Week 3, Open Studio at Digital Art Academy

Week 3 at Digital Art Academy taught me how to record my brush strokes in Corel Painter, and how to play them back.  Very fun class.

Have a great day!

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.

Open Studio at Digital Art Academy

I've started a new class at Digital Art Academy.  Women and Impressionism.  What we learned in our first week, was how to add seamless watercolor paper patterns using one of David Gell's brushes in Corel Painter 12.  We also learned how to add textures and papers to our paintings by using a lot of layers--not the usual cloning methods I would have used in earlier versions.  This was my fist.

Have a great evening!

Man and his Fish

I've been away from the blog world for a awhile.  My hard drive crashed and had to be replaced.  Getting my computer back up and running was and still is a gruesome task.  Shortly before the mishap, however, I finished a painting for my husband of his fishing buddy, which will be given to him at the next fishing trip.

Have a nice day.

Minnehaha Falls

Believe it or not, we have our very own Falls here in Minneapolis.  Here's a few pics from our recent hike from the Falls to the Mississippi and the Lock and Dam.

Boating on the St. Croix River

Here it is half of August gone and I've not posted.  It seems that if I have no pictures to post, I don't bother to blog at all. Probably because I don't have anything to say, but, oh well.

Last weekend we went boating on the St. Croix River--our first time ever. Unlike the Mississippi, the St. Croix is very clean and doesn't seem to have suffered from the same drought conditions that the Mississippi has.  Not sure why, it's just so.  The boats on the St. Croix are yacht like and house boat size.  They park on the along the little islands where their inhabitants play all day.  Here are some photos.  I wanted to try out the oil filter on the new upgrade, Photoshop CS6.  In addition, I used Topaz Simplify and Topaz Adjust.

Paddle Boats getting ready to tour the river.

Big boats!

Wish I lived there!

Bayfield, Wisconsin Fishing Boat

Time to get back to watercolors.  This is a fishing boat we saw in Bayfield, Wisconsin. A sweet little coastal town right on Lake Superior.  You can take the ferry over to Madeleine Island, which is where all the rich people go--similar to the Hamptons.  Anyway, here's the result.

Have a wonderful, peaceful evening.

Waterfalls of the Upper Peninsula

This is the last batch of processed images from our trip.

Photo's from the Upper Peninsula travels

On our second day in the UP, we decided to travel from Silver City (where we stayed) to the tip of the finger to Copper Harbor.  We first made a stop in Ontonagon and took pictures of the lighthouse.  This used to be a ship repair port, so the ships would come into the canal and dock.

Next, we drove south to the Old Victoria Historic Townsite along the Victoria River.  They weren't open for tours yet that day, but I did spend a lot of time thinking about what life was about during the olden days.  This little town would have been in the middle of nowhere.

Then we headed up the coast to Eagle Harbor, and stopped at Jacobs Falls.  The coastline on the north side of the finger was absolutely stunning.

From there, on to Copper harbor and the Fort Wilkins State Park and Lighthouse.

Have a wonderful day!

More Photos Opportunities from Upper Peninsula

Before we actually made it to the Upper Peninsula in Michigan last week, we made our first stop in Duluth, MN.  For those not familiar with Duluth, it's a mining port town on Lake Superior.  Hugh ships frequent the port taking out taconite.  Although there were no large ships in port the day we were there, I did take a few picks of the lighthouses.

Lighthouses guarding the canal.

The ships coming through are very foreboding. But, the canal also serves all the smaller crafts, sail boats and even kayakers. 

This was, I believe, an old fish processing building that has seen better days.  It's now used by adventurous swimmers who like to dive off.

Traveling onto Bayfield, Wisconsin, we stopped at a State Park where kayaks, boaters reach the Apostle Islands.  This is an old fish processing house as well.  It's now set up as a museum.

Bayfield is a quaint town with small shops and restaurants.  There is a ferry that takes cars over to Madeleine Island, kind of like the Hamptons, only in Wisconsin.

A 55 foot sailboat in the marina.  Good grief.

Lot's of old boats sitting around.  Not sure what the plan is for them.  Maybe restoration?  Don't know.

Have a great day.

Photo Opportunities in the UP

Over the 4th of July, the Hubs and I took a hiking vacation in the Upper Penninsula, Michigan.  The main objective was to capture many images to use as references for my digital paintings. But, we never imagined the beauty we would find.  Not everything about the trip was wonderful--our room in the only hotel in the area had a smell.  There was virtually nowhere to eat and nowhere to shop for food. The heat on one day was almost unbearable when hiking up and down (especially up) the stairs to and from the falls.  But, I think it was all worth it.  Beautiful country.

Here are just a couple of photos (out of hundreds) I took and will use in the future for my paintings. 

Copper Harbor Lighthouse, Lake Superior

This is also Copper Harbor

Manido Falls in the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park

Manabezbo Falls also in the Porcupine Mountains

The Hubs at Lake of the Clouds in the Porcupine Mountains.

More to come!