Rainy Chastine has been hired as the official photographer for The Los Angeles Comedy Shorts Film Festival April 26-29, 2012 and she credits Corel Painter and the Artistry Retreats in helping her get the gig.

The effervescent owner of an Atlanta-based multi-million dollar professional photography studio was in the running against hundreds of other photographers eager to photograph industry heavyweights at the largest comedy film festival in the U.S.

In Rainy’s portfolio were photographs of street people in New Orleans that she painted in Corel Painter using Karen Sperling’s tools and techniques that Rainy learned at an Artistry Retreat–you see examples on this page. The images knocked the festival executives’ socks off and she got the job!

That’s Rainy Chastine in the middle hard at work at the Artistry Retreat. Photo by Karen Sperling.

“I had used Painter before I attended Karen Sperling’s Artistry Retreat, but it was the way Karen explained the art theories and software steps that made everything click,” says Rainy. “Plus she was as funny as hell,” Rainy adds.

Adding painterly touches to a photo gives your work a unique quality and you never know where that uniqueness will take you!

“Rainy was one of the best students I’ve had in my Artistry Retreats,” says Karen. “She was hardworking and receptive to learning what I was showing. The best part of seeing her current work is that it is so different from mine, which is one of my teaching philosophies–I’m showing photographers the art theories and Painter steps so that they can develop their own styles, not so that they can paint like me. Rainy really ran with that concept and developed her own unique artistic expression based on the theories she learned in the Artistry Retreat.”

Included in the Artistry Retreats are both the art theories and step-by-step tutorials for turning portraits and landscapes into paintings in Corel Painter. No previous knowledge of art or Painter is required, just computer knowledge and the desire to learn to paint.

The next Artistry Retreat for beginners is June 18-20, 2012 in Los Angeles. And if you’ve already dipped a toe into Painter, there’s an intermediate/advanced Artistry Retreat May 21-23, 2012 in Los Angeles.

Prefer one-on-one instruction? There’s a Private Artistry Retreat for you! Professional photographers, this is an especially good idea for you. Get up and running in Painter with training focused on your interests and client base.

The Artistry Retreats are taught by Karen Sperling, who wrote the first several Corel Painter manuals and several Painter books, including the bestselling Painting for Photographers, and whose fine art and commissioned portraits are held in private collections internationally.

Attend an Artistry Retreat and learn techniques that will set your work apart from all the rest!

For more information about the Artistry Retreats and to enroll, click here.

For information about the comedy festival, click here.

For more information about Rainy Chastine, click here.

For more information about Karen Sperling’s art, photography and commissioning a portrait, click here.

For Painting for Photographers for Corel Painter X and 11 at Amazon, click here.

For Painting for Photographers for Corel Painter 12 at Amazon, click here.

For information about Corel Painter, click here.

You never know where an Artistry Retreat will lead you! Photo by Karen Sperling.

Photo and painting by Rainy Chastine.

Photo and painting by Rainy Chastine.

Photo and painting by Karen Sperling.

I just completed the portrait you see on this page as part of a new DVD I’m working on for painting children’s portraits from photos in Corel Painter 12.
One thing to keep in mind when creating paintings from photos in Painter is how the tones are turning out.
A really easy way to adjust tones is with layers, which I used extensively to create this painting.
For instance, let’s say you paint in the leaves and the colors are too bright.

You can edit the brightness easily.
1. Create a layer by choosing Layers menu: New. The new layer appears in the Layers panel.
2. Choose the Airbrushes’ Digital Airbrush.
3. Choose gray in the Colors panel.
4. Paint with gray in the new layer.
5. Lower the layer’s opacity by moving the top slider in the Layers panel.
6. Choose Color Overlay in the Layers panel drop down menu for even better results.

Notice how the leaves are a tad darker in the second example. That change took a few minutes compared to fiddling with sliders in Photoshop. As much as I love adjusting tones and colors in Photoshop with panels and sliders, sometimes a painted solution like the above illustration is quicker and easier.
My new DVD will demonstrate this and many other tips and techniques in Corel Painter 12. For more information about the Painting for Photographers DVD Volume 3: Painting Children’s Portraits, click here.
If you like learning in person better, I have a Beginners Artistry Retreat and an Intermediate/Advanced Artistry Retreat coming up. Please click here for more information.
I also have a book in print called Painting for Photographers. Click here for more information.
And if you’d rather hire me to do the painting for you, I’m available! Click here for more information.

