Corel Painter Help | Applying paint effects to gradients

Applying paint effects to gradients

You can apply different paint styles to gradients created with the Interactive Gradient tool.

Different paint styles were applied to the gradients used in these images.
(Top) Artwork by Fiona Sansom. (Bottom) Artwork by Greg Newman.

You can preview a paint effect before committing a gradient. If you have experimented with the preset gradient auto-painting styles and you know which style you want to apply, you can quickly draw and commit the gradient without previewing the paint effect.

To apply a paint effect to a gradient

1 Click the Interactive Gradient tool

in the toolbox.

2 Click the Preset flyout button

on the property bar, and choose a gradient.

3 Choose settings from the property bar.

Make sure the Edit nodes option on the property bar is enabled.

4 Perform a task from the following table:

To apply a gradient to	Do the following to set the gradient scale and direction
The canvas	Click and drag on the canvas.
A selection	Click and drag inside the selection.
A layer	Select a layer in the Layers panel. Click and drag on the layer.
A channel	Select a channel in the Channels panel. Click and drag on the channel.

5 Click the Express Paint

button on the property bar and choose an auto-painting style.

To preview the paint effect in the image window, enable the Preview Effect option.

To change the size of the brushstrokes that the paint effect will apply, move the Size slider.

To set the number of the brushstrokes that the paint effect will apply, move the Amount slider. The smaller the size, the more brushstrokes you need to render the entire gradient.

6 Click the Commit Gradient button

on the property bar.

If you choose a very small size and amount, the brushstrokes may cover only part of the gradient, especially on a very large canvas.

When you apply a paint effect to a small selection, you may need to lower the size and amount of brushstrokes to achieve the result you want.

The smaller the brushstroke size, the longer it takes to apply the paint effect.

You can apply a paint effect only to a gradient that you draw with the Interactive Gradient tool.

To stop the auto-painting at any time, click in the document window.

To quickly draw and commit a gradient without previewing a paint effect, click the Interactive Gradient tool in the toolbox, click the Preset flyout button on the property bar, and choose a gradient. Disable the Edit nodes option on the property bar, click the Express Paint button on the property bar, choose an auto-painting style, and then draw the gradient. The paint effect will be applied automatically as you lift the stylus to commit the gradient.