Corel Painter 2021: Introduction and Quick Start Guide

What's New in Corel Painter 2021

Corel Painter 2021 offers enhanced performance optimization, leveraging the latest advancements in CPU, GPU, and memory for a faster digital painting experience. The Brush Accelerator evaluates your system to optimize application settings and suggests potential upgrades. New features include Apple Touch Bar support for context-sensitive controls, Apple Pencil tilt support for precise brushstroke control, enhanced Apple Trackpad support for intuitive navigation, Apple Sidecar support for using an iPad as a secondary display, and new Clone tinting capabilities for dynamic color mixing with clone sources.

Additionally, Corel Painter 2021 introduces enhanced UI elements for quicker access to commands, a new Image dialog box for streamlined document creation, and AI Style panel and transfers for creating stylized paintings from photos using artificial intelligence. Layer compatibility is improved, making it easier to identify compatible brushes for different layer types. The Layers panel is also enhanced for easier management and manipulation of layers, including new options for Watercolor and Thick Paint layers. New brushes and an optimized Thick Paint workflow provide a more efficient and powerful painting experience.

Workspace Overview

The Corel Painter 2021 workspace is organized into menus, selectors, panels, and interactive palettes. Key components include:

• Menu bar: Access tools and features via pull-down menus.
• Brush Selector bar: Opens the Brush library panel for choosing brush categories and variants.
• Brush Selector flyout: Allows browsing brush libraries, selecting brushes, and identifying layer compatibility.
• Command bars: Provide shortcuts for common menu commands (e.g., File/Edit, Canvas, Photo Art).
• Property bar: Displays commands relevant to the active tool or object.
• Color panel: For selecting colors and viewing color information.
• Harmonies panel: For creating color harmonies.
• Layers panel: Manages layers, including creation, selection, hiding, locking, deleting, naming, and grouping.
• Canvas: The rectangular work area for creating images.
• Toolbox: Provides access to tools for creating, filling, and modifying images.

Corel Painter 2021 offers various workspace layouts (New to Painter, Classic, Default, Simple, Concept Art, Illustration, Fine Art, Photo Art, Manga Art) that can be switched to suit specific workflows. The Quick Switch feature allows for seamless transitions between layouts, especially on multi- or dual-mode devices.

Choosing and Modifying Brushes

Corel Painter 2021 features a wide range of brush variants organized into categories like Airbrushes, Artists' Oils, Calligraphy, Pens and Pencils, and Watercolor. Brush variants can be modified in the General brush control panel, which includes settings for Dab Type, Stroke Type, Method and Subcategory, and Source.

The Brush Selector allows users to find brushes that match specific descriptions using search terms. Layer compatibility icons help identify brushes suitable for different layer types (Default, Liquid Ink, Thick Paint, Watercolor). Basic brush attributes like size and opacity can be adjusted on the property bar.

Exploring the Toolbox

The toolbox contains various tools for digital painting and image manipulation:

Color tools:

• Brush tool: For painting and drawing on the canvas.
• Dropper tool: For picking up colors from an image.
• Paint Bucket tool: For filling areas with color, gradients, patterns, or clones.
• Interactive Gradient tool: For applying gradients to an image.
• Eraser tool: For removing unwanted areas from an image.

Selection tools:

• Layer Adjuster tool: For selecting, moving, and manipulating layers.
• Transform tool: For modifying selected areas using transformation modes.
• Rectangular Selection tool, Oval Selection tool, Lasso tool, Polygonal Selection tool: For creating various types of selections.
• Magic Wand tool: For selecting areas of similar color.
• Selection Brush tool: For creating freehand selections by painting.
• Selection Adjuster tool: For selecting, moving, and manipulating selections.
• Crop tool: For removing unwanted edges from an image.

Shape tools:

• Pen tool, Quick Curve tool: For creating straight lines, curves, and shape paths.
• Rectangular Shape tool, Oval Shape tool: For creating rectangles, squares, circles, and ovals.
• Text tool: For creating text shapes.
• Shape Selection tool: For editing Bézier curves.
• Scissors tool: For cutting open or closed segments.
• Add Point tool, Remove Point tool, Convert Point tool: For manipulating anchor points on shape paths.

Photo tools:

• Cloner tool, Rubber Stamp tool: For cloning and sampling image areas.
• Dodge tool, Burn tool: For lightening or darkening image areas.

Symmetry tools:

• Mirror Painting mode: For creating symmetrical paintings.
• Kaleidoscope mode: For creating colorful and symmetrical kaleidoscope images.

Composition tools:

• Divine Proportion tool: For planning compositions using guides.
• Layout Grid tool: For dividing the canvas for composition planning.
• Perspective Guides tool: For displaying perspective guides.

Navigation tools:

• Grabber tool: For scrolling through an image.
• Magnifier tool: For zooming in or out of an image.
• Rotate Page tool: For rotating the image window.

Selectors:

• View selector: For switching between document views and viewing modes.

Exploring Panels and Palettes

Interactive panels in Corel Painter provide access to content libraries, commands, controls, and settings. Panels can be organized into palettes and further collapsed into palette drawers to save screen space. Key panels include:

• Brush Control panels: Allow customization of brush variants.
• Advanced Brush Controls panel: Groups brush control panels relevant to the selected brush.
• Color panels (Color Panel, Mixer, Color Set Libraries): For choosing, mixing, and organizing colors.
• Harmonies panel: For creating color harmonies.
• Layers and Channels panels: For managing layers and previewing channels.

The Color panel, by default, displays the color wheel and information for a selected color, with options to switch between compact and full view.

Choosing a Workflow

Corel Painter 2021 offers a wide array of tools and features to create original artwork. Users can transform digital photos into paintings using cloning tools, or use photos as a starting point with the tracing paper feature. Sketches created with traditional tools can be scanned and finished digitally. Projects can also be started from scratch by choosing paper textures and brushes.

Photo Art: Photo Painting

The Photo Art workspace layout is optimized for painting on photos. Users can utilize various preset styles to transform photos into paintings. Powerful image cloning tools, such as Quick Clone, help transform existing images into artwork. Clone sources (images, textures, patterns) can be used to replicate colors and textures.

Tracing

Users can trace photos or artwork to create sketches, which can then serve as a starting point for paintings. The tracing paper feature allows for precise application of clone colors over a faded reference image. Opacity of the tracing paper can be adjusted.

Starting from a Scanned Illustration

Hand-drawn illustrations can be scanned and imported into Corel Painter. The scanned image can be placed as a new layer, and its background can be made transparent using the Gel composite method. Tools like the Pen tool, Quick Curve tool, Rectangular Shape tool, and Oval Shape tool can be used to recreate the sketch with shapes.

Drawing and Painting from Scratch

When drawing or painting from scratch, users set up the canvas size, resolution, and orientation. The Reference Image panel can be used to keep visual inspiration in sight. Users can choose brushes, select colors, and manage layers to build their artwork. Creating a rough sketch on a separate layer and then tracing it with another layer allows for detailed and precise line drawing.

Additional Resources

Users can access additional Corel Painter resources online:

• Corel Painter website: www.painterartist.com
• Corel Painter Tutorials: www.youtube.com/user/PainterTutorials
• Corel Painter on Twitter: www.twitter.com/corelpainter
• Corel Painter on Facebook: www.facebook.com/corelpainter

For information about the Corel Painter family of products, visit www.corel.com.