Essentials Cafe

I'm enjoying browsing around the site looking at peoples' paintings and reading the discussions.  I haven't figured out the layering thing yet....I do well painting on the single canvas, but when I try to go back and forth between layers I end up losing my image eventually, and I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong there.  Anyway, my main question today is, how do you add more than one image to a painting?  For exapmle, I have a barn that I'd like to add a clip art image of a milk can in the foreground and then paint it to match the style of the barn painting.  I'm reading the tutorial but not quite getting the hang of it.  Any suggestions?  Here's the barn part of the painting.....not finished yet....

First of all, I would like to say that I think this is one of the most beautiful images I have seen on this site, and personally I don't think it needs anything adding to it! However - what you need is the Place button under the File menu. You use it once you have opened the barn file, it will allow you to choose the file you want to add, and once you have done that you can move that image around and change its dimensions. Hope this helps.

Hi, Bonnie! I agree with Anne; I think your barn is wonderful, and doesn't need a thing! But if you are adding a milk can, where are you planning to put it: foreground, middle, or right next to the barn? (I'm tring to visualize). Also, a milk can isn't hard to draw; Perhaps you could just draw it in? Welcome to the site! Keep painting!

Thank you both for your kind appraisals.  I appreciate the info about the "place" function and will give that a try - thanks!  Here's another of my barn paintings.  I live in rural Colorado and have a series of paintings I'm working on called "Colorado Countryside" and I also do lots of flowers which I make into cards and will be selling at a local plant nursery--I do the paintings of their flowers that they sell there.  Plant nurseries are great places for taking photos of the people and the plants.  I love this program - I tried it for the full 60 days trial and at the end had learned so much that there was no way I wasn't buying it!  

I'm glad you made the decision to buy, and I look forward to many more rural scenes from your beautiful State of Colorado, a series of them would make a wonderful calendar, with a nice snow scene thrown in perhaps. I can't wait for more, your work so far is very refreshing and uplifting.

Wow! I like this barn even better! keep it coming!

Hi there bonnie,Wardy in scotland here,This is a great image and if you,ve learned to achieve this during the trial period,I can,t wait to see what you will come up with in future.Good luck and happy painting,Regards Wardy.

Thanks for your feedback....I am lucky to live here where there is inspiration every time I look around (I drive 45 miles one way to work every morning up the front range with the mountains to the west and the farmland to the east).  I love the idea of the seasonal calendar and I'll have to work on that.  When the winter comes I definitely love the snow scenes.

 

I think it's just