Newbie, help create oil painting?

[steve]

I am sorry that I have to ask this, but I am under a tight deadline
and do not have the time to read through the whole manual, but I have
read several post on creating an oil painting. I have painter 6. I
have a photo that i want to turn into an oil painting. I no that I
need to make a clone of my image. Then I am suppose to delete that
iamge, then select tracing paper (which give me the image at %50
opacity. When I did this and tried painting on it, all the brushes did
was brign the image back at %100. Do I need to do this, if all I want
to do is turn it into an oil painting? I have tried just painting on
top of the clone, without deleting, and that seems to work. The
problem is, when I use Cloners: Oil Brush Cloners, it moves really,
really slooow. I can not even move it with out having to waite for it
to draw, it just sits there buiding up on itself (I have a G4 500,
with 1gig af ram for painter). If I just select a brushes, then clone
color, that works better. The problem is is that I can not get the
brush strokes to look right. I have tried differenst brushes,
adjusting the impasto, but I can not get it to look natural. It look
like you a draged a rake accross the canvas. I am a traditional oil
painter, so can someone please help me with the settings, so that I
can get my Wacom pen to function more like a real brush? Also, I would
like to be able to see some canvas where the paint is not as thick,
how can I do this? I think this has something to do with the grain
setting, but mine is grayed out, no matter what brush I choose. I
would also like to be able to see the thickness of the paint, is this
done at the end?
Again, I am sorry to ask for a step by step. I know I need to do alot
more reading, but I have to have this project done by the end of the
day, Friday.
Thanks in advance.

[Don Jolley]

Steve,

This isn't really too hard, and there's a much easier way of doing this.
First, ignore everything you've written below. While it works, you'll never
meet your deadline. You'll have to cheat.

First, open your document at size and resolution. Leave your original image
on the bottom layer. Choose a square chalk brush, and set the color to
clone. Make a new layer, and start drawing over your image with a brush
size set anywhere from 12 in detailed areas to 30 in cover areas. Use more
than one layer, but DON'T paint on the underlying picture. Use that as your
foundation. If there is a fair amount of grain you may wish to slightly blur
it once the painting reaches completion- but use it sparingly lest the
brushwork stand out like a sore thumb. You want to eliminate grain, not
produce contrast with the added strokes.

Save incrementally, and save using different file names (OilPainting1.rif,
OilPainting2.rif,OilPainting3.rif, etc...) When you get to a place that is
looking pretty good, drop all the layers and save the file as a flattened
image, again with a new name. Copy and then immediately paste the canvas
layer, resulting in a document with two identical layers. If it pastes out
of position, double-click on the top layer and enter 0 0 on the X and Y
axis. Go up to the pulldown to EFFECTS>Surface Control and play with the
texturizer either according to the canvas or image luminance, or make
several layers and play with both.

You then set the canvas opacity higher or lower according to what kind of
texture is pleasing to you.

This will give you a very satisfying result that often looks better than
most people's oil emulations, while at the same time giving your computer a
break on all the number crunching. The impasto effects of the oil brushes
just kill the processor time, greatly reducing the satisfaction and raising
the frustration level.

I used this technique to start a painting you can see online at
http://www.s30d.com/ww2/totherescue.html. If you like the effect you can
feel pretty confident in following this technique. There are quite a lot of
additional steps to get to where this painting finished, but you'll find
this both quick and more efficient and realistic to the art style than many
other approaches.

Don

[steve]

Thanks alot, I will give it a try.
PS: Very nice work

[Marijn van der Waa]

Don Jolley <d...@s30d.com> wrote:

> This isn't really too hard, and there's a much easier way of doing this.
> First, ignore everything you've written below. While it works, you'll never
> meet your deadline. You'll have to cheat.

<snip>

An amazingly clear tutorial. I have never felt inclined to emulate oil
painting with Painter, but I am very tempted now.

--
beuh