworkShop can be used to perform photodevoted initially to exploring digital painting manipulations in a “one-click” mode. The using the newest version of Adobe Photoshop software now comes bundled with over four (CS5). The last two contributions have hundred pre-built Styles for use in this manner. dealt however with a much newer image However, the most creative applications center manipulation software toolkit: PostworkShop, on either combinations of these Styles or the as developed by Xycod Informatikai Kft., a production of output images based upon Styles small company based in Budapest, Hungary. entirely constructed and customized by the user. But, at the basic image processing level PostworkShop is compact, easy-to-learn, internal to the program, both primary modes both visually and ergonomically elegant, of use rely on the same “mechanics” – a set inexpensive, and - best of all - extremely versatile. It brings a wide range of new creative of filters which can be ganged together in a fixed sequence, albeit with sets of adjustable possibilities into play, when used alone or parameters, and then used to convert one or if coupled with Photoshop. My last column (included in the March release of the magazine) more input images into a single output. was essentially “double-barreled”: it combined When it comes to generalized and automatically a review of the new v.2.0 beta PostworkShop painted effects (arrived at by what we should software release (in its Pro edition) together probably call simulated painting, at least at with some discussion and instruction on using the outset here), there are two key processor luminance-based masks in photo-correction filters. These can be found in the Styles panel, and digital painting. within the Simple Styles group, as a subset of the Building Blocks category. They are shown I decided, after completing that particular in the right-hand portion of Illustration 1 column, within just a short period of time here. (The same screenshot shows that there is beyond the release of the new software, now a newer version of the software available to concentrate this month on a simpler – denoted the 2.0 beta 2 release – than was description of a more basic set of features – used previously. The examples covered in this those available in PostworkShop for painting column are all based upon this version of alone. the Pro edition of the application.) The two Digital Paint Magazine - April 2011
key filters can be found in the partial listing shown. They are: Random Painter (towards the top) and Simple Strokes (lower down). It can be noted – nevertheless – that there are other filters present there which are intended to accomplish some specifically stylized painting and sketching effects (i.e., Simple Watercolor). Additionally, there are some drawing filters which can be setup to use brushstroketype outlining. The full power and scope of PostworkShop is easier to grasp, however, if we concentrate on the Random Painter and Simple Strokes Building Blocks. These are - to some degree - complementary; they can be used to produce output images which simulate painting with traditional media in classical styles; but they both can also be configured to gain results which are unique to the digital imaging domain. (The names which the filters/ Styles have been allocated are not fully representative. However, the versatility of both is such that better, summary, names are hard to come up with … ) 23
In what follows I will make use of a single test pattern input image to explain some of the variables which can be made active and/or can be reset in these two filters. Illustration 2 here shows the input image Digital Paint Magazine - April 2011
when opened in the standalone version of PostworkShop (I will not be using the plug-in mode of operation at all in this article). A primary feature of the test pattern is that it contains an area of transparency 24
– indicated by the checkerboard patterning inside the white border. In addition, it deliberately contains quite subtle transitions of color, some more strongly saturated colored areas as well as some which are close to grayscale in color value. Amongst other features there are both white and black areas bordering the transparent region. The test pattern image was opened from a multi-Layer Photoshop format (.psd) file. On the Random Painter Filter A simple and singular use of Random Painter is shown in Illustration 3. The screenshot capture includes the Style Editor. All of the parameters which can be adjusted and reset are shown in the Properties panel now active there on the right-hand side. It’s important to note that a specific family of Brushes can be selected, and that the sizing, opacity and degree of directional conformity are all variable. Additionally the amount of layering of the strokes and their total density are adjustable. What is not included is any degree of color variance, or palette selection – however, both of these could be established independently via the inclusion of additional filters. Illustration 4 shows a fully rendered output image, generated via the use of Random Painter alone, but with an adjusted set of the variables (including a custom Brush). It is easy to see: (a) how the transparency present in the original has been respected, (b) how individual brush strokes have some transparency and are layered upon one another, (c) how the variability of the brush sizing has been incorporated, and, (d) how there is a degree of randomness present, but also that some directionality has been established by the borders present in the original test pattern. On the Simple Strokes Filter
are all derived now from a different input test pattern image – this is black and white only and has a totally different geometrical make-up compared to its counterpart (see the Secondary Image Source present at the far bottom-left of the Style Editor now).
