I decided to do a hand, why? it has some complex shadows and spots that are certainly hard to do, well I first start always in a separate layer from the canvas the linework ( pens/scratchboard tool: 51% opac, 70% resat, 20% bleed) it looks something like this:


I tried to imitate the colors so I drew them in a separate layer from the linework, being done that I selected each color and tried to define the area of each one with some sort of random strokes with this: oils/opaque round: 22% opac, 74% resat, 90% bleed, 2.0 feature.




It looks as if we haven't made any progress, but, now you see that there is a space between colors, this is where the magic starts, its all based in this step, you need to fill those spaces, but you have to do some kind of mixture of the colors that are close to each other, some sort of small gradient, trying to mix them is very easy if you use this: oils/opaque round: 10% opac, 17% resat, 85% bleed, 2.0 feature. Try to select the color that results from stroking one color for another to have a smooth appereance and transition... after a while the hand should look like this:



We have basically all the elements here, the oily feeling comes from having some sort of soft blur and some contrasting lights, at least that is what I think (don't blame me, I haven't studied anything about art! =P), so the first part in that process is to blend all the colors, we have all the spaces filled now we need to make that smoother, with this: blenders/soft blender stump: 46% opac, 23% grain, 0% resat, 56% bleed, 0% jitter, start making some short and continuous strokes around the color, try to blend them but not to erase them, try to use a small size, and intensionally try to leave some areas without blending, that helps in the hardness and consistence of the painting, after a while it should look like this:



At this point I see that I need more dramatics lights so I use this settings: pens/scratchboard tool: 51% opac, 70% resat, 20% bleed, and start making some sort of highlights and small and thin strokes in all the hand, don't worry , we are going to blend that later, so, after that the hand should look like this:



Now use this: blenders/oily blender: 34% opac, 100% grain, 0% jitter, try to... hmm, pull the highlight color, to give it more form and more shape, this is a very tricky tool, so be ready to hit that ctrl+z lots of times, try to imitate the way light hits the hand... after some strokes it should look like this:



You have 2 choices, leave it this way or try to work on it a little bit more, I'll work on it a little bit more, so, again, the fantastic tool: blenders/soft blender stump: 46% opac, 23% grain, 0% resat, 56% bleed, 0% jitter, try to blend again some parts of the highlights that you feel that need blending, again I highly recommend to leave some spots without blending to give it a more drastic element, oh and try to do the nails now with the oily brush, again, after a while it should look like this:



It looks good now, but I decided to add more lights and blend them again, its an easy process but requires accuracy, you can easily ruin a piece if you are not careful, even more because painter only allows 32 undo levels... so for me this is the final result:




Painter 8 is a very hard to learn program, it takes a lot of practice to get optimal results, you can easily get lost, but my advices are these: make layers, save often, play with the opacity, the bleeding, the resat, try to experiment and find the perfect way and your own style and... well is hard to say this for me, but you CAN'T enjoy painter with a mouse, you need a tablet to see its full potential, a mouse in painter will make your life hell... I know what I'm telling you, I've been through that.

Another thing that I love about Painter 8 is that you can export your files in PSD format, very useful if you want to make some tweaks to your painting, it saves you a lot of time and pain, and I ALWAYS work in a 4500 x 3000 px canvas, it helps to have more details on the painting, don't be surprised if you use a 640x480 canvas and you can't get enough detail in the picture... I guess thats all, I hope you enjoyed this small tutorial as much as I enjoyed doing it and if you have feedback feel free to send me an email at temoce@gmail.com.

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