How do I turn off impasto?

[Cyanide]

I recently got Corel Painter IX and I like it for the most part. My only problem with it is that all the brushes seem to insist on adding impasto to the painting and I don't want them to do that. I don't like that I can't erase the impasto along with the color from the stroke. It's causing me all kinds of headaches. How do I stop brushes from using impasto, or make it so the impasto erases along with the rest of the stroke?

[rogfa]

Impasto effects can add those great texture effects like traditional media but I went through the same thing you're going through. Any brush with "Thick" or "Wet" will have some sort of impasto effect. Also if you see the option "Feature" it's impasto too.

What I did was just use non-impasto brushes, like the Captured Bristle brush under Acrylics (that's my favorite and my main painting brush btw). If I want the piece to mimic a traditional look, I'll "sprinkle" impasto effects by using a thick or wet brush.

If make a mistak or go overboard I'll use the Depth Equalizer under Impasto to flatten out impasto effects. It will get rid of the impasto but leave the color.

Hope that helps.

[Jin]

Hi,

The following comments are based on Painter IX but should be generally true for other Painter versions, Painter 6 through Painter IX though in Painter 6 and Painter 7, Impasto controls are found in the Brush Controls palette's Impasto section and in Painter 8, in the Brush Creator's Impasto section:

It's not true that the Feature control, when it's available for the specific brush variant, is a reliable indicator of the brush variant using Impasto.

The Oils' Round Camelhair, for instance, has the Feature control available and does not use Impasto. Nor do the Watercolor variants use Impasto, though the Feature control may be available for some or all of the variants. No doubt this is true for other brush categories' variants as well.

It's also not true that a brush variant including the word "Wet" in its name always uses Impasto. An example among many is the Sumi-e Wet Bristle Sumi-e 20 variant. Other such example variants are found in the Artist's Oils, Digital Watercolor, Gouache, Sponges, and Watercolor categories.

What does indicate that a specific brush variant uses Impasto is the Brush Controls Impasto palette's Draw to: option being either Depth or Color and Depth.

If you want to use a brush variant that, in its default state, uses Impasto Depth or Color and Depth, just change the Impasto palette's Draw to: option to Color.

If you want to remove Impasto depth and lighting from existing Impasto brushstrokes, choose the Impasto's Depth Eraser variant (tends to dig a trench rather than just erasing depth) or the Depth Equalizer variant that flattens the brushstroke without digging a trench.

If you want to remove both Impasto color and depth, use the Impasto's Color and Depth Eraser.

If you want to turn off all Impasto lighting and depth in the image (temporarily, until it's turned on again), click the Impasto icon at the upper right corner of your image window or use Canvas > Surface Lighting and uncheck the Enable Impasto box.

To understand how to use and control Impasto, read the following information for your Painter version:

Painter IX Help > Help Topics > Contents tab > Impasto

Painter 8 Help > Help Topics > Contents tab > Impasto

Painter 7 Help > Help Topics > Contents tab > Painter 7 Help > Impasto

Painter 6 Help > Impasto


Jinny