A default and singular use of Simple Strokes is shown in Illustration 5. Again the variable parameters are set out in the Properties panel. And, the Brush family is selectable. But, the filter itself differs from Random Painter in that it has three additional input nodes; Stroke directions, Palette and Detail map, as can be seen in the Style Editor panel. The color coding of two of these input nodes indicates that only certain specific inputs – which are, in any event, all optional – can be accepted there. The (trivial) example included here as Illustration 6 includes all of these inputs as active. Note that the Stroke directions, Palette and Detail map Digital Paint Magazine - April 2011
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The following Illustration (number 7) shows the fully rendered output from the settings made in Illustration 6. The first thing to note is how different this looks from the example output from Random Painter (in Illustration 4). Now there is a density and orientation of brush strokes established quite independently (even though the same Brush family has been utilized). The adaptation of the palette is also obvious. Additionally, Simple Strokes allows a background (“paper”) color to be pre-selected. (My own preference is actually to have this set to be transparent, because any option for a backdrop and texture can then be added later and quite independently.) The first two of the qualities demonstrated for Random Painter outputs (the facts that the transparency present in the original has been respected and that individual brush strokes have some transparency and are layered upon one another) are present here also. But there is no comparable variability in brush sizing stroke-to-stroke. And there appears to be less intermixing (i.e., “blending”) stroke upon stroke. Overall the Simple Strokes output is more “structured”, and would certainly have a more uniform morphology compared to its Random Painter counterpart if the Stroke directions had been derived from the Source Image directly.
Digital Paint Magazine - April 2011
An Overview of Manual Painting in PostworkShop 2.0 PostworkShop 2.0 includes a new manual digital painting “engine”, in both the Artist and Pro Editions. In part this is based upon the open-source MyPaint application. Some of the painting features in PostworkShop – at least those integrated into the current beta software release – are simplified in comparison to MyPaint. But others, especially those allowing image-sampling (a.k.a. cloning) as a basis for painting, go well beyond the capabilities of the open-source program. A basic point to grasp at the outset here is that the present manual brushwork attributes of PostworkShop are mainly geared to supplementing its auto-painting routines and Styles. So, as just an introductory example, there are four Illustrations here (8 through 11) which provide guidelines for use in retouching and in the painting of masks. In the first some simple brush strokes have been laid down, using one of the custom Brushes already mentioned (the confirmation of this can be found in the top left-hand portion of the toolbar). Here the Brush is in a standard Color pickup format. The upper set of strokes utilized no added dynamic features at all; the lower set used low settings of the spatial dynamic parameters as established in the Settings panel (and as shown in the screenshot). Illustration 9 includes two sets of results gained by simply switching into the two cloning modes. The strokes that were initiated in the white border and the pink triangle of the test pattern at the upper left) were laid down in the ‘Clone (start color)’ mode – again see the lower portion of the Settings panel on the right of the screenshot). Note that the cloning is correctly transferred across the transparent region of the pattern. Then there are a set of strokes made at the upper middle portion of the test image, crossing into and out from the black triangle. Those were made with the ‘Clone (continuous)’ setting activated. In this latter case it might be possible to sample from an original (photographic) Image Source – as for the test pattern used here – but, also, to clone regions of an intermediate output image; one which, say, had already been auto-painted. All readers who have used similar schemes in other programs (the usual suspects - I won’t name them right here …!), will like to have an assurance that this type of cloned sampling and brushwork can be done non-destructively. The final two Illustrations in this group (10 and 26
11) provide a confirmation of this for PostworkShop. The first is very revealing (sic) of the user-friendly feature set in the new release of the program – note that the painting is being added, stroke by stroke, to what was originally a fully transparent overlay, but with the guidance of
