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How to Watercolor in Painter Classic
A Tutorial By Chien
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Step 1
This is a tutorial for Painter Classic, not Painter X or any of the programs in that series. Since I do not have those programs, I don't know if the techniques applied here will work on them.
Painter Classic is a great program for art, and it came for free with many Wacom 1's back in the day. A lot of people cast it aside because it did not have layers. They missed out on an easy to use program that gives great results.
Since this is a tutorial on coloring, I will skip over the details on how to do lineart on Painter Classic. Anyways-- Painter Classic has no layers. True. But it does have a "wet" and "dry" mode that function similarly to layers. Think of "dry" as the layer on top and "wet" a the layer on the bottom. So they key to coloring on Painter Classic is to do your lineart with a dry tool and the coloring with a wet tool. The only downfall is that you can only do your lineart in black, because the wet layer acts like a multiply layer on photoshop, and it screws up the colors. There IS a way to do color lineart with your nice Painter Classic water colors, but it's a bit more complicated and involves Photoshop.
Inevitable Question: "What's the point of coloring in Painter Classic?" Because it has a really unique look and texture to it, that's why. I have both Painter Classic and Photoshop, and I still prefer to color in Painter Classic. Also, Painter Classic doesn't take up as much memory as Photoshop and it takes a few seconds to start up.
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Step 2
After you have you're done with your lineart, you need to pick your paper. My preference is "Ribbed Pastel." Each paper affects how the watercolor looks, so you should choose wisely. You can change paper while you paint. Changing the paper will not change the colors that are already laid down. It just changes the texture of what you do after.
I use crackle with light blue for a cheap, quick water texture. If you don't like texture, the closest you can get to no texture is "silk." "Pavement" creates a nice, spotty effect that is a little grungey.
I don't know why the program came with two paper textures called "untitled" and "untitled 2." They're nice, though.
Paper texture can also affect your lineart, but if you do your lineart with the Painter Classic's pen tool, then the paper changes nothing.
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Step 3
So, time to color. When painting on Painter Classic, it's wise to do the background first because the flats can blend with the background and create a nice hue. (I've already colored this picture, so what I'm doing right now is a recolor.)
Select "Water Color" and choose any size, as you can adjust the size on the control bar later. Just make sure you chose either "Small," "Medium," or "Large," and not anything with "Wet-in-Wet." "Wet-in-Wet" has "diffusion," which will make your paint look lighter and fuzzy.
Aside from the size of the mark, your tablet's pressure affects how the color lays down on the texture, too. Light pressure has a lower opacity and makes the texture really dark. Medium pressure makes the texture blend in with the color more. Hard pressure makes the color and the texture dark.
When blending, the tablet's pressure affects how the colors blend. Light pressure blends smoothly, and if you skim over the other colors light enough you might only color the paper's texture and not the paper. Medium pressure blends evenly, and its texture has the original color's hue. Hard pressure barely blends and is 100% the new color.
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Step 4
After you have familiarized yourself with the tools, do the background. If you're doing a flat color background like this one, you do the first color with hard pressure first. Then using varying pressure, "stain" the picture with other colors. I used different shades of brown and darker pinks to do a bit of shadow that will make the figure stand out more. To soften the edges of the background, I selected white as my color and lightly brushed over it.
If you like a "stroke" around your image, this is the time to do it. I used light yellow and a hard pressure to get a nice, unblended stroke.
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Step 5
Now you do your flats with medium pressure. If you do medium pressure and the colors bleeds into the background or stroke, it isn't as noticeable. If you did a stroke in a lighter color, you can leave bits of it in as highlight.
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Step 6
With medium to light pressure, do the basic shading.
With hard pressure, do your darkest darks. Also use the hard pressure to do edges. If you don't like a hard edge but did one by accident, go over the edge with light pressure.
With light pressure, highlight.
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Step 7
Double-check. Triple-check. Quadruple-check! When you're sure that you're absolutely done coloring and ready to add details with the scratchboard tool, save and go to "Canvas" and select "Dry." Once you've dried, you can not go back and change your watercolors.
If you try to watercolor over a dry canvas, it will not blend. Instead, it will act like a layer set on multiply in photoshop. You can use this to your advantage, sometimes. Anyways, there is no way to make your watercolors wet again-- so only dry when you're absolutely sure that you're done.
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Step 8
Select the "Pens" tool and set it to "Scratchboard Tool." Change the size of the pen to 1 pixel, and the color to white (or light-light yellow). Then add small, precise detailing to your image.
In the example, I highlighted the lips, the edge of the jacket, the ribbon choker, and a few strands of hair. Don't overdo the highlights because then it'll start to look excessive and annoying. I used to do that all the time. I was stupid.
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Step 9
Extra!
A neat effect you can do is with "Spatter," which is under "Water Color." With it, you can add little colored spots of paint onto your picture. If you increase its size, it can make a pretty big impact. In the example, I used it to add white bubbles onto the background. This only works if your painting is still wet.
Also, if you run into any edges that you don't like, you can get rid of them easily. Select "Wet Diffusion" under "[i]Water Color" and set its opacity really low-- under 5%. If the opacity is too high, it'll erase the image while it disffuses. Chance the diffusion to 1 so that it won't be too fuzzy, and then swab over the parts of the harsh edges.
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Step 10
Now you're done!
Dry your painting if you did any changes with a wet tool, and then copy it onto a different program to save, such as Photoshop. Painter Classic's compression sucks and will completely destroy your image. |
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