Painting in Painter™ 291
Figure 5-84
Wedding Embrace, Cape May, NJ
in Figure 5-84 was made from a photograph taken at a wedding that
took place in Cape May, New Jersey, on the beach. I used the Chalk
Cloner and various watercolor cloners, including one that left telltale
spots of water.
Digital Collage and Painting292
Figure 5-85
President’s House, McDaniel College
Painting in Painter™ 293
Don’t copy. Feel the forms.
Feel how much it swings,
how much it slants—these
are big factors. The more
factors you have, the
simpler will be your work.
— THOMAS EAKINS ,
in Thomas Eakins, by
Lloyd Goodrich (1987)
Sometimes you may fi nd yourself struggling with an image because
the software doesn’t seem capable of giving you what you had imag-
ined. This was the case with Figure 5-85 . The whites that I desired did
not seem pure enough in my digital painting. I tried painting and erasing,
but I simply wasn’t satisfi ed with the results. I printed the painting and
looked at it with dismay. I was right. The whites simply were not white
enough. I then took a real paintbrush and some opaque white watercolor
paint and literally stroked real paint onto my print. As that was drying,
I felt compelled to add a few details with real colored pencils. When the
print was dry I scanned it back into the computer and worked on it a little
more until I felt satisfi ed with this commission. The point to this story is

Duplicate the combined layer
Apply a Curves adjustment to lighten the image
Duplicate the layer and apply Filter > Photocopy
Set the Photocopy layer to 78% opacity and set on the Multiply
blend mode
My fi rst task was to convert this color photograph to the look of a
black-and-white photocopy. When I thought about what a photocopy
looks like, I realized that lots of mid-tones and detail in highlights and
shadows are lost. I wanted to replicate that effect, so it would resem-
ble a real photocopy. Here are the steps that I used. I desaturated
the image, leaving a black-and-white rendition of the photograph.
That layer was copied and the Color Dodge blend mode was applied
to it. Those two layers were combined into another layer, labeled
“Combination.” By leaving the fi rst two layers, I reserved my ability
to go back into those layers later, if need be. The Combination layer
Choose only one
master—Nature.
— R
EMBRANDT ,

in Rembrandt Drawings,
by Paul Némo, as
translated by David
Macrae (1975)
Painting in Painter™ 295
was duplicated and a Curves adjustment was applied to it, lighten-
ing the image. That layer was duplicated and the Photocopy fi lter was
applied to it. This new layer was then set on the Multiply blend mode
and reduced to 78%.
Figure 5-88

Figure 5-91 was made with the same tools but with a difference at the
beginning of the cloning process. When the portrait was cloned, and the
clone was selected and deleted, the entire area was then fi lled with the tan
color. This simulated a piece of tan charcoal paper. My little experiment
yielded another way to make a photo-like illustration. In this case, it was a
portrait, but this same process could be used on other subject matter.
Figure 5-91
Painter version with solid
background
One touch of nature makes
the whole world kin.
— W
ILLIAM SHAKESPEARE ,
Troilus and Cressida
(1601)
Painting in Painter™ 299
Auto-Painting: Painting in a Hurry
Those engineers at Corel are wizards. They think of everything to
help the artist out. The next technique is super easy and quick. Since
Painter X they have included an Auto-Painting option. Here is a look
at how it works.
Figure 5-93
Selecting Auto-Painting
Figure 5-92
Horse racer and its clone
Select a photo and clone it, as explained earlier in this chapter. Turn
off Tracing Paper, creating a white layer on which to work.
In the Window menu, select Show Underpainting > Auto-Painting.
Select Smart Stroke Brushes from our choice of brushes. Within that
category, select the Acrylics Captured Bristle Brush variation. Your

Another way to go with this tool is to check the box marked Smart
Stroke Painting, which follows the lines of the photograph and is less
random. Next, check the box marked Smart Settings. This is an auto-
matic feature that starts out with a large brush size and then decreases
in size, yielding more detail. It will “fi nish” the painting on its own.
This becomes a fabulous base for a painting.
With this giant head start, it is now easy to refi ne the image a bit,
using the Chalk Cloner. The goal is still to have a painterly looseness
with just a bit more defi nition where needed.
Digital Collage and Painting302
Continuing to use that Chalk Cloner, I decreased the brush size for
more detail on the people and various areas throughout the image. It
is like walking a tightrope to achieve the right balance between photo-
graphic detail and a loose painterly feel. You determine how loose or
tight the fi nished image will be.
The elements of design prevail whether you are photographing,
drawing, or painting. Composition, line, color, form, and directionality are
still the pillars of good design. A strong photo will be a good candi-
date for a painting.
I have used the Acrylics Captured Bristle from the Smart Stroke
Brushes for this example, but try another one from that grouping.
Experiment with the different kinds of marks you can make with the
Auto-Painting dialogue box. A ton of options are available to you. Try
them out.
Figure 5-100
Decreased brush size for more
detail
Figure 5-99
Adding Chalk Cloner
Painting in Painter™ 303

