Digital Painting

This koi painting is the result of more experimentation with the sumi-e style. It combines the watercolor brushes available in Corel® Painter™ with a texture created by floating calligraphy inks on paper.

The koi itself shows some of the texture effects that can be created by laying down a base coat of Painter’s watercolor and then manipulating it with clear water and wet erasers also available in Painter.

The watercolor brushes in Painter are somewhat difficult to use because color builds very quickly while painting with them. The difficulty is worth it though.

These brushes are unmatched in the way they move and spread with the underlying canvas.

Unlike traditional watercolor, Painter’s watercolor also stays wet until the user decides to dry it. The wet paint particles can be further manipulated, mixed and moved with various erasers and other brushes to create texture that would be difficult to achieve any other way.

This blossoming plum tree painting was created in Corel® Painter™ 11 while playing with a sumi-e style. It is often difficult to achieve the look of wet media digitally, but with my own technique and a custom brush, the effect comes close.

The method used depends on the natural (at least in the digital world) effect of image interpolation. In short, Painter must guess colors to include in the painting as areas of color are blurred and broken apart in a controlled manner. In a less technical sense, the color is broken into its main components like ink and moves it around the canvas as if it were floating on water. The soft, wet media is a great complement to the harsh black outlines of the ground and tree.