Painting a Picture

Please don’t follow these directions. At least, not obsessively. I’m sure you are a better artist than I am, and here is yet another chance for you to prove it. Instead, use the steps that I list to find out more about using brushes in Painter, and to push pixels around until you have created a painting you enjoy. 

Since nothing is permanent in Digital Art, if you don’t like your painting, it’s because you aren’t finished with it yet.

Start by creating a new canvas. This one was 8” square, white paper, regular texture. This step is just to put color in general areas, where it might be useful.

R is for Rectangle. Type R and select top half of your canvas. Type Ctrl-F, fill with dark blue. On the Menu Bar, click Select > Invert, fill other half with light blue.

Choose Brush : Loaded Palette Knife. Use the colors from the canvas (pick up colors from your canvas with Ctrl-click, or D for Dropper), to blend a smooth gradated wash, dark blue to light blue. 

Choose Dry Media : Large Chalk. Brush Controls Settings = General: Circular, Single, Drip, Grainy Hard Drip. Size: 40 pixels, flat (sixth) shape on Size palette. Color – White. Powder it on. I chose these settings because I was trying to get some texture, and at the same time stay soft.

I next used Liquid : Grainy Water, size 40 pixels, to blend a bit.

Too smooth, after all. I used the Dry Media : Large chalk, Set to Drip, Hard Grainy Drip, size about 40 pixels, again and varied the shape and opacity as needed to create some more interesting clouds.

Using the Shading Pencil set to Drip/Hard Drip method, as large as you like, to put some interesting curls and areas into the clouds.

Okay. That’s coming along okay. Change the Shading Pencil Method to Plug-in and the Subcategory to Deep Well Brush to add more interest to the clouds.

Use the Plug In : Liquid Brush. Choose a dark color and put in a mountain line.

Now it’s going well enough that I’m really caught up in it. Only need to darken for mountains and whiten for snow, add some trees, and that should do it. 

I used the gritty charcoal to put in trees and the airbrush to put in snow and mist. I changed the shape of the charcoal on the Angle palette – moving the Squeeze slider to the right and adjusting the angle as needed. I also used a low opacity to keep a little snow on some of the tree branches. The air brush, with only the size adjusted, added everything else I needed.