Corel Painter 2015

I upgraded to the new Corel Painter 2015 yesterday, did some work with it, and found out that a lot of the brushes are not pressure sensitive, and cannot be use with my Wacom pen tablet. I sent them an email and they were aware of the problem, knowing Corel and using Painter for many years now, the problem should be fix shortly.

I like the new features and will have a post on them as soon as they fix the bug. I was able to start work on a flower with Painter 2015  and finished with Painter X3 the older version. I used very soft brushes.

Start with new Painter 2015 and finished with older version Painter X3 using only soft brushes.

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The Calgary Zoo

Montage "The 3 Amigos Bank Job" Canon 5D Markii, Canon 100-400 at 280mm, f5.6, 1/250sec, ISO200,

The Calgary Zoo, is an amazing zoo, it’s the second largest in Canada after Toronto.

The 3 Amigos, Canon 5D Markii, Canon 100-400 at 280mm, f5.6, 1/250sec, ISO200,BW using Onone software

 (To get Perfect Effect 4 for Free click on the link on the right of the page)

Located on St. George’s Island in downtown Calgary, a great location till June 2013 flood, the zoo suffered extensive damage costing over $50 million, the zoo fully reopened in November 2013.

For me like many Albertans and tourists the zoo is an oasis, a place to learn and relax.

The pictures on this post are some of my favorite, as you will see, I used some of them to create images that have nothing to do with the reality, but are part of my vision.

Canon 5D Markii, Canon 70-200 at 70mm, f2.8, 1/50 sec. ISO1250, using Corel Painter software,

The Other Side of the Glass, I like the interaction between the little monkey that in fact is outside, and the people the other side of the glass that are inside the building, it last just a fraction of second, just the time to capture it. Canon 5D Markiii, Canon 100-400 at 400 f5.6, 1/200sec. ISO 400

The Thinker, Canon 5D Markiii, Canon 70-200 at 160mm, f5, 1/1250sec, ISO 200

Canon 5D Markiii, Canon 24-105 at 100mm, f4.5, 1/640sec, ISO200

I love pink flamingo, I had that vision when I saw them, I started by the BW image above, but that wasn't what I was looking for, I wanted to keep the pink, and add a surreal mood, using liquify filter in Photoshop and Corel Painter I was able to recreate my vision, Canon 5D Markiii, Canon 24-105 at 100mm, f4.5, 1/640sec, ISO200

The zebras are probably one of my favorite subject, love the lines, especially great for BW, Canon 5DMarkiii, Canon 100-400 at 340mm, f5.6, 1/320sec, ISO200, Software onOne

The zebras such an amazing animal, I really like the way they are position in the frame, when I am out at the zoo, I can wait for hours to get a shot, and sometimes is doesn't happen, but this time it did, took me many days working with Photoshop and Corel to get the image exactly how I wanted, some of my pre-visualisation are very difficult and sometimes impossible to create even with Photoshop and all the other digital darkroom tools. For this shot I use my Canon 5DMarkiii, Canon 100-400 at 260mm, f5.6, 1/400sec, ISO200

The Lioness, so beautiful and ferocious, she is the queen, I passed many hours shooting her and her friends, the other lioness and the lions, to do so I needed to put my big lens on a tripod in a safe location, the African Lions are very popular and with all the kids rooming around it takes time to find the perfect spot, when I found it, I kept it for a while, shooting for few hours, wasn't even affected by the army of mosquitoes!!!  So I did like always when it's possible I used my sturdy tripod, Canon 5DMarkiii, Canon 100-400 at 308mm. f7.1, 1/160, ISO 400,

The angry girls, gorgeous and ferocious, Canon 5D Markiii, Canon 100-400 with a Kenco 1.4 extender to get 560mm, f8, 1/400sec, ISO400

The King, how handsome, young and perky, Canon 5D Markiii, Canon 100-400 with a Kenco 1.4 extender to get 434mm, f8, 1/250 ISO400

The Look of a king, Canon 5D Markiii, Canon 100-400 with a Kenco 1.4 extender to get 560mm, f9, 1/200 ISO400

To be successful when going for a safary at your local zoo, bring your tripod, I normally rent a cart to transport all my gears, be patient and take the time to find the perfect view point, set your gears be ready to shoot, and wait for the perfect moment, patience is the essence, that's why I always go alone, that way I can take as long as I want and focus on what I am doing, with no distraction.

To get Perfect Effect 4 for Free click on the link on the right of the page

Corel Painter Transforming a Photo into a Painting

Stephen Avenue Walk Downtown Calgary

Mirror

 I used Corel Painter for many years, starting with Painter 10 now using Painter X3 or 13. you can view many my work in my website gallery Concept and Fine Art, Fine Art Trees and Fine Art Flowers.
 Corel Painter is a wonderful software, one of the best. One thing great about Corel, is the 30
days full software trial, it's a big software and can be intimidating at time, the best way to
learn how to use it is by trying it, watch video tutorials and practice, same as when you download Photoshop
for the first time, after a while you get use to it, and more you use it, better you get at it.
I love using Corel Painter to transform photographs.

