Palm Paints

(Foliage Tools for Art Professionals)

DIGARTS Software

www.gardenhose.com

Maureen Shannon, NJPCUG

DIGARTS Palm Paints is a collection of image sprays, in this case tubes, for Paint Shop Pro version 8. Along with my filter collection, my other passion is for tubes and other forms of image sprays. I discovered image sprays when I was using an early version of Corel’s Photo Paint years ago. I was experimenting with all the brushes and goodies that came with the suite when found this funny little icon that said image spray. When I saw what it would do, it was love at first "spray". Various application settings differ in how they work but basically, you select an image from the list and “spray” it onto a background and layers to create a realistic scene (image). Tubes come in all types of objects but foliage is what is contained in this package. Shortly after finding out about spray images in Photo Paint, I learned about tubes and that there was also an image spray feature in Micrografx Picture Publisher. Naturally, I used them all and had a wonderful time creating images. The biggest problem with all of these applications was that they had a limited collection of objects and only a few were foliage. Image sprays are called by a variety of names, Paint Shop Pro calls the tubes, Painter calls them nozzles, others called them Image Sprays, but a rose by any other name is still a spray image!

Sometime after finding the image spray features in applications, I received mailing from Corel’s user group program advertising a package called the Garden Hose Jungle Bundle from DIGARTS. I went to the web site to see what it was all about and the rest is history. Practically every image I have made since then has had something from the Jungle Bundle collection. I went totally overboard creating image after image using everything in this collection to make pretty pictures! I reviewed the Jungle Bundle for Photo Paint and later on when it was released I bought the package for Paint Shop Pro, which I believe was version 5 at that time. I began collecting, buying, and creating tubes for Paint Shop Pro and now have a collection of well over a gig or more of (tubes) spray images. So when I’m asked why I love tubes and spray images so much, I have to point people to DIGARTS web site, www.gardenhose.com, and show you what started me doing this. I saw Dennis's work, which is exquisite, and I knew I had to try this. One look at what this man can do with spray images and every creative cell in my body screamed to try and do the same.  I am a tube-aholic…….I cannot go for too many days without making something that doesn’t use images from his Jungle Bundle or Garden Hose sets and now the beautiful and outstanding collection of palms in the Palm Paints.

 I come from a family of very talented people, why I fall short in this department has plagued me for years. I did not inherit the musical talent and I couldn’t draw or paint. I got zip in that department.  Do you have any idea how frustrating that is? However I found I could do a lot with a computer and graphics. I must confess to being pretty good at crafts and needlework and even sewing but I wanted to paint and draw! When I got a computer, found NJPCUG, and was asked to review software by John Greenwood my reviewing and graphics adventure began. It was our former president Ken Bauer who asked me to do the first graphics product that I ever had....he created a monster. I had finally found something I loved doing on the computer and with John’s encouragement I kept trying until I taught myself all that I know today. And like all novices, in the beginning I did lots of things wrong but I learned. And the more I learned, the more I wanted to learn. What does this have to do with Palm Paints? Everything….Everything I learned from the first product led me to other graphics products and then onto finding image sprays and designing images with them. And the best part of doing this is, you don’t have to be perfect, you don’t have to have exceptional talent, you just have to enjoy it and use it. And the more you work with it, the better you’ll become at it. The very idea that you can make a work of art by using pieces of objects from collections and putting them together for designs is incredible. Graphic arts aren’t limited to a single technique. The many diversified things that can be done let you pick and chose what you would like to try or try them all. Creativity is challenged and rewarded with each thing you attempt. All you have to do is try! Paint Shop Pro and collections from DIGARTS are an excellent place to begin. Learn to use Paint Shop Pro and then work with the tubes. Add collections from Palm Paints and Jungle Bundle and you’ll be on your way to making outstanding designs.

DIGARTS collections of image sprays are the most beautiful sets of foliage items I have ever seen. From flower buds to tree trunks to wild grasses, every image when added to a scene makes it absolutely beautiful. Because they are real, not clip art type images, you can make a tree from the trunk to the leaves and shape it anyway you like. It can be full and lush or bare but these images make your artwork both personal in design ideas and pleasing to the eye. Now with the new Palm Paints I can make even more designs. The palms are so beautiful that I couldn’t wait to start making trees with them.

