Pretty Bird: New Watercolor Painting

I'm continuing with the Bird Theme.  This is a painting of a photo from another Public Domain Site, BestPhotos.us.  I used Pre and Post processing in Photoshop CS5 as well as blending 3 different DAP runs.

Another cloudy, rainy day.  Have a great day!

Watercolor of a Sail Boat on the St. Croix

I awoke this morning with the stomach flu, but at this posting, I'm feeling much better.  I had some time to visit my forums today and I received some great advice about my post headings.   It seems that having titles like Busy, Busy, Busy are not good for the key word seeking bots on Google.  That, in fact, my titles need to be descriptive of what people out in the webworld might ask about.  I'm not completely clear on all this and will probably need to tweak it as I go, but the correct title of what I need to be doing is called SEO or Search Engine Optimization.  If anyone understands and would like to give me a pointer or two, I'm an eager student.  Anyway, here's my painting for today.

And another one.

This second one is an image from the PublicDomainPicture.net.  I hope everyone has a wonderful evening and weekend.

It's almost Thanksgiving

I wanted to make sure I got something posted before I leave town for D.C. to visit our son. We have people driving up from Florida, New York City and Maryland and so it should be a wonderful gathering. I've been working hard on a commissioned piece that, sadly, will not be ready before I leave. It's a particularly difficult one, but I do love a challenge.

Since we going out east, I thought I'd post some paintings taken from images in the D.C. area.

This one is from Mt Vernon where George Washington lived.

I'm not at all sure I'm ready for winter even though we've now had our first snow. So, here's one a painting from just a few weeks ago.

Here's hoping that you have a wonderful holiday.

More Fun

I'm continuing to experiment with several programs and plug-ins and really trying to push the envelope with my paintings.  I'm finding that a lot of pre and post processing is also necessary.  My newest toy is DAP.  If interested you can find them here.

This image was taken on a little back road just east of a little town called Stillwater.  We are fairly lucky that we still have fall color here.  Usually by this time, all the leaves are on the ground.

This is from a local cemetery.  Mark's mother is buried in the this cemetery.  It's quite a beautiful place.

I love this effect.  It's almost has a paint chip look to it.

As we get close to Halloween, I hope everyone is having a wonderful day!  BOO!

This and That

We are now moving toward "past peak" and most of our leaves are on the ground, but I wanted to post some images now from several moments over the past few months.  It won't be long before I'll be trudging through the snow in an attempt to chronicle our winter months and will hopefully find something worth painting.

It's rather amazing that I now look at things differently with my eyes.  I can see color, light and shadows that might not have been obvious a few months ago.  The hubs has noticed this about me as well.  I seem to be taking more quality images and less of those that I end up sending to the recycle bin.

Being able to manipulate these images with the various programs I now have has really made my art all the more fun~at least for me.

What is it about this time of year that makes me want to pull out my knitting and crochet needles and get to work making afghans?

I hope everyone is having a beautiful weekend. 

A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood

Things are splendid here in our neighborhood and are only going to get better.  The weather is warm and the colors are magnificent.  Here's a little taste.  This is the entryway to our complex.

Down the main boulevard.

Outside our front door.

Here's some more.

I miss Mr. Roger's.

I hope everyone is having a glorious day!

What a Cute Pooch

Thought I'd work with Painter 12 today.  I've had it for quite awhile now and have even taken a class on the newest features, but I have to say that I'm a bit frustrated--especially with the clone features.  No doubt I'll figure it out, however, with lot's and lot's of practice.

This sweetie is from an image by Bill Kuffrey posted at www.publicdomainpictures.net, my favorite public domain site. Bill has been gracious enough to allow me to post to my FineArtAmerica Account.  You can find purchase greeting cards and prints here.

We have a beautiful, but warm fall day here in Minnesota.  Next weekend the hubs and I are going up to Taylor's Falls to take lot's of fall pictures and I hope to have some new fall paintings to post.  I hope everyone is having a wonderful day.

Topaz is Soooo Much Fun

I wanted to post some more treated images from my playing around with programs projects.  Here's one:

I actually had a trial copy of Nik Pro Efex 3 that I did some experimenting with.  The trial has run out, but I still haven't decided if I want to purchase this set of filters.

I thought this was a fun little boat tooling around the lake on a beautiful day.

