PAINTER X ... ARRRGGGGH!!!!

©Ginger*:)
Well... I thought I might have outsmarted myself. After installing Painter X and figuring out how to maximize the performance I went ahead and began loading in all my premade patterns, brushes, and image hoses. BIG MISTAKE. I must have overloaded the library capacity in the program, and when I next tried to open Painter X it crashed, crashed some more and crashed yet again.

After trying to reinstall it twice (TWICE) I did what I should have done in the first place. I simply read the READ ME files on the CD for techie issues. There was the answer. The next time I started P X all I had to do was hold down the shift key upon launch and choose Current Workspace. Voila! Success.

I mention this here in case anyone else has so many homemade brushes and patterns, etc. Don't load them into the program, just keep them in separate libraries, and access them as needed. That way the program doesn't have to run uphill hauling a backpack of rocks while trying to open all the doors and windows to your artwork.

ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY ~ TWIST

A kind of a twist...a "Cheese Doodle" Sunshine!

A New Chapter

Over the past 15 + years, I have been illustrating pretty much on my own. This has included newspapers, magazines, educational assignments, books and posters. Making a living in this field hasn't been easy. Most of my adult life has been devoted to rasing our family, teaching elementary school and art or working as a travel agent, contributing graphics to the former Family Channel on AOL, serving on AOL as a graphic arts host, and keeping my art life alive each day with whatever materials were at hand. Once, when I had no other materials to paint with, I created an entire 22 foot mural for our library with brown craft paper and food colors for paint. Challenge was pretty much the song I sang each day.

Today I am finishing the artwork for a sixth book, looking forward to the release later this summer of the fifth, and have happily become part of the group of artists represented by an AGENT!


Life moves us forward in amazing ways.

How to Create Patterns in Painter

Text to follow

PAINTER X ~ THE ISSUES

I have always been a painter. That way when Painter the program came along I was hooked. The use of the brushes and various stroke controls was and is amazing. BUT... when I upgraded to Painter X, I had a huge disappointment. Those fantastic REAL BRISTLE brushes were just so deadly S L O W. I tried all the tricks in my little bag of tricks to no avail. I upgraded my Wacom, downloaded the newest drivers, boosted the scratch disk, set all the extra space on my external hard drive. Still those marvelous brush strokes eluded my faster pace. UNTIL... after emailing Corel with no response I called in for another issue, and just on the spur of the moment they offered me tech support for any other issues. I found an answer to my problem, and maybe if you have been slowed down either by Painter X or by my problem ( a slower brain) this could help.

If you open PREFERENCES> GENERAL and uncheck BRUSH GHOSTING and ENHANCED BRUSH GHOSTING, the brushes in that category of REAL BRISTLE will behave! Yippee. This is extremely important when creating a painting on a larger canvas such as a two page spread for a large picture book. Some of those page spreads can be as wide as 24 inches and even under the best of circumstances can take days to paint.

If anyone else has had this problem, I hope this helps.

ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY ~ CAMOUFLAGE

These illustrations are from 'THE ADVENTURES OF CALI' by Michele Lallouz Fisher, featuring my illustrations. On his flight home from California to his city apartment a young boy 'HIDES' his caterpillar friend in an airport food stand salad..... Naturally it is a bit surprising to the other passengers on the plane.

ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY ~ REJECTION

Oh the agony.....
©GingerNielson