Tutorial: Painting Fairy Portraits with Corel Painter
November 25th, 2008 | Published in Featured, Tutorials | 15 Comments
This tutorial shows you how to create a fairy portrait without any props, using Corel Painter. Photography by Capture the Moment, Shelton, CT. Used with permission.
One of the ways my studio, A Work of Art, helps professional photography studios keep their costs down is by providing them with digital backgrounds. Without having to spend a small fortune on props, backdrops, and sets, studios can offer creative fantasy portraits by using the magic of Photoshop and Painter. Today I’d like to show you how the portrait above was done, step by step.
The process began with a phone call from Connecticut master photographer Grace Cribbins. Grace said she’d like to do a fairy portrait, and wanted to know how to shoot for that. I told her to shoot against a plain black or white background, and make sure the subjects were well-lit. The girls could stand or sit, and I’d create the environment to match. As you can see, Grace posed them in ballet dresses, against a black cloth. The only prop they had was a little plastic frog. One challenge was that the younger sister’s outfit was too big for her. I told Grace that I’d be able to fix that easily during the painting process.
Once Grace sent me the photograph to paint, I needed to find a suitable background. For backgrounds, I usually create a scene in Vue Infinite , or search for a good stock photo. But in this case I had found some digital backgrounds for sale on Renderosity, and decided to go with them. In Photoshop, I opened Grace’s photo of the girls and removed them from the background. Then, I composited them with three images from Renderosity, and sent them to Grace to see which one she liked best.
Three rough composites sent to the photographer for approval.
Grace decided to go with the third image. Now I was ready to fix up the composition (add wings, move the mushroom on the right so that the older girl appeared to be sitting on it) and then bring it into Painter. For wings, I only needed to create one wing, and then duplicate it and/or flip it a few times to create two pairs. I took a single butterfly wing (left) and stretched it out using Edit>Transform>Skew. Then, I changed the colors using the Hue/Saturation settings. I chose a violet color to go with the girls’ clothing. One final touch was to add a glow to the wings using a Layer Style.
The original butterfly wing (left) was transformed into the fairy wing on the right.
After getting all the elements in place in Photoshop, I flattened the image and opened it in Corel Painter. I painted the dresses so that they looked less like tulle and more like satin, and also altered the younger girl’s dress to fit better. The final touch was to add a daisy chain crown for the older sister, and a few for the younger girl, too. This was created on a separate layer in Painter, using the Image Hose. I’ll be devoting an article to the Image Hose in an upcoming issue.
A close-up of the final painting. Note the glow around the wings, and daisies added with the Image Hose.
Related Posts
- Replacing the Background in Your Portraits – Part Two
- Tutorial: Painting Clouds with Corel Painter
- Tutorial: Paint a Portrait in the Style of Bouguereau with Corel Painter
- Tutorial: Painting the Eyes with Corel Painter
- Tutorial: Basic Portrait Painting Technique for Corel Painter
- Tutorial: Preparing a Beach Photo for Painting in Corel Painter
- Tutorial: Create a Fantasy Painting with Photoshop and Corel Painter
Stumble it!
November 26th, 2008 at 5:37 am (#)
wow thank you so much for this….will certainly be
trying it…looking forward to your article on the image hose….
Thank you!
November 29th, 2008 at 2:05 pm (#)
Thanks for posting, Avril! Glad you found it helpful. The image hose article is on the way.
Bob
December 10th, 2008 at 8:42 am (#)
This was so very helpful! Thanks so very much for simplifying the process for us beginners! I look forward to seeing more of your tutorials.
December 10th, 2008 at 11:19 am (#)
Thanks, Vickie! I appreciate the support! Glad you found it helpful. If there’s a topic you’d like to see covered, just leave a comment here.
Bob
December 20th, 2008 at 8:47 pm (#)
Wonderful tutorial. It’s easy to understand and follow. Thank you! Would you have a tutorial on creating a cracked paint look using Corel Painter?
December 21st, 2008 at 5:58 pm (#)
@Socialite
Thank you for the kind comments! As for “cracked paint,” I don’t know of a good way to use Painter for that. But look into Photoshop’s Craquelure filter, which may do what you want. Go Filter > Texture > Craquelure.
February 9th, 2009 at 12:11 pm (#)
Hi Bob, wow what a lovely photo, i am very interested in being able to turn pictures into the types of art with fairies that you do, i really don’t no where to start! how do you go about this for a extreme beginer, i have photos and that’s preety much it. Do you need to spend alot of money on different computer programs? am looking forward to your reply, Jackie
February 10th, 2009 at 5:56 pm (#)
@Jackie –
Thanks for the nice comment. To get started, I’d recommend checking out the FAQ page here (see the link at the top of the page). There are some free programs you can use to get your feet wet. Check out the articles here about Sumo Paint and other free programs. Click on the “Digital Painting” tag in the Tag Cloud, below, for some introductory articles. There’s a lot of information here on this site to help you get started. Have fun!
Bob
May 6th, 2009 at 12:46 pm (#)
Hi Bob,
I have looked everywhere for backgrounds like these and there are none to be found. Were they photos that you painted? What type of medium did you use?
Thanks
May 6th, 2009 at 1:59 pm (#)
Kathy –
These backgrounds came from a vendor (maybe two?) on http://www.Renderosity.com. Go into the Marketplace, and do a search on 2D Backgrounds. There’s a bunch there, all at reasonable prices. Hope that helps!
Bob
May 7th, 2009 at 10:54 am (#)
Bob, Thank you for your response. I love your work and aspire to becomes half as good. Please tell me you were not a trained artist to start. I am a photographer trying to expand my resources but I am not a trained aritst. I am trying to teach myself Painter sometimes being very discouraged.
Anyway thank you for this website, your kindness in sharing you talent and letting us glimpse into your creative process.
May 7th, 2009 at 12:32 pm (#)
Kathy –
Thank you for the kind words. Sorry to say, I did go to school for art, and have been a traditional painter most of my life, until discovering Painter in 2003. I’ve been digital ever since, and do photo painting for photography studios. Painting is not something you pick up overnight, just as photography is a learned skill. You may want to consider outsourcing your Painter work, at least until you get up to speed. I invite you to check out my online portfolio at http://www.bobnolin.com. Thanks again for the comments!
Bob
June 6th, 2009 at 3:44 am (#)
Hi bob,
I enjoyed your tutorial. I am a grpahic designer for 20 years now (I can’t believe I’m saying that), and new to Painter. I’ve always painted for my own pleasure, but I feel Painter can help me get to quality in my illustrations that I couldn’t do beforehand. Thank you for helping simplify the process.
August 18th, 2009 at 12:36 pm (#)
realy it is wonderfull iam photographer itis more helpfull your work thank u verymuch godbless u
January 27th, 2010 at 7:46 pm (#)
Wow! So beautiful. Thanks for sharing. I was wondering how much do you charge for something like this. If I were to shoot the picture and send it to you ? I shoot fairytale portraits only and this would be so benefical to my business.
Pl respons to memories42morrow@aol.com
Thanks
Sandy