How to Turn Digital Photographs Into Paintings!
Corel Painter Essentials 4 – Turn Your Photography into Art
Jul 16, 2009
The ability to turn your everyday digital photographs into painted prints or files is becoming vastly more accessible to the consumer; this technology interests everyone from professional graphic designers to hobbyists and at-home enthusiasts who are looking for an efficient and easy way to work artistically with their portraits and landscape photographs.
Start with Corel Painter Essentials 4, Easy Set Up / Install and Operation
Corel Painter Essentials, as a series, is likely the most affordable and easiest to use program on the market – built specifically to paint any photograph in a multitude of styles and methods. Part of the Corel graphics suite, it is available in many cases for under $100, and is perfectly paired with Corel Paint Shop Pro, specifically Paint Shop Pro Photo X2.
Ease of use is probably the number one selling feature of Corel Painter Essentials 4; the menus are laid out very professionally and are not confusing in the least. Simply open the original photograph from the file menu and choose which type of painting you would like to convert that photograph into!
Some of the choices included in the retail release of Corel Painter Essentials 4 with regards to painting styles include classical oil painting, impressionist painting, seurat painting, modern painting, simple and detailed watercolours, and gouache painting. Sketching is also featured in the program as well, with options including pencil, chalk, and coloured pencil drawings.
That's simply the beginning with Corel Painter Essentials, as further detailing options are available to the users as well, including colour saturation and application, paper and canvas types, as well as what style of brush to use when painting your image. After all of the selections have been made to the user's specifications, all it takes is clicking "start" and watch the painting begin!
Why Turn My Photographs into Paintings?
The possibilities are truly inspiring when it comes to painting photographs – many photographs that may have seemed mundane or dull as simple exposures can be brought to life by using this method.
A modern painting with high contrast or high saturation could be used for a local rock show poster, or even a highly stylized landscape of an urban center. By comparison, a watercolour produced from a photograph of an urban harbour such as Halifax or St. John's might look very dreamy, organic, and placid – a beautiful representation for many who are in love with landscape photography.
Photographs may be enhanced by painting portions of the exposure and then leaving certain aspects, like persons or simply the subject of focus in the shot, unpainted and sharp. This method is somewhat challenging for amateurs, but in the hands of professionals it is a wonderful tool in the graphic designer's arsenal.
Simply put, by painting your most vivid memories, transferring them from photograph to painted work of art, may truly lift emotion, shape, or even simply the colours themselves out of the work and into a new aesthetic.
Recommended Reading, Related Articles Regarding Photography and Art
Need a fun idea for a photo shoot with the kids? Try "Fun Photo Shoots on a Budget - The Candy Shop" or perhaps even take a peek at "Creative, Low Cost Photography – Toys!". For those looking for a little professional insight on portraiture, "Portraiture : Infants and Newborns" may be of assistance.
 |
 |
 |
