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Runny washes
5 Painting wet-into-wet runny washes. Painter 7 offers dynamic brushes that allow you to emulate various traditional Water Color run effects. For a smooth runny wash that will not displace the underlying color, use one of the Runny Wash variants. Choose a slightly different color in the Colors section and dab the new color on to areas with existing color. Using the Runny Wash Camel and Runny Wash Bristle, we applied brighter pink and magenta colors (using short dabbing strokes) on the deeper color areas of the þower petals. Then we added deeper pink and reddish colors to the interior of the orchid. The Runny Wash variants allowed the new color to mix with existing color without moving the existing color.
Figure 5 The drippy washes on the lower petals were painted with the Runny Wash variants of Water Color
The Runny variants of Water Color (the Runny Wash Bristle and the Runny Wash Camel, for instance), are useful for painting wash runs, where colors run together and blend, but don't displace the underlying color. This is similar to a glazing effect. The Runny Wet variants, however, will run and displace existing color on the image as the new pigment travels. Often the Runny Wet brushes will leave a lighter area because the Wet variants cause leaching of the existing pigment. The Runny Wet brushes are useful if you want to add darker wet-looking edges to foliage or when painting a sky with rain clouds.
The default Runny Wet Bristle variant of Water Color paints strokes that run vertically down the image and move existing color. The Dry Rate is set at 10%, allowing lots of time for the pant to run, the Wind Direction is set to 270,° and the Force setting (71%), makes the washes drip a long way. The high Pickup rate allows the brush strokes to move existing color.
6 Editing a Water Color layer or the sketch. It's not possible to use a variant of the Erasers brush on a Water Color layer, and you can't use a Water Color Eraser or Bleach variant on the Canvas, or on an image layer. To softly remove color on a Water Color layer, choose the Eraser Dry variant of Water Color and choose white in the Colors section. In the Layers section, click on the name of the Water Color layer you wish to edit and brush over the area you'd like to lighten. We used the Eraser Dry variant to brighten the highlights on the þower petals and the stamen.
Figure 6 Lightening an area in the center of the flower with the Eraser Dry variant of Water Color
If you'd like to edit your pencil sketch, target the Canvas in the Layers section and switch to the Eraser variant of the Erasers and brush over the area that you'd like to erase.
7 Painting details. If you want very crisp details, it's a good idea to paint detail work on a separate layer, but in this case we stayed on the same Water Color layer because we wanted to preserve the softer wet-into-wet look. Add crisper edges to areas that need definition using a small Fine Camel variant (68 pixels). To reduce the Size of the Fine Camel variant, use the Size slider in the Controls:Brush palette. If the Fine Camel seems too saturated for your taste, lower the Opacity to about 20%, using the slider in the Controls:Brush palette. If you'd like softer edges, experiment with the Wash Camel and the Diffuse Camel variants, using a small size (about 68 pixels). Make expressive strokes, varying the pressure on the stylus. To paint expressive details, we used the Fine Camel variant to add curved brush strokes and to paint small areas of color on the interior of the orchid. To deepen color and break up a few of the edges, we dabbed a little more color on using the Runny Wash Camel variant. We also painted highlights and shadows on the stem using the Fine Camel variant.
Figure 7 Adding soft detail to þower stamen and highlights and shadows to the stem with the Fine Camel variant of Water Color
8 Adding color modulation and texture. To add a little more activity in the color, we loosely added a few more bristle marks using the Dry Bristle variant. Finally, we added a light speckled texture using the Eraser Salt variant of Water Color. To add bleached speckles on your image, choose the Eraser Salt variant and scrub the brush over the area you want to add speckles to. For smaller salt particles, reduce the brush Size using the Size slider in the Controls:Brush palette. To keep a spontaneous hand-done look, we retained the original sketch drawn with the 2B Pencil in the image.
Figure 8 Sprinkling "salt" on the upper area of the orchid using the Eraser Salt variant of Water Color