Painting Digitally Version History

Introduction

This document describes the changes between version 8 and version 9 of the tools, and it also contains the version 9 change history.

Three versions of the tools are available:

  1. Watercolor and Gouache Only: items marked with (wg)
  2. Charcoal and Pastels Only: items marked with (cp)
  3. Watercolor, Gouache, Charcoal and Pastels (includes all the tools in 1. and 2. above)
Any item which is not marked with a (wg) or (cp) is available for all three versions.

Note: If you purchase the wg or cp set and then purchase the other set, the new download file will include both sets.

Changes between Version 8 and Version 9

  1. Help/Instructions
  2. New Papers
  3. New Actions
  4. Changing the Paper
  5. Brush Texture
  6. Paper Effects
  7. Improved Paper Mechanism
  8. New Swatches
  9. New Brushes, Blenders and Erasers
    1. New Watercolor Brushes, Erasers and Blenders (wg)
    2. New Gouache Brushes, Erasers and Blenders (wg)
    3. New Charcoal Brushes, Erasers and Blenders (cp)
    4. New Pastel Brushes, Erasers and Blenders (cp)
    5. New Ink & Pastel Brushes
    6. New Miscellaneous Brushes
  10. Modified Tools
  11. New Actions

Help/Instructions

There is online help available at Online Help

New Actions

The following actions have been modified:

  • The Make Watercolor Paper action is now called the Make Watercolor/Gouache Paper action.
  • The following actions have been added:

  • New Charcoal/Pastel Layer
  • Merge Charcoal/Pastel Layers
  • Merge Gouache Layers
  • Make Gouache Layer with Inverse Mask
  • Make Charcoal/Pastel Layer with Inverse Mask
  • Change Paper to .... (see Changing the Paper)
  • Change Paper Color
  • Make Deckled Edge
  • Set Texture for Print
  • Make Pattern and Make Pattern Flip (utility actions to help create new paper patterns)
  • New Papers

    The following papers have been added:

  • Arches Aquarelle Not (wg)
  • Arches Aquarelle Rough (wg)
  • Bockingford Not (St Cuthert's Mill) (wg)
  • Generic Watercolor Paper Hot Press (wg)
  • Generic Watercolor Paper Not (wg)
  • Generic Watercolor Paper Rough (wg)
  • Indian Hand Made Not (wg)
  • The Langton (Daler Rowney): this is the basic cold press paper which has been improved and updated from Version 8 (wg)
  • The Langton Hot Press (wg)
  • The Langton Rough (wg)
  • Saunders Waterford Not (St Cuthbert's Mill) (wg)
  • Winsor and Newton Cotman Not (wg)

  • Canson Mi-Teintes #1 (cp)
  • Canson Mi-Teintes #2 (cp)
  • Daler Rowney Ingres Horizontal (cp)
  • Daler Rowney Ingres Vertical (cp)
  • Fabriano Accademia (cp)
  • Fabriano Tiziano (cp)
  • Hahnemuhle Velour (cp)
  • Strathmore 500 Series (cp)
  • UART Sanded Paper (cp)
  • Laid Horizontal (cp)
  • Laid Vertical (cp)
  • Raw Linen (cp)

  • Watercolor Papers (wg)


    Pastel/Charcoal Papers (cp)

    Changing the Paper

    When you use the Make Watercolor/Gouache Paper action, the Langton paper is automatically chosen as in Version 8. When you use the Make Charcoal/Pastel Paper, the Canson Mi-Teintes #1 paper is automatically chosen.The following actions have been added to Version 9 to allow you to change the paper:

  • Change Paper to Arches Aquarelle Not (wg)
  • Change Paper to Arches Aquarelle Rough (wg)
  • Change Paper to Bockingford Not (wg)
  • Change Paper to Generic Watercolor Paper Hot Press (wg)
  • Change Paper to Generic Watercolor Paper Not (wg)
  • Change Paper to Generic Watercolor Paper Rough (wg)
  • Change Paper to Indian Hand Made Not (wg)
  • Change Paper to Saunders Waterford Not (wg)
  • Change Paper to The Langton (wg)
  • Change Paper to The Langton Hot Press (wg)
  • Change Paper to The Langton Rough (wg)
  • Change Paper to W&N Cotman Not (wg)