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a “see-through” to the original (in this instance a monochrome version of the test pattern). While the tasks shown in Illustrations 8 and 10 may seem trivial (and perhaps “not mainstream” for a digital painting program), they can prove very helpful, as adjuncts, in the refinement of the auto-painter outputs produced by PostworkShop. The final section of this column includes two worked examples which both utilize this approach. Constructing Custom Brush Stroke Families An important point to realize here is that traditional artists don’t really build texture into a painting via bristle brushes by choice. It’s an elective feature. Their brushes are simply one of several sets of tools by which paint can be laid down, and by which – incidentally - some visually engaging effects can be built-up in the fine detailing of the work. (Often artists will spend just as much time removing texture, with – say – a flat or rounded fan brush, as by adding to it. Watercolorists have all sorts of ruses for both adding and inhibiting texture.) Therefore the ability of the digital artist to incorporate texturing with Brushes having an internal structure and a distribution of opacity (just as two example features) should not be overlooked. In the end, choices of localized texturing should be open, such that the finished work be 27
intriguing across a range of viewing distances, from near to distant. It is important that digital painting and rendering software with serious fine art ambitions allow for this. So here I will briefly summarize the capabilities of PostworkShop in incorporating custom brush profiles and imprints. Both of the outputs captured in Illustration 4 (from Random Painter) and Illustration 7 (Simple Strokes) were in fact generated using a small set of custom-made brushes. (One of the tutorials available from Xycod which covers the procedure for this begins: “PostworkShop has a basic set of scanned brushes which you can improve upon by adding your own ...”.) Given what has been observed about the characteristics of the two key filters which use pre-selectable Brush families, plus the fact that we have seen that the very same Brushes can be used in the manual painting mode(s), there are some obvious key features which could be included beneficially in single and physically-made brush marks and then scanned for use in PostworkShop: (a) strokes which have variability in outline -- differences in their peripheral shape, (b) have an internal “structure” – via striations, or pooling, (as examples, derived from the bristles of the brush or from the components of the paint within a mixture, etc.), and, (c) have systematic variances in overall density -- reflecting the exhaustion of the paint reservoir (or “belly”) of a conventional brush in the hands of a traditional media artist. (This leaves choices of sizing and/or size differential to be made within the PostworkShop application itself.) To date I have worked with acrylic paints and additives to create families of brush marks. Illustration 12 here just confirms the different steps involved. In the work captured there the original brush marks were laid down on a strip of transparent film. When dry this was loaded into the transparency adapter of a photographic-quality flatbed scanner. The image on the left hand side of Illustration 12 was gained directly from a high resolution (600 ppi, interpolated) scan. The image to its right is the adjusted version – in a form where individual marks are ready to be individually selected, cropped and additionally corrected. The right-hand image of the three is one such final crop – it is the stroke Digital Paint Magazine - April 2011
“imprint” which (at 500 by 500 pixels in size) can be loaded directly, and permanently, as an addition to PostworkShop. It is shown again in 28
Illustration 13 – as a member of a family of eighteen strokes. In this instance, the paint originally applied to the film carried just a small amount of blue pigment and three additives: a gel containing glass beads, a suspension of iridescent metallic particles, and a thinning agent. Basically there is no reason why marks made with each of these singly could not be scanned individually and then combined/blended together in an image editor. Currently it seems that this might be the best way to produce completely unique strokes, in families of “pseudobrushes”. Finally, Two Worked Examples Have no worries dear reader – the end of this column is no so far away. I am just going to briefly summarize some work which is still ongoing but uses each of the features already introduced. But, in a couple of
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steps, with a little twist. Both of the two projects start from photographs which probably would not appeal, as initial starting points, to a conventional media artist at all. The first is included in Illustration 14 here. As a photograph by itself, it might have benefited from the use of a slower shutter speed, so as to add some sense of motion to the jumping children. In a painted form it would seem attractive to leave only the loosest of impressions of the pool and the background. The second (Illustration 15) is truly a candid portrait – the illumination from below lends a blue cast to the subject and also comprises a source of uplighting, which is generally considered unflattering in photographic portraiture. Basically your author here likes these types of subjects; they allow digital rendering and painting to have a genuine freedom, above and beyond what