We all hear and say the expression, Never Give Up, but I have just lived through three years of Never Giving Up and getting the final result I was trying for: My Painting for Photographers book is back in print!
In 2009, I got the first print run of Painting for Photographers in the orient at a price that was affordable for me so that I could offer the book at an affordable price to readers. To pay for the print run, I collected preorders from supporters for two years starting in 2007, during which time I wrote, illustrated, designed and created the book. Painting for Photographers was a hit and received rave reviews and quickly sold out. I subsequently tried to find a way to get more books printed, without success. The book was all done, so I couldn’t call the orders preorders anymore, so I couldn’t save up for another big print run. The alternative was to find a U.S. print-on-demand printer to print books as the orders came in. Unfortunately, print-on-demand is kind of a mirage. Printers charge a lot of money to print one book at a time, or even five books or 10 books at a time. The prices come down if you can give them a big order up front, but that’s the way it is with all printers, which is why I say print-on-demand is kind of a mirage. It’s not the perfect solution that it’s cracked up to be. I tried raising the price of the book, but it was way higher than the original price, and too expensive for readers. But I couldn’t afford to offer the book at the low, original price because I was losing money on each book. I’ll never buy a Ferrari on the proceeds from Painting for Photographers, but I need to at least not lose money on it.

Portrait covered with step-by-step instructions in Painting for Photographers.

Not having Painting for Photographers in print was a real dilemma for me and for readers. We had a hit book with what some consider the best information for painting photos in Corel Painter and Adobe Photoshop, with no way to print it.
For me, publishing a Painter book was a dream come true. I have a publishing and journalism background in which I got a lot of experience putting out books, newspapers and magazines, wearing all the hats, including writer, editor, proofreader, designer and illustrator. Combine that with 20 years of Painter experience and publishing a Painter book was something I could do and do well and everyone who got a copy of the book before it sold out loved the results. The problem was the money. How could I come up with the funds for a large print run or afford smaller print runs?

Landscape covered with step-by-step instructions in Painting for Photographers.

A few months ago, some writer friends started to publish fiction on Kindle, which got me looking at Amazon. After doing the research, Kindle seemed like a good place for me to publish tutorials for turning photos into paintings and I posted two, one for painting in Painter and the other for painting in Photoshop. They got great reviews and are selling like hotcakes and I got interested in Amazon and started looking around the site.
I discovered, or rediscovered, that Amazon has a print-on-demand subsidiary called Create Space. I had looked into them three years ago, but for a reason I can’t recall specifically, I couldn’t publish through them, though something tells me that it was because they were only handling novels, not four-color highly designed books like Painting for Photographers.

Portrait covered with step-by-step instructions in Painting for Photographers.

Fast forward to three weeks ago, when I began the process of getting Painting for Photographers back into print, including completely reformatting it to fit Create Space’s requirements and totally updating the book to offer it not only for Painter X and 11, its original subject, but also Painter 12/12.1, which came out while the book was on hiatus.
Not only does Create Space have the ability nowadays to publish print-on-demand four-color books, but it also makes it, if not easy, at least not impossible, and if not cheap, at least more affordable than all the other print-on-demand printers I researched.
It’s been interesting working my way around the different departments at Amazon, trying to get my book published. Not everyone you speak to has the right answer for how to do things and sometimes it seemed like they were just making stuff up as they went along. But then you’d call again and get someone else who really did know their stuff and you could move to the next square on the publishing chessboard. The three weeks I just spent going through the Create Space labyrinth was fraught with much fear and trepidation that at any moment I’d find out that no, for whatever reason, I can’t publish through them. That moment never came and in fact, it’s been all good news, and I am happy to be able to announce that Painting for Photographers is once again available in print!

Landscape covered with step-by-step instructions in Painting for Photographers.

I just received my first shipment and the books are affordable for you, the reader, and though Amazon receives much of the price of the book, there’s enough left over for me to be able to afford to offer them. Technology seems to change daily and as beautiful as the books were in the original print run, they’re even more beautiful with this new printing technology, probably because the book is printed from RGB, not CMYK, files. I don’t know the details about how things have changed, but the book is more colorful than before in addition to being jam-packed with information about art theories; step-by-step instructions for painting portraits, landscapes and pets in Painter and in Photoshop; and techniques for painting on the canvas with acrylics and oils after the art is printed.
Painting for Photographers is available in two flavors: one is for Painter X and 11 and the other is for Painter 12/12.1. It’s the same book, I just tailored it to the different interfaces of the different versions of the software. I felt that after being out of print for so long, I wanted to offer Painting for Photographers exactly as it was for everyone who had wanted it before but missed out on it and for new people, too. The information is solid so I didn’t want to change it. I also didn’t want to slap a few new tutorials into it and call it brand new when it really wasn’t, as some publishers seem to do.