  • Change Paper to Canson Mi-Teintes #1 (cp)
  • Change Paper to Canson Mi-Teintes #2 (cp)
  • Change Paper to Daler Rowney Ingres Horizontal (cp)
  • Change Paper to Daler Rowney Ingres Vertical (cp)
  • Change Paper to Fabriano Accademia (cp)
  • Change Paper to Fabriano Tiziano (cp)
  • Change Paper to Hahnemuhle Velour (cp)
  • Change Paper to Strathmore 500 Series (cp)
  • Change Paper to UART Sanded Paper (cp)
  • Change Paper to Laid Horizontal (cp)
  • Change Paper to Laid Vertical (cp)
  • Change Paper to Raw Linen (cp)

  • Change Paper to Pattern
  • You can change the paper at any time (after having made the paper layers with the Make Watercolor Paper action). However you should normally change the paper before painting, especially if you use DOD, charcoal or pastels as these brushes have a texture that should correspond to the paper texture (see Brush Texture below).

    Note 1: the last action, 'Change Paper to Pattern', allows you to create a paper based on your own pattern or on one of the Photoshop built-in patterns. See Help or follow the instructions in the action for information on how to do this.

    Note 2: the paper color and lightness can easily be changed by unlocking the 'Background Locked' layer and applying a Hue/Saturation and/or a Levels adjustment to it. So, for example, the Canson Mi-Teintes #1 could be changed to a slate gray color or to a deep blue by applying a Hue/Saturation adjustment to the 'Background Locked' layer. This will not affect the brushes or tools.

    Brush Texture

    All brushes that have a texture (for example the DOD, charcoal and pastel brushes) use the current paper texture. In the example shown, the same brush gives two different textures depending on which paper has been selected (the upper stroke is with the Laid Vertical paper and the lower stroke with the Strathmore 500 paper). The brush texture corresponds exactly to the paper texture: this makes a very close emulation of dry on dry, charcoal and pastel brush strokes possible.

    Photoshop does not have a facility to implement this feature automatically. Normally the user will change each brush to the required texture during use; of course this is a very time-consuming and difficult thing to do. To get over this problem, the current release of the tools has a mechanism to automate the changeover of brushes to the new paper texture: a new set of brushes and tool presets is loaded whenever the paper is changed. Note: the current set of brushes and tool presets will normally be replaced, so you should save any brush or tool presets of your own before changing paper. However you will be given the option not to replace the brushes and tool presets: if you choose that option then you should load the brushes and tool presets manually, otherwise the brush and paper textures will no longer match.

    Paper Effects

    Make Deckled Edge

    The Make Deckled Edge action may be used to apply a deckled edge to the paper.

    The effect is as shown (on The Langton paper).

    Reveal Paper

    The Reveal Paper action may be used to reveal the paper using the paper's texture.

    At the top left I show some strokes onto Daler Rowney Ingres Vertical Laid paper with a Pastel stick so that the hollows of the paper is still visible. The top right image is smudged so that the pigment has gone into the hollows of the paper and the paper no longer shows through (which is what would normally happen when smudging pastels on paper).

    Sometimes we wish to show more of the paper through and this can be accomplished using the Reveal Paper action. On the bottom right I have applied the effect in some areas. The effect is non-destructive; it can be controlled very precisely, or it can be applied loosely. The paper is revealed in the hollows, which is what would happen with pastels (and dry brush) on a textured paper if the blending was light in places.

    In this example I have hidden the paper by blending, but the same effect would occur if a lot of pigment was applied to the paper (or if a very soft pastel was used). The Reveal Paper action can of course be used in this case also.

    This effect will usually be used for Charcoal and Pastels, but it can of course also be used to good effect for Watercolors and Gouache (to give a dry brush effect retrospectively).

    Improved Paper Mechanism

  • The Paper (Overlay) layer is no longer locked so that you can change the opacity without having to unlock it.
  • The Gray (Normal) layer has been modified so that the layer group no longer darkens the paper.
  • The Pattern (Multiply) layer is automatically filled when making or changing papers.
  • New Swatches

    Watercolor/Gouache (wg): The Version 8 Watercolor swatches have been replaced by two new swatches: the Winsor Newton sRGB swatch and the Winsor Newton Adobe RGB swatch. These swatches were made directly from a hand-painted Winsor & Newton color swatch and form a complete set of Winsor & Newton Professional Watercolor paints.

