© Jeremy Sutton 2013 November 11, 2013

QUICK TIPS
Quick Tips, Inspiring Insights & Handy Shortcuts

There are Many

Roads to Rome
“John Singer Sargent was
careful to insist that there were
many roads to Rome, that
beautiful painting would be
the result of any method or no
method, but he was convinced
that by the method he
advocated, and followed all his
life, a freedom could be
acquired, a technical mastery
that left the mind at liberty to
Organize & Optimize
concentrate on a deeper or Get your tools in tip top condition! As Sargent said “Painting is
more subtle expression.” quite hard enough without adding to your difficulties by keeping your tools
in bad condition.” In Painter terms that means taking the time to:!
John Collier

The Art of Portrait Painting, 1.Program your Wacom ExpressKeys and practice with them.!
1905

! 2.Take advantage of workspaces and extras like those offered

on PaintboxTV that not only save you a lot of time, but also
See Things & 
 empower you through extra brushes and art materials. Get to
Be Yourself know your workspace.!

“Pictures make us see things. 3. Establish a consistent, structured way to organize your
Making pictures makes us see projects and to document, name, save and archive your artwork
things. Photography came out and process. Make it a habit.!
of painting, and is going back
into painting. Look hard at the
world and do something with
it. Be yourself.”

David Hockney

de Young Museum, 2013

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© Jeremy Sutton 2013 November 11, 2013

It’s All About Tone Sutton PVN Saving System

For every project create a new project folder titled with year-
“Painting is an interpretation
of tone through the medium month-project name.!
of color drawn with the brush.
1. Save copy of your original source image into this project folder.!
Test your work by repeatedly
standing well back, viewing it
!
2. As you work on a project, regularly use Save As (not Save) and
as a whole, a very important consistently name each saved version with the P-V-N naming
thing.” system where the P, V and N stand for:!

John Singer Sargent

!
P = compact Project name, 7 characters or less!
noted by pupil Henry Haley, !
Royal Academy Schools V = sequential two-digit Version number starting at “01”!



!
N = short Note about what you just did, which brush you used,
Be Ready to Throw what effect you applied, the size and resolution of your file if you
Away the Map made any changes, etc. Painter allows very long file names so take
advantage of it.!
“In casting your inspirational 

net as an artist, you become Save in this manner consistently and regularly, always saving as a
familiar with the humility that RIFF while working in Painter. Keep all your versions.!
comes with watching your
best-laid plans veer sideways. Avoid Undo. Paint over and transform your surface.!
So, you set out to travel to
Rome...and end up in Istanbul.
You set off for Japan... and you
end up on a train across
Siberia. The journey, not the
destination, becomes a source
of wonder.
!
“In the end, I wonder if one of
the most important steps on
our journey is the one in which
we throw away the map. In
jettisoning the grids and
brambles of our own
preconceptions, perhaps we
are better able to find the real
secrets of each place.”
!
Loreena McKennitt
liner notes from her album The
Book of Secrets, 1997

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© Jeremy Sutton 2013 November 11, 2013

Paint What is
Essential
Painterly Workflow

“En art tout ce qui n'est pas
Ten Step Checklist
indispensable est nuisible” 1. Look at your subject intently from a painter’s perspective.
Visualize the painting and compose in camera.!
“In art everything that is not
essential is harmful.” 2. Compose for satisfying shapes, relationships and structure.!

Carolus-Duran 3. Enhance and exaggerate contrasts, saturation and tone.!

Try to Say the 4. Open in Painter. Choose a suitable palette arrangement.!
Most with the
5. Clone Source panel > Open Source icon: choose current image.!
Least
6. Choose Show Source Image. Set up small-BIG arrangement.!
“Always try to do the most
with the least—with the 7. Make multiple versions of your source image, choosing File >
emphasis on try. You may not Export Source Image to save each version, and then choosing
always succeed, but attempt Create New source image in Clone Source Image window.!
to produce the greatest
effect in the viewer’s mind 8. Decide on painting image starting surface: leave the photo
with the least things on there, or fill with a color, or paste on a background image.!
screen. Why? Because you
want to do only what is 9. Start with large, loose, varied brush strokes and non-clone
necessary to engage the color. Quickly, boldly and loosely map out rough composition. !
imagination of the audience—
suggestion is always more 10. Work on selective detail with smaller brushes. Step back
effective than exposition. Past regularly to see as whole. Add final accents.!
a certain point the more
effort you put into wealth of
detail, the more you
encourage your audience to
become spectators rather
than participants.”
!
Walter Murch

In The Blink of an Eye, 2001

Drawing is Gesture
“Drawing is like making an
expressive gesture with the
advantage of permanence.”



