Week 2, Open Studio at Digital Art Academy

The second week was a continuation of working in impressionism, again using many textures, overlays and papers.  I had a lot of problems with my program, Corel Painter, in that it kept crashing, so I had to finish in Photoshop.  This painting is from an image of my granddaughter at her birthday party.  Here she is.

Hope you had a great weekend.

Painting of a Little Boy Golfer

I've finally completed the second part of a commissioned project--it's printed and mailed.  Received this order via my Etsy shop.  This is the photo selected to paint providing I could change the club head from a putter to an iron.

This is my painting of this little cutie golfer.

Here's a closeup.

Have a wonderful day!

Two Cute Kids

My co-workers children.

Before and after.

I hope everyone has an awesome day!

The Granddaughters

It's been a little bit since my last post, but I haven't been idle.  I received my long awaited printer yesterday and it's taken pretty much a whole day just to get her going.  I need to order a lot of large format papers and canvas so I can get going opening my store page on this blog.  Will probably add another store on Etsy as well. I have been printing smaller pieces on the ample amount of fine art papers that came with the printer, and I have to say I'm so pleased with the outcome.  The colors are brilliant and so true to the way it looks on my monitor.  I'm a very happy camper. 

In the meantime, my granddaughter is turning 4 and she's had a whirlwind of parties, plus she also had her Holiday program at church.  This is an image I took at her party, of Myah, the birthday girl, and her little sister, Mari. It was nice to get back to painting portraits, plus these two are sooooo photogenic.

I so hope everyone is having a wonderful Holiday Season.  Peace and Joy to everyone.

Ballerina

My granddaughter recently started dance class--tap and ballet.  I brought my camera hoping to get a few good images.  Unfortunately, we had to sit in a small room to the back of the dancers behind a very dirty, smudgy window with lots of reflections, making it very difficult to take pictures. But, I caught a few when she turned around.  This is a painting from one of those.  Not too bad considering all the reflections.  Anyway, I'm hoping everyone is having an awesome day.

Sweet Anna

Feeling a little melancholy...the weather is rainy and chilly.  A reminder that winter is soon to come.  I shouldn't complain, I know, especially since we could live in New Jersey or Vermont.   The destruction out there is something else.  So, I painted Anna to cheer me up.  Enjoy!

Row, Row, Row Your Boat

I realized I hadn't painted Myah for awhile, so I nabbed this photo off our daughter's blog from a recent vacation they took.  In addition to rowing, Myah is becoming quite the fisher-woman and a regular water-bug as well.  I thought she looked rather fashionable here with her stylish pink shades and her curls glowing in the sun.  She is and will always be one of my favorite subjects to paint.  So here she is.

Just a reminder that if you would like to have your pet portrait painted, please do send me a cute digital jpg.  Proceeds from the sale will benefit animal rescue organizations and I will also send you a copy of the portrait as well.

Here's hoping everyone is having a awesome day!

My Son.....23 Years Ago

I don't know why, but I decided to go through my photo albums of when my son was a youngster.  I remembered this photo immediately.  It was taken down in Sanibel where we went for Spring vacation every year.  Taking these vacations will be forever etched in my mind because Eric loved being down there so much.  He especially liked swimming in the "blue pool".  Anyway, I decided to scan this 4 x 6 photo in, enlarged it, enhanced in photoshop and then painted in Corel Painter.  He was such a sweet, happy kid.  While painting this, I was remembering all the fun times we had when he was a kid.

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend.

Papou and Granddaughter

We recently went to the amusement park at the Mall of America with our daughter and her family... and actually remembered to bring our little point and shoot.  This is one of the pics I took of the hubs and our granddaughter, Mari.  The hubs, of course, said:  Couldn't you get rid of my double chin?  I told him that digital painters aren't allowed to do plastic surgery.  He did like the painting, though.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful day!

Baby Golfer

The other day I followed the hubs to the driving range to meet our son and grandson to practice hitting golf balls.  Of course, I thought to bring the camera and was able to take several pictures of our baby golfer.  By the way, he just turned two!  I can't believe how he's able to stay focused! In addition to golfing, he has a great throwing arm.  He's amazing, and sweet too!  Love him!

A Flower in Your Hair

Sweet baby girl and her Mom.  So photogenic and easy to paint.  I hope she never tires of Grandma Jane constantly taking photos.  Love you, Mari.

This is a painting done for a challenge at Digital Whisper.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!

Mother and The Queen for the Day

Continuing with the Father's Day paintings, I just realized that I had forgot to post this one.  This is our daughter Dena and, of course, The Queen for the Day.  Honestly, I didn't take a bad photo that day...now that's a first.

