Corel Painter Tutorial 12.1 – Selections and Textures

The purpose of this Tutorial is to build experience in in visualizing a non photographic image,  making complex selections,  and making decisions about color texture which will affect the design and creativity of your painting. Any brush which has  “grain” in it’s name can be used.  I used the soft pastel.  With pastel and chalk brushes a grain setting of 7% gives the maximin grain.  Taking the grain setting to 100 percent pretty much allows you to paint without grain.  This is a fun way to create a painting and a good way to  experiment with creating a painting without cloning from a photo. Just play and enjoy.


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Corel Painter 12.1 – Painting Dancers

Painting Dancers

I love painting dancers though I have not created many such paintings.  I am changing this. I enjoyed painting the variations below in Corel Painter 12.1.

Watch the video to see how I create the four variations of this painting. Unfortunately, there is not enough time in the 15 minutes to demonstrate the initial painting.

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Corel Painter 12.1 Painting With Impasto

See how I visualize and compose a painting, Add impasto texture to your painting. This video demonstrates these processes.

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Just Doodling

Doodling is taking on a different look for me.  Last night I was playing with various paper and brush combinations in Corel Painter 12 – just making marks and taking my color from gradient mode using some of the new gradients I have recently created. I was just making marks starting with some of the darker tones – they were my newest gradients and some gold tones.  Soon I started to see trees.

I had no painting in mind, so I continued with my marks, adding a bit of green – a little park, perhaps, I thought, and so it went until this little image complete trees and sky and creek and sunlight was born.  I am not concerned about whether it is good or not.  I had fun and it is a different kind of painting for me to do.  That’s enough.  Hope you  enjoy.

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Link for Winifred’s X-Rite-Nik Webinar

On November 16th, I hosted  webinar  sponsored by Nik software and X-Rite.  Attendance was at capacity – nearly 1000 webinar attendees. For this reason, quite a few were unable to attend and requested the archived link. Here it is – enjoy:

Winifred’s X-Rite and Nik  Sponsored
“TAKE YOUR IMAGES TO WOW”!!

This was the first webinar I have ever hosted.  I was a little nervous in the beginning but then I relaxed and had a great time.  I will soon have custom Nik Color Effects 4  “recipes” posted on their site.

I will host workshops and Corel Painter training through out 2012. Please contact me if you would like to be notified.

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Winifred Whitfield Displays Portrait Paintings at Port Ludlow Bay Club

Winifred Displays Portrait Paintings

This is a display of 30   large  beautifully framed portrait paintings. the display opened November 10th and will remain on exhibit until December 2nd.  It has been very well received with many visitors being curious about the process of creating digital art.  The fact is that they cannot discern any difference between my portrait paintings created electronically and those created with traditional media.

The following are some of the newest pieces to be included in my collection:

Friends

Beggar in Italy

Mother and Child

Here’s to You

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Winifred Whitfield Host Webinar – X-Rite – Nik Software

Winifred Whitfield Host Webinar Sponsored by Nik Software and X-Rite

I am passionate about the creativity and quality I bring to my images. However, I cannot accomplish this through sheer will alone. Color management is critical to producing images which have the color and density which I envision and can see on my monitor.  X-Rite for all of my color management  needs. Likewise it is essential to use  software which supports my creativity.  I use Nik Software.  I use Nik filters to  enhance paintings and photos alike.

Photo with a Custom Blend of Nik  Filters  Applied

By using X-Rite color management tools, I am able to create custom white balance for my camera,  a custom camera profile consistent with specific lighting conditions to optimize the colors in my images. For this, I use the Colorchecker Passport.  I use the i1 Pro Photo to calibrate my monitor,  projector and printer.  If I am traveling, I use the ColorMunki Display to calibrate my laptop or a projector if I am conducting a workshop. The ColorMunki Display is a simple to use wizard driven device and it is indispensable.  If you print, I would recommend the ColorMunki Photo as a simple way to create custom profiles which will match your display to  your printer.

On November 16th, I will conduct a  live webinar  sponsored by Nik software and X-Rite to discuss how I use Color Management and Nik filters in my workflow.  I will post the webnar link as soon as it becomes available.

