Working with Particle Brushes…

Introduction:

Do you remember my telling you that I was afraid to experiment in Painter 2015, because I would never exit the program?  Anyway, that’s just what happened!  I was so fascinated with the program, that I worked for 5 hours building up 10 paintings, only the last one of which even remotely resembles something that isn’t abstract.  I might point out (so I will), that particle brushes employ far more embellishment than my slapping down brush strokes to fill a page…  There is however, method to my madness! 

I wanted to get a feel for each brush, so I thought filling a canvas with brush strokes might accomplish that, as well as give me  indications, or ideas of what-else the brush might be used for; primarily, I just had fun, and went to town on this fascinating, yet complicated set of brushes!  It wasn’t long before I was so immersed in what I was doing, I lost track of whether I was using a gravity, flow, or spring brush.  It’s with extreme satisfaction and hopes for great accomplishments that I present to you, this series about using Corel Painter…

This was the last brush I tried, what produces this beautiful cat’s tail, which looks much more impressive in the slide show, and could be used whenever I want to tell a story about my cat!  The odd thing is, this was the one brush I DIDN’T know how to use!  For one thing, it didn’t even have the name ‘fur’ in its name.  It is simply called an ‘expression’ brush.  Also, I wasn’t applying enough pressure for the brush to register.  Then when I doubled the pressure, fur popped out so fast, that I didn’t know I made a tail until I was done…

Keep in mind, that I used an ‘art pen’, with Wacom tablet, and twisted the pen to get the thick fur; straight strokes produce more of a coat, evident in the top portion of the painting.  Obviously, this brush would be ideal for composing furry creatures.  Like-wise, you can make many ‘variable’ brushes of your own, that compliment this one.

It is recommended that you start with a black background when using particle brushes.  This, I believe, was a spring particle brush.  This brush tends to flip about as you paint with it, so controlling its general trajectory is about all you can do.  The upside is that the paper texture used shows through nicely (in the slide show), and layering colors can produce a 3D effect.  I see this brush as useful for creating waves of water, wisps of smoke, or even planetesimals with atmospheres…

This brush would typically be used to make a wisp across the page and some statement that might express the organic feel of this brush, in dire need of further exploration and tweaking.  And I see the possible production of geometric patterns here.

This one is interesting in that the brush reveals the ‘texture map’ of your canvas…  I don’t know a whole lot about maps just yet, except to say that when you change the map, you change how your brush operates, where-as paper textures only effect the surface itself.

The slideshow affords a more discriminate view of the awesome power of this program, unleashing curious and unusual results!  Owning a spacious Wacom tablet and Art Pen help the user out with enormous advantages over control, making your own imagination the limit…  This last one was more scrubbed in, than requiring a brush stroke as such…