 You build your scene on layers to create the proper depth and placement of the parts. When you try this, you will discover an art form that will become so addictive you’ll never want to stop making images. You can use a solid color background, a photo background or do the entire scene by making your own sky, ground plane and/or mountains. Use a terrain generator to make backgrounds too but no matter how or where you make your background, the scene will be enhanced by each tree and blade of grass you add to it with your tubes. If you like nature scenes like I do, these images touch a place in your spirit that encourages you to make beautiful things. I know it affects me that way. When I go to the DIGARTS web site, I get lost in the beauty of the images that are on the web site.  There are tutorials and free images for download so that you can try them for yourself. You will fall in love with them if you do. I went on a tree spree one time and spent days making trees for all seasons. Then I saved them and made them into tubes. I can lose hours on end just sitting here making trees or nature scenes and I never grow tired of doing it. For me, this is inspirational software. I get so much joy and pleasure from working with it.

So now let’s look at this collection. In the other sets, you place each spay where you want it and then if necessary manipulate it further. You move your spray tool all over the design to do this. This set differs in that when you select a palm tube set, you hold the mouse down in the same place and click and release and the palm fronds build themselves around the position being held and create a magnificent palm tree that is so real and perfectly shaped that it is absolutely amazing.  This is brilliant! It’s incredible, it works perfectly. You have to try it for yourself to see it.

The example above shows a tree trunk with a shadow layer, and then an image with some tree tops in it. The trunks would be added to the tops on separate layers and then drag the layer into a layer under the tree top. It’s very easy to do…….

Tubes image list……some of the Palm Paints collections are shown here. You can see in the image above how the fronds change direction. When used to make a palm tree, the clicks of the mouse place a palm frond on the image layer. The random placement of the fronds puts them in the right direction and location to shape the top of the palm tree.

The image below is a very brief example of how the palm tree goes from a single frond group to a full top. In between are many steps to reach the end result. It would be impossible to show the entire process in the written review. See the online demo for a more detailed example. (you will also find demo’s that show you how to add tubes to Paint Shop Pro)

The set also comes with a folder of trunks for the palms trees which even have shadows already painted on them. As I mentioned above, you work on layers, and place the fronds and trunks on various layers as you make your palm tree. One thing that differs from other applications is that in Paint Shop Pro if you want to adjust the opacity of the image spray you have to do this on the layer setting, I don’t care for this. When I first used spray images in Corel Photo Paint, I could set the opacity on each individual spray right on the spray palette. I like this method better probably because it’s how I learned to work with it.   In the collection you also have choices of fronds the go to the left or right, indicating that they are moving with a breeze. Each selection offers something different so that you can make the most realistic palms you can imagine. Some sets are fruited, seasonal, windblown as well as coconut, date, and generic varieties. And of course there are coconuts in both the green and ripe states. There are 43 different palm paints to chose from and also bark textures. You can add more depth and interest to the image by darkening the lower fronds and lightening the top ones. You can also further enhance foliage by using opacity settings and other fine tuning details. You are only limited by you imagination when creating a scene with the palms.

I can highly recommend Palm Paints and all of the other collections from DIGARTS. I have used them for years now and love each and every one that I have. I am anxiously awaiting the next release due out some time in November of 2003. Everything I experimented with when I first started working with graphics came from the Jungle Bundle collection. Each image I made encouraged me to try more. From there I branched out into learning other things. Being that there are collections that work with several graphics applications including Corel’s Painter and Photo Paint, you can find a product and a method of working with it that will suit your needs. In the beginning, I adapted the Photo Paint sets and turned them into spray images for my Micrografx Picture Publisher so that I had more options for that application. For a more detailed tree, I turn to Painter and make a whole tree or a specific trunk. I can then save it and reuse it in Paint Shop Pro. If you yearn to be creative and think that you can’t, then you haven’t discovered using tubes in Paint Shop Pro. If you are ready to try doing it, you must have collections like Palm Paints and others from DIGARTS. Visit their web site and see for yourself.