Books & DVD's
Painter IX Simplified for
Photographers
Frequently Asked Questions — Notes for DVD Users
If you have any questions regarding an order you have placed via this web site please contact my Studio Manager, Beth Waldman. Her email is beth@jeremysutton.com and phone number is 415-641-1221. She is usually in the Studio Monday through Thursday, 10am - 6pm PCT.
Scroll down to find answers to user questions relating to these topics:
Extra Brushes on Resource CD
Saving Paper Texture for Warhol Technique
Tutorial Photo for Impressionist Technique
Do I need to upgrade to Painter IX?
Extra Brushes on Resource CD
Question: "On DVD #1 you say there is a folder and jpg file entitled jeremyXtrabrushes and that I should copy it to the Painter Brushes folder. However, the CD does not have a jeremyXtrabrushes folder or jpg file. There is a folder entitled Goodies and it appears to have 7 brushes in it. There is no jpg file. How do I load on the extra brushes included in the Resource CD?"
Answer: When I originally recorded the DVDs I had intended the Resource CD to have the extra brushes conveniently organized in a custom brush category folder called jeremyXtrabrushes, along with a pre-made category icon called jeremyXtrabrushes.jpg. Unfortunately the extra variants ended up being placed directly in a folder called Goodies. There are two ways to approach loading these brushes and I'll offer you both alternatives here.
Option A - The Easiest Solution
The simplest and easiest solution is to not load these brushes that come with my DVDs, but, instead, load the much more extensive Jeremy Faves 2.0 brush category from the Companion Resource CD that accompanies my new book, Painter IX Creativity: Digital Artist's Handbook. Besides being much easier to instal than the DVD variants, the Jeremy Faves 2.0 brush category includes not only the extra brushes from the DVD but many more, including a collection of new custom brushes I specially made for the book. The book itself is a great complement to the DVDs, going into detail about areas not covered in the DVDs, such as customizing brushes, fine art painting and collage. Once you have the book (should be available by the end of March), simply locate the Jeremy Faves 2.0 category folder and jpg from the Goodies (Mac OSX) folder (these work even if you are on Windows XP), and copy them into the Applications (Mac OSX) / Program Files (Windows XP) > Corel > Corel Painter IX > Brushes > Painter Brushes folder.
Option B - Complex But Good to Know Anyway
To load the extra brush variants from the Resource CD that accompanies the DVDs is, unfortunately, not a simple matter. You will need to first create a custom brush category to place them in (unless you were to mix them in with the default variants, which I do not recommend). Here are the steps to follow:
1. Drag the Rectangular Selection tool over a portion of an image you want to capture as the new category icon.
2. Choose Capture Brush Category from the Brush Selector pop-up menu.
3. Name the new Brush Category and click OK. The new brush category has a single variant, name same as category.
4. For Mac OSX users, copy all the extra brush variant files from the Resource CD Goodies folder into the User > User Name Folder > Library > Application Support > Corel > Corel Painter IX > Brushes > Painter Brushes > New Category folder (whatever you have just named your new category). For Windows XP users, copy all the extra brush variant files from the Resource CD Goodies folder into the C Drive > Documents and Settings > User Name Folder > User Data > Corel > Corel Painter IX > Brushes > Painter Brushes > New Category folder (whatever you have just named your new category). I told you it wasn't simple!
5. In Painter select the new category and the original default variant (same name as category).
6. Choose Delete Variant from the Brush Selector pop-up menu.
7. If you wish to copy any other variants from other Brush Categories into your new category choose the variant you wish to copy and then choose Copy Variant from the Brush Selector pop-up menu.
If Painter is already open when you load new brushes you first have to select Load Brush Library from the Brush Selector Palette pop-up menu and click OK (to select the Painter Brushes library). This activates the newly loaded brushes.
