I’m delighted that Cengage Learning invited me to write this third edition
of Digital Painting Fundamentals with Corel Painter. The earlier books,
for versions X (pronounced “ten”) and 11 (pronounced “eleven”) were
greeted with very positive responses from users and critics, not just my
friends and family. This edition has all new projects and I hope many of
you are returning for more. The edition for Painter 11 was used by Corel
Corporation in several promotions, so I must be doing something right.
This book will get you started using Painter 12. If you are familiar with
earlier versions of Painter, it will help you make the transition. You will get
a step-by-step instruction for using the basic software and hardware that
are the industry standard for pixel-based drawing and painting—Corel
Painter and a Wacom graphics tablet. (If you’re not sure what a tablet is or
what pixels are, see Appendix A, “Fundamentals and Beyond”). Exercises
and projects will give you increasing control of tools and techniques. You
will acquire and sharpen the skills needed for working in any medium,
such as hand-eye coordination and drawing what you see. But there’s
more to digital art than just knowing how to make a series of marks on an
electronic canvas—you will also be introduced to traditional art concepts
such as line quality, contrast, and focal point.
With digital art there’s no need for the labor of stretching canvas and
preparing a surface to accept pigment. You won’t need to replenish dried
up tubes of paint or replace broken chalks and worn-out brushes. Your
clothes won’t get spattered with ink, you never need to inhale toxic fumes,
and your hands will stay clean. (For artists who would actually miss the
messiness of a traditional studio, Wacom might be working on making
a leaky pen that smells like turpentine!) You can save every version of a
painting as it develops. Your digital paper won’t wrinkle, your colors
won’t fade, and with 32 levels of Undo there’s no such thing as a mistake.
As for storage space, hundreds of drawings and paintings can fit into a
few cubic inches of hard drive or on CDs.