    Pastels (cp): Two new swatches are available, the Unison sRGB swatch and the Unison Adobe RGB swatch. Unison pastels are one of the best soft pastels and the color swatches are made directly from the Unison color chart. Unlike watercolors, pastels cannot be mixed to produce different colors (at least not easily or well) and for this reason pastels come in hundreds of colors, with quite small shade differences between adjacent colors. In Photoshop it's quite easy to adjust colors and so the color swatches cover the principle colors only (so that intermediate colors can be obtained using the color picker).

    New Brushes, Blenders and Erasers

    The brushes marked with (.) are available for Photoshop CS5 onwards.

    The brushes marked with (..) are available for Photoshop CS6 onwards.

    Brushes with no trailing period are available for Photoshop CS onwards. Note that if two brushes have the same name but one has a trailing period (or two trailing periods), the brushes will be approximately the same. If you prefer one over the other then simply delete the one you don't want.

    For example, 'Pencil Charcoal' is available for Photoshop CS onwards, while 'Pencil Charcoal..' is available only for Photoshop CS6 onwards.

    Note: All brushes that were available in Version 8 are also available in Version 9, with the exception of a few redundant ones which have been removed. However, if you have already purchased Version 8 and you particularly want these brushes, you can restore them from your Version 8 release.

    New Watercolor Brushes, Erasers and Blenders (wg)

    New Watercolor Brushes (wg)

    These are the new watercolor brushes in Version 9.

    Dry on Dry brushes:

    Wet on Dry Brushes:

    Wash Brushes:

    New Watercolor Erasers (wg)

    These are the new watercolor erasers in Version 9.

    New Watercolor Blenders (wg)

    These are the new watercolor blenders in Version 9.

    New Gouache Brushes, Erasers and Blenders (wg)

    These are the new Gouache brushes, erasers and blenders in Version 9.

    New Gouach Brushes (wg)

    These are the new gouache brushes in Version 9.

    New Gouach Erasers (wg)

    These are the new gouache erasers in Version 9.

    New Gouach Blenders (wg)

    These are the new gouache blenders in Version 9.

    New Charcoal Brushes, Erasers and Blenders

    New Charcoal Brushes (cp)

    These are the new charcoal brushes in Version 9.

    New Charcoal Erasers (cp)

    These are the new charcoal erasers in Version 9.

    NOTE: All the watercolor erasers from Version 8 are available as Charcoal erasers.

    New Charcoal Blenders (cp)

    These are the new charcoal blenders in Version 9.

    New Pastel Brushes, Erasers and Blenders

    New Pastel Brushes (cp)

    These are the new pastel brushes in Version 9.

    New Pastel Erasers (cp)

    These are the new pastel erasers in Version 9.

    NOTE: All the watercolor erasers from Version 8 are available as Pastel erasers.

    New Pastel Blenders (cp)

    These are the new pastel blenders in Version 9.

    New Ink & Pencil Brushes

    New Ink Brushes (wg)

    These are the new Ink (Pen) brushes in Version 9:

    New Pencil Brushes

    These are the new Pencil brushes in Version 9:

    New Miscellaneous Brushes

    These are the new miscellaneous brushes in Version 9.

    Miscellaneous Brushes:

    Mask Brushes:

    Modified Tools

    All brushes, erasers and blenders have been checked and corrected where necessary. The tool settings have also been adjusted. As mentioned above, new brushes and tool presets are loaded when the paper is changed to ensure that the brush texture continues to match the new paper texture.

    New Actions

  • 24 Actions to change papers.
  • Action to change the paper to a custom or user-defined pattern.
  • Action to adjust the paper texture prior to printing.
  • Action to make a deckled edge to the paper.
  • Make Charcoal/Pastel Paper action.
  • Reveal Paper action.

  • Version 9 Change History

    Version 9.1.1

  • Bug fix in the ChangePaper actions
  • Version 9.1.2

  • Corrected permission issues for tool installation on Mac and PC
  • Version 9.1.3

  • Re-installation automatically deletes old PaintingDigitally Actions
  • Added Help to the Actions
  • Make Paper and Change paper allows both Replace and Append of brush and tool presets (so that user brush and tool presets are not removed if Append is chosen).
  • Version 9.1.4

  • Bug-fix: Installation failed if there was no PaintingDigitallyActions
  • Version 9.2.1

  • Full set of Tool Presets are included (not just 'The Langton' and 'Canson Mi-Teintes #1') to give users the choice of painting using the brushes or the tool presets.


  • I hope you like Version 9 of the Tools!

    pic of Robert Ardill