Ta…da…

December 30th, 2012

…..I finally have something that resembles a picture, due to the fact that I was up till almost 1 am making friends with the ArtRage app. I started yesterday afternoon by watching videos of the app on YouTube and was able to get a handle on the tools and controls. Then last night I got the brilliant idea of searching for just a basic lesson in oil painting instead of digital painting. I found lessons by Michael Thompson and loved his step by step way of building a picture. First he did the sky. So I paused the video and figured out how to make my digital brush and paint behave like his real ones. Then he did the cloud. Again, I paused it and worked with my digital white paint. The trees were the best because I discovered the dabbing brush.

Getting lessons on the real thing was absolutely the best way to learn digital painting. It caused me to set and reset the width of the brush, the pressure, and the load of the paint over and over until I achieved something close to his real painting. I also like doing it off of YouTube because I could pause it and do one phase at a time. There’s so much more to learn. He has lessons on painting waves and clouds, and then there’s watercolor and ……the possibilities are endless.

How about you? What new thing are you going to try this new year that’s going to exhilarate and inspire you and take you to a new level? My husband jumped on the bandwagon with fly tying. The kids and I got him a fly tying desk and tools for Xmas and he was on his way. (Even though his first one scared my daughter.) Lol. He inspired me by getting his lessons off of YouTube and made a lot of progress in just a few days.

And so, as another year is very close to going by, moving forward, having fun, getting inspired, finally painted something that resembles something, and…not only have I written, but…..I have painted.

(I even have a hint of water there! See it? So proud.)