Saving Paper Texture for Warhol Technique
Question: "I love your DVD's and have done some of the "Andy Warhol" effects. But now I got a problem. When I try to make a captured paper texture it comes up with a dialog box that says "Unable to save paper texture". I don't know what I am doing wrong. I have used it in the past so I have worked with it before but now for some reason it is not letting me capture my own paper texture. I thought maybe my file was too big so I made a smaller image..still didn't work. Then I closed painter completely down and started over...that didn't work. I have made sure I have the area selected but I still get ..unable to save paper texture."
Answer: Papers in Painter occupy memory. When you capture a paper from a large photo you use a lot of memory. After a while you will find you can't capture more papers. There are three steps to overcoming this problem. Follow these steps in the sequence described below.
Step A - Create your own custom Papers library for each project
Open the Papers palette (Window > Library Palettes > Show Papers).
Select the Paper Mover from the Papers palette pop-up menu (click on small solid black triangle on upper right corner of palette).
Click on the New button in the Paper Mover.
Name and save your custom papers library.You may wish to create one per project, and save it in your project folder. Name it appropriately.
Step B - Copy your custom papers into your library and then delete from the default library
Now select your custom papers from the left hand side of the Paper Mover, which shows the content of the current paper library, which will usually be the default paper library. You'll need to click on individual papers to work out which is which (unfortunately there isn't a list view or pop-up menu). When you select a custom paper drag the icon from the left to the right side of the Mover, into your new library. Then go back to the left side and select the paper and click Delete to delete it from the default paper library.
You can click Quit from the Paper Mover.
To clear the memory I suggest you Quit and reopen Painter.
Step C - Resize your photo to 25%, capture paper and then apply the paper at 400%
Choose Canvas > Resize, and resize the photo you wish to capture as a paper texture at 25% of it's original size. That means lowering either a pixel dimension, an inches dimension, or the resolution (when showing inches in dimensions), by 25% while having the Constrain File Size box unchecked.
Now apply the paper texture at 400% scale (Paper Palette has a scale slider that goes up to 400%).
Tutorial Photo for Impressionist Technique
Question: "Where do I find the photograph by Lisa Evans on the Resource CD?"
Answer: It is isn't included with the Resource CD. Use one of your own photographs when following the Impressionist technique demo.
Do I need to upgrade to Painter IX?
Question: "I am working in Painter 8. Do I need to upgrade to Painter IX?"
Answer: Yes! Painter IX is simply much better than Painter 8 on every level and you should definitely upgrade. The Painter team at Corel rewrote the entire Painter code, much of which hadn't been touched for many, many years, to produce the fastest, most efficient version of Painter yet. When you upgrade first make sure you back-up any custom brushes and art materials from Painter 8. Then un-instal (Windows), or trash (Mac), Painter 8. You'll love Painter IX!
What to Buy?
I recommend starting off with my book, Painter X Creativity: Digital Artist's Handbook, and introductory DVD, Learning Corel Painter X with Jeremy Sutton. The book is a great complement to all my other materials and also serves as the required text book for all my classes. The book goes deeper and broader than any DVD. It also provides covenient step lists for many of the techniques shared on the DVDs. The Learning Corel Painter X DVD gives you a good overview of the software.
Once you are familiar with the basics then I recommend the more advanced DVD sets, How to Paint from Photographs Using Corel Painter X - Creative Techniques with Jeremy Sutton
and Expanding Your Creativity with Jeremy Sutton - The Art of Collage Portraiture. Both these more advanced DVD sets take you through real-life case studies from beginning to end, sharing along the way my work-flow, organizational systems, creative process, decision-making strategies, techniques and tools, plus including extensive extra brushes, art materials, tutorial images and more. In these two DVD sets I share cross-media techniques that show how I work with different programs and apply traditional media onto my prints.
If you are keen to dive in deeply and work through all my materials then I recommend my Ultimate Collection 2007 which includes all the items mentioned above at a discounted price (roughly equivalent to having the Learning Corel Painter X DVD thrown in for free).