At the moment, the Hubs and I are up near Nisswa on Gull Lake...something we do for his birthday/Fourth of July celebration.  We stay at a place called the Quarterdeck and love it.  We just got in from a morning of boating on this large lake.  Mark threw in a line, but sadly, no catch.  I was able to take quite a few pics, however, I've not processed them yet.  Will hopefully post some paintings from this mornings images in a day or so.  Til then, I hope everyone is have a glorious day.

Queen for a Day.....Every Day

Our Queen for the day, Myah, had the best time swimming on Father's Day.  She was dressed in the cutest pink swim suit with a tutu attached.  She also sported her crown towel for drying off.  She has become such a poser for the camera....knows just how to be cute.  Doesn't mind the camera at all.  Yesterday, she caught me taking pictures of her sister, so she quickly got in front of the camera and started hamming it up...Not to be outdone by sister.

I hope everyone has a wonderful day!

Father's Day At the Pool

My painting today is of my son-in-law and his daughter, the image taken on Father's Day.  This little girl loves the water as does her sister.  I was able to take several pictures and so will have a lot to work with.  We lucked out this father's day afternoon, as we have had such an unusually cool and rainy summer.  And, I have to be honest, I'm ready for some heat...very depressing in some respects.

Anyway, on a positive note, we are expecting our 4th grandchild any minute now.  So excited...a little girl to be named Anna.

One Year Old

Yesterday, we spent the day celebrating my granddaughter's first birthday.  I figure I took about 150 photos.  I came home, put my SD card into my computer and opened all the photos in Adobe Photoshop Bridge.  I then set about tweaking the images, the end result to burn them all on a CD and give them to our daughter.  Anyway, after editing about 7 photos, I got tired and figured I'd finish the next day.  So....I removed the SD card, put it back in my camera and formatted the card (deleted).  And guess what!  I forgot to save the images to my computer! So I lost all but about 7 images! Arghhhhhhhhhhhh!

This is one of the images I saved and it will go in Mari's Time capsule to be opened when she is 18.  It's not the painting I wanted to have put in the capsule, but it will have to do.

So...there you have it!  I hope everyone had a glorious weekend.

Another Mother and Daughter

This is another painting of another mother and daughter.  The image was taken at my Grandson's birthday party and painted today.  This will be my last painting for awhile.  I'll be traveling to Louisiana for a digital painting workshop with Darrell Chitty, which is to be held on one of the old plantations that also serves as a bed and breakfast--of sorts.  Word has it that they aren't affected by the flooding going on, although they are situated near Baton Rouge.  Anyway, I hope to take lots of pictures on the way down--I'm driving, and might post some of those as I go along.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful afternoon.

Mother and daughters

As promised, I was able to take lot's of images at my Grandson's birthday party.  So I spent today picking out the one I wanted to paint for today.  This is my stepdaughter and her two daughters, my granddaughters.  Myah, the one on the left, spent more time making faces, so it wasn't easy to get a capture with both her sister and her mom.  Mari, the baby is always photogenic as is Dena.  Actually, the entire family is so beautiful, it's a pleasure to paint them.

The birthday party was wonderful, however, we all had to stay inside because of the cold and rain.  Today, however, was b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l!  We Minnesotans really know how to appreciate the beautiful day.  They are super special.

I'm hoping everyone has a lovely evening!

Having a Bad Day

Sometimes I can't resist painting an image of Myah when she's pouting.  She has such great expressions, whether sad, happy, pensive and any number of other great, hilarious facial expressions.  I do have a challenge when painting that hair of hers, however.  It's totally uncontrollable and wispy, flying around in all different directions.

We are, yet again, expecting bad weather--rain turning to snow.  Seems we've missed spring altogether.  The hubs is looking forward to a game of golf, at some point, but will have to wait a bit longer.  We should not complain.  We are both healthy and just back from a fabulous vacation.  We've had some time with the grand kids.  But, like most Minnesotans, we wait with anticipation for a little warmth and sunshine and a desire to get out a move around a little.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful day.  Mary, we will think of you and wish you well.

Mother and Son

This is a painting of my Grandson and his Mother taken from a photo while they were in Mexico for a Wedding.  They are expecting another baby in early June.  We are blessed to have our fourth grandchild on the way.  We enjoy them so much!

After another snowfall her in Minnesota, we are very ready to get out of town for our vacation.  Florida, here we come!

The White Hat

Another painting from a photo I nabbed off my step daughters' blog post.  It was just so cute, I had to paint it.  Such a happy and cheerful baby, and finally crawling, too.

It's raining here today.  A great way to melt all that snow, but it means that Callie and I won't be getting out for our one mile walk today.  Comcast is here also, to reinstall high speed internet.  It's a long story, but we now have Direct TV, but couldn't get any other service to work properly in our area--thus back to Comcast for internet.  Oh well.

Can't wait till vacation.