Working with the canvas and layers

In Corel Painter, you have the option of painting directly on the canvas by applying brushstrokes or by creating a layer and applying brushstrokes on it. Working with layers allows you to protect the canvas from any unwanted changes. When you select a layer in the Layers panel, that layer becomes the target for your brushstrokes. For more information, see Getting started with layers.

The result of any brushstroke you make depends on the following:

If you are using a Watercolor brush, you can paint only on a Watercolor layer. If you are using a Liquid Ink brush, you can paint only on a Liquid Ink layer. For more information, refer to Working with the Watercolor layer and Working with Liquid Ink brushes.

If you try to paint on a shape, dynamic layer, or reference layer, you must commit it to a standard layer so that your brushstrokes are accepted.

You can also select a channel or a layer mask as the target for your brushstrokes. For more information, see Creating and copying channels or Creating and deleting layer masks.

When you have an active selection, painting is confined to the selection by default. For more information, see Selections and transformations.

When you use complex brush variants, you see a dotted line on the canvas before the mark appears. For example, the Gloopy variant of the Impasto brush is complex, and it delays the appearance of the stroke onscreen. When you experience a delay, you can continue applying strokes, without losing any stroke data, while waiting for the stroke to appear on the screen.

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