The Photoshop and Painter Artist Tablet Book: Creative Techniques in Digital Painting

Rating:
Summary: Definitely NOT a dud
Review: A. Roberts seems to have an axe to grind, as she posts both on Amazon and in usegroups as an evangelist for another author, a practice I find particularly disturbing considering the immense value inherent in both authors' works.

This book is aimed at those who are wondering how to incorporate traditional methods to the desktop. A book with unlimited pages would be able to delve far deeper to get more specific about every single aspect of every single medium, but no publisher or author is about to produce such a work... nor should they.

This book is a tremendous springboard for those who want to dive into electronic art mediums, and don't understand the mechanics of how it's done. Cher is the one who built the brushes Corel ships in Painter IX, and knows more about that application through the intense research and collaboration with artists across the country than anyone in the business. I recommend not only this book, but her WOW books wholeheartedly. (My work is in the Painter WOW Books, so take that for what it's worth.)



Rating:
Summary: A 'must' for any serious computer artist
Review: Artists who regularly use digital media will find Artist Tablet Book essential: it reviews the tools of digital media, provides real-life projects and art-in-progress to demonstrate how to use Photoshop and Painter with pressure-sensitive tablets for optimum results, and uses these projects as a foundation for instruction on creating tonal and contour drawings, simulating the results of canvas and paper, and using a stylus to get the most of Painter and Photoshop's brushes. Packed with color examples for ongoing reference throughout, Artist Tablet Book is a highly recommended 'must' for any serious computer artist.


Rating:
Summary: Finally, Digital Painting Fully Explained
Review: Books on Photoshop and Painter are usually written to teach you to use all of the program's features. Learning to actually draw and paint with a graphics tablet has barely been covered. If you've been a traditional artist for years, you still need basic exercises to learn how to handle the "digital brush." If you're a beginner, you need not only the basics of using a graphics tablet, but an understanding of how art is created. Cher's book provides you with both. Software instruction is kept to the minimum you need to complete the lessons.

Through each lesson, Cher carefully explains how the pen makes different marks depending upon how we hold it, how much pressure we use, and how we modify the "brushes" we use. After a couple of frustrating starts, I found myself fighting the pen less and less, and reading more carefully about tilt, angle, pressure and the speed with which I made my strokes. My traditional `pencil and paper' style needed to change, and the lessons helped me concentrate on making those changes.

Strategies for getting from your first stroke to your last are explained in detail. Media can be mixed in ways that are very difficult, if not impossible, with traditional media, and a good portion of the book discusses your digital options. But this is real drawing and painting, no faking it, and the lessons will take some time to finish. The shortcuts and advantages of digital media aren't ignored. Scanning sketches, tracing, using photographic reference, and even direct cloning are covered thoroughly. Whatever digital tricks you use, though, you'll be the one painting the entire image, stroke by stroke, keeping the painting fresh and original.

There are two features of Cher's book that I found made the book easy to learn from. The pictures of her work in progress are so clear you can easily follow along with her methods. I would have preferred expensive spiral binding, but the book is bound well enough to stay open fairly easily while you refer to it. My second favorite feature is that all of the lessons are so timeless and useful, you can repeat them with different subjects, choosing different brushes, and never make the same painting twice. This is one computer book that won't be obsolete a year from now. Even as the software, Painter and/or Photoshop, changes with new versions, the lessons in this book remain the backbone of digital painting.

Rating:
Summary: This Book Fills an Empty Niche
Review: Cher Threinen-Pendarvis saw a need and has fulfilled it with The Photoshop and Painter Artist Tablet Book. The need was for detailed directions in setting up and using one's digital tablet and stylus for use with Corel Painter and Adobe Photoshop and continuing instructions on ways to use the stylus and tablet in each new endeavor. The subject is usually treated in a single chapter in other books, but this author weaves ways to adjust and use the digital stylus and tablet to draw and paint in all the exercises in the entire book. I have been studio painting for 23 years and digital painting using Painter and Photoshop for 10 years, yet I have learned something from each chapter in this book.

