Fall '99 Newsletter Page One

	Artist Cher Threinen Pendarvis: Illustrating and Painting with MetaCreations Painter 5.5 Thursday, June 17, 1999 at the San Diego Supercomputer Center The Computer as a Tool for Illustrating and Painting The emergence of the computer as a tool for commercial and fine artists is changing the way artists create and sell their art. This was apparent at the most recent SISD meeting with guest speaker Cher Threinen Pendarvis. Cher is an award winning designer, fine artist, educator and author who has influenced many artist through teaching and writing about electronic design/illustration tools. Her most recent book is the Painter 5 WOW book. She is currently working on the next edition of the series. Cher demonstrated the capabilities of MetaCreations painter at the meeting. MetaCreations Painter 5.5 is the leading software program used by commercial and fine artists making the transition from traditional to digital paint.
Society of Illustrators San Diego Society of Illustrators San Diego Art Illustrators Illustration Commercial art Society Artists	More about Artist Cher Threinen Pendarvis Cher has created fine art, illustration and design on the Macintosh since 1988. Her earliest digital paintings were made in black and white using Image Studio and she has been a devoted user of Painter and Photoshop and the Wacom pressure sensitive tablet since these electronic art tools were first released. A California native, Cher lives in San Diego with her husband Steve and cat Little Doll. Cher received a BA with highest honors and distinction in art in 1974 from San Diego State University, specializing in painting and printmaking and since then she has worked in design, illustration and fine art. Cher uses both traditional and digital media and still pursues life drawing with pencil, charcoal and pastel. Her digital paintings have been exhibited as large format hand-worked prints world-wide and her work has been featured in numerous books and periodicals. As a gifted teacher, Cher teaches her digital painting and illustration workshops nation-wide and she is a featured guest speaker at national conferences. Her deep understanding of Painter was evident in her live demonstration and also in her how-to book The Painter 5 Wow book. To get an idea of how Cher does her work she says the following, "I began my paintings by sketching in the field with colored pencils and paper or by drawing on location with a laptop computer and digital paintbrush. With the computer, I can combine media that would be impossible to combine traditionally such as oil paint, chalk and watercolor and this flexibility has allowed me to push my work to new limits." "Depending on the image, I print a monoprint of limited edition. All of my works are protected with an ultraviolet inhibitive coating to help keep the colors from fading. After printing, I often apply paint or pastel to the piece. Then I mat and frame my prints with the finest archival materials." "My work reflects the Pacific Coast roots. I paint real people and places, based on sketches done on location not to imitate nature, but to express a personal vision. I am passionate about light and color in nature and how these properties affect form." With regard to doing her work on the computer Cher says, "The computer is not the source of my art. It does not make digital paintings with the push of a button. It is the artist who breathes life into an artwork-whether traditional or digital from a heart filled with inspiration." More about MetaCreations Painter 5.5 What Painter is as a software tool was best described in Cher's The Painter 5 Wow Book by Mark Zimmer, the Chief Technology Officer of MetaCreations Corporation and a developer of Painter. "In its initial 1.0 release, Painter was a simple painting application that created a new metaphor for software ... "natural media." Painter 1.0's spartan interface employed tools and techniques from the world of traditional art and design media. Pencils, chalk, charcoal, erasers and brushes combined with a pressure sensitive pen and tablet offered a remarkable ease of use, even for the computer illiterate." He continues, "Painter 5 now contains a remarkable array of tools that encompass much more than natural media. Photo-editing, the web, and multimedia have all become creative territories in Painter's brave new world." The Future of Digital Art The future of digital art promises to be an exciting and expanding new frontier for many artists. Fortunately, commercial illustrators have already found wide acceptance and success in the commercial markets. The challenges ahead are now focused on the education of the buying public in the fine art markets. Lack of information about the permeability of printing inks and the archival quality of papers and canvases is the main hurdle. Information to the public about the many archival papers and canvases to choose from and the results of ink testing are the key to future acceptance. Inks that already exist and are now being used in galleries worldwide and have been through more extensive testing than traditional pigments include IRIS Equipoise Inks, Lysonic Inks and Fotonic Inks. For more information regarding archival inks and papers, the following websites provide many answers for the aspiring digital illustrator or fine artist: inkjetmall.com for paper/canvas and inks dygraphics.com for paper/canvas and inks wilhelm-research.com for the testing of inks Like all media, digital paint adds another dimension of interest and fascination for both the "creators," those who use the computers to create digital art and for those whose lives are enhanced from the results. Editors note: Cher Threinen Pendarvis's work can be seen at her website: pendarvis-studios.com or at www.peachpit.com/meetus/authors/cher.threinen.pendarvis.html
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