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traditional artists put down with a real brush on really woven canvases. Those who have read my earlier columns will know that a successful digital reworking (and painting) of images of this type can usually benefit from careful initial attention to color and tonal balances, even on a local basis. The essence of this is to limit the dominance of deeply shadowed or strongly highlighted areas, especially if these are in proximity to the subject(s). In Illustration 16 I show a setup in which the image of the children is painted twice, at different levels of fidelity. In this case the Random Painter filter was used, along with one of the sets of Brushes assembled from real acrylic brush marks on film (just as was summarized at the outset here, by Illustration 4, and per Illustration 13). The presence of the Bitmap Editor filter node in Illustration 16 shows that something was manually painted. In fact, one of the Random Painter inputs was pre-masked, approximately, so that only the higher fidelity (i.e., finer detailing) of the image of the children alone appears in a composite output. This was accomplished by the technique shown, at its conclusion, in the next Illustration (number 17). Here just two of the very simplest Brushes (from the Algorithmic category) were used exclusively to quickly build a masking image. A different strategy was followed for the other image. Illustration 18 indicates the use of three Input Source images. These were “pre-painted” – using different setups for the Simple Strokes filter. One to give a loose representation; an intermediate; and a third one with all of the detailing which could be garnered from the Stroke directions and Detail map inputs to the filter (as per Illustrations 6 and 7 above). Then these were combined subtractively. This is shown in the following Illustration (number 19). Here the Bitmap Editor was used in two instances and painted using the Eraser Brush. Again this is a quick means of evaluating a composite output – perhaps not something that would be sufficient for a final rendering at high overall fidelity. Summary and Wrap-Up The final two Illustrations, 20 and 21, are outputs gained from the two projects set out in Illustrations 14 through 19. (Both were re-cropped a little in their digitally painted form.) They both represent something “above and beyond” what is captured in the original photography. The picture of the two children has a dynamic of motion beyond the frozen-in-time characteristic of the input image. Some of the highlights – reflections from the water, the sunlight appearing through the tree – are nicely captured as single brush Digital Paint Magazine - April 2011
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strokes. The portrait of the young man certainly has more focus, is less bland, and exhibits less distracting detail from the background. The subject, and his attitude (important!), is more in a separate space; “standing away” from his surroundings. Overall these two examples demonstrate what PostworkShop does really well in its hybrid auto-plus-manual painting mode. That is; working with unusual input images and producing intriguing outputs, without any slavish dictate to a specific style of traditional art. The supplementary use of the manual painting feature is a great aid, allowing the user to move on from any “wall-to-wall” appearance; that overall uniformity which is often typical of many auto-filtered image outputs (from all of the usual suspect programs …!). As before, I welcome any questions or feedback the reader may have. Just send e-mail to: jstvnsn@photoscena.com. Additionally, the custom Brushes developed for the specific projects described in this article and a selection of my test pattern images will be made available upon an e-mail request. And finally, the official launch of PostworkShop v.2.0 will be at the NAPP Photoshop World event in Las Vegas (from 7 through 9 September, at the Mandalay Bay Resort), where Xycod will be an exhibitor.
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John Stevenson has been taking photographs since childhood, first experimenting in the early 1960s with an Agfa Isoly roll film camera (producing square format transparencies in glass mounts). He first produced digitally composed images in 1995, printing his work on canvas using a Hewlett-Packard DesignJet machine. Some of this work was exhibited via his participation in the Art League at the Torpedo Factory, in Alexandria, Virginia. A first solo exhibition of all-digital work – A Shifting Light - digital photorenditions – was presented at the Foundry Gallery in Washington D.C. in 1999. A second solo exhibition – Time Spans – was held at the Elements Gallery in Colorado Springs in 2005. His newest work features: square format transparencies! Digital Paint Magazine - April 2011
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Easter Celebration and Tim’s Birthday Sale! Hi everyone! We will be having a 24 hour 50% OFF sale to celebrate Easter and the birthdays we have this month. The items listed below can be purchased for half-off from midnight April 24 to midnight April 25. If you would like more information on a particular product you can visit the sales pages from that product but dont purchase on those pages. We are not going to set up a special button for the sale. We are slummin it and going to make it very simple as well. Send a paypal for the products you want to purchase to: topimages@ msn.com. If you dont know how to do that just send me an email and I will send a Paypal invoice out to you. It is very important to put, “EASTER SALE” in the subject line so I dont miss it. All of the products will be fulfilled Mon and Tues after the holiday. I can only honor the 50% off for orders placed during those 24 hours. Prices listed below are full price, take half off the listed prices. PS-If you paid full price for one of these products in the last 30 days email me.
