Art Media - What is it and
how to use it
Starting in PSP 9 you will find the addition of Art Media
Tools. Art Media allows you to paint the same you would on a real canvas,
with added benefits, you can undo mistakes, be able to use preset shapes, and
more added benefits. We are just going to make a cursory inspection of
some of the things that can be done with art media.
Open an image 400 x 400 with a white background
(canvas). The first thing we need to do is to open our Art Media (Mixer)
Palette. Go to View / Palettes / Mixer this opens a new palette that you
can move around to fit your needs like any palette. I like mine right
under the Materials Palette, so grabbing the title bar I move it
here.
Now opening up our Art Media Tools, mine are located just
above the Flood Fill Tool
I am going to be using the Oil Brush Tool.
Next I want to create a color palette for my picture, I am going to draw
an apple, or I should say attempt to draw. LOL! We need to choose the colors we
will be using to create our apple, just like an artist does.
On the mixer palette there is a dropper tool, grab that tool
and go the color wheel,
choose a color then in the mixer window drop the
color into our mixer palette.
See here I added the red to my palette, now keep adding colors until
you have all the colors that you will need to create your picture. Here is
my completed palette.
We could save this palette if we needed to, below our mixer window there is
a line of icons, the very last icon looks like a right facing arrow, click on
this arrow and we get a drop down menu with options like "New Page, Load Page,
Save Page, etc. . . " If you click on save page you can save your mixer
palette there.
Ok, next we need to draw our apple design onto our canvas. So with my
colored pencil tool and black I set the size to 2 and draw out my design onto my
canvas. this doesn't have to be perfect we will be covering it up with our
paint.
Next we want to take our base colors and apply them with the oil brush to
image, in this case I will use red for the apple, brown-red for the stem and
green for the leaf. You will notice the longer you have your brush on the canvas
the lighter the media becomes just as if you using a brush.
Why is there variations in the green on the leaf you may ask? It is
because just like oil paint when you paint into the other colors on the canvas
the colors mix. I went into the brown on the stem and it mixed with my
green. I want to remove some the leftover lines from the pencil on my canvas,
using my art eraser tool I have erased those telltale signs.
Now I am going to create shadows on my canvas by mixing the red
and red brown together on my palette with my mixer knife.
You may need to add more color to your mixer palette just as an
artist does. We would do that the same way we put the colors on. I
have added some yellow and a touch of white to my red to make the highlights on
the apple. Like this:
Now we are going to combine our colors a little more using the Smear
Tool, going over the areas of light and shadow following the contours of the
shapes and giving it a more realistic look.
Now we want to do the same with the stem and the leaf.
Giving the apple a look of a shadow makes it look even more
realistic. And here you have the finished product.
I am no artist but I think it came out ok!
Give it a try, experiment with the different tools and mixes and see what
you can do!
Have Fun!
