Hit the Books
Corel Painter is a very daunting and intimidating program for beginners. It is so powerful and feature-laden that it is difficult to know where to start. While Corel provides a few training videos with the program, the best way to get started is with the purchase of a good book. Two of which that I have found extremely useful are “Painter IX Creativity” by Jeremy Sutton, and Marvin Addison’s “Painter IX for Photographers”. There are many other excellent selections, and a search at Amazon will show you those.
The most important factor when choosing a book isn’t necessarily where you are going with the program, but where you’ve been. Take for example Mr. Sutton’s book. While there is a good chapter dedicated to painting from photographs, the book’s strength revolves around the fact that Mr. Sutton was an established artist in traditional materials before he got involved with painter in its infancy. So he talks in depth about portrait art techniques, which is his specialty. Mr. Addison on the other hand, is an established photographer, and the techniques in his book center specifically with using your photos to make artistic images. So by understanding what your own background is will help you choose the right training materials to suit your needs.
But ultimately the most important factor in using a book is to eventually take the concepts learned and make them you own. There is no right or wrong way to do anything in painter, and you should use the book as a “jumping off” point so that you can soon create your own style and techniques. You will no doubt be able to see the influence of these two masters in my work, but I think my best images don’t use anything learned from these publications. One of my favorite ideas which I call my “hybrid” technique is something that I didn’t learn in a book, but “cooked it up” on my own. That’s where Painter’s real strength is. It can become what YOU want it to be.