I absolutely love the way painter blends paint so I often start a color palette using an oil or an acrylic brush. Once I have a solid range of colors established I will start to bounce back an forth from Painter to Photoshop. Photoshop seems to give me the texture I want more often than not. All of these were done from photographic reference and took me about 45min to an hour each. Still need to get faster...ughhh...but I seem to have found a technique that is working for me. The bottom panel shows my work in progress. More to come!

Did these studies in Painter...mostly. I referenced some photos I took at the Nashville Zoo. My intent with these was get faster and find a solid reliable brush to use in painter. Which actually slowed me down...but I found one! Give or take each one took me about 25min.

The piece on top is a John Singer Sargent master copy I did some time ago. The bottom one was from a still life photograph I took. Both were done with acrylics and both came out of an illustration class that I highly benefited from. Thanks Thomas!