Portrait covered with step-by-step instructions in Painting for Photographers.

So if you never had Painting for Photographers, or if you had only the ebook version and were one of the people who always wanted the printed version, it’s finally available now!
As for Kindle, yes, I do intend to reformat Painting for Photographers for Kindle, in addition to releasing other Kindle tutorials. It just takes time when you’re one person doing all the jobs of a publishing company, but it all gets done eventually.
For all of you who cheered me on and never lost faith that I would find a way to publish Painting for Photographers once again, thank you from the bottom of my heart.
I hope getting Painting for Photographers back into print after three long years of trying serves as an illustration to anyone who feels like their obstacles are insurmountable. I’m here on the other side with Painting for Photographers back in print, something I worked so hard to solve and something that seemed unsolvable for three years.
I’m here to tell you: Never Give Up. You can do whatever it is you’re trying to do!
Painting for Photographers is available at Amazon for Painter X and 11 and for Painter 12/12.1.

Painting for Photographers Table of Contents. Photo and painting by Karen Sperling.

I’ve been a photographer all my life, but it’s only recently that I’ve been offering my services for portrait photography.
As a result, I have always invited other portrait photographers to submit photos for me to turn into paintings for tutorials in my Corel Painter books, DVD’s, classes and tutorials.
I’m always looking for new photos to paint, and you’re invited to submit photos for me to consider for tutorials!

Here’s a FAQ about submitting photos to be turned into paintings for Corel Painter tutorials:
Q. What kind of photos are you looking for?
A. Portraits of any subject.
Q. Do I have to be a professional photographer to submit a photo?
A. No. My tutorials are for professional photographers and hobbyists, and I welcome any portrait photos to consider for Corel Painter tutorials.
Q. I am a boudoir photographer. Would you consider boudoir photos?
A. Yes, but since my web sites and tutorials are for general audiences, please understand that I can only include “tasteful” examples. Please email images and I’m sure we can find photos for tutorials that will help you learn to paint your photos that will be also be OK for my web sites.

Q. What do you offer in return for my submitting a photo to you?
A. If I select your photo and use it for a painting in a tutorial, as a thank you, you get the tutorial for free. You can use the tutorial to create your own paintings from your photos. You also get a photo credit everywhere the photo appears.
Q. Do you use all the photos that are sent to you?
A. No. Not all photos lend themselves to being turned into paintings in Corel Painter. If I don’t use a photo that you send, it isn’t a comment on the photo, it’s based on art theories that make a photo a good candidate to be turned into a painting.

Q. How do I submit photos for you to consider?
A. Send 1 or 2 photos 8″ x 10″ at 300 dpi jpg’d to me at ksperling@aol.com. If you have more, write to me and we’ll arrange a different delivery method. Or you can send a url for me to look at.
Q. Will I have final approval before you publish my photo and the painting you do from it?
A. No, the final decision is mine as the Painter expert. You can see my style in the images on this page and at my Artistry and fine art web sites.
Q. I like your style of painting and I’d like to hire you to paint portraits for me. Are you available for portrait commissions?
A. Yes, I can either paint portraits for you or if you’re a photographer, for your clients. Please write to me at ksperling@aol.com for information.

Thanks in advance for submitting your photos for me to turn into paintings for Corel Painter tutorials!

I created two Image Hose Nozzles to paint the snowflakes in the above ad about my Landscapes Artistry Retreat and to wish you happy holidays, you can download the nozzles for free!
Don’t have Painter? Get a free trial here!
Click here and here to download the snowflake nozzles I created.
Here’s how to paint with them:

Corel Painter X and 11
1. In the Brush Selector, choose the Image Hose in the Brush Category menu.
2. Click the Brush Variant selector, and choose a variant. Spray variants paint randomly, Linear variants paint in a line.
3. In the toolbox, click the Nozzle Selector.
4. Click the selector menu arrow, and choose Load Nozzle (see image).

5. In the dialog that appears, choose either the sperlingsnow01 or sperlingsnow02 nozzle that you just downloaded from the above links and click Open.
6. Fill (command+F, Mac; ctrl+F, Windows) with a color and then paint. It’s snowing! The image hose sprays snowflakes that I created. I made them white so you will only see them if you paint on anything but white.

