A water (not watercolor) brush?

[runningbull]

That looks awesome Steve. Once you know how, does it approach the "simpleness" of using real watercolors?

If you know of a video demo of this feature I'd love to see it.

[Steve B]

Is it as simple as putting watercolors on paper? Hmmm, that's up for debate to me. But then, I might counter that the simpleness of realmedia watercolors is an illusion in and of itself.

When you put paint to paper, and then more paint to paper stuff happens on its own when the two interact. This is the illusion. It seems as simple as a chemical reaction. But, of course, you've got to get it all in place to let those processes take over.

In real media Watercolors--
You've got to wet your paper, stretch it, perhaps wet it before you start where you want the bleeds to stop, create your color with more or less pigment, lay down color, dab it where you want to to lift color and wetness, or dry it with a hairdryer, or add salt or rubbing alcohol and then manually tilt the board (another man-made input) for such and such length of time, etc; then apply a second coat, etc etc. If you make a mistake you might try and life the color too (much like lowering the opacity of a layer).

Frankly, I find doing it digitally is ending up being as complicated (or uncomplicated, as one might see it) as real-media watercolors, just in different ways. Many people seem to want to just lay down digital color and see it interact, but it's not like that in Artrage, and it's not like that in real life, IMO.

So, in Artrage, with watercolors--
I've got to lay down the color first, then put Just Water into it and push the pigment around or out, then I put in the Low Blender with a higher blending percentage to build up pigment on the edges. Then I went over that in a new layer with a light blue, using a stencil from the "from the sky" set by MrPaint for some of the texture. I then erased a bit, lowered the opacity, and voila. :P The results you see here. I found it pretty straightforward, once I recognized the steps I needed to use. For my avatar, I continued the process and added a new layer with a stamp from a Photoshop Watercolors splatter brush, which I then rotated, stretched, and relocated, erasing some of it here and there to make it specific to the painting. I also added in one additional layer with the plum colored wash.

My new mindset for digital watercolors--
I think the secret to me for having a better mindset was that I just needed to thinking of digital processes as the clear equivalents to the many processes you go through (but forget about) when making real media watercolors. Layers equate to drying paint with a hairdryer; moving and rotating PS stamps to tilting my board a certain direction to create a drip; erasing through a stencil (or stencils) as laying down salt or rubbing alcohol, etc etc. I've also found that working with stencils and layer textures has helped bring to digital watercolors that element of surprise and discovery that I missed so much from real media, because I'm never quite sure what affect they're going to have when I apply them. I have an idea, but I'm not positive. THAT, for me, has probably been the biggest thing of all, because it's made it fun again-- a little more about discovery and less about total control (although there's clearly still quite a lot of control digitally). That, in essence, is why I've always loved watercolors. Thus, exploring and finding and thinking a little about cool stencils and textures and then just trying them out for the hell of it has been, for me, very central to the pleasure I've been taking from my new process with digital watercolors in Artrage.

So, all in all, I feel like this process has helped me replicate, in many ways, the feeling as well as many of the results of real watercolors. My two cents anyways. I'm actually really interested in seeing how others are playing with this stuff. Everything I've learned I've learned by reading and watching the work of others on here and on youtube-- just making a kind of amalgamation of info to create some of these styles/affects. That's why I'm interested in seeing more people respond with thoughts.

[Steve B]

Today I tried out something a bit new-- I layed down a first color and then, using the new real color blending mode and the Low Blending brush, I mixed in a new color over the top using a stencil (as discussed above) with some sort of veination or interesting texture. The result? A kind of true to life color bleed of one very wet color into another. Very cool! I also tried doing the same thing but with the second brush being Just Water (over a stencil). Worked too.

I've attached two sections of a larger painting that I'm posting in the gallery.

[justjean]

Great effects, thanks for sharing