I’ve been asked many times over recent months - “Are your paintings really painted or are they just photo-shopped”?  Well, the truth of the matter is that my art is created using several digital programs.  Some of the enhancements that I apply to the original photograph happen in Photoshop – such as color correction, resizing, cleaning up blemishes on skin, etc.  Once this happens, I then take the photo into a graphics program, called Corel Painter.  To anyone in the graphics industry, Corel Painter is widely known as the closest thing to really painting without actually getting a paintbrush wet.

Within Painter there are hundreds of “paintbrush” options – each one applies the “paint” to the canvas much the same as the physical brush would do.  There are textures, paint pallettes, pens, pencils, chalks, and I could go on and on.  This is a pallette that shows just a few of the brush strokes applied.  You can see where the pressure of the pen against the tablet determines how much paint is applied.  You can also see, just as in traditional painting, where the brush is set against the canvas and the paint is thicker and then runs out as the stroke gets longer.

The point I’m trying to make is – in answer to your question – yes, my art is truely painted.  Each pixel in the photograph is touched by a paintbrush, applying paint and techniques just as meticulously as if I was holding an actual bruch in my hand - but my brush is a Wacom pen and tablet.  I would venture to say that the time invested in painting in Corel Painter is much the same as if I were traditionally painting, minus the time for the paint to dry and cleaning my brushes. 

There is much education and practice to painting from a digial photograph.  There are programs out there and plug-ins for Photoshop that will apply a “painterly” look to a photograph.  Some produce quite nice results – however none of them have the control and precise techniques to turn a photograph into a true heirloom quality painting.

I could use the short-cuts, the plug-ins, the programs that are a one-button trick to make your photo look like a painting – but I choose to be true to the art form – taking time to develop your heirloom piece, enjoying each and every stroke that I paint on that canvas – I truely love creating a painting using your photos – that’s where I think Fine Art from Real Life really begins….I hope you enjoy the art that I create as much as I enjoy creating it for you!