Digital Watercolor Question

[Panagos]

Using a Digital Watercolor brush, I'll lay down a layer of a dark color. Then, I'll select a lighter color and work back into it to highlight it. Works great, and as long as I have the file up and running there are no problems.

The issue comes when I close the file and re-open it later. I can no longer lighten the existing digital watercolor layer with a lighter color, I can only darken it. Basically, it seems that once the file is saved, the digital watercolor layer is permanently dried.

Does anyone know how to get an existing digital watercolor layer to function like a fresh layer?

Thanks!

[Portus]

Are you saving to RIFF? Otherwise Painter will dry the wet watercolor layer when you save to another format.

[Panagos]

Yep. I'm saving to RIFF.

[glikster]

whic version of Painter is it? I believe that was one of the things they fixed in IX.

[Panagos]

I have Painter 8... I guess that's the problem. Do you know if there's a patch for it? Or should I just upgrade to IX anyway?

Thanks for the info, it's just nice to know that I'm not missing something obvious.

[Jin]

Hi Panagos,

The automatically dried Digital Water Color problem was fixed in Painter IX but not in the Painter 8.1 patch.

Until you upgrade to Painter IX.5 (I'd recommend doing that since it's the best Painter version so far).....

If you haven't already, download the Painter 8.1 patch and install it.

Also download the new Painter 8 User Guide available along with the Painter 8.1 patch at:

ftp://ftp.corel.com/pub/Painter/8.1

After you install the Painter 8.1 patch, read the CorelPainter8UserGuide.pdf to learn how to create and use Custom Palettes:

Open the CorelPainter8UserGuide.pdf and click the Bookmarks tab in the left panel. Click the plus sign to the left of Workspace then click Creating Custom Palettes and you'll see the instructions displayed in the right panel.


Here are the instructions for Uninstalling and reinstalling Painter 8, and installing the Painter 8.1 patch:

1. Move any files you created into a backup folder somewhere outside of the Painter 8 folders.

2. Uninstall Painter 8.

3. Manually delete any remaining Painter 8 folders and files.

4. Reboot.

5. Install Painter 8 and don't open it even one time.

6. Install the Painter 8.1 patch.

7. Reboot.

8. Launch Painter 8.1 and check to see that the patch installation worked. To do this, click Help > About Corel Paiinter 8. At the bottom of the splash screen where you see small text, you should see Version 8.1 at the end of the top line of small text.

9. Now drag a brush category or brush variant icon onto the Painter 8.1 screen. That should automatically create a new Custom Palette named Custom 1.

10. To delete the test Custom Palette, click Window > Custom Palettes and choose Organizer from the flyout menu.

11. In the Custom Palette Organizer dialog box, highlight Custom 1 and click the Delete button.

If you see Version 8.1 on the splash screen and were able to create a test Custom Palette, the Painter 8.1 patch should have been installed correctly.

Good luck!

[Janshi]

Mighty useful, this. Just happened to me too, was awfully disappointed.

[Panagos]

Thanks to all for the info.

I've been putting off buying IX for awhile... this will be a good excuse to upgrade.

Thanks again!

[black_fish]

I got screwed by Corel in the same way: mostly bought Painter 8 at the time to use the digital watercolor to discover that it did not work and they would not fix it... unless I buy Painter 9 of course.
Well I keep using Painter but I don't buy anything form Corel anymore.