Customizing a Wacom tablet key to control brushstroke
By Cher Threinen-PendarvisThis month, I present the first in a series of useful tips to help you customize your Wacom® tablet to enhance your work with Corel® Painter™. In this tip, you'll learn how to set up a Wacom® Intuos® 3 tablet key to control the pressure that you apply as you paint. When a constant pressure is used, the brushstroke width is maintained.
Brushstroke painted with the default Thick Acrylic Round 20 brush variant of the Acrylics brush category.
Step 1. Set up brush tracking. To get the most sensitivity from your Corel Painter brushes and gain the most benefit from this tip, set up brush tracking. With brush tracking, you can customize how Corel Painter interprets the input of your stylus, including controls such as pressure and speed. If you are using the Windows® version of Corel Painter, choose Edit > Preferences > Brush Tracking. If you are using the Mac OS® X version, choose Corel Painter X > Preferences > Brush Tracking. In the Scratch Pad, make a brushstroke with your stylus while using your desired pressure and speed. When you are satisfied with your stroke, click OK to close the Preferences dialog box.
Making a stroke on the Scratch Pad on the Brush Tracking page of the Preferences dialog box.
Step 2. Set a tablet key to control pressure. You can set your tablet key by using the Wacom Pressure Hold feature, so that you can retain a particular amount of pressure while you are drawing a brushstroke.
Open the Wacom control panel. In the Wacom window, click Functions, and then click the ExpressKeys tab. Choose a key you want to program (I chose the bottom key on the left), click the key's pop-up menu, and choose Pressure Hold.
The default settings for the ExpressKeys tab in the Wacom Tablet dialog box.
Setting the pop-up menu in the Wacom Tablet dialog box to Pressure Hold.
When you have set up the pop-up menu, close the Wacom Tablet dialog box.
Step 3. Try out a brush and the Pressure Hold feature. After setting up your Pressure Hold key, try making some brushstrokes in Corel Painter. From the Brush Selector bar, choose the Thick Acrylic Round 20 brush variant of Acrylics brush category.
The Brush Selector bar with the Thick Acrylic Round 20 brush variant chosen.
Touch your stylus to your tablet and begin painting a stroke, and then retain the pressure just applied by pressing the tablet key that you programmed.
Painting a stroke of constant width by using the custom Pressure Hold key.
To paint a thick and thin stroke, in which you control the stroke width only at the end of the stroke, begin the stroke with varied pressure, and then press the custom Pressure Hold tablet key toward the end of the stroke.
To draw a thinner stroke without pausing to change your brush size, press the custom Pressure Hold tablet key, and then begin painting the stroke.
Good work! You have learned how to customize your tablet to control pressure and the brushstroke width on the fly while you paint. Happy painting!
An award-winning artist and author, Cher Threinen-Pendarvis has always worked with traditional art tools. A pioneer in digital art, Cher has created illustrations with the Macintosh® computer for two decades. She has been widely recognized for her mastery of Corel® Painter™, Adobe® Photoshop®, and the Wacom® pressure-sensitive tablet, and she has used these electronic tools since they were first released. Exercising her passion for the artist tools in Corel Painter, Cher has worked as a consultant and demo-artist for the Corel Painter developers. Her artwork has been exhibited worldwide, and her articles and art have been published in many books and periodicals. Cher holds a BFA with Highest Honors and Distinction in Art with a specialization in painting and printmaking, and she is a member of the San Diego Museum of Art Artists Guild. She has taught Corel Painter and Adobe Photoshop workshops around the world and is the principal of the consulting firm Cher Threinen Design.
Cher is the author of The Photoshop and Painter Artist Tablet Book: Creative Techniques in Digital Painting and all eight editions of The Painter Wow! Book. The Painter X Wow! Book is the latest edition of this highly praised volume of techniques and inspiration.
To learn more about Cher, visit her web site at www.pendarvis-studios.com.