On-Line Study Group

Painter 5.5

Introduction

After giving a truly wonderful amount of thought to the best way to conduct this study group, it has become my strong belief that the WOW book, marvelous as it is, does not lend itself well to a course-type presentation. The projects in the WOW book are just that - projects. Each has a great deal to teach. Unfortunately they do not teach the basics of the program.

So, I turned to my Painter 5 f/x book, and instantly my anxiety was relieved.

List members who have the f/x book will get a great deal more from these activities. Those who lack it might want to acquire it, but even without, I think everyone will learn something. Once we have some basics under our belts, we'll go back to the WOW projects. And when you feel stumped, there is always a group of fellow Painters here, to turn to with your questions.

Painter simply isn't a linear program. It's easy to feel overwhelmed by this program. So we'll start with…

Project 1: Basics

In this project, we will use the Brush, we will rotate the canvas to paint petals around the center of a flower, we will crop the canvas. We will use the Dropper to pick up colors from the painting, and will use Ctrl to toggle from the brush to the dropper. We will size the brush with Ctrl-Alt drag.

Don't be confused by the fact that the brush tool you are using is the Pencil.

Shortcut keys to learn tonight:

A= Add Point (a pen tool feature - forget it for now)

B = Brush

C = Crop

D = Dropper

E = rEvolve (rotate canvas)

Ctrl-H = Hide Palettes

Ctrl-1 = Toolbox

Ctrl-2 = Brush Palette

Ctrl-3 = Art Materials

Exercise:

  1. Create a new document (ctrl-N, or File± New.) 5"x5" , 72 res, white paper, image.
  2. Press Ctrl-H to hide all the Palettes.
  3. Click Window on the Menu bar. Notice the third section: Show/hide Tools, Ctrl-1. The next two entries are Show/hide Brushes, Ctrl-2 and Show/hide Art Materials, Ctrl-3. Close the menu (press Esc.)
  4. Press Ctrl-1 (control-one) to display the toolbox.
  5. Press Ctrl-2 to display the Brushes Palette.
  6. Press Ctrl-3 to display the Color Palette (art materials).
  7. Click a shade of dark gold on the color palette. Notice the little double-rectangle just below the color picker that shows you your currently chosen color.
  8. Click the pencil on the brushes palette.
  9. Move into the canvas and start sketching a flower. Choose a lighter gold for the petals.
  10. Press D to switch to the Dropper tool. Click on the flower, on the dark gold, to choose that color from it again.
  11. Press E to switch to the rEvolve tool. Turn the canvas as you sketch petals around the center of the flower with the brush (B).
  12. To set the canvas back to its original position, simply click on the canvas with the E tool.
  13. Change to the Crop tool (C), and drag a marquee closer to the blossom. Click once within the marquee to crop the image.
  14. Change to the Brush (pencil) again (B). Hold down Ctrl-Alt and drag a small marquee, about 1/8 -1/4 inch. Your brush is now that size. Shade the petals.
  15. With the brush tool (pencil) selected, toggle to the Dropper by holding down the Control key. Click on a part of the flower to choose that color. Release the Control key, and you toggle back to the Brush. Continue shading your petals.
  16. Notice that the pencil tool will let you build up color, darker and darker.
  17. Change the opacity of the pencil by typing a number. 1 = 10%, 2 = 20 %, etc. Zero = 100%.

Continue to change the size of the brush with ctrl-alt drag. (If a dialog box appears telling you the brush hasn't been built, just okay it. You may have to okay the Build Brush dialog box each time.)

Continue to pick up colors from the flower by ctrl-clicking on the flower. Change brush size, opacity and color as needed. Save your flower as a jpg image. (File ± Save As ± Save as Type ± jpg).

If there are questions, just send them. We can meet in the conference room and do the project together, if you wish.

christine

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