Pennyroyal

"Pennyroyal"  (pastel, 10x10 inches)  $435 framed

Another darling deer. I had to give up on the "D" names since I had already used "Daisy" on a white calf, and this deer doesn't look anything like a daisy anyway. So I looked up some names for purple flowers.

I'm beginning to like the look of the dull, foggy, cloudy days in my reference photos, because in Photoshop this is what I can do with them:

original photo

photo - cropped and adjusted in Photoshop!

It would be fun to give a workshop sometime on Photoshop basics, although I'm no expert. I just know how to do what I do with it. And everyone there would need a computer and Photoshop, which isn't cheap...  But it would still be fun! The composing with PS is the first 'creative' step I take in every new painting's process (unless I'm working from life, which is a whole different mode...)

"Pennyroyal" will be with me at the Bayou City Art Festival in Houston's Memorial Park this weekend, March 28-30. I have booth #5, right up near the front entrance.

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Fawn

"Fawn"  (pastel, 7x5 inches)  click here to bid

Another unimaginative name to go with "Buck" and "Doe". At least I'm being consistent.

This is an example of how sometimes a very low contrast photo can be instantly 'auto-leveled' in Photoshop to make for a beautiful painting reference. Below is my original photo:

 It was a drizzly, gray afternoon. But thanks to Adobe Photoshop, one click of auto levels, and I was able to crop out this lovely pose!

Just about any photo editing software will do the same; maybe not with one click, but adjusting contrast and color is what it does.

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