NWA-PCUG Newsletter Article, January 2013
The Painter Wow! Book, 10th Edition

By Iris Yoffa, Member,
Tucson Computer Society, Arizona
June 2012 issue, eJournal

http://www.www.aztcs.org/

Irisonthego (at) gmail.com (click to email author)

Cher Threinen-Pendarvis has been authoring The Painter Wow! Book series for over 15 years. The books are always packed with an overwhelming amount of information and inspiring examples of original art by a variety of digital artists, including Cher herself.

The 10th edition in this series covers all the new and numerous features of Corel Painter 12. The companion CD contains goodies for personal use from contributing authors as well as brushes, patterns, photos, scripts, textures and sample Painter files contributed by Cher. There is also a study guide which could serve as a syllabus for learning Painter either in the classroom or on your own.

The book is divided into 11 chapters, appendixes, and an index, totaling 407 pages. The page layout is two-column with a main content area and a sidebar with related content and tips. Each chapter begins with a brief introduction, continues with pertinent content interspersed with a variety of exercises and ends with full color pages of magnificent original art.

Chapter 1, “Getting to Know Painter,” is your basic introduction to the program, system requirements, file characteristics and file types, followed by how to navigate and manage the Painter workspace.

Chapter 2, “The Power of Color,” gives some very useful explanations of what constitutes a color and how to work it in the digital world. The exercises lead you through the Painter tools related to the subject.

“Painting with Brushes” is Chapter 3 and builds on the previous chapters and gets you started with digital painting. The primers, 25 if I didn’t lose count, provide step-by-step introductions to a wide range of media and techniques. At chapter’s end you will find yourself at page 151 of 407.

If you have worked through each of the Chapter 3 exercises, you should have a good feeling for what the program has to offer and what direction you would like to further explore. You have also navigated from accomplishing basic to quite complex digital painting projects. The chapters continue with the titles of Building Brushes, Selections, Shapes and Masks; Using Layers, Enhancing Photos, Montage and Collage, Exploring Special Effects, Using Painter with Photoshop, Animation and Film with Painter and finally Printing Options.

This is a very thorough and detailed coverage of a rather complex program. I found the Study Guide projects (PDF file on the CD) to be a great asset for adding a structure for using the Wow! Book and delving deeper into Painter.

I recall that when I first used a very early edition of Cher’s great book to learn more about Painter, I had to digest very small bits at a time. Then and now, this is a presentation to teach not only about Corel Painter but the principles of art and composition, with a lot of creativity thrown into the mix. A great resource for digital artists everywhere.

About: The Painter Wow! Book, 10th Edition Author: Cher Threinen-Pendarvis
Publisher: Peachpit Press
http://www.peachpit.com
ISBN-13: 978-0321792648
Price: $59.99 US/$51.99 CAN, $37.79 @ Amazon

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