TENTATIVE Sketchbook of eyrebrush

#41

Here goes! Thought I’d rough it out on a darkish canvass before I packed up for the night. I’m just about ready for my bed, to be honest. Been a busy day; it’s getting late and I’m whacked! I’m looking forward to continuing with tomorrow.

Stage one:

#42

Hello, Mark. LOL. I think we bumped into each other there! Thought my last message was never going to upload. Turns out you were sending yours at the same time!

Thanks, Mark. I’m starting to get the hang of this digital drawing board now. Really enjoying it!
Ciao.
Ronnie.

#43

Wow, you’re really picking this up fast! :slight_smile: Hope all of the issues have been resolved…I also think you’re off to a much better start when painting on a non white bkgrd - should cut out about 50% of your work even. Keep going!

#44

Thanks, Rebecca. I do prefer working into a darker background. I’ve always done it with a real canvass. Ready made canvasses always come primed with white, and I always cover the whole surface with turpsy washes using greens blues and browns.

I had 45 minutes to spare this morning before I had to go out. Started to block more areas in:

#45

Hi, welcome eyrebrush!
Wow for only just starting to use a tablet you’re off to a great start! I really like that portrait you did, is that using one of those special artist brushes in painter? I don’t think I ever saw anyone use it…it looks really neat :slight_smile:

#46

Hi…Ronnie…:slight_smile:

Was thinking that the nice thing about digital, is that it allows you to break the rules, BIG TIME…For instance, you can mix water color and oil in the same painting, without having to worry about the disasterous results that would happen if you did it using traditional paints. What you posted about starting out with a washed out color background brought that to mind…I wish that you had Painter #9…the water colors in that program act just like the real thing…randomly expand on the canvas ect., really amazing when you see it happening, on the computer no less. ANYWAY, was thinking how nice that watercolor effect would look as a background for a portrait done in oils as you are doing now…just a thought that popped into my mind as I was looking at that little girls face, which is fantastic by the way…she looks like she just saw Santa Claus for the first time…GREAT photo and expression captured there…:thumbsup:
I like the brush effect your getting in the last step you posted…Van Goghish look to it…:bounce:
Can’t wait to see the end result…:thumbsup:
TAKE CARE
Glenn

#47

Hi Ronnie,

great to see your sketchbook and there are many grandiose works onto your website. Try to use really big brushes to feel more comfortable, just a suggestion.

Ciao,
Ellie :slight_smile:

#48

Hi, Roja. Thanks for the welcome. This IS quite a new venture me, and I have to say I’m quite enjoying it! There are still a lot of things that I have to suss out yet with Coral Painter. I do NOT have the full version at this stage, only Coral Painter Essentials 2 - that came with the Intuos tablet. I Imagine it’ll have the whole range of brushes that the full version’s got. I have to say I have not tried other brushes yet; I just chose “oil paint” and used the first brush that it came up with. I have to say it’s not QUITE like a real hog hair brush that is normally used with oil paint. A real one wouldn’t leave those spots and splodges that become more obvious when you increase the size of this particular digital brush. I think I’ll investigate some of the others.

Having just finished my ‘chores’ for the day, (2.30pm) I’m just about to start work again
on this portrait of little Ellie. I’m BOUND to be interrupted a few times while I’m working on it, so I’ll save it in several stages - as I did with the other one.

Ronnie.

#49

Hi, Glenn.
After I had finished the day’s chores yesterday at about 2.30pm I tried to continue with little Ellie’s portrait. I started running into great difficulty. I was in full sun the whole afternoon. I tried closing the curtains a bit because I could not see the screen properly. That didn’t really work either. I was struggling to see the cursor; had to have it pretty small to draw in the eyes. I kept losing it altogether! Felt very handicapped. I gave it up in the end, after about 45 minutes, and went out to do some gardening! I wasn’t going to WASTE all that lovely sun! LOL. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to work on it in the evening either; I had another urgent job to do.
Anyway, here’s that disasterous attempt yesterday! LOL. Scary, man! Will continue with it later on today.

#50

Hi Ronnie - the lighting is great - obviously carries over from you trad. work

Gord

#51

Ahgggg! Oh MAN! This painting has driven me crazy today! I’ve found it soooo difficult to find the right colours at the right intensity and tone. Spent most of the day exploring all the different brushes. DID dabble for a while with layers, but give that up; couldn’t see the need for them. I prefer - at this stage of my learning at least - to stick to the single canvass, and try to blend the colours together with the brush. The brush that I’ve used here throughout has been the same one - the artist’s brush - for oil painting. I REALLY wanted the SLAB brush, that I’ve seen other people use in their sketch books. I normally use a square or filbert shaped hog brush when painting on a real canvass. The slab brush would have suited me perfectly here, but it does not seem to be available to me here in this ‘small’ version of Coral Painter. I would like to have the full version of Coral Painter 9, but I can’t really afford it at the moment.

