Mar 22, 2007

1 new wallpaper (Nodame Cantabile - Nodame Noveau)

1 new wallpaper:
Nodame Cantabile - Nodame Nouveau (Vexture/Art Nouveau)
A Nodame Cantabile wall in the Art Nouveau style. You can never have enough Nouveau. Basically, I thought Nodame's pose in the scan was well suited to an Art Nouveau style portrait. The skeletal trees in the back had a Nouveau vibe anyhow, which is what tipped the scales for me. Also, I wanted to play with framing, where part of the character is inside the frame and part is in front... [more]

Mar 16, 2007

A run down of Painter IX's brushes (Part I)

This is an exploration of Painter IX's default brush set. Painter has a ton of brush sets mimicking natural media, and is best utilized with a tablet to gain pressure sensitivity. There are so many types of brushes, that it's hard to know which brush has what effects.

This is based off of Painter IX's brush set. Brush sets in other versions of Painter will vary. Painter arranages its brushes by categories, which are fairly broad collections of brushes with similar settings. They tend to vary by effect, brush size, brush tip shape, and pressure sensitivity.

What the chart means

  • Wet/Dry: Painter has two types of brushes: Wet and Dry. Wet brushes must be used on a "wet" layer, and cannot interact with Dry brushes unless the wet layer is dried. There is also a hybrid "digital wet" brush that combines some aspects of both wet and dry brushes (they combine the characteristics of wet brushes, but can be used on dry layers directly.) Some categories contain brushes for both sets (there are both wet erasers and dry erasers, for example.)
  • Blending: Some brushes pick up the color of other paints around them. Some do not.
  • Opacity: Some brushes have a greater dynamic range in opacity than others.
  • Brush tip: The general brush tip shape
  • Paper Grain: Denotes whether a brush picks up the texture of the paper's grain.

    Left: Where to change your paper's grain | Right What grain means for a Painter brush
  • Buildup: Some brushes build up color as you pass the brush over the same area multiple times.

    Above: Two brushes with different buildup characteristics.

And now, on to the brushes!

Acrylics [general info]

  • Sample brushes: thick acrylic bristle, thick opaque acrylic, wet acrylic
  • Wet/Dry: Dry.
  • Blending: Varies. "Wet" or "soft" acrylics tend to pick up more colors than other acrylics.
  • Opacity: Generally opaque. Slight opacity on brush edges.
  • Brush tip: Varies. Distinct brush fibers or flat tips.
  • Paper Grain: None
  • Buildup: None

Airbrushes [general info]

  • Sample brushes: coarse spray, soft airbrush, variable splatter
  • Wet/Dry: Dry.
  • Blending: None
  • Opacity: Varies from entirely opaque to almost entirely transparent. "Soft" airs are the most transparent.
  • Brush tip: Round, with either soft or hard edges. Most brushes have a spatter radius.
  • Paper Grain: None
  • Buildup: None

Artist Oils

  • Sample brushes: dry bristle, impasto oil, tapered oils
  • Wet/Dry: Dry.
  • Blending: High
  • Opacity: Mostly opaque
  • Brush tip: Generally square, tapers quickly.
  • Paper Grain: None
  • Buildup: None

Artists

  • Sample brushes: Impressionist, Seurat, Van Gogh
  • Wet/Dry: Dry.
  • Blending: None
  • Opacity: Generally opaque
  • Brush tip: Variable. Each brush is unique, mimicking a different artist's style.
  • Paper Grain: None
  • Buildup: None

Blenders

  • Sample brushes: Grainy blender on Pens, Oily blender on Oils, Soft blender on Pastels
  • Wet/Dry: Dry. Watercolor and Digital Watercolor blenders are contained in their respective categories.
  • Blending: Blenders are used to blend paints that have already been laid down on the canvas.
  • Opacity: N/A
  • Brush tip: Variable, but generally round
  • Paper Grain: None
  • Buildup: N/A

Calligraphy [general info]

  • Sample brushes: calligraphy brush, thin grainy pen
  • Wet/Dry: Dry.
  • Blending: None
  • Opacity: Fully opaque
  • Brush tip: Thin and at an angle
  • Paper Grain: None
  • Buildup: None

Chalk [general info]

  • Sample brushes: blunt chalk, square chalk, variable width chalk
  • Wet/Dry: Dry.
  • Blending: None
  • Opacity: Mostly opaque
  • Brush tip: Round or square
  • Paper Grain: Yes, generally strong
  • Buildup: None

Charcoal [general info]

  • Sample brushes: dull charcoal pencil, soft charcoal, soft vine charcoal
  • Wet/Dry: Dry.
  • Blending: None
  • Opacity: Mostly opaque
  • Brush tip: Round or square
  • Paper Grain: Yes, generally mild
  • Buildup: None

Cloner

  • Sample brushes: camel oil cloner, furry cloner, smeary flat cloner, all using same base pattern
  • Wet/Dry: Wet and Dry
  • Blending: None
  • Opacity: Varies.
  • Brush tip: Varies
  • Paper Grain: Varies
  • Buildup: Varies

Colored Pencils [general info]

  • Sample brushes: colored pencil, oily colored pencil, variable colored pencil
  • Wet/Dry: Dry
  • Blending: Some
  • Opacity: Partially transparent
  • Brush tip: Round and small
  • Paper Grain: Yes, generally mild
  • Buildup: Yes, generally mild

Conte [general info]

  • Sample brushes: dull conte, square conte, tapered conte
  • Wet/Dry: Dry
  • Blending: None
  • Opacity: Mostly opaque
  • Brush tip: Round or square, dense bristles
  • Paper Grain: None
  • Buildup: None

Mar 10, 2007

1 new wallpaper (Clover - Concert for a Little Bird)

1 new wallpaper:
Clover - Concert for a Little Bird (Vector/Minimalistic)
I just wanted to make something with an Art Deco vibe, and decided to create a concert poster for Oruha... [more]

Mar 4, 2007

1 new wallpaper (Paradise Kiss - Lonely in Gorgeous)

1 new wallpaper:
Paradise Kiss - Lonely in Gorgeous (Vector/Minimalistic)
Just a simple wallpaper. I saw this interesting photo when browsing Stock Exchange for unrelated stocks, and liked the striking color combination, and the strong diagonal lines in the image. I wanted to make a monochromatic wall with the purple and yellow the image had, and figured that something from Ai Yazawa would be bold enough to go with the scheme... [more]