Not exactly sure how to describe this but let's say you wanted to "paint" (as in the ol' traditional gobs of paint, paintbrush on canvas) in Photoshop.
Not trying to create photorealistic images, nor applying filters etc.
You just wanted a nice set of preset brushes and a handy access to a palette of colours.

Would you even recommend PS for this?

What brushes would you use?
I've looked at some freebie "paintbrush" PS brushes and wasn't able to paint flowingly with them at all. They seemed more like "stamps" to me, if you get me.
Anyway i wonder does anyone have experience at this and would they even go so far as to recommend some other program.

Or if PS had some sort of "presets" that you could download or just activate within the program.
Like when you purchase sets of soft pastels, chalks or paints in the art store they sometimes come in Sets like "Landscape Set" - and all the colours are autuminal browns and greens.

I dunno, maybe i'm just rambling.

Attached Link: http://www.contentparadise.com/productdetails.aspx?id=697

I whould advice this package See URL !  i have it and to actual painting its far beyond PShop.. Its on sale now so for 30 bucks you cant realy hit rockbottom..

Chris

Photoshop is not exactly the program to use for this. It was never meant for that. You'd have much better luck with Painter or something similar.

Laurie

Quote - I whould advice this package See URL !
 i have it and to actual painting its far beyond PShop..
Its on sale now so for 30 bucks you cant realy hit rockbottom..

Chris

This looks more like it.
Do you happen to know if ArtRage Delux is different to ArtRage Pro?
I'm trying to figure out the difference now.

Also i want something that works with a Wacom tablet.

A lot of the brushes are like stamps and aren't meant to be used to paint really (especially the freebie brushes), but there are some that kinda reproduce real paint effect only when you use them you have to use them as dynamic brushes and find the settings that will give you the best paint effect.  I've seen some paintings in photoshop that looked very much like real oil paintings or pastels or watercolors...  So you'd have to get familiar with dynamic brushes in order to get effects that come close to real paint strokes.  There are already paint/pastel/crayons etc...  brushes included in photoshop (you have to load them though, I don't think they're all loaded by default in photoshop)  When you use the dynamics with them and you play with the flow's percentage you can get effects that come really close to the actual thing.  In photoshop they're called Dry Media brushes, Wet Media brushes, Faux Finish brushes and Thick Heavy brushes. 

Like Laurie I've heard Painter was better for that though, I can't say really because I've never tried it... 

I haven't found anything that didn't work with a Wacom tablet. It's the only thing I use. I haven't used a mouse in many years.

I prefer something like Corel Painter for painting. I currently have Corel Painter 9 but I don't feel the need to upgrade to 11. I did try an older version of ArtRage.

You can do a sort of painting with Photoshop equivalent to oil painting. Play with the settings in Bevel & Emboss in layer styles and using different brushes. For a more profession job it's better to have a proper painting software that allows you to use the different painting medias.

Quote -
This looks more like it.
Do you happen to know if ArtRage Delux is different to ArtRage Pro?
I'm trying to figure out the difference now.

Also i want something that works with a Wacom tablet.

I ahve them both .. the luxe version come with all kind of stuff ..i have not even checked what it is exact ..
but afaik its frames and doodle stuff you dont need for the program..

The Pro is the same.. at least i have yet to discover a diffrence in the program..
So its the extras ...

Chris

Photoshop CS5 has some new painting features if you want to download the trial and check them out. 

Attached Link: http://www.wade.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/tutorial1.html

I would say that Photoshop is more of an image editing program but painting could be done quite satisfyingly with it. Unlike Painter which is specifically geared towards painting the paint tools in Photoshop (yes, there are paint tools in Photoshop) takes some getting used to. I’ve done some painting with both Painter and Photoshop but I find Photoshop more intuitive for me perhaps because I use it more. You really need to get the hang of the Brush Palette and how to maneuver around in it and of course it always works best using a drawing tablet. This perhaps is not exactly what you are looking for in the way of your particular problem but let me offer up this tutorial to show that indeed Photoshop can be used for painting. In this tutorial the artist used Photoshop 6 and a generic 3 button mouse.

P.S. Twisted_symmetry...we cross posted. Thanks for that YouTube link. I think I'll upgrade to CS5 because of that alone. Thanks!

 

Ditto with the ArtRage recommendation.  Out of all of the art programs that are out there, I would only recommend two.

ArtRage and Corel Painter and a Wacom Tablet.  I can't remember which one is able to simulate the brush running out of paint.  To the best of my knowledge these programs are designed to give that traditional painting feel.

Photoshop can be set to simulate the brush running out of paint by enabling "fade" in the brush palette as well.

Programs like Artrage and Painter are nice if you can afford them and have time to learn to use them. However, it is most certainly possible to recreate pigment painting techniques in Photoshop, even without the new brushes in CS5. If you know your way around photoshop at all, and already have some version of CS, it may be easier and less expensive to pursue painting in PS.  I have been doing so for years with reasonable success, to the point where some pigment artists were unable to discern that I had created my paintings digitally (which I take as a high compliment). Being new to these forums, I am not certain if it is ok to post a link to my work on a sales website, perhaps I can do that in a later post if I learn it is allowed. In any case just google something like "photoshop watercolor tutorial" or "photoshop oil painting tutorial". There are also many free brushes available that function like artists brushes rather than "stamps" you just have to search for them.
Hope this is helpful,
Barb

It is hard to beat Painter for simulating paint brushes of all kinds, and the cloning on the fly technique; however the new bristle brushes in CS5 are pretty cool and the new mixer brush is really quite unique. You can set the wetness of the canvas, and mix the pixels on the canvas, but also add another color at the same time, to whatever degree you want. This brush is one of a kind as far as I know, it was the brush I've been wanting for some time. I'm still learning the possibilities with it. CS5 is a major upgrade in many ways and is well worth the cost, I highly recommend CS5 for this new brush alone, but there are a lot of good new things too.

 Thanks, Kahshe, for the info on CS5. The ads sounded promising but it is good to hear from a fellow artist that it lives up to the hype.This may be Adobe's answer to their competition in the area of digital painting. I think I will go download the trial version and see for myself.

Barb