Living my retirement dream

[Lynda Kamrath]

Wow!  I met someone here at DK who definitely thinks like me.  She does beautiful pet pictures by painting them with a Wacom tablet.  And she is so talented.  Found out on FB that she is offering high resolution digital files so you can have them printed anywhere.  We did the same thing with our remodeling last summer.  We took high res photos of our favorite places and printed them on canvas.  (We have a canvas printer.)  So, check her out.  She is on the Buy-Sell-Trade group, but even I had problems getting to her.  Her website is:   www.bellcreativegallery.com     Many of you have great photos that she could render into paintings.  I am learning to do the same thing in my Intro. to Digital Arts class but her talent is way beyond mine (at least at this point).  I will get there - one of my goals this year.

[Elizabeth & Cosmo]

When Linda B. and I talked about it, I specified wanting the digital file. But she does offer both options.

[Lynda Kamrath]

I think you pay for the artistic rendering and then she can mat, frame, print on a wrapped canvas or whatever.  The art is what costs.  This summer we redecorated our house and wanted photos printed on canvas.  My husband has his art at a couple of galleries and there were some photos in the galleries that we liked but were the wrong size.  We asked the artists if we could buy the photo but just get a CD in high resolution to print up ourselves.  As long as you are not selling the prints, most artists have no problem with giving their art to you in digital format.  That is what we did and are very happy with the results.

[Jarka, Monty & Auggie]

Is it Corel Painter that you and Linda use? I don't seem to find any other artistic software.

[Lynda Kamrath]

I basically use Adobe Photoshop CS5 but am learning to use Corel Painter.  There are lots of artistic software out there, but it takes a little training to be able to use them.  I'm still learning.

[Camilla and Darwin]

I agree, Linda is massively talented and just awesome all around. :-)

[Linda and "Toby"]

I've been in a seminar all weekend so I'm chiming in late here...

THANK YOU SO MUCH everyone for your kind words! 

I absolutely love my Wacom (Intuos 3) Tablet! I've had it for about 5 years. It's pressure sensitive and gives you far more precision and control than a mouse, trackball or touchpad could ever give you. 

While I enjoy painting on canvas, I love painting on a digital canvas even more! It's much less messy, clean up is a breeze, and I can easily explore doing the same painting several different ways and see which way I like best. What's really fun is to start a piece on the computer, print it on canvas, and then "finish" it with real acrylics, pastels, etc. It's also nice to make custom greeting cards or notecards out of them. I made an oversized (8x10) greeting card out of a painting last week and it came out awesome!

FYI: When I'm working on a piece, I typically take it back and forth between Photoshop and Corel Painter 12. Both programs are necessary, in my humble opinion.  What I love about Corel Painter is that each medium - whether it's oil paints, watercolors, chalk, air brush, sumi-e, pencil, ink pen, etc. - behaves just like the traditional (real) version. For example, when you work with watercolors, if you make the paint on the (digital) paper "wet" it will literally run down the paper and bleed/mix with nearby colors. You can even apply (digital) salt to it. And the software program is so intuitive, it won't allow you to brush watercolor paints over oil paints, because those two mediums do not mix in real life. 

Jarka - if you're interested, I would be happy to demonstrate (via screensharing on a Google Hangout or Skype) how awesome this software is. :) 

[F, Calla & Luca]

I am glad to see you have been rediscovered : ) You know many of us have loved your work for a long time. It is wonderful that you love doing the art that you do so well.

[Linda and "Toby"]

Aw, thank you, F! *hug*

[Jarka, Monty & Auggie]

Thank you, Linda. You are too kind. I would love to see how you do it. Perhaps we could set up a group Skype meeting or something like that sometimes?

[Jarka, Monty & Auggie]

I just saw an offer on Academicsuperstore.com for Corel Painter 12 with Bamboo Capture tabled (Wacom) for $129.95. My DH is a high school teacher and I work for a university, so we buy software cheaper on this website. I think your Intuos3 is much better (they have Intuos5 now on the Wacom website), but it's a bit pricey for me right now (after I just bought a new camera). I can't find any comparison between the two tablets, the only thing I can tell is that's it's smaller. Do you have any experience with the Bamboo version?

[Linda and "Toby"]

You'll LOVE it!!! I've turned off most of the custom functions that came with my Intuos 3 tablet and pen. Having a "pressure sensitive" pen is all that really matters to me - and it looks like the Bamboo Capture tablet has one. So you're good. And wow - what an AWESOME price on the bundle! You're not going to believe how much fun you're going to have with it. Let me know when you get it!!!!

[Jarka, Monty & Auggie]

LOL, don't get me started on this like Jane got me started on getting a new camera over the Christmas. How big is your tabled? The Bamboo one seems to have an awefully small active area.

I was digging in there some more, and they have Intuos5 Large for $409 or the medium one for $309. If I buy it with Corel Painter 12, the software would cost only $49. My husband is going to kill me. I need to sleep on it first, though. :-)