A couple of months ago I started taking a Photoshop Painting Course called Beyond the Brushes. It is a lot of fun and a wonderful challenge. Using a Wacom art pen, and Wacom Tablet, I have learned more control and options with photography. In high school and college I painted with oils. I wasn’t really good at it, but I loved it. I loved the feeling of painting with oils, and being able to paint over and over again to get it to a stage where I felt happy with it. You can’t paint over and over again using other kinds of paints, but you can with oils. I stopped when I had kids, the chemicals, and the ability to set up an easel was not really possible; and now with dogs in the house, I suspect, it would not stay upright for very long. But with photoshop I do not have to buy paints or worry about the chemicals or the painting tipping over.

My most recent painting that I’ve been working on is posted first, with the first one I did posted second, and then other ones in between after that. These are not from my own photographs; they are practice photographs provided by the course. I feel like I am improving a bit at a time; gaining more control and skill and options.

I think it is always good to try new things even if you know it takes you out of your comfort zone and you may perform as a child at first. It’s a lesson in humility; and it is good to still work towards progress in something new.