A Corel Painter Tutorial on the Basics: Learn the Tools and be Ready for Any Illustration Projects!

While there Corel Painter tutorials for a specific things, this Corel Painter tutorial will focus on what tools you are most likely going to use to paint. Just think of it as mini Painter tutorials outlining the entire painting process!

So if you are not familiar with Corel Painter, it is an extremely specialized raster image drawing software. That means no photo-editing function and no vector image functions. It is purely used by professionals to paint works that simulate real media!

You may think that that is quite limiting. However, it is not! The real media it simulates is the best out there. So if you are looking on being a digital artist that is focused on just illustrations to make a living, there is no better software for the job!

To find out if this software is right for you, you can download a 30-day fully functional trial version of from Corel.com. Just navigate to the Free Trial tab at the top and then to the Corel Painter download section.

So what do you expect when you open up the software?

Corel Painter tutorial: brush variances

After opening up a new canvas, you scan the toolbar for the airbrush tool. When you click on it, there is a section that has all the possible brush variances that you can get. This is they key tool here!

One thing that is amazing about Painter is that it is designed to work with WACOM tablets right out of the box. That means you don't need to worry about setting up anything else and just concentrate on painting.

Besides the brushes, an eraser tools very important to correcting mistakes. Though you see the erase icon on the toolbar, you also notice that the eraser is also considered a brush variance. Since Painter is an artists' media software, you are certain that if you need any effect, you will have to look there!

Corel Painter tutorial

As you start painting around and experiment with the various brushes, you are keen to keep in mind to group your variances into four unique brush types (as these will be the corner stone of all paintings):

Round soft brushes - glazing in large areas of color
Chalk texture brushes - blocking in form
Small hard edged brushes - refining small details
Specific texture brushes - special brushes that have unique textures

Corel Painter tutorial: the layers

Once you are familiar with the brushes, it's time to organize your painting and its objects on separate layers if you haven't already done so. Obviously, you can arrange, group, and merge layers whenever you need to. Play with whatever works best that will allow you to succeed.

Even though Painter is a straight forward painting program, it still contains the ability to create layer masks. With layer masks, this means that you can hide pixels on one layer instead of erasing it. This translates to a non-destructive editing approach where you can always undo what you have hidden.

Corel Painter tutorial

Next, you can paint using Liquid Ink layers or Watercolor layers. Essentially, you can think of this as paper type where only certain brush variances are allowed to paint on these types of layers.

We also have the color mixer and the swatch arranged in a triad. This is a very effective arrangement as you can pick colors that have various levels of saturations and hue properties quickly and easily so you can return to your painting immediately when you have picked the right color.

After going through these tools, you noticed that, while you can undo your mistakes, it's missing a history panel. This entire means is that the idea of painting through your mistakes is reinforced! So be careful and plan your compositions beforehand!

Corel Painter tutorial: colors effects

After you are familiar with the basic painting process, the next step is to recognize tools that will enhance your painting as it near the finishing stages. The best place to look for these tools is the brush variance menu once more.

In the menu, there is an icon that looks like a camera. This is called the Photo brush set. In it, you will see the common dodge, burn, and saturation tools needed to highlight or darken an area. These are very important as you work on giving depth to your painting through lighting techniques.

Corel Painter tutorial

After that, you have the F-X brushes. These are used sparingly for specific effects depending on what you are painting. For example, you can use Fairy Dust when your composition requires a lot of sparkles!

Always remember to plan ahead to save time and effort! As long as you remember that these brushes will distort your painting to some degree, whether by color or object shape, then you should have no issues knowing when to apply these special brushes.

Corel Painter tutorial: other beneficial features

Do you find it difficult to get the right perspective sometimes? Painter also has a special feature that creates a simple one point perspective grid right on your canvas! You can overlay this grid before you do any complex landscape sceneries as it is a big asset to getting the right perspective.

On top of that, you can switch it to Divine Proportions grid if you need assistance with the Golden Mean metric.

Just remember: while these tools are nice to have, it is still very limited in its use. For example, any complex perspectives like two-point or three-point perspectives will require manual input of perspective lines.

Corel Painter tutorial

There is also the Effects tab in Painter you need to consider. While Painter can do a little bit in the way of photo enhancements, it doesn't have the full scale capabilities of some other programs since it is purposely build for illustrations.

As long as you keep these things in mind, and that you are focusing only on digital illustrations, Corel Painter is an excellent choice to create a profitable and convincing portfolio based on digital drawings alone!

While expensive, you can always try it out risk free for 30 days since there is always a Free Trial tab at the Corel Painter download page.

I think it is worthwhile investiment and I think you will agree: it is a software that is a must have to realize your goal in becoming a profitable and reputable digital artist!