Lately I’m discovering the vast potential of digital watercolor in Corel Painter. I’m still at the point of experimenting mostly, I’m just seeing how different brushes work and interact with the paint and canvas below. Two of my favorite brushes so far are the “Real Grainy Wet” and the “Wet Flowmap Fringe.” The second brush makes a mark that’s wet, with a dark fringe and subtle color variations– and if you set the color to white, it acts as an eraser that kinda looks like bleach spots.

Dino Scales – Digital Watercolor, 21″ x 18″ seamless repeating textile pattern

Before I got started on this pattern, which I’m calling Dino Scales (it’s purple and green so that only made sense), I did some experimenting with my brushes. Nothing too involved, just did 20% value increments in black, then some free play. Check it out below.

This was my first time creating a repeat with watercolor, and I found it easier than I expected. The real challenge was keeping things on one watercolor layer because they don’t work as expected when you stack the layers. The trick was to drop everything to the canvas, open it in Photoshop and do my offsets, then open again in Corel. Once there, perform the “Lift Canvas to Watercolor Layer” to get the layer back, and more importantly behaving as expected when you paint on top. Once I figured that out this was a fun one to paint– actually pretty zen because I just filled the canvas with shapes and watched the “water” dry.

Sometimes you have to make test swatches!