Customer Reviews

The Art of Digital Photo Painting: Using Popular Software to Create Masterpieces (A Lark Photography Book)

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

A very good introduction to Corel Painter for those new to the software who want to use it primarily for manipulating existing photographs. Painter is a complex package and it is not easy to find one's way around so that a book such as this is definitely needed. However, it does not go much beyond the basic automatic functions. Also, space is devoted to additional (and expensive) plug-in components which most users will probably not want to buy. It is large-format, very colorful and the manipulated photos are impressive.

Dennis

I've had trouble figuring out Painter and have several books about it. I think Marilyn's book is the best. Her step-by-step approach is very helpful and I appreciate being able to work on the same images she uses for her illustrations. Her writing style is very clear. She has tons of illustrations showing each artwork as it progresses. The early chapters give you a good understanding of the interface and show you particular strategies for converting photos to paintings.

I like her chapter on portraits the best. She shows how to make hair and eyes that are neither too photographic nor too smeary -- a particular problem for me. The middle chapters have to do with particular types of subjects: portraits, landscapes, flowers. Each of these chapters illustrates new ways of approaching a painting and new techniques. As you work through the chapters you not only see how Painter can be used for these subjects, you also increase the bag of tricks you can use for any painting. The final chapter deals with presentation (mostly border treatments), texturing and printing.

Great Book, I have several books on Painter that I have never finished. This one is a great read, and the 1st that doesn't feel like a user's manual or a text book. Full color pictures bring the book to life. Leaves your excited to paint. I had idea after idea for different painting and it was a challenge to decide which one to start with.

Over the last three years, I have been learning photoshop, wordpress, and Painter in my limited spare time. Being a beginner at all of the above I have purchased hundreds of dollars worth of manuals and tutorial books on the three subjects. Most of them were over my head and not much help until after I had struggled for months to figure it out on my own. After familiarizing myself with the basics, they have been somewhat useful as a reference source. I just wish all of them had been written like Marilyn's book. It is great for the beginner - her detailed step by step instructions - including brush category, variants, size, etc. were like following a recipe. If not for her book It would have been like trying to build a spaceship from an alien blueprint.

Thanks Marilyn for an awesome book!

At first I was really excited to get this book and that excitement continued as I did a read-through before attempting any of the projects. However once I started to use the book, I found it full of errors and misinformation. Also with only a minimal index at the back, it is virtually impossible to relocate information previously noted.

Book uses a number of third party programs that are supposed to run as add-ons. I was unsuccessful in installing any of these programs as add-ons to Painter, which renders a number of the projects useless. One add-on doesn't even exist anymore and while the author writes in the book that she keeps an updated resource list on her blog of where to get this program (TwistedPixels) that was not the case when I checked on December 30, 2010. And I was never able to successfully install the other two programs as plug-ins to Painter even after referencing the "Help" at Corel and the specific software companies. After about 3 frustrating hours I just gave up and installed them as plug-ins to Photoshop (which I also own). Therefore, I would not recommend this book to anyone who is not already well versed in at least the technical aspects of Painter.

The index is less than a page long, vague and not helpful. For example, because I was having problems installing the plug-ins, I wanted to go back to those pages. But there are no indexes for "plug-in" so I was left thumbing through the book trying to remember where I had seen references to the process.

Finally, I was totally appalled to find the URL for author's own blog MISSPELLED in the book (page 17). I had already spent frustrating hours trying to recreate the digital art studio the author recommended before finding this error, and it pretty much summed up my impression of the book -- poorly conceptualized and badly presented.

Those are my main gripes about this book. I do agree with the other reviews that the projects are also poorly described. That doesn't really bother me, as I figured it would just be fun to try different things myself. However, the sheer fact that as I started to actually work through the book I stumbled upon error after error before even getting to the first project was enough for me to decide to look elsewhere for better instruction.

This is a very helpful tool to learn more about Painter and how you can bypass the hard work that drawing or painting a subject from blank canvas to finished creation can take by using a photograph. I have watched in amazement how over time the technology has gotten better to do this. Recently at an art show, a painter who took traditional photographs, produced them as Sepia and then placed just a smidgen of paint on them, was selling the originals for thousands.

However he could have (or did) use the techniques here in this book and was charging thousand for something that you could do in a few hours after spending time with Marilyn's book. The lessons are mostly clear, though on occasion trying to recreate exactly what she did had different results. Also some additional time of her instruction in basic Painter program techniques might have been helpful.

I felt like I learned a great deal following the lessons, but the examples of artists sections at the end of each chapter was lacking in that they did not really explore the steps they took to recreate their photos to art. A second minor complaint, and why I can't give this five stars, is the use of secondary programs that you have access to as demos for a few days, then would want to charge you $100's to purchase so that you could have them always. The software of Painter already is pricey, as well as a tablet. Let's try to learn Painterly technique without the added cost of additional software. Or let us try to find free filters that will work completely in Painter and not be so prohibitive.

At the end of the book I came to realize that a final gallery for quick reference was missing. How to show side by side the starting photo, and what it became. With a few key steps reprinted so that you can go to the effect you want. That possibly would be a great way to go onto Mastering the Art. Since Painter has so many hundreds of variations based on what Marilyn shows, a reference could save you countless hours of your experimentation, but that may be where creativity is born.

Just received my new book by Marilyn. I have not had a chance to try the tutorials yet but have read quite a few chapters and am loving every minute of it. Marilyn has made the lessons very simple and straightforward. I love how she has classified the brushes and showed what each can do on painting hair.
Marilyn has also recommended some software that should be interesting to try.
I am highly recommending this book to my painter friends. As soon as all the activities of this holiday season calms down I am going to try each and every one of them.

The Art of Digital Photo Painting by Marilyn Sholin is a great resource for anyone new to the world of digital painting. The instructions in the book are easy to follow and she takes the time to explain processes so we aren't just doing the work, but we understand what is happening. I've wanted to learn digital painting for a while now but was intimidated by the process. Having access to her images and being able to work through the process with her instructions is SO helpful. I was even able to take information in the introduction chapters and tweak to adjust for filters as I went through some of the tutorials. Great book, if you are thinking about getting into digital painting, a MUST HAVE.

This book is fantastic. I've worked through five of the lessons so far and have learned so much! This is definitely a learn by doing and dive right in kind of book, there are only a few pages explaining the program and the brushes, etc... Marilyn does lay everything out step by step, but I must admit there were times I'd get confused or mess something up, or something wouldn't work like I thought it should, but I always figured it out eventually. If you work through the lessons, you'll learn a lot.

I didn't get hung up about whether or not I had specific plug ins Marilyn uses; I just did my own thing with the plug ins I own for Photoshop. I am not trying to recreate Marilyns art exactly, I am trying to learn the principles behind creating a digital painting with a photograph and Painter.

Anyway, this is a beautifully illustrated book, and each chapter is followed by a gallery featuring an amazing artist, complete with links to their website. Highly recommended.

I found the number of lessons requiring a downloadable free trial of various plug-ins annoying...little more than free advertising. This detracts from an otherwise good, usefull book.