Corel Painter 12
1. Click the Brush Selector on the Brush Selector bar.
2. In the Brush Library panel, click the Image Hose brush category, and click a brush variant. Spray variants paint randomly, Linear variants paint in a line.
3. Choose Window: Media Library Panels: Nozzles.
4. In the Nozzle Libraries panel, click the selector menu arrow, and choose Load Nozzle (see image).

5. In the dialog that appears, choose either the sperlingsnow01 or sperlingsnow02 nozzle that you just downloaded from the above links and click Open.
6. Fill (command+F, Mac; ctrl+F, Windows) with a color and then paint. It’s snowing! The image hose sprays snowflakes that I created. I made them white so you will only see them if you paint on anything but white.
You can use my snowflake image hose nozzles for anything like holiday cards and images.
Email me a .jpg of whatever you use them for and I’ll post everyone’s images and we’ll have an Artistry Virtual Happy Holiday Party! Click here to email your images!
Can’t make it to an Artistry Retreat? Get in on the special holiday savings on my Portraits and Landscapes DVD’s.
Happy holidays!

There comes a point during every Artistry Retreat–my Corel Painter workshop where I show professional and hobbyist photographers how to turn their photos into paintings–when the photographers start to paint. Up until then, they’ve learned the art concepts behind painting and they’ve seen some of Painter’s tools and brushes. They’ve also witnessed some basic instruction from me, and then it’s their turn to start putting it all together for their own painting. More often than not, these first baby steps toward painting are accompanied by feelings of dread, insecurity and despair because these initial efforts seem to be lacking in artistic merit.
The operative word is “seem.” In fact, just about all the photographers who study with me do a fantastic job with their beginning painting attempts, producing excellent interim images that will eventually turn into great paintings.
More often than not, when I encourage photographers this way in the Corel Painter class, the response is usually skepticism, but I speak from experience.
Although I’ve been writing about Painter for the past 20 years, it’s only in the past 10 years that I’ve been painting and writing about my own art for tutorials and teaching from my own art in classes. And I remember very well because it isn’t that long ago what it was like to feel like my early attempts at painting were best left in the computer.
The painting at the top of this page is my latest painting and one of my best ever. The client used the words “stunning” and “spectacular” when she saw it.
I wasn’t surprised that she liked it because I knew it was good. I base this bold statement on the simple fact that to paint it, I followed the art concepts that I write about in all my tutorials and teach in all of my classes. I also used all the brushes and techniques that I write about in my tutorials and teach in my classes.
I also knew there is no accounting for taste, and although I knew the painting was good, after I sent it to the client, I also braced myself for the possibility that she wouldn’t like it, just because it happens, but she loved it and what a great feeling.
I titled this blog what it’s like when you like what you paint because I am thinking about all the photographers who are plagued by doubts when they paint, some so much so that they find it more comfortable to just not paint at all. I’m here to tell you that you get over those feelings. The more you paint, the better you get and the better the paintings come out. I gave up on drawing and painting many times in my life and it feels good that this time I kept going so that I can create the painting you see on this page.
I love the process of painting, even though it’s not always easy or comfortable. Sometimes it feels as annoying as fingernails on a blackboard, but other times, when things are going well, it feels as nice as anything you enjoy doing.
What is it like when you like what you paint?
It’s bliss.

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Most people have digital cameras nowadays. Many, if not most, have software to edit their digital photos. Some, if not most, get more creative with their photo editing the longer they do it. They go from simply cropping the photo to adjusting colors and tones to applying effects. Some take their photos to the next step and start to paint them. And some go to the next level with their photos and turn them into paintings.
While many software programs nowadays offer tools for painting photos, the standard continues to be Corel Painter. The new version, Corel Painter 12, is the best version yet and I highly recommend it.
Corel Painter has a vast audience of artists and animators who paint their artwork from scratch. Painter also appeals to photographers who want to paint their photos, whether they are professionals painting portraits for clients or hobbyists painting photos of kids, grandkids and travels.
In Painter 12, Corel has added many new features for digital artists and animators, and has also streamlined some of the functions used by photographers.
This review looks at these new Corel Painter 12 features that will benefit professional photographers and hobbyists who wish to turn their photos into paintings. Artists and animators can apply the following to their work as well.
The main big improvement in Corel Painter 12 for photographers is the handling of the clone source.
In general, when you open a photo in Painter, you choose File: Clone or Quick Clone.