2010 Digital Art Summit PDF’s 10 $97 http://www.digitalpaintmagazine.com/ blog/194/digital-painting-workshopdvd-beta/
http://www.
Digital Paint Magazine - April 2011
Sales http://www.digitalpaintmagazine.com/blog/1116/digital-art-summit-pdfs/ Included in these PDF’s are the following artists: • Tim ONeill • Kirk Nelson • Karen Sperling • Heather Michelle • Darrell Chitty • Marco Bucci • Woody Walters • Michael Campbell There are two video download bonuses just in case you did not get them. They are Daniel Tardent and Skip Allen. The price is $97. There is 497 pages of information between all of the Artists. Note that this is PDF downloads NOT a physical product shipped to your door. 2009/2010 Digital Paint Magazine Back Issue 14 Issue download $57 11 Issues from 2010 and the three issues published in 2009. Mamarazzi Guide to Creativity, Book download version (Amazon at 14.97) Word Press Video Tutorials $97 47 video tutorials that will tell you how to set up and use word press http://www.digitalpaintmagazine.com/blog/word-press-video-tutorials/ 34
A Blast from the Past Keeping It Simple Digital Paint Magazine April 2010 Marilyn Sholin http://www.marilynsholin.com/blog Digital painting has been going through a growth spurt the last few years. Most recently there has been a trend to create some of the most complicated methods of painting that can be very challenging to beginners and can possibly scare some exceptional artists away from the medium. Like users of Adobe Photoshop who began developing actions and plugins years ago, I saw the future was going to happen with Corel Painter. I knew it when I explored installing Photoshop plugins into Painter and it worked on a PC. That was a great deal of the research I did for my book published by Lark “The Art of Digital Photo Painting”. It was clear that digital painting was poised to make the big leap into the real art world and that endless means of creating the art was going to begin. Using all the digital tools available to us as artists is as valid as using hundreds of different brushes to put paint on a canvas. One is not better than another. The only factor that matters is final product and the artists’ happiness and satisfaction with the result. As artists, we all have masses of unfinished paintings that are not “singing” to us and others that took virtually minutes to create that are living on in finished canvas and prints. As a studio photographer for over twenty five years I nailed film and exposure to perfection but yet, I am not a technical person. I am not a “techie”. I don’t care “how” things work, only that they do. So here is a painting that I had a great deal of fun playing with which is what it’s all about, isn’t it? Having fun! This is one of those simple lessons that I find enjoyable both as an artist and as an explorer of digital software and methods to paint.
Digital Paint Magazine - April 2011
Here is the out of the camera simple capture taken years ago at City Walk in Los Angeles with my point and shoot Canon camera that was maybe 5 megapixels back then.
01_image After opening the image in Photoshop I created two copies of the layer so I would only be working on the layers and not on the original image. Using Topaz Lab filters I adjusted the image on two layers. First Layer: Filter menu > Topaz Labs > Adjust 4> Spicify. Accept the default settings and click OK.
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Next lower the opacity of the Spicify layer to approximately 60% and on the Crisp layer change the blend mode to VIVID LIGHT. This will bring together the layers with strong saturation and less detail yet retaining plenty of edges to paint in Painter.
02_image Second Layer: Filter menu > Topaz Labs > Clean 2> CrispStyle Turn STRENGTH up to 3 Click OK
04_image Flatten and save as with a new name and open in Corel Painter 11. We are going to do a fast autopainting with a simple Painter brush. As in Photoshop the painting will be done on a layer and not the original. In Painter create a duplicate layer of the photo. SELECT>ALL>EDIT>COPY>PASTE IN PLACE Now it is all on a layer to autopaint. Open the autopainting palette WINDOW>AUTOPAINTING Click QUICK CLONE and check SMART STROKE PAINTING and check SMART SETTINGS Choose the brush category ARTISTS>IMPRESSIONIST 03_image Digital Paint Magazine - April 2011
Use the brush defaults and be sure the CLONE COLOR rubber stamp is 36
clicked so the brush is clone painting and not laying down original colors. Click the green PLAY button at the very bottom right of the autopainting palette and let the brush paint until it stops. TIP: After clicking both Smart Stroke Painting and Smart Settings the brushes category will automatically default to Smart Stroke Brushes. This tells you that the settings are correct and it’s important to remember to choose your brush AFTER clicking both settings and not before. Last I changed the Composite Method from Default to Luminosity which brought back a great deal of the edges details.
com Red River papers have been tested with all printers and they hold the ink well and retain rich colors.
