In November of last year, thePhotofinishes looked at Corel Painter Lite as a possible economic version[$50 vs $300] of full Corel Painter X3. But what we discovered was a program that was so severely stripped of painting features it was really only good as a Paint program with a reasonable set of brushes and layering capabilities. Then a friend suggested taking a look at the Art Weaver 4 – the free version which has a great set of brush tools, layering and a UI much like Photoshop.
ArtWeaver set uop for Painting
Now the key ingredients that Art Weaver brings to the Painting world are:
1)a great set of 18 brushes from acrylic, chalk, and pastels to a wonderful impasto brush;
2)layering with both blend and opacity controls;
3)a clone method in the brushes and clone source capability.
With these it is possible to create a photo painting environ in Art Weaver.
How to Setup Art Weaver for Painting
Here are the steps:
1) make a copy of the file you want to use as the trace or clone photo source. In our case all10.jpg is the clone source and all10a.jpg is the tracing paper.
2)Next open both files in Art Weaver.
3)Under File | Cone Source command set all10.jpg as the clone source.
4)Next make all10a.jpg the active file and add a blank layer to it using Layer |New | New Layer command;
5)Add a coat of light gray to this blank tracing layer using the Paint Bucket tool;
6)Adjust the opacity of the blank tracing layer in the Layer Window Panel [CTRL+6] to desired transparency;
7)Then begin painting in clone fashion by choosing anyone of 19 brushes in the Brush Window Panel [CTRL+9]. Be sure to set the Brush Method to Clone. And everytime you change brushes you will likely have to reset the Brush Method to Clone.
Do try many of the different Artweaver brush types- acrylics, chalk, impasto, and photo were used in the quick 10 minute painting below. Switch out of Clone mode and use the Ink Dropper tool to find the color you want to paint with.In 5 minutes you can be photo painting with a distinct look and style:
For the price of free, Art Weaver 4 makes for a clone painter as good if not better than Corel Painter Lite. Another reason to consider using Art Weaver.