To do the digital paintings on this post I used different brushes, paper textures and paints, I still need to learn a lot more about all the features and how to use them, Painter is such a complete program, it will take me many years to learn maybe half of it, that lack of knowledge is not stopping me to use it, and should not stop you either.
I never rush this kind of work, it can take me few hours, too few months, depending of what I
want to achieve.

Canadian Forest, Calgary Alberta

Impressionist Forest, Banff Alberta

Escape, White Rock British Columbia

Sunset After the Rain Plaza San Martin, Buenos Aires, Argentina

The End of The Road, Canmore Alberta

Soft Flower

Floral Expression

Mendoza Tree, Plaza Independencia, Mendoza Argentina

Walk in the Park, Park San Martin, Mendoza, Argentina

To get Perfect Effect 4 for Free click on the link on the right of the page

My Vision "Montreal Quebec"

Inviting Stairs, Montreal, I used Corel Painter 12, The Best Digital Painting Software

" Montreal" my birth city, I called Montreal home for the first 20 years of my life .  I lived in the east side of the island, Montreal is an island, surrounding by rivers,  I lived close to the St-Lawrence River, in a French Neighborhood, with a distinct architecture, single houses, and many old duplexes and triplexes with their balconies and set of stairs, not a rich neighborhood  money wise, but life there was great, a lot of friends, many house parties, small corner stores, and greasy homey French fries and sugar pies snack bars  were all the teens used to meet every evening, after a hockey game at the local arena or baseball at the local park during summer.

 Our local teams were not very good, but they were part of our friends, so many great memories, this was a rich life, full of sharing, chatting, listening to music, hanging out, no internet, no video game, just us, a great time. I am very nostalgic when I think about that far away life, I was lucky, real lucky.

I when back to my old neighborhood, and visit places that bring many great memories "the river bank, the Mount Royal, downtown surrounding, Prince Arthur Street, I wanted to use different digital media to express my vision, using Corel Painter 12, Photoshop Cut Out Filters " Number of Level 6, Edge Simplicity 6, Edge Fidelity 2", onOne Perfect black and white 8 and onOne Perfect effect.

To get Perfect Effect 4 for Free click on the link on the right of the page

Montreal Duplexes, Again I used Corel Painter 12, you can download a free trial for the new Painter X3!

Montreal Duplexes, Again I used Corel Painter 12, you can download a free trial for the new Painter X3!

 Canon 5D Markii, 70-200 at 135mm, f3.2, 1/100sec, ISO 200, Black and White Using onOne Perfect BW 8

St-Lawrence River  Canon 5D Markii,24-105 at 24mm, f16, 1/100sec, ISO 200, Black and White Using onOne Perfect BW 8

St-Lawrence River  Canon 5D Markii,70-200 at 70mm, f14, 1/200sec, ISO 640, Software onOne Perfect Effect

  Canon 5D Markii,24-105 at 105mm, f5.6, 1/80sec, ISO200, Software onOne Perfect Effect

 Around Prince Arthur Street, Canon 5D Markii,70-200 at 95mm, f3.5, 1/100sec, ISO 200,Photoshop Cut Out Filter

  Around Prince Arthur Street, Canon 5D Markii,70-200 at 115mm, f2.8, 1/50sec, ISO 200,Photoshop Cut Out Filter

 Downtown View From the Mount Royal, Canon 5D Markii,24-105 at 73mm, f9.9, 1/80sec, ISO 200,Photoshop Cut Out Filter

Fine Art Daffodil Using Fractalius Software and Photoshop Liquify Filter

Fractalius by Redfield software http://www.redfieldplugins.com  creates unusual  artworks, 

you can used the list of presets to start and play with the slider to get the effect you want. When I get the look that I want I save the preset for future use. This is not a big program and not too expensive around $40.00 us.

 Result Fractilius, Liquify & Multiply Blending Mode

Original

Fractalius Window

I created this example in 10 min.  Fractalius is very slow to download from the plug in to Photoshop, that gave you time to stand up do a bit of exercise get a coffee etc... it may take you less time depending of the file size you are using.   

One thing to remember before you open Fractalius is to duplicate your layer, that way you can play with the opacity or use a layer mask to fine-tune the result.

On this example I used a layer mask to keep part of my original, from the Fractalius effect. " The original a macro shot, using a tripod,  and LED light at 2 O'clock, Canon 5D Markiii, Canon Macro f2.8 100m, at f8, 1/15 sec, ISO 200.  Always save a PSD file of your layers, you never know when you will need to go back for adjustment.

After flatten the layer and duplicated it I opened Photoshop Filter "Liquify", huge improvement in Photoshop CS6, a lot  faster, see your work as you go, easy to restore,  you can watch this short tutorial on Peachpit.
http://directory.libsyn.com/episode/index/id/1934803

I used Liquify to change part of my flower, make it more like a painting than a photography took out a bit of the reality from it.  

Liquify Window

To finish it and to get a deeper perspective I flatten the image, duplicate the layer again and used multiply blending mode at around 20%.

I used  that file in Corel Painter and painted over it, It took me 3 hr using different brushes and colors, you can try Corel Painter X3 for 30 days, it's the best painting program that I know!

Painting "Corel Painter X3"