First painting in AR. Very disappointed, can't work with brushes.

[Kate12345]

I know its the first ever painting I've done in AR but nothing is right with it, and I just sort of gave up towards the end. The colours looked very dull and I couldn't find a true black. When I opened the painting in photoshop, the colours were really dark and harsh. Looked even worse!

What am I doing wrong?

[Enug]

Hello and welcome Kate. I'll let the experts come in and talk to you about your colour problems, but I wanted to say that I think you're off to a great start. I really like the brushstrokes for the hair on the Golden Retriever and the eyes are terrific!

Just want to add that the hex colour code can be adjusted in colour panel in case you overlooked that (not an expert )

[markw]

Hello Kate,
Well that’s a strange one… Sorry to hear your first outing with AR didn’t go quite as you were hoping
Looking at your posted image though, the colours, values and contrast all look fine here. (And that’s a really nice pet portrait too! Is he/she yours?)
What might help might be to see how it looks on your screen. Can you post some screenshots?
Also what method did you use to get it into PS where you say it looked even worse? As a PSD file or as an image file like .tiff, .png, etc…
Which OS are you on, Mac or Windows.
Do you sue any hardware/software to calibrate you screen?

[Kate12345]

Thank you that is really nice, and helpful because I hadn't seen that box before and that may be why so many colours look washed out. I did create a hair brush that looked nice in practice, but on the painting was so faint i gave up. I wont give up the Artrage though as I won't be beaten.

I do think maybe I'm getting the whole concept wrong, as I only ever use real watercolour and pencils (physical) so I don't think the oil painting concept is something I am really getting. I do digital oil effect painting but just muddle through it, so I got AR to really look into oils, as it is supposed to be best for oil.

[Kate12345]

Hi. The dog is just a picture off the internet to practice on. I've recalibrated the screen but it was pretty OK anyway. The monitor is a gaming monitor from ViewSonic set at a resolution 1680x1050 and I think that is fairly reasonable. I exported the dog from AR as a jpeg and opened it again in photoshop, where the colour was vastly different. It looks very washed out in AR but oversaturated in PS. Hope the pic shows that.

I will try the colour sliders to see if that is the issue. I did make my own hair brushes but they were so faint and barely showed up on the painting, despite being at full capacity. I will persevere and see where I am going wrong. I do not usually paint in oils in real life, just watercolour and pencils, so I really want the oil thing to work as AR is supposed to be the best for digital oils. Maybe thats where I am going wrong, and its just not my medium.

[markw]

Thanks for the screenshots Kate
It looks like you have the dog image loaded as a Tracing. Which is what is making everything look washed out while painting.
Images used in the Tracing panel effectively “float” above all paint layers and have a default opacity of 40%.
If you toggle the Tracing image On/Off or change it’s opacity to 0% you will see your paint as it really is.

On a side note as you mentioned exporting as .jpeg, in AR the compression quality used for .jpeg export has to be set in AR’s Preferences. Once set there that compression will be used for all .jpeg exports until you change it again. I think AR’s “out of the box” compression is 85% if I remember rightly.

[Kate12345]

Thank you ! I have so much to learn. I have just received a commission for a Staffie so I will try this now I know about the tracing paper thing. I Only switch to jpgs at the end of the painting, as I know they are awful for saving your work. I shall try with my staffie :-)

[markw]

No worries Kate
There was a time when none of use seasoned users of AR knew how it worked too!
As with all new programmes there’s a learning curve But if you ask people around here they will always be happy to help where they can.
I wish you well with your commission and if you are able to post a shot of it on the forums when your done, it would be great to see it

[Kate12345]

Here is my commissioned dog. I made myself do all of it, apart from adding the background, in AR 6 and made a fur brush to use with it. I'm not 100% sure its as good as it could be but the original photo was off a phone, so not the best quality. I traced the outline and kept that in a layer i could keep referring to, then did a layer using paint daubs to get the underpainting and ensure the colours were correct. Then I added my top layer with the fur painted in, eyes etc. I don't like painting dogs with that peculiar pink nose and muzzle as its so difficult to get that dimpled look. The customer however does like it, and it is a good likeness to the original dog, so I have to be happy with that.

I am now a convert to Artrage, but have a long long way to go to master the brushes etc, but I absolutely love the way the paint moves on the canvas and want to practice with some nice paintings of my own.

[markw]

Hay Kate that’s a great pet portrait. Glad you could share it with us!

"...I'm not 100% sure its as good as it could be..."

I think I’ve felt that way about every painting I’ve ever done! I think it’s kind of normal for most artists! You know, “imposter syndrome”!
The most important thing though is that your client likes it. And at the end of the day that’s all that really matters with commissions.

So glad you enjoyed using AR to do it. Looking forward to seeing more from you