A sweet little rock garden leading up to a gargantuan mansion on the lake.

A guy fishing under a bridge.

No explanation  necessary.  Just took this image from the side of the road. 

And a little gazebo on the lake.  I used DAP on this one.  As always, I love getting comments.
I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

Playing with Programs

I've been doing a lot of playing lately with other digital painting programs, even combining some of them.  I'll be posting some here. Love the color on this one.

All the images were taken by me over the past year. 

For those of you not familiar with Dynamic Auto Painter, it's a sweet little auto painting program that really produces some exciting effects--especially when coupled with other programs and plug-ins--PSCS5, Topaz, Corel Painter, and DAP.  So cool!

Another thing about DAP is that you can go to their forums and download additional painting styles.  Yea!

I thought I'd put the word out that I'm still looking for animals to paint.  So, if you'd like to see your pet painted, be sure to send me a photo.  janewoodenhorse@msn.com

  I hope everyone is having an awesome day.

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.

Waterscapes

I wanted to post some images that were considered more photography and paintings, although, lets face it, I can't completely stay away from Photoshop.  I was able to create an Action in Photoshop that included a BuzSim, Topaz adjustment and I used it on several images which I will be posting here on my blog and some on FineArtAmerica.

This image is from a tranquil scene on a lake and I hope that's what it makes people feel when viewing it.  This image is also posted on FineArtAmerica

And lastly, at least for today, this is another tranquil scene from our boat.  Also available for purchase here.

I hope you all have a wonderful day.  As always, any and all comments are welcome.  Take care.

Mountain Streams and a Little Dog Too!

This week I've been experimenting with several digital plug-ins in addition to the usual digital paintbrushes that I normally use.  Here are two more images that I've used from the public domain website that I particularly like:  http://www.publicdomainpictures.net.

The first is a sweet little pooch with bows in his hair.  In addition to painting this little dog, I also used a little program called FotoSketcher to give him a watercolor effect.  You can find the original image here.  I also obtained permission from the owner of the image to post this to my Fine Art America site where I hope to benefit animal rescue organizations through the sales of my pet portraits.

The second is a oil painting done solely in Photoshop from an image from the same website.  I used the Art History Brush for this painting, taking several snapshots throughout the process to work from.  You can find the original here.

I hope you enjoy and be sure to leave comments.  I love them.  Also be sure to check out Artists in Blogland here.  If you are artist, this might be the place for you too!

Sweet Colorful Kitty

This is a painting from an image that I found in the public domain at PublicDomainPictures.net  I decided that this cutie needed some added color, so I gave her a boost.  I'm continuing to work with some of the plugins that I referred to in my last post. The majority of the painting was done in Corel Painter, as usual.  To purchase greeting cards or prints your can visit Fine Art America here.   Some of the proceeds from the sale of prints and greeting cards will help benefit animal rescue organizations.

I hope everyone is having a glorious Saturday!

A Painterly Portrait of a Cute Dog and a Cat, too!

I decided that I needed to paint some images with a more painterly approach.  One of my mentors recently did a webinar where she showed us how she approaches a painting while also using several programs/plug-ins in her "Digital Artist Toy Box".  I had most of these programs already, but I did purchase a new one and downloaded a demo version of another.  If interested in her products and workshops, you can find her here.

Another rather fun thing happened recently.  I found an email in my mail box from a writer, Jazz singer and art lover, who writes a weekly blog column and asked if I would like to be interviewed.  Of course, I said yes and that I was very honored to be asked.  You can find that interview here.  Here name is Deborah E and the name of her blog is Scat N Style.

Both of the images used in these paintings are in the public domain and you can find the originals here, and here.

The White Bird from Madiera

For greeting cards and prints please visit FineArtAmerica here.

I had this image from our past vacation down in Florida at Madiera Beach and thought, "I've never painted a bird before."  So here is my attempt at painting a bird.  I can't tell you what kind of bird this is, and I suppose I could look it up.  But, really, do I need to?  I thought it was a pretty bird, so I took a picture of it... so there.  Anyway, we are having the most outstanding weather here right now.  I almost hate saying that because of all the recent devastation from mother nature in other parts of the country.  Here Louisiana was battered yet again and next door, Texas can't buy a rain drop.  Annette, I hope you are doing OK.

I so hope that things will get better for some!

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!