Impassioned Paint
A Transformational Journey from Photograph to Painting
In this article I share the techniques, tools and creative process that went into creating Impassioned. My intention is not to give you a precise formula or recipe to follow. Painter is a program that allows you to express yourself yourself in your own unique way. I encourage you to experiment with your own path, trying out different brushes and techniques within (and without) Painter. For me every painting unfolds like a voyage of discovery, unveiling a journey full of surprises, opportunities and challenges. Give yourself the freedom to take risks and follow your intuition...
Fig 1
The final image, Impassioned
The Inspiration
My paintings start with inspiration. That inspiration may come from a live model or from a moment captured in my camera. In this case I was inspired by a photograph I took of professional Argentine Tango dancers, Mariana Dragone and Jaimes Friedgen, when they performed at the Metronome Dance Center, San Francisco.
Fig 2
The original photorgraph
What I love about this image is the energetic contrast and impassioned connection between the two dancers. She is centered and calm, completely in control while completely surrendering. He is wild yet sensitive, solid yet flowing. You can almost feel him breathe. The two, connected in their circle of embrace, touching at their foreheads, are as one in the moment.
The Tools
I used a Canon 20D digital SLR camera with 77 - 200 mm lens, 3200 ASA setting. I captured the image as a RAW file, previewed it in iView Media Pro3 on a Macintosh Dual G5 (180 GB hard drive, 4 GB RAM) with Wacom 12 x 19 Intuos tablet and 30" Apple Cinema display. After previewing all my RAW files I opened this particular RAW image in Adobe Photoshop CS2, resized, cropped and adjusted it, prior to re-opening it as a flat TIFF file in Corel Painter IX.5.
My captured RAW image was 3504 pixels by 2336 pixels. This size is determined by the CCD (charged coupled device) in my camera. I had a stretcher and frame I wanted to use for this piece that was 28.25" wide by 40.25" high. I set the Photoshop crop tool to be 28.5" wide by 40.5" high at 100 pixels per inch, allowing an extra quarter of an inch for safety. I made my crop. This resulted in a file size 4050 pixels by 2850 pixels. Although I wanted to end up printing at 150 pixels per inch, I didn't want to make my working image too large (can slow down brush responsivity and limit the maximum scale of brushes). It is generally best to work at the final size and resolution you want to end up with. With painterly impressionistic brushwork there is a lot of forgiveness in resolution and 150 PPI works fine for all my printing.
Generally I recommend making any resizing, rotation, cropping, hue, saturation, curves and levels adjustments in Photoshop, using adjustment layers where appropriate, saving a master file in PSD format, flattening the file and resaving as a flat TIFF file which you then open in Painter. To prepare files for acting as a reference source for painting in Corel Painter I generally make them a little more contrasty and saturated (warmer) than I would if I were just going to make a photographic print.
Once open in Corel Painter IX.5 I recommend making sure you are working with a good contrasty image. I used the Windows > Underpainting > Style: Increase Contrast setting to increase contrast. Other useful tools in Painter for enhancing your image contrast are Effects > Tonal Control > Equalize (Cmd/Ctrl-E) and the Effects > Tonal Control > Adjust Colors. If I was going to add any extra border to my image this would have been the time to do it. In this case I chose to stick with the crop and resize I had done in Photoshop.
Fig 3
Increase contrast using the Underpainting palette
Making a Clone Copy
When working with photographs in Painter I always work on a clone copy (duplicate), never directly on the original source image. After I opened the source image in Painter and was satisfied with the contrast and saturation, and had saved it in a project folder as “impassioned-01-orig.tif”, I chose File > Clone and made a clone copy. There are two basic approaches you can take to working on a clone copy image, either leaving the photographic image there and working directly on top of it (often good for more oily looks), or filling the canvas with white or an alternative background color, and then revealing the image, or your impression of the image. I chose to keep the image showing in this case.
Fig 4
Make a clone copy
I then renamed the cleared clone copy with the name “impassioned-02.tif”, saving it as a TIFF image since there were no layers at this stage. The native RIFF format of Painter is the most versatile format in terms of preserving the editability of all aspects of an image and is the format you should use if in doubt.
Activating the Magic Clone Color Button
From the Brushes palette I selected the Artists category > Sargent Brush variant. This is a lovely oily brush. I checked the Clone Color button in the Colors palette. This caused the Sargent Brush to pick up its color from the original file which was automatically defined as clone source when I did the clone operation.
Fig 5
Select Artists > Sargent Brush and activate Clone Color button
Filling the Canvas with Brushstrokes
I folowed the forms of the image as I filled the canvas with brush strokes.
Fig 6
Apply the Artists > Sargent Brush using clone color
Fig 7
Brush stroke details
Printing
I output this image onto Digital Art Supplies WR Canvas using my Epson 9600 printer with UltraChrome pigment inks. I coated the print with PremierArt Satin Eco Print Shield followed by Utrecht Gloss Acrylic Varnish Medium. You can see the resulting painting on display at the San Francisco Nordstrom Couture Department (Market and Fifth, on second floor) Martini Splash art exhibit, Friday, May 26, 4 - 7PM. I edition my images in limited multiple original editions of five for a given size.
About the Artist
Music and dance form a source of inspiration for much of Jeremy ’s work.
His colors and brush strokes express energy, movement, personality and
emotion. Impassioned is one of Jeremy’s series of Dance Portraits. It
captures a moment of powerful and beautiful connection.
Born in London, U.K., 1961, Jeremy has resided in the San Francisco
Bay Area since 1988. The artwork of artist, author and educator
Jeremy Sutton has been published and exhibited internationally. His work
is in private and public collections throughout the world. Sutton, who has a
degree in Physics from Oxford University, studied at the Ruskin School of
Drawing and Fine Art in Oxford and at the Vrije Akademie in The Hague,
The Netherlands. Sutton, an innovator in the field of digital painting since
1991, works with multiple media. Subjects who have sat for portraits by Sutton
include Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Atlantic Airways; Graham Nash,
co-founder of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young; and Willie L. Brown, former
Mayor of San Francisco.
If you wish to purchase or view his artwork, commission a portrait, or study
with him, please contact his studio:
Sutton Studios & Gallery
1890 Bryant Street, Suite 306, San Francisco, CA 94110
Phone 415.641.1221
www.jeremysutton.com — artwork
www.paintercreativity.com — instruction
Learning Painter with Jeremy Sutton
Jeremy teaches Painter seminars (San Francisco, London and Los Angeles) and produces books (e.g. Painter IX Creativity: Digital Artist's Handbook) and instructional DVDs (e.g. Painter IX Simplified for Photographers) which help you master the digital paint tools and techniques while expanding your creativity and artistic expression.
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