Choosing File: Clone or Quick Clone creates a clone copy of the original source photo. The difference is Clone just makes a copy and Quick Clone creates a copy and then deletes the copy’s contents. Photo by Karen Sperling.

Either tool creates a new image copy with a computer mapping or link back to the clone source or original source photo. You can then turn on Tracing Paper, which shows you a 50% non-printing ghost of the original clone source photo to use as a reference as you paint in the clone copy (you will only see Tracing Paper if you edit the clone. If the contents are identical to the original photo, then you don’t see Tracing Paper).

Tracing Paper is a 50% non-printing ghost of the original source photo and can be used as a reference when painting in the clone. Photo by Karen Sperling.

This computer mapping or link also allows you to use Painter’s Cloner brushes or paint with other brushes using Clone Color in the Colors palette.
Without this link or computer mapping, you can’t turn on Tracing Paper or use the cloning brush tools. In all previous versions, if you quit out of Painter and went to get a bite to eat, when you returned and relaunched Painter, you had to manually open both the source file and the clone copy and reattach them using File menu: Clone Source.

To reconnect the clone and the source image in previous versions of Painter, choose the original source photo using File: Clone Source. Photo by Karen Sperling.

Enter Painter 12.
In the new Corel Painter 12, if you save the clone copy in Painter’s native .rif file format, when you quit Painter and relaunch it, you only have to open the clone. You don’t have to open the original photo and you don’t have to reattach the source photo and the clone. With just the clone open, you can turn on Tracing Paper, select a Cloner brush or click Clone color in the Colors palette, and enjoy many Monet moments.
This is a huge improvement and cuts down on the learning curve for beginners and saves set up time for beginners and experienced users alike.
Another big improvement in Painter 12 is the Clone Source panel, found in the Window menu.
This is where File: Clone Source has been moved to and it’s been enhanced in Painter 12. If you save in another format other than .rif, you do have to reattach the file to the clone source. Interestingly, with the new Clone Source panel, you don’t have to physically open the clone source photo in Painter, you can click the icon at the bottom of the panel, locate the source photo on your system and click open.

Click the icon at the bottom of the Clone Source panel in Painter 12 to locate the original photo clone source. Painting by Karen Sperling.

This attaches the painting file to the source file with only the clone file physically open in Painter.
Another nice improvement is that you can have multiple clone source files listed in this Clone Source panel. The clone source file has to be the same size as the painting file, so it’s not like you can open a bunch of different files and use them as clone sources. You can, however, still use them as clone sources the old fashioned way by pressing option on Mac/ctrl on Windows, clicking the area you’d like to pick up and painting in the area where you’d like the clone source imagery to be.
You can, however, save interim steps of an image, attach the previous steps in the Clone Source panel, then paint from individual stages of the image by first selecting the desired image stage in the Clone Source panel and painting with any of the Cloners or with other brushes with Clone Color selected in the Colors palette.

You can select multiple clone sources in Corel Painter 12. Painting by Karen Sperling.

Another nice feature of the new Clone Source panel is the slider that allows you to adjust Tracing Paper transparency. It replaces and enhances the percentages menu found in the Tracing Paper icon in the image window’s upper right-hand corner in previous versions of Painter.
Two other cool features have been added to Painter 12 that I use a lot:
• Recent brushes bar in the upper right-hand corner of the screen, a very handy way to access previously used brushes.
• The addition of pressing shift when you want to click and drag tools out from the Brush selector into a custom palette. In previous versions, it was easy to create extraneous custom palettes by mistake. Now, by having to press shift first, you create custom palettes only when you want to.
These improvements are the ones that I’m enjoying the most frequentliy, but there’s much more going on in the new Painter 12.
The major change is the updated interface. It is much more Photoshop-esque, which will help new users who are used to Photoshop get going in Painter.
The updated interface wasn’t entirely just a cosmetic change, either. One very useful aspect of it is that you can now rearrange brushes and variants, or variations of the main brush tools, to completely customize your work environment. Let’s say you most often use the Chalk and the Blenders. Click the brush icon in the brush selector and simply click and drag on the Chalk and the Blenders and move them to the top of the menu for easy access.

Click and drag on brush and variant icons in the Brush Selector to organize the Brush Selector to taste. Painting by Karen Sperling.

