Corel Painter Help | Painting with Thick Paint

Quick links to procedures on this page:

•

Painting with Thick Paint

There are two types of Thick Paint brushes: bristle brushes and palette knives. Bristle brushes let you apply thick paint while simulating the movement of a traditional artist brush; palette knives let you scrape, push, and drag colors in your image.

Sample brushstrokes: Thick Paint Bristle (left) and Thick Paint Palette Knife (middle and right)

To find a brush that has the specific shape or mark you need, browse the Thick Brush variants accessible from the Brush Selector. If you are looking for a Thick Paint Bristle brush, you can choose from shapes such as Angle, Detail, Fan, Flat, Filbert, Rigger, and Round. All Thick Paint Palette Knife brushes have the same bar shape.

Once you find the brush you want, you can start painting. You can also quickly adjust brushstroke appearance by accessing presets and other controls from the property bar.

Technique presets

Depending on the technique you want to use, you can choose from the following presets:

Thick lets you add thick, rich brushstrokes that have a very pronounced impasto effect.

Thick

Soft lets you apply smooth, flat, and fluid brushstrokes that are ideal for adding detail to an image or filling large areas.

Soft

Thin lets you apply thin brushstrokes that lightly cover existing strokes and can reveal some paper texture.

Thin

Dry lets you paint long, crisp brushstrokes, with visible bristle marks. With this preset, you can use the brush to skim the surface, applying a light touch to create fully opaque brushstrokes. You can also use Dry for brushstrokes that drag existing paint.

Dry

Brushstrokes made with the same brush but with different technique presets applied: Thick, Soft, Thin, and Dry.

Loading paint

Most Thick Paint brushes are loaded with a certain amount of paint. You can adjust the amount of paint on your Thick Paint brush before you start painting. That way, you don’t need to interrupt your painting to refill with paint.

Thick Paint controls

Special Thick Paint brush controls let you customize your brushstrokes and create your own Thick Paint brushes. These controls are grouped into two panels: Thick Paint - Media and Thick Paint - Brush. The Media controls let you customize the paint applied by the Thick Paint brush. The Brush controls let you customize the behavior of the brush. Most controls are common for Thick Paint Bristle brushes and Thick Paint Palette Knife brushes. For more information, see Thick Paint - Media controls and Thick Paint - Brush controls.

In addition, you can add RealBristle features to your Thick Paint Bristle brushes. For more information about RealBristle features, see Modifying RealBristle settings.

To paint with a Thick Paint brush

In the toolbox, click the Brush tool

Click the Brush Selector on the Brush Selector bar.

In the Brush library panel, click the Thick Paint brush category, and click a brush variant.

Paint in the document window.

To choose a Thick Paint technique

Select a Thick Paint brush.

On the property bar, click the Technique button

, and choose a preset technique.

To load a Thick Paint brush with paint

Select a Thick Paint brush variant.

Click the Paint Load button

on the property bar.

Drag in the document window to load the brush with the amount of paint you want.

The Paint Load control that appears shows the amount of paint loaded on the brush.

You can also load paint onscreen by using keyboard shortcuts, similarly to the way you can change brush attributes such as size, opacity, squeeze, and angle. First, hold down Command + Option (macOS) or Ctrl + Alt (Windows), and drag in the document window to resize the brush. Release the keys without releasing the mouse button or lifting the stylus, and then press Command (macOS) or Ctrl (Windows) several times to cycle through opacity, squeeze, and angle until the Paint Load control is displayed. Next, drag in the document window to load the brush.

Was this page helpful? Send feedback. (Internet connection required.)