Painting for Photographers, Volume 3 is the latest book from Karen Sperling and the third in her Painting for Photographers series. It is available in print and eBook formats. It written for use with Corel Painter and it is compatible with Painter versions 12, X3, 2015,2016, and the latest 2017. Its goal is to continue teaching you how to paint portraits, landscapes, and composites that began in volumes one and two.
Chapter 1, “Painter Basics,” will provide you with an overview of the most commonly used tools and brushes. If you have read the prior two volumes, there will be some familiar items covered here. The goal is to get you up and painting, not spending a lot of time trying to learn all the tools. The author feels that it is more important to learn art theories then all of the tools. Here you will learn about the most important tools and how to set up your workflow. You will also get a quick overview of new tools to Painter 2017.
Chapter 3, “Painting Landscapes,” now moves on to teaching you about the artistic concepts of creating the landscape painting. Here you learn about what constitutes a photo that is capable of making a good painting. Here you will learn how to pick the best colors and how to work the trees, skies, and flowers. Next you will learn about creating both classic landscape styles and impressionistic landscape styles.
Chapter 4, “Painting Composites,” much like its photographic counterpart of making composites, it is taking two or more images and putting them together to create a new work. Here you begin by looking at compositing the two prior sections of portraits and landscapes. You will learn about the art theories in creating composites. Then you will learn how to compose ‘Dream Scenes’.
At 130 pages Painting for Photographers, Volume 3 provides a lot of material in between these pages. I think that if you have wanted to try to turn your photos into paintings or you have wanted to learn more about Corel Painter, then I highly recommend Painting for Photographers, Volume 3.