Blog 6 Painting Flamingos

      Here is a finished product using the brush I described in earlier blogs.  The American Flamingo in the foreground...Chilean Flamingos in the background.
You  can see the brush work in this closeup. 
 I painted the set of flamingos, seen here at http://www.strengthinperspective.com/Pictures-DigitalCollections/FlamingoPaintings-61/FlamingoPaintings.html  when I knew VERY little about brushes.

I was familiar with photoshop...CS5...so I cracked open Painter X and familiarized myself with some of the new jargon...then I went to California to a retreat led by Karen Sperling.  She is a hard working artist with a knack for explaining things in language you really understand.  It is a gift you give yourself to study under a talented computer artist.  Thanks Karen. http://karensperling.com    http://artistrymag.com

Blog 5 Keeping Track of Brushes

There are many ways that people commonly keep track of their brushes.  I'm sure you have done Window\Custom Palette\Organizer and exported the brush file you commonly use OR maybe export a brush file for every image done, as I do, because all images are DIFFERENT and require a different set of brushes!  But did that satisfy me?  Oh, no, I had to take it one step further (the Virgo in me) and that is the subject of this picture.

This image, first seen in "Blog 2-How to Sit in the Chair"... is a blow up to better show monitor #3.  Way to the left...but never left out...I use this computer while painting to show the brushes.  Here's the deal.

     I experiment with brushes until I settle on one best for the area...in this example the feathers of the flamingo head.  I then record the stats of that brush INCLUDING all the numbers in the property bar.  It just isn't good enough to only remember which brush is used...size matters...as does opacity, resat, bleed and jitter.  When starting a new project I can say to myself   "didn't I have a great brush for this job while working on flamingos".  Of all the things I've tried in the past...a pile of "brush detail files" has been VERY useful.

Blog 4 Painting can be devastating

     I just lost my entire day's work for yesterday.  I used ctrl F in Windows Explorer and sought files with the same name...nothing.  I looked through Adobe CS5 Bridge in every drawer I visited yesterday...nothing.  I am working on a piece that will be 5 feet wide and 2.5 feet deep.  That means everything I do (with a 3 pixel brush) is done a million times.  And now I have to do it over.  My only solace is that I kept track of the brushes I used...and choosing the brush is half the work!
     I once heard Jeremy Sutton (http://www.jeremysutton.com/) say that he was filled with anxiety until he got his brush chosen.  From then on, painting was fun.  On my next blog I'm going to show you how I keep track of my brushes.  Jeremy, I thank you for your candor.  You got me started on a good technique!

Blog entry #3 My hand wrap

I know you are curious about the hand wrap.  Did I burn my hand on the stove? No...I got some wonderful help from the web that helped solve a problem. When you rest your arm on the wacom tablet (which is warm) you experience stickiness...and if you wear a long sleeve shirt, you get button scrape. By cutting off two fingers of a dust glove and covering loose ends of your glove and your shirt with an ace wrap...you can paint for hours.  Strength in Perspective.