Comments on: 10 Tips for Turning a Photo into a Painterly Portrait with Corel Painter

By: David Griffiths

David Griffiths — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 22:34:48 +0000

Fascinating, Bob. I painted about a dozen of my fellow photomates–we meet for lunch every other week. Your tips would certainly improved my efforts. Perhaps, I should revisit them.

My paintings are amateurish, but so much fun.

Dave
David Griffiths´s last blog ..Self Publishing Problems

By: Elspeth

Elspeth — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 13:47:28 +0000

You’re welcome Bob!
I’ve heard of the K.I.S.S as well – also from one of my teachers but she said she preferred her version which was Keep It Simple, Silly and I have to agree. Same principles but entirely different tone, which makes it more encouraging.
I have since printed your 10 tips out and have then lamenated and hanging beside my computer screen.
Very helpful.

By: Bob Nolin

Bob Nolin — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 13:14:47 +0000

Thanks, Elspeth. Glad you found the article helpful. One of my painting teachers used to call it “K.I.S.S” (keep it simple, stupid) but I find that rather demeaning.

-Bob

By: Elspeth

Elspeth — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 08:57:50 +0000

Thank you for some very useful tips Bob.
One of my biggest problems is keeping things simple and staying away from too much detail – I always want to *just* add a little bit more.
With these tips in mind it’s easier to focus on keeping things painterly and not hyperrealistic.

By: Diana Sparks

Diana Sparks — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 17:10:04 +0000

I think I’ll stay away from this kind of experimentation (and away from Rosetta). I can do all my filtering in Photoshop CS3 before bringing the image into Painter X. I’m also on a Mac Pro, so I sure appreciate your doing all the mad scientist work for me. This is one of the very few drawbacks to being a Maccer, so it doesn’t tempt me to go over to the PC Dark Side. Thanks, Bob!

By: Bob Nolin

Bob Nolin — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 16:02:39 +0000

Thanks, Diana.

You raise a good point. To be honest, I don’t use 3rd party filters in Corel Painter X. I use all my filters in Photoshop only. I work on a Mac Pro, so I thought I’d check this out and see if I was blowing smoke, as they say.

I copied some filters (Nik, Glitterato, Topaz Adjust) to the Painter Plugin folder. Started up Painter. Look under Effects>Other. Nothing there. Hmmm.

Read the manual (online help). It says some plugins may require Rosetta mode. So I find the Corel Painter app file, right click, and select Get Info. Check the “Use Rosetta mode” box. Restart Painter.

Now I see Glitterato, but not the others.

According to the manual: “Most filters that are compatible with Photoshop can be used with Corel Painter, but there are some exceptions….Mac OS computers with Intel processors support only universal plug-ins, so existing third-party plug-ins may not function on an Intel-based Mac unless you use Rosetta mode.”

So, the answer is: maybe! Give it a try, and see if it works for you. I’m guessing that only your older filters will work. Any filters that have been upgraded to run in 64-bit (for Photoshop CS5) will probably not work with Painter. Hopefully Corel will upgrade Painter to 64-bit at some point (cough *when pigs fly* cough).

By: Diana Sparks

Diana Sparks — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 07:52:49 +0000

Another terrific batch of tips, Bob! One question: you say “many filters designed for Photoshop will also work in Painter.” Is that true for Macintosh? I believe Photoshop brushes will work in Painter on PCs but not Macs, but I don’t recall if this is also true for filters.

Thanks again for the time and effort you put into all your how-to articles. I can’t wait for your upcoming book!