pen-tree

Pattern Pen Tree Trunk
This tutorial assumes you have a working knowledge of Painter 6 palettes, and are familiar with the effects you can achieve using Tonal controls. Some of the brushes you will use are the Lasso, Straight Cloner, Pen and Airbrush. You should have a basic understanding of layers, masking and lighting.
Open a new file. Press the ‘L’ key to access the Lasso tool. Draw the shape you want your tree trunk to be. Mine looks like this (1).
Create and save the bark pattern you want to use in a new pattern library. This will help keep your library sizes down so they are easier to work with. Select the Pattern Pen or Masked Pen and paint in the bark. Depending on what your pattern looks like you may have to adjust the pen size. I filled my selection in 3 passes. Each stroke made from top to bottom to keep the texture going in the same direction. My trunk looks like this (2).