how to paint oils digitally

Discover how to achieve the look of traditional oil paintings in the latest version of Corel Painter, with video game artist Magdalena Proszowska

It only feels like yesterday when I was role-playing with high school friends in fantasy worlds full of knights, wizards, barbarians and treasures hidden in dungeons. Our gamesmaster dragged us through months of complicated plots and comical battles – mostly between our own party of mischiefs.

As teenagers, the most treasured possessions we owned were the RPG handbooks. Among them, the bestiary books were my first contact with the world of concept art and character design, and that’s what made me interested in pursuing a career in art. Faeries, dragons and unicorns were present on the inside covers of all my school books.

Almost everything back then was still painted traditionally in acrylics or oils. My preference for clear brush strokes and canvas or paper texture visible in print has stayed with me over the years, and for a long time I looked for a way to create the same effects in my digital paintings.

What’s so beautiful about traditional art is its unpredictability. There are so many happy accidents that give the traditional painting a soul. The way that every hair in your brush tip leaves an individual mark. How pigments don’t just mix, but “sing” a magical song together. With Corel Painter 2019 I found a perfect tool to recreate all of this digitally.