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This has been a difficult week with my Mother’s health but what does one expect when someone is an invalid and coming up for 89 years of age ! Against this background I continue work on my various projects which I apply the same kind of rules and drive that I did to any project I was in charge of for an employer in the past.

My nature is a pretty determined one and I am currently engaged in putting together a web project. This is a battle with web standard technologies which to be honest, is little better than digging the footings for a building, important, must be right but not totally what the project is about and certainly not highly motivational.

Perhaps a Time for Change

I might have been guilty of butting my head against a brick wall which is hardly a clever thing to do so time for another tack.

Yesterday a very good technical book arrived to help me unscramble the runes on that topic, breakthrough the garbage and so on. Having read through the first chapters to confirm that it was what I expected, a big yes there, I stopped to consider whether I really ought to take a break and have some fun. Well obviously and as my Mother is housebound, it effectively means that I am too so, whatever it is must be done here, within this space and resources.

Time to Play

Some time back, almost a year ago I am sure, I picked up a bit of software concerned with digital painting called Corel Painter X (10), an odd product that had come highly recommended by a number of technical people that I respect. Completely by accident I had come across a copy from the States that was totally legitimate but slightly less than a quarter of the UK retail price so I bought it.

It was an O.E.M. version (original equipment manufacturers) so no box or manual but, a totally valid serial number and I know because I both installed and registered it with Corel to ensure it was okay. However and since then, I haven’t done anything with it because I have been concentrating on other things but this weekend, I decided that I will spend at least the next week, perhaps a lot more, playing with it and after a few good hours doing so, I’m glad that I did.

So What Is It ?

Essentially it is a digital painting program where you can create original paintings from scratch and decide what medium you want to use, Oil Paints, Acrylic, water Colours, Chalk…etc in addition, it includes lots of support in terms of composition tools, particular historic painting styles and so on. You can elect to create original paintings from scratch or, use original sketches scanned in to your computer or, digital photographs as your starting point.

In a sense, just like digital photography combined with products like Adobe Photoshop have largely (not wholly) replaced the “wet darkroom” with a digital one, so too Painter offers an alternative creative route in 2D fine art or, it may represent a very good introduction to the “real thing”, if that’s the way you see things.

Not a Replacement, an Addition

The difference of course is that Painter will not replace the experience of an artist physically painting on canvas or actually using water colours on paper and so on. Whereas replacing wet film and its processing with digital is a logical for what at the craft level is fundamentally a mechanical process, fine art is different and demands individual physical interaction with the medium.

But that said, digital art within its context is just as valid in a creative sense as are lithography, limited edition prints and the fact that a bronze sculpture as an example, relies on skilled founders – artisans, to become an artistic reality. It is not a replacement for conventional mediums and methods, it is an alternative and additional environment for self expression which uses a different tool-set.

My Starting Point

Painter X is pretty well integrated to Adobe Photoshop, you can import native .PSD files from Photoshop into Painter, including layers and import a photograph to work on as a clone and build a whole different picture.

At a technical level, there are many similarities between Photoshop and Painter but whilst they integrate well, the primary purpose and focus of each program is very different, PS is aimed at design whereas Painter targets fine art.

What is clear is that like PS, Painter is a multi-faceted program which will take some time to master due to the range of “virtual materials” and approaches involved but unlike some of what I have to deal with on the programming side, at least it will be great fun to do.

Who Knows ?

I have mapped out a grand business plan for what I “might do” in the immediate future in order to earn a living but reality has a habit of redirecting one’s efforts unexpectedly and if life is a journey rather than a destination, enjoying each step along that route becomes more important.

I have stacks of photographic material to work with as my starting point but where it will lead me, at this time I just do not know but am happy to risk finding out. The worst case scenario is that I will return to my web project suitably refreshed.