Using the Automatic Color Set Tools in Painter X
By Cher Threinen-Pendarvis
This month's Painter Wow! tip focuses on the automatic features for building color sets using Painter X. Painter offers four automatic color set generating features: New Color Set from Image, New Color Set from Selection, New Color Set from Layer and New Color Set from Mixer. Using these tools, you can quickly build a color set by extracting every color from an image, selection, layer or the Mixer.
1 Opening an image and making a selection. To make a color set based on a selected area of your image, begin by opening the Color Sets palette by clicking the Color Sets palette bar name. If the palette group is not open, choose Window, Color Palettes, Show Color Sets. Open an image, and then make a selection (as we did here with the Rectangular Selection tool). I used the Rectangular Selection tool to select the area around the flower in my photograph.
The photograph of the Datura flower, with the active selection made with the Rectangluar Selection tool.
2 Generating the color set. In the Color Sets palette, click the Library Access button (the Grid) to display the pop-up menu and then choose New Color Set from Selection. Painter will generate the color set.
Clicking the Grid icon will open the menu. Choose New Color Set from Selection.
3 Displaying the color set. After your color set is made, increase the Swatch Size to 16 pixels for easier viewing. I like to organize my color sets in dark-to-light order. To do so, click the right arrow on the Color Sets palette bar and choose Sort Order from the pop-up menu, and then choose LHS (Light, Hue and Saturation) from the menu.
Choosing a larger swatch size from the pop-up menu on the Color Sets section.
Setting up the new color set in dark-to-light order using the LHS sort order.
4 Editing and saving your color set. Automatically generated color sets often have several colors that are very similar. To remove a color, click on it in the working Color Sets and then click the Delete Color from Color Set button (the "Minus") in the Color Sets section. To save your colors, click on the right triangle on the Color Sets palette bar and choose Save Color Set from the menu, navigate to the Painter X application folder (or wherever you want to store your color set), name the color set and click Save. To use the new Color Set it can be reopened by navigating to where you saved it, and then clicking the Open button.
The new color set arranged in Light, Hue, Saturation sort order, and with the redundant colors removed.
Now you are ready to paint using your new color set!
All content and images © 2008 Cher Threinen-Pendarvis
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 using the Macintosh computer for two decades. She has been widely recognized for her mastery of Painter, Photoshop and the Wacom pressure-sensitive tablet, and has used these electronic tools since they were ?rst released. Exercising her passion for Painter's artist tools, Cher has worked as a consultant and demo-artist for the developers of Painter. 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 specializing in painting and printmaking, and she is a member of the San Diego -Museum of Art Artist Guild and the Digital Art Guild. She has taught Painter and Photoshop workshops around the world, and is the principal of the consulting ?rm 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 website at: www.pendarvis-studios.com.