Create your canvas!

Go to File – New and adjust to 5400 pixels Wx3600 pixels H and 300 pixels/inch. This is an 18x12in canvas that will be suitable for professional printing. If you are just going to post online, 150 pixels/ inch is fine. Remember to save often while you are working: File – Save or Save As to save different versions; by default Painter will create a RIFF fille format. Painter makes it fast to get started and just like in all other media, each artist should establish a workflow they are comfortable with. My goal is to set the composition while establishing the tone, the colour, and the temperature. I develop the shapes, form and colour quickly. Detail comes in the later stages of the work. My goal is to build the painting as a whole and Painter 2020 offers a wide range of brush choices for the initial block-in.

Establishing shape!

The initial block-in begins by creating shapes and completely covering the canvas using the Digital Watercolour New Simple Water brush. It allows me to go easily from light to dark and also dark to light, based on the pressure I apply with the stylus on the drawing tablet. For this stage I use a large size brush, 200, and then block-in shapes using brush sizes from 50 to 90, depending on the shape I’m painting. You can adjust the brush size and opacity from the Property Bar. Once I’m satisfied with the composition, I dry it. Yes, just like with traditional watercolour, you have to dry it! The benefit of digital media is that it can be instantly dried and worked back into. Go to Layers – Dry Digital Watercolour.

Laying in form

Layers are useful for many different reasons, but in this tutorial I use them to increase colour value and to paint with texture. They are a great way to separate stages of your painting and to apply special effects. Layer functions can be accessed via the dropdown menu and also from the Layers Panel, which opens by default. Now I increase the colour values by going to Select – All and Edit – Copy, Edit – Paste in place. This pastes the composition to another layer. Now I go to the Layers Panel and set the Layer Composite Method to Multiply from the dropdown menu. This combines colours to create a darker colour, thus increasing the colour value quickly for me. Then I go to Layers – Collapse Layers to combine the layers so that I can work on the composition as one again. Next, I apply a digital glazing technique using opaque media and the Glazing Constructing brush at size 35 to establish form in the rocks.

Adding colour

Now, I select Digital Watercolour – New Simple Water and increase my brush size to 107 to glaze in colour and continue to establish form in the composition. I bounce back and forth from opaque to transparent digital media to set up the composition colour and mood, creating movement in the water without needing to add any further detail yet.

Creating movement

Next, I move to the Glazing – Stencil Paper – Pencil brush, adjusting the size as needed to either bring in more defined shapes or larger and softer shapes in the sea foam and rocks

Softening and sharpening edges

I’m going to use some oil brushes to create a bit more texture. I select the Artists’ Oils – Real Flat Opaque brush and vary the size of the brush while working into the water and the rocks, taking them beyond the preliminary stage and adding more detail. Once the oil is laid down, I like to use Blenders to either soften or sharpen edges. At this point, I’m thinking about light side, dark side, warm side, cool side, hard edge, soft edge, and detail suggestion. I select the Blenders – Coarse Oily Blender and Course Smear Jitter brush to establish hard and soft edges.

Adding texture

Now I begin to develop the temperature of light and shadow. I experiment most during this part of the painting and digital is a great medium for this. In fact, much of my experimentation with Painter 2020 informs my analog work when I transition back to a traditional media painting. We’ll start by adding texture to the painting using the texture brushes. The variety of paper textures that Painter offers are wonderful, although I only used the basic paper for this painting. Go to Layers – New Layer to add a layer above the canvas. Select Texture Cover – Airbrush 2.5D from the Brush Selector. From the Property Bar, click the texture image to expand the menu and click to open the Transform Textures Panel. Double-click the Textures Panel to collapse it and click to expand the Transform Textures Panel. Select the first Transform Type: Move and Size and place the texture where you would like it, resize as needed, and then click Commit. Now I paint with the texture brush on the layer adding detail. The size of the brush will vary once again depending upon where you add the texture and how strong you would like it to be. The larger the brush, the more of the texture will be laid down, and the smaller the brush, the more subtle the texture. Once I’m done adding texture, I set the Layer Composite Method to Multiply and adjust the layer Opacity slider until I like the look. Finally I go to Layers – Drop All to flatten the image

Finished painting!

Everything is set: composition, shape, form, colour, and temperature. It’s time to add the final details. I slow down at this point and reinforce hard and soft edges with the appropriate brushes. Highlights are heightened and bounce light is adjusted. To add detail, I use the Chalk, Pastel and Crayons – Concept Art Jitter Smooth brush at size 13. I’m using a smaller brush size to reinforce my shadows and I also play with the detail of the foam in the water and add more cool bounce light. At this stage, I’m giving my painting character and having fun with the detail