Real Watercolor Brush

[Jinny Brown]

Stecyk,

Happily, it is being seen by more people and the coverage of this brush is even more extensive due to extra samples posted by Cris Palomino in the Painter Forum at In Depth Discussions. I haven't checked since Sunday, and there may be more by now. If you'd like to take a look, the address is:

http://www.critical-depth.com/cgi-bin/idd/

I'm glad you like what Paulo and the rest of us have been doing. It's been a lot of fun and I hope you'll join in. With your painting skills, that should be a very productive addition to this exploration.

Thanks for the nice comments. Most of the praise, though, is deserved by Paulo for sharing his brush with us. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

Jinny Brown
http://www.pixelalley.com
________________________

[Jinny Brown]

Paulo,

You're very welcome. I'm glad that you used it. Here's part of a message I'm sending to you privately, just to let you know what I've done with the brush so far.

I've got it saved as a variant and have been playing with it. It certainly is different from the default Water Color brush variants, and I'm finding it does some surprising things. For instance, when I first put down the brush and begin to paint, it paints with full color. Without lifting the brush, if I keep painting, the opacity decreases and it blends colors. Sometimes it won't do this lowered opacity and blending thing, though, and I haven't figured out why. All I've done is change paper textures and move the Grain slider. Oddly enough, paper texture seems increased when I move the Grain slider to the right (normally it works in the reverse, moving to the left increases Paper texture). The only thing in the settings that I can think might be the cause is that Bleed is set to Pressure/Invert, but I can't see how that has anything to do with Paper texture. Does it? Hmmm.. there is so much to learn about brushes... always!

If I get something done that's presentable, I'll post the image.

Thanks again! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

Jinny Brown
http://www.pixelalley.com
________________________

[paulo]

Jinny, Cris and all


We seem to be before a real mystery here. I could never imagine the same brush "recipe" would produce so different results!

Let's begin, Jinny with your sample strokes. My Real Watercolor Brush (from now on, RWB) looks quite different from those! First and foremost, I almost never get those spacing artifacts (overlapping circles) with my RWB, and they are clearly visible in the sample you posted. Second, your strokes don't seem to be variable in size; the ones I get are evenly proportional to pressure (the strongest the pressure, the bigger the size). And third, with my RWB opacity decreases fast with the slightest decrease in pressure, and it never comes back before I lift the pen off the tablet. That's how it's supposed to work!

Well, let's write down some technicalities before we continue:
I'm using:

Painter 6.1
Windows 98
Wacom Artz II

As for my technique, here's how I use the RWB (default settings, please):

1.For filling large areas, I use strong, even pressure. I get with that large strokes with full color and hard edges.
2.If I start with firm pressure I get the same hard-edged strokes, but as soon as I decrease the hand pressure a little I get continuous decreasing opacity: the brush becomes a blending brush. I use it to soften hard edges (see sample).
3.I may use the RWB as a blending brush indefinitely, as long as I don't lift the pen off the tablet. If I increase the hand pressure while RWB is in the "blending mode," I get a larger blending brush, that's all.
4.When I lift the pen off the tablet I got a "newly replenished" watercolour brush. If I press it hard on the tablet, I go back to (1) as a result. If I use little initial hand pressure, I get a smaller size brush with little opacity: it becomes, almost immediately, a blending brush.

http://www.inmidia.com.br/carpen/circle.jpg

But, what to say of the rest? How come, Jinny, your brush behaves today differently today than it did yesterday? How come it behaves differently in different machines? We may be talking gremlins here.

Maybe it'd be interesting if other people who are trying the brush would post samples of their own experiments. We could learn a lot with it each other!

Keep painting!


Paulo

[This message was edited by paulo on June 09, 2001 at 19:45.]

[gmotto]

Hi Folks,
Paulo, I think this brush is great. I have been playing with it for a while and I think it is a Keeper. I am attaching a test image as per your request.

Regards,
Greg.

[gmotto]

Paulo,
This is a sample of my use of your brush. I t is taking some getting used to after not working in Water Colors for a while.
Regards,
Greg