Here’s a new digital painting I’ve done with the new Corel Painter 12. I downloaded the trial and wanted to delve into recreating skin tones with appropriate shadowing, highlight and translucent variations. This piece was based off an initial small reference picture and finished with artistic license, particularly with the face. Its funny, the body took me only a few hours to get under control but the face took my quite some time. I guess it’s because we naturally look at faces and if something isn’t shaded correctly it can make the whole picture not work. Most of this came down to really subtle shading that was actually pretty tedious. I could still tweak the picture but frankly Ive had enough of this one. Anyway you be the judge, but no rude comments!

Im still blown away by the paint brushes in Painter. I actually ended up buying the software because I really want to continue using it. I think it’s very well priced for what you get. For me painter is not a substitute for photoshop, but an amazing stand alone painting tool. It has now inspired me to do a whole lot more digital painting. Maybe not as detailed as this one, but, dare i say -more painterly…