Anyway, this is what I ended up with today. Will try to continue with it tomorrow when I feel more refreshed. SOOO many adjustments to be made, and modelling.

#52

it’s getting better and better ronnie, it reminds me of that classical impressionist painting of renoir & monet. good job

#53

Hi…Ronnie…:slight_smile:
LOOKING GREAT SO FAR…:thumbsup: …The colors are starting to get that vibrant look to them, as when they are in harmony with and next to each other…NICE GOING…Ronnie.:slight_smile:
I know what you mean about the glare,…I have to pull all the curtains shut whenever I work during the day, then I still end up getting some glare, so most of the time, I get up and do my computer painting way before the roosters crow, no light, and even better, no distractions.:scream:
You might ask MR MU, Pushav or Rebecca about how to import brushes into your program, from another program…They are pretty savy when it comes to the technical stuff in these different programs. Awhile back, Pushav gave me a couple of great brushes from his photoshop program, that I was able to import into my painter program.I can’t remember how it was done now though…was not that hard though, that much I do remember…:slight_smile:
If you find out how and if it is possible, I will be more than happy to export you whatever brushes you need and want from my painter #9 program…just let me know how it’s done.:thumbsup:
HEY…I just went out this morning and spent way to much money and bought a set of 90 assorted colors of Rembrant soft pastels in a wooden box kind of setup…and 20 sheets of very expensive paper. Now all I have to do is learn how to use them…LOL I never tried them before…SO I GUESS WE ARE NOW BOTH ENTERING INTO THE UNEXPLORED, AND UNKNOWN…:eek:
If my first efforts with them come out half as good as your first efforts with digital, I will be happy, and also very surprised…:slight_smile:
HAVE A GREAT ONE …Ronnie…:thumbsup:
TAKE CARE
Glenn

#54

Hey Ron

the painting is looking great sofar…

you could try a 30 day trial version of Corel Painter X if you’d like to see what a full version has to offer.

Also, I bought my full version of painter for the price of the upgrade version last year in May, when they had a promotion for Painter IX.5
I believe Corel does these kind of promotions every now and then so it might be worth checking their website every now and then. (saved me about 50% of the price)

#55

Impressive progress! I think the trial version of Corel is a good idea. Looking forward to more. :slight_smile:

BTW Corvax just posted a painting he did using your reference:

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?p=4251057#post4251057

Cheers!

#56

Thanks, Rebecca. Will have a look now.
I’ve actually downloaded Coral Painter X this afternoon, on trial! Been looking at Zhuzu’s sketchbook for the last few hours! I’m totally in awe of his work, and his talent. It’s that beautiful free style that I want to emulate. Trying to find that lovely threaded bristle brush that he uses so much. He uses Photo Shop, though. Not sure if I can find that brush setting in Coral Painter X. I tried to work some more on the portrait of Ellie, using a bristle brush, and ruined it. Saved it separately, though. Can still work on it from it’s original state. Getting a bit despondant, though.
Ronnie.

#57

Ronnie,

Heh, digital painting has it’s pros and cons. Programs can crash and you can lose work, but a good habit to get into is not only saving iterative saves but actually saving a file as a different name so you have an altogether different version of an image once you get it to a point where you wouldn’t like to lose it.

Corel is actually much more flexible and more like traditional media than PS, but if you can afford both apps I’d recommend both. However for general painting purposes Painter is actually better.

Cheers :slight_smile:

#58

Well, I have been exploring Coral Painter - at least the brushes anyway. I can’t say I’m too impressed with the watercolor brushes and effects. There are many features of real watercolor that can’t be simulated here, like washes collecting in odd corners, which is one of the distinctive features of a watercolor sketch.

I tested all the available brushes, first, with Photo Paint:

The effects are great for some purposes, but not really for simulating real paint.
THEN I went back to Painter and tried every one of the oil brushes. These were much more to my liking: clump brush - very good, and impasto palette knife - excellent:

Many brushes were so similar I couldn’t tell the difference. I’ve made a note of the most effective ones.
Then I tried the blending brushes - dry bristle (very good), dry PALETTE KNIFE (!) (excellent), grainy blender (excellent!) and oil palette knife , excellent for fine blending:

#59

Here is Painter X’s screen space and tools. I guess I’ll be very similar to that of Photoshop.

LOL - and here’s the state of my desk! All the wiring is a pain! I’m an untidy blighter amyway! LOL. -

Well, that’s me caput for tonight! I’ve got a lot of pain down my neck and right shoulder; I can’t tilt my head back at all! Dying to get my head down on the pillow. If it gets worse tomorrow I won’t be able to sit at this computer desk.

'night all.
Ronnie.

#60

Hi Ron, great to see you have started your own sketchbook as well. Great start; i mainly like the portrait of the little girl. Have fun and thanks for the poses you shared with us!