A 15% discount is available if you purchase  Nik Software online.

Enter the Code: wwpainter

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Photographer Winifred Whitfield: Successful fusion of art and business

Women In Business

Photographer Winifred Whitfield: Successful fusion of art and business

February 1, 2011 @ 11:11am | Rodika Tollefson

Winifred media

Women In Business

Photographer Winifred Whitfield: Successful fusion of art and business

February 1, 2011 @ 11:11am | Rodika Tollefson

Winifred WhitfieldWinifred Whitfield has no trouble reinventing herself. The Poulsbo-based photo artist has followed several paths before finding her current niche — creating fine art photo portraits of women — but they all have one thing in common: complete dedication.

“I want mastery. I want to do it really well. I’m not a dabbler, that’s for sure,” she says.

Whitfield launched her boutique studio gallery, Intimate Portraits for Women (www.bigvalleyphotoart.com), when she discovered she enjoyed creating soulful, sensual portraits of women using the disappearing art of classic portraiture. She was doing wedding photography and when she found the possibilities of digital photography, she saw it as a way of returning to a childhood passion: painting.

“People want to do work fast, put a tag on it and get it out the door. My niche requires time intensity to develop these products,” she says. “It’s not fast at all.”

The product starts with a photo session where Whitfield uses techniques such as lighting and the subject’s own feelings. She says a good photograph needs a context, a person’s emotions, whether that’s sadness or joy.

“I tell women to concentrate on their thoughts and what they project. I need content because it will come through the camera,” she says. “There’s a feeling to the images, a calmness, and that’s the difference. When people are ‘not there,’ there’s no feeling.”

With the photos complete, Whitfield’s work is only beginning. She will take the raw image and digitally turn it into fine art, brushstroke by brushstroke, using two different software programs. “It’s very engaging and it’s a lot of work but it’s not boring or tedious,” she says.

To achieve her level of mastery, Whitfield studies constantly — everything from composition to lighting in other artists’ good work — as well as dissecting her own work to see how she can improve it. She also focuses efforts on the technical aspects, such as experimenting with her digital brush strokes in order to build up her toolkit. “You have to work at it, it’s not intuitive at all,” she says.

Her work has become renowned around the country and abroad. Whitfield, who also does photography in New York on location, has won various awards for her work and has been in demand for classes — as recently as January she went to London for a week to teach workshops. She also was recently invited to do beta product testing and be a spokesperson for X-Rite, a global leader in color science and technology.

Whitfield enjoys sharing her knowledge with other photographers, and she’s even conducted a tutoring session for a renowned photographer friend via Skype: As he worked on a photoshoot in Australia, she guided him in using her techniques.

The business aspects are generally challenging for the artsy types, but Whitfield says she has disciplined herself to do the work that comes with being self-employed. “If you don’t do it, you perish,” she says.

Using that side of the brain, of course, is not new to her. In her former career in New York City, she was in charge of bond ratings at Standard & Poor’s. But one day she decided she was done with Wall Street and with life in the big city, so she set off for the Pacific Northwest to start a new life. She had been to Bremerton before and liked it, so the Kitsap Peninsula became her destination.

As she continued in the financial sector for a while, assisting colleges and other entities to structure their financing, she had acquired lamas and turned her focus to breeding. After she landscaped her six-acre farm and designed beautiful gardens, she found her property in demand for weddings, which, in turn, brought her into photography. (She has since put the farm on the market and moved to a much smaller home in Port Ludlow.)

“It’s not tough to reinvent myself. I’ve been told I have the gift of fearlessness. I know I will land on my feet and do well,” she says. “It’s because of the mastery. It’s an inner thing — not having to overcome fear and the drive to learn new things, be creative and do well.”

She says if she had to change careers again, she could easily do it, but she’s content with the niche she has found, especially in an industry that continues to grow. “The best part is the satisfaction, the tears that come when I deliver the final product. Women like to see themselves expressed beautifully.”

Working for herself has worked out well for Whitfield, who likes to do things her way, and she doesn’t see going back. “I’m very happy on my own,” she says,” as complex as it gets sometime.”

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