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Wacom the 5th Anime Contest
(1 Feb - Mar 31th 2011).

Wacom the 5th Holiday Season Contest 2011
Winners has been announced! See the prize winners and Honorable mention.

John Derry Co-author of Corel Painter & master of ‘Expressive Photographic Interpretation’ brings his techniques to Australia

John Derry is a pioneer of digital painting and one of the original authors of Corel Painter. Since 1985, he has leveraged his background in drawing and painting to advance the look and experience of traditional art-making tools on the computer. John has a BFA degree from the University of Nebraska/Omaha and a MFA degree in Painting from Cranbrook Academy of Art/Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. He teaches combined Corel Painter and Adobe Photoshop workshops in the US and recently in November/December 2006 here in Australia on a national road show tour with Wacom Australia. John is serving as Corel’s Painter Ambassador-at-large and is also a member of the Professional Photographers of America.

'I'll never forget the first time I saw one of my designs glowing on the monitor screen. Some basic thing was forever changed in the way I thought about making images. This was something new and amazing. It was the birth of a medium!' (1982)

With the advent of the computer, many of the early techniques for digital drawing and painting were tailored to suit the strengths of the computer and its interface. The mouse is a good example. As a pointing device used in the service of navigating graphical interfaces the mouse is great. But when used as an expressive drawing instrument, it leaves a lot to be desired. I have often said that drawing with a mouse is like drawing with a bar of soap. The shape of the mouse does not provide the feel of a stylus in the hand. A lot of the markmaking characteristics of stylus-based tools are imparted into it by the way an artist can adjust its angle and direction by wrist and finger motion.

More importantly, a mouse cannot detect pressure. A Wacom pressure-sensitive stylus is the optimal form factor to correctly duplicate traditional mark-making instruments whose tip is the delivery mechanism for the marks it makes. A great deal of the subtlety imparted into an expressive line by an artist is due to the varying hand pressure applied as the line is rendered. Pressure-sensitive input is only half of the story, however. Once the artist's gestural motion is captured, it needs to be interpreted by software that can do something with it for example Adobe's Photoshop or Corel's Painter.

Painter's initial charter (then as Fractal Design Painter) was to faithfully replicate, as closely as possible, the catalog of traditional mark-making instruments used for expressive purposes. Our initial efforts centered on maximizing the data that streams from a Wacom pressure-sensitive tablet and creating a texture technology that interacts with the tablet data in real-time. Starting with the humble 2B lead pencil, Painter has grown into an extensive library of traditional mark-making tools recast into a digital medium. We use the term "Natural Media®" to refer to this technology. A great deal of satisfaction (and frustration) can be experienced through interaction with creative tools, even for a novice. But it is only through disciplined experience with a creative medium that one comes to master personal expression. I can roll an orange on the black keys of a piano and make pretty sounds, but it may not be music.

John Derry's recent Signature Presentations and Master Class Workshops in Australia introduced photographers and artists to his Expressive Photographic Interpretation process and provided the basis for implementing this lucrative product niche into their studio's product offerings. John has expressively interpreted hundreds of portraits for the professional photography market in the US, and he is a life-long photographer that has embraced digital capture technology as his tool of choice. In concert with the rise of digital imaging tools, photography has evolved to the point that many customers demand more than just a straight photographic print. The pressure is now on the professional photographer to provide images that satisfy increased customer sophistication, as well as profitably expand the studio's product offerings.


Original portrait - Logan	Expressivery interpreted


Peter Walton - original landscape	Peter Walton - oil painted expressivery interpretation

The expressive interpreted photograph is just such an offering. Corel Painter & Adobe Photoshop both enable the photographer to imbue a portrait, bridal, landscape, still-life--any photograph--with a fine art sensibility that appeals to customers. The fusion of photography and painting enhances the strength and beauty of each medium. Customers know they're getting the best of both--a photographic likeness and an affordable painting. Expressive interpretation additionally provides a studio with a competitive edge distinguishing it from the competition. The quality of wide-format ink-jet printers is now sufficient to produce archival-quality canvas and watercolor prints. Using a Wacom Intuos3 graphic pen/tablet and/or a Cintiq 21UX interactive pen display with Painter and Photoshop as a front-end in an expressive interpretation process, a high profit product niche is achievable for the professional photography studio.

"The Hair cut" - Oil painted expressive photograhic interpretaion

"Brushes"- Oil painted expressive interpretation

"I'accordionist"Expressive Photograhic Interpretation

For more information visit John Derry at www.pixlart.com

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