Book Review: ‘Painting for Photographers, Volume 3’ By Karen Sperling

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.

“Introduction”, starts off describing the potential reasons you may want to turn your photos into paintings. And even some of the reasons you may have avoided doing so in the past. The fact that you are considering this book means that you are still contemplating it. Here the author describes the reasons that this book will provide the direction for making your dreams a reality. They boil down to three items; Art lessons, training in Corel Painter, and practice. This book provides all three.

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 2, “Painting Portraits,” begins with the basic of art theories. These focus on the creation of portraits. This includes how to choose the colors that you will use, how to deal with faces, hair, and clothing. Next you learn about classic studio portraits and how they are created and then impressionistic portraits. Then you look at how to master brushstrokes and how they differ between artistic styles. Then you move through watercolor portraits and how they are created.

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’.

While there is a little overlap in Volume 3 and in Volume 2 of this series, there is also more content here as well. So all-in-all, I call it a win. I really like how the author presents the chapter and then goes on with a section of review and further study. It provides some semblance of where you can go with your studies after you have worked through things here.

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.