Henri Matisse

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© Jeremy Sutton 2013 November 11, 2013

Darks & Lights Handy Shortcuts - Mac

I recommend for your convenience that you program the
“If you begin with the following shortcuts into your Wacom ExpressKeys:!
middle tone and work Temporal Color Palette: Opt+Cmd+1
outward from it towards the Save As: Shift+Cmd+S
darks and lights — so that Brush size: drag on canvas while pressing Opt+Cmd keys
you deal last with your Turn cursor into Dropper tool if brush is not a clone brush:
darkest darks and highest Opt. If clone color active this resets clone source start
lights — you avoid false position for point to point cloning.
accents.” ! Pop-up menu with variant list: click on canvas while !
! holding down Ctrl key (Mac).!
John Singer Sargent Clone Color toggle: u
Hide/show palettes: Tab
Illusion Grabber Hand that you can use to reposition your canvas
(by clicking and dragging on the canvas): Space bar held
“Great films have as many down when the Brush tool is selected.!
flaws and bad things about !
them as bad films. The Other shortcuts that you may find useful are:!
difference is the good films New file: ! Cmd+N!
light up, the illusion works, Open file: !! ! Cmd+O!
so when you see them Full screen mode toggle: ! Cmd+M!
you’re not looking at the
Zoom in: ! ! Cmd+“+”!
Zoom out: ! ! Cmd+“-”!
flaws. It’s the cigarette
Zoom to fit: ! ! Cmd+0!
lighter theory: you have a
Toggle between Regular and Additional colors: ! Shift-x!
cigarette lighter and that’s Drag and reposition contents of Custom Palettes by holding
your movie. You try to light down the Shift key.!
it and you flick it and it Drag brush library contents (categories or variants) to move
doesn’t light. Then you pull them up or down in list.!
the wick out and do it and it To hide, rename, delete, change icon, etc for a library
doesn’t light. Then you content item: click on it while holding down the Ctrl key.!
pour more fluid and you ! Rectangular Selection tool: r!
put too much and it doesn’t ! Crop tool: ! ! c!
light. You dry it off with a ! Layer Adjuster tool: ! f!
hairdryer and it doesn’t Brush tool: !! ! b!
Dropper tool: ! ! d!
light. Then you pull the
wick out some more and all
!
of a sudden it lights! All the
bad things go away. They
don’t go away. But you
don’t look at them any
more because you’re lost in
the illusion.”


Francis Ford Coppola

NPR interview, 2011

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© Jeremy Sutton 2013 November 11, 2013

The Power of Handy Shortcuts - PC

Adding an Accent I recommend for your convenience that you program the
following shortcuts into your Wacom ExpressKeys:!
“In 1832, when Constable Temporal Color Palette: Alt+Ctrl+1
exhibited his Opening of Save As: Shift+Ctrl+S
Waterloo Bridge at the Royal Brush size: drag on canvas while pressing Alt+Ctrl keys
Academy, a seascape of Turn cursor into Dropper tool if brush is not a clone brush:
Turner’s was next to it—a grey
Alt. If clone color active this resets clone source start
position for point to point cloning.
picture, beautiful and true,
! Pop-up menu with variant list: click on canvas while !
but with no positive color in
! holding down right click.!
any part of it. Constable’s Clone Color toggle: u
Waterloo seemed as if Hide/show palettes: Tab
painted with liquid gold and Grabber Hand that you can use to reposition your canvas
silver, and Turner came (by clicking and dragging on the canvas): Space bar held
several times into the room down when the Brush tool is selected.!
while Constable was !
heightening with vermilion Other shortcuts that you may find useful are:!
and lake the decorations of New file: ! Ctrl-N!
flags of city barges. Turner Open file: !! ! Ctrl-O!
stood beside him, looking Full screen mode toggle: ! Ctrl+M!
from the Waterloo to his own
Zoom in: ! ! Ctrl-“+”!
Zoom out: ! ! Ctrl-“-”!
picture, and at last brought
Zoom to fit: ! ! Ctrl-0!
his palette and putting a
Toggle between Regular and Additional colors: ! Shift-x!
round daub of red lead on Drag and reposition contents of Custom Palettes by holding
his grey sea, went away down the Shift key.!
without saying a word. The Drag brush library contents (categories or variants) to move
intensity of the red lead, them up or down in list.!
made more vivid by the To hide, rename, delete, change icon, etc for a library
coolness of his picture, content item: click on it while holding down the Ctrl key
caused even the vermilion (Mac) or right click (PC).!
and lake of Constable to ! Rectangular Selection tool: r!
look weak. After Turner left, ! Crop tool: ! ! c!
‘He has been here,’ said ! Layer Adjuster tool: ! f!
Constable ‘and fired a gun.’
Brush tool: !! ! b!
Dropper tool: ! ! d
Turner did not come again
into the room for a day and a
half; and then, in the last
moments that were allowed
for painting, he glazed the
scarlet seal he had put on his
picture, and shaped it into a
buoy.”

C.R. Leslie

Constable’s biographer

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