The Digital Watercolor now features paint that remains "wet" between sessions enabling artist to play with brushes even after he has painted strokes.

The inclusion of cloning tool called Quick Clone helps in making cloning process faster and simple. You will only have to click on menu and you are now set make clones. Version IX has even included a total of 7 KPT filters namely Gel, Goo, LensFlare, Lightning, Pyramid Paint, Reaction, and ShapeShifter which are good effects that artist can play with. Painter has even gone to address compatibility issues with Adobe Photoshop enabling itself to open images in PSD format complete with layer masks, channels and layer sets maintained. It has also included support for Wacom Intuos3.

Included also are additional learning resources including a 175-page spiral-bound handbook containing artwork and tutorials from Painter experts, tutorial movies from Lynda.com, and a updated User Guide in PDF format. In essence, having Painter IX is a software that should be in a digital artist’s toolbox. It has features that are sure to give digital artist an edge.

If you are not sure about which edge halo to use, there are general rules regarding such: 1. On light background tones, light edges don’t show up well and vice versa on dark ones. 2. The halo should lie on background, not on foreground. This technique helps feature stand out without having to change its brightness values. Sometimes following rules are in conflict. It is necessary, then, to try several combinations to decide which is best. You can try both edges, light edges only, dark edges only. You can experiment since different regions of your image may call for different answers.

As you experiment for best results, you’ll come to know that using unsharp mask filter may drive you to add too much additional local contrast. Understand that though adding some local contrast can make a bland image turn into a good one, adding too much creates a disaster. Take care not to add too much and make image appear more like caricatures than photos. Remember that what looks best on computer screen may not be same in print since process somewhat compresses contrast and blurs detail.

For comments and inquiries about article visit http://www.ucreative.com