06_image Here is a close up of the painting to see how the brushstrokes show detail and yet retain their impressionism.
05_image After dropping the layers and saving again with a new name I have my “so far final� painting. Because I can still play with so many of the features available to bring back details or add other interesting areas to the painting I still think of it as a work in progress. But for purposes of this lesson, it is also an incredibly fast and easy painting and will print rich and detailed on either watercolor paper or canvas. My choice of watercolor paper is any of the papers from http://www.redriverpaper. Digital Paint Magazine - April 2011
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07_imageCLOSEUP As luck would have it, Topaz Labs has their Bundle on sale until April 15th and they always have free trial downloads. Go to: http://bit. ly/topzbundle and download where it says FREE TRIAL. Try out all their filters on your paintings both before painting and afterwards. I have found many new “paintings within a painting” by playing with the filters. More and more depend upon your own heart and soul to decide if your painting is done and don’t let the complexities of the software get in your way. I have found that the more complicated techniques I try the more they take away from my organic flow of painting that comes from doing the painting rather than thinking about the technique. This is my way of Keeping It Simple. Marilyn Sholin Corel Painter Master PPA Master Craftsman Photog. CPP
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Digital Paint Magazine - April 2011
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Marketing Buzz By Tim O’Neill
Top 10 Traffic Ideas for your Blog Blogs are popular ways to create an online presence for personal and business reasons. You can build a blog very inexpensively or for free (I strongly recommend you purchase hosting and use Wordpress) and begin posting content right away. But, what good is that content if no one is reading it? Here are ten ideas to bring in the traffic your blog needs to survive. Of all the successful blogs on the Internet, hundreds of thousands more have failed. Running a blog is like running a business website. Unless you are willing to put the time in and treat it seriously, you won’t be blogging long. That is not to say that the failed bloggers weren’t serious about blogging. Mostly, new bloggers aren’t prepared for the work that goes into creating a successful blog. Just building the blog doesn’t mean that people will necessary come to you. You pursue the audience and give them a reason to see what you have to say. 1. Fresh Content – no one wants to visit a blog day after day and see the same posts. Update your blog content at least twice a week. This will be easier if you write several posts ahead of time and upload them at the appropriate times. 2. Article Marketing – the niche you’ve chosen Digital Paint Magazine - April 2011
for your blog is one that interests you. If it is interesting you will spend more time doing it. Create content not only for your blog but also to be submitted to article directories. Use the resource box to advertise your blog so people can find you. 3. Social Networking – these sites are everywhere. Join Facebook, MySpace, Squidoo, Twitter or choose from a dozen others and make connections. You can join groups of likeminded people who are also bloggers or entrepreneurs. 4. Viral Marketing – this is where you spread the word about your blog. Talk to friends, family and even strangers. Give out business cards that have your blog address on them. 5. Use RSS Feeds – RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication.” Readers can subscribe to your feed and get email updates when new content is posted. It is an easy way for them to keep up with your blog without spending all day online. 6. Submit Blog to Search Engines – doing this allows your blog to be ranked. Google and Yahoo! are two of the most popular search engines you want to crawl your blog pages. It doesn’t guarantee top ranking, though. You’ll have to do a little more work for that.
7. Joining Forums – as a blogger you are a budding entrepreneur. Right now you are marketing yourself to find traffic and then profit. Become a member of business forums, work-at-home forums and others to meet new people and share ideas. You can add a link to your blog in the signature line so others can find you. 8. Visit other blogs – show your appreciation to those who visit you by also posting comments on their blogs. It is a kindness that shows others you are not just out to advertise your blog alone. Add links to your blog in your comments. 9. SEO Marketing – whatever you write, use relevant keywords. Keyword density between three and ten percent is good for getting higher page rankings in search engines. Base your keywords on some research you should do to find the most popular words used in search engines for your niche. 10. Social Bookmarking – submitting posts to social bookmarking sites allows others who are members of those sites to track you back to your blog. Using any of these ideas will start the traffic moving in your direction. It takes time but you will build the readership you want and be able to show off your art to the world. 40