Pendarvis offers drawing and painting exercises for those new to painting, with information applicable whether painting with traditional media or digitally on the computer. At the same time her expertise with Painter and Photoshop enables her to offer tips and techniques useful for the experienced digital painter.

Exercises include tips and instructons for digital sketching, working on location, painting from photo resources, setting up, sketching, drawing and painting simple still life studies and sketching either on paper and scanned for the computer or sketching directly on the computer. Several sectons cover how to retouch vintage photographs and turn them into paintings. The author details with clear instructons how to use one's traditional or digital sketches as bases for developing paintings in digital watercolor, pastels, chalk, oils, gouache and other media. We learn to customize and use brushes in both Photoshop and Painter as needed for various projects. Pendarvis also shows us how to create a personal color palette for each painting and how to preserve and use this palette while painting on the computer. A section tells how to composite sketches and scans with digital painting from both programs, painting a project from the imagination. Other topics are covered as well. Her tips on using lighting in one's digital works and how to make custom cloning brushes are valuable. A small gallery of the author's own digital paintings is included.

Although I have never met her personally, I credit Cher Threinen-Pendarvis as one artist who taught me (through her Painter Wow! Books) how to apply Painter's enormous resources to digital painting when I was new to both computers and digital painting. This "tablet book" expands that knowledge and further teaches me how to use and customize Photoshop's brushes and how to apply Photoshop's tremendous resources to painting as well as to its more common use as a digital dark room and image editor.

I heartily recommend this book to anyone interested in digital painting, but especially to those new to painting on the computer.

Rating:
Summary: The book is a dud
Review: I find this book to be very disappointing. I have read almost all her books..some I liked and some I didn't but this one is the only one I felt enough emotion about to review. I feel it was done in haste to get it on the market ahead of other authors and it has no real "meat" in it. I use Photoshop and Painter together and they work well together, but from reading this book a newbie would never be able to get anything of any substance about the process.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent for both the advanced and beginning user!
Review: I gave a passing thought that this book might not have much to offer me as I've been using Photoshop, Painter and a graphics tablet for a number of years. I was glad I ignored that passing thought as the book offers a wealth of information and examples for both the knowledgeable user and for those with minimal experience in Photoshop, Painter and graphic tablet use.

The author's writing style is informative, open and relaxed making for an inviting read.

There are numerous interesting and well thought out examples throughout the book along with excellent quick tips.

The author has taken the time to compare and contrast not only brushes available *within* Photoshop and Painter but also *between* Photoshop and Painter. Each sample image is created in both programs showing the individual brushes used which allows users to not only see what can be accomplished in each program but also showing those users who own only one of these programs what they can create within the program they use.

This book is an excellent addition to the library of both experienced and entry-level users.

Rating:
Summary: Check this one out!
Review: Sometimes it's hard to write an honest review of a book by a long-time friend. But not this time.

No matter where you are on your way to learning to paint or draw on the computer, this beautiful book offers worlds of insight, training, and support. A scholar of art history and proficient with traditional artists' tools even before she developed her computer expertise, Cher Threinen-Pendarvis is uniquely qualified to teach both art and digital craft. If you're a painter but new to the computer, Cher's experience and strong, concise teaching style will very quickly make you comfortable with the new tools-Corel Painter, Adobe Photoshop, and the digital tablet and stylus. On the other hand, if you're experienced with the computer but new to painting, she demystifies the process of "seeing" your subject and translating its form and color into line and brushwork - so that's how they do that! Encouraged by her warmth and clarity, you can relax as you acquire artists' skills and develop your style. And if you're new to both computers and painting, how fortunate! The Photoshop and Painter Artist Tablet Book: Creative Techniques in Digital Painting offers you the opportunity to learn from a master of both, before you've developed any bad habits!

The Photoshop and Painter Artist Tablet Book: Creative Techniques in Digital Painting is a collector's item-a unique blend of art and computer craft. It's a book you'll want to open again and again just because the pages are so beautiful. But don't miss a word or an image. Regardless of whether you use Painter or Photoshop or both, you'll want to read all the instructions and sidebars. Having a tablet is important to getting the full benefit of what the author-artist has to offer, but it's a great book even if you don't have a tablet yet.