There are new brushes including the Real Watercolor and Real Wet Oil categories that produce some very cool effects–check out, for instance, the Real Watercolor variants with the word Fractal in them.
Two cool new Painter 12 features are the Mirror and Kaleidoscope painting modes. The Mirror Mode creates a mirror image of anything you paint or draw, so for instance, if you draw one side of a face, Painter automatically draws the other side for you. The Kaleidoscope Mode multiplies the mirror effect up to 12 times, so everything you draw or paint is repeated the selected number of times to create a pattern, which could be useful for backgrounds or clothing.

Example of a background painted with Painter 12’s Kaleidoscope Mode. Painting by Karen Sperling.

Last but certainly not least, Painter 12 seems to me to be the most rock solid version of Painter yet. I’ve created a DVD and had several classes since Painter 12 debuted a few months ago, and the program has been consistently stable. In addition, it seems to be the fastest version of Painter, yet.
Here are some other new features in Corel Painter 12:
• The Navigator panel allows you to maneuver around the document window. You can also enable various tools from the Navigator including the drawing modes, Impasto, tracing paper, grids, and color management.
• Brushes, paper textures, color sets, and gradients libraries have been enhanced for better organization and management.
• The new Temporal Colors palette has been introduced to let you choose colors on the fly.
• The New Image dialog box has been updated to allow you to choose paper texture in addition to the past choices of size, resolution and paper color. You can also create presets for new files.
• Corel Painter 12 renders smoother-looking images onscreen when you zoom in and increases the speed of rendering images when you zoom out.
• New brush controls have been added including Computed Circular dabs, dynamic brush settings, and new Brush Calibration controls and multicore brush support, new Gel brushes and new Digital Airbrush variants.
All things considered, I think Corel Painter 12 is a shining star in the constellation of software programs and whether you’re painting from scratch or turning photos into paintings, I think Corel Painter 12 is a must have.

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Learn to paint landscapes from photos in Corel Painter 12 with the Painting for Photographers DVD Volume 2: Landscapes.

This review is ©2011 Karen Sperling and Artistry and may not be reproduced in any form without written permission.

I have received many rave reviews of my Artistry Retreats–workshops where I offer art lessons and step-by-step Corel Painter instruction–that you can read some examples of here and here.
Yet, I’ve never offered a review of my classes as the instructor, so here is one, now.
Overall, the people who attend my Artistry Retreats are professional photographers or hobbyists who are interested in turning their photos into paintings in Corel Painter.
Professional photographers who study with me include both studio photographers like Grey Darrah who would like to offer commissioned painted portraits to their clients and fine art photographers who are interested in exhibiting and selling their paintings from photos.
Hobbyists who study with me are usually people like Marilyn Peck, who had other careers in such fields as medicine, dentistry or engineering, and are either retired or getting ready to retire. Of course, they’re not really retiring at all, they’re changing gears and in some cases turning painting from photos into a career. Others are grandparents who are interested in painting photos of their children and grandchildren and of their travels.
For the most part, the people who attend Artistry Retreats have never taken art lessons before. They have a feeling that they might enjoy painting, and they follow their heart and take a class to learn how to paint.
They might have studied with other Corel Painter instructors, or they might have used my instructional materials or those offered by others. Or they might be brand-new to Painter and think it’s something they’d like to learn. They decide to attend the in-person classes to see how the painting is done firsthand and in person from me because I’ve been teaching Painter longer than anyone and also because they like the style of my art.

Now we’re all together at the Artistry Retreat. What’s it like for me, the instructor? It’s always exciting, which amazes me after teaching Painter for 20 years. What’s exciting is that I can help people paint who want to paint and who have a lot of fear and trepidation about it but nevertheless take the step to join one of my classes to do it. As the instructor, it’s really fun for me to see people go from not knowing how to paint to painting. After the art lessons and during the Painter instruction, I walk around the room looking at everyone painting and I always say the same thing, “Didn’t you tell me you had never painted before?” They always reply that they’re painting for the first time based on the information I just told them. For those who have painted before, the information and techniques that I present click for them and their painting is taken to the next level.

I admire the people who come to study with me because they are doers, not talkers. They are willing to step outside of their comfort zone to learn to do something that interests them. I’m always honored that they choose to study with me.
All in all I give the people who have studied with me great reviews. They’re a joy to hang with for the two or three days of the Artistry Retreats and I’m glad I get the opportunity to show them my painting techniques.

I highly recommend the people who attend my Artistry Retreats as photographers and hobbyists you would enjoy meeting. Click here for information about the upcoming Artistry Retreats for turning photos into paintings in Corel Painter.