If you try painting from a different direction, you may improve that
effect dramatically.
Illustrative Sketch Technique
Although this technique is not really a painting per se, it is a great
sketch effect that gives the feel of an intaglio, or etching, print. It is
especially good with photos that have a complicated area of detail.
I chose an image of a medieval German doorway.
Figure 5-104
Applying Sketch Effect
As usual, clone the image. Copy this new layer (Select All > Edit
> Copy > Paste in Place). On this new layer, use Effects > Surface
Control > Sketch. Our settings were Sensitivity, 3.49; Smoothing, 1.55;
Grain, 0.27; Threshold High, 23%; and Threshold Low, 100%. Watch
the preview window until you achieve the look you like.
Change the composite method to Overlay. You will notice the
lightened color and a gritty look, depending on your Sketch settings.
I liked the look but wanted to push it further.
Digital Collage and Painting306
Figure 5-106
Duplicate that layer
Figure 5-105
Overlay composite method
I duplicated the sketch layer by right clicking. When duplicated, it
retains the Overlay composite method for the newest layer. This inten-
sifi es that sketch effect and lightens the image more.
Painting in Painter™ 307
This image was now moving toward the look of an old etching, so I
intensifi ed it by changing the newest layer’s composite method to Gel.
Voilà ! This would look good printed on an off-white, rag-based paper
to further emphasize the etching (or intaglio) feel.

Three fi les open—pay close
attention
Figure 5-110
Additional layer for sky
To avoid the muddy mess that blending would create in the tree
branch areas, I created another new layer and painted that portion of
the image with the Real Round Bristle brush, found in the RealBristle™
Brushes category. I sampled colors from the original image to create
the colors with which I painted. I then dropped all the layers together,
joining them. I renamed this blender painting. By giving it a different
name, I retained the original image to archive and use further.
Painting in Painter™ 309
The next technique requires some attention to details. I cloned
the new fi le, Windmill Ptg. In addition to Windmill Ptg and its
clone, I also opened the original image, Windmills. When working
on the clone, you need to direct the software to the image source
that you want to use. I wanted the new painting for all the blend-
ing work I had done, but I also wanted the tree details from the
original image.
I switched back and forth from the Blender painting of the wind-
mills, as my source image, and the original image for the tree limbs
and branches. That allowed me to retain the painterly Blender paint-
ing and introduce the limbs into the image. I chose the Oil Brush
Cloner for a rough, creamy, and textural brush stroke. I could have
stopped here but instead added a colored canvas border and canvas
texture. I fl attened the image and gave it a new name.
Figure 5-112
Tree is cloned using a
textural brush, Oil Brush
Cloner

Figure 5-117
Doctored original photo
Digital Collage and Painting312
As a photographer, you know that some images speak to you imme-
diately. Others take time to fl oat to the surface of possibilities. The
image shown in Figure 5-121 took a decade to be made. That long
ago, with a long lens and from far away, I took a photograph of a
Civil War re-enactor. I just liked how he was standing and waiting for
someone. I did not ask permission or get a release from him. I never
intended to use the image. The background was full of water cool-
ers, ice chests, fellow soldiers, pick-up trucks, and more. It was sim-
ply awful. Looking through my slides years later, I stumbled onto the
image of the soldier again. I decided to scan it into my computer and
delete the objectionable background elements in Photoshop. Armed
with that improved doctored image ( Figure 5-117 ), I returned to the
site of the annual re-enactment, where I had taken the original image.
Tens of thousands of re-enactors were present. How would I ever fi nd
this one man so I could give him his photograph and get him to sign
a release form? It was a long shot at best. I showed the photo around
in the re-enactors’ camp. Unbelievably, fellow re-enactors recognized
him and directed me to his unit. I found him, gave him his photo,
and secured a release from him. He was a needle in a haystack,
indeed, but found.
Figure 5-118
Enlarged canvas and clone
stamped backgr
ound
Duplicate the image
Use Filter > Stylize > Find Edges on the duplicate layer
Set the Find Edges layer to the Darken blend mode

to Gel.
Art is the lie that tells the
truth.
— PABLO PICASSO ,
in “Picasso Speaks,”
The Arts Magazine (May,
1923)
Digital Collage and Painting314
Use Blender brushes to blend the new paint into the previous version
Various Blender brushes were used to combine the clone and the over-
laying Gel layers.
The resulting illustration was achieved more than a decade after the
original slide image was made. The background had been simply hor-
rible and the image lacked sharpness. Despite those huge impediments,
a pleasing image was made using the digital artistic tools of a modern
era. Maybe we should go back through those old slide collections and
fi nd other candidates for revitalization using these techniques.
Figure 5-120
Layers are blended
Figure 5-121
Completed painting
Painting in Painter™ 315
Painterly Edge Effects
One of the techniques that I love to incorporate into my digital art-
work is the use of painterly edges. There are so many possibilities
and so many brushes. We will explore a few here. Feel free to mix and
match them as possible edge effects.
Figure 5-122
New layer fi lled with white and painted with the History brush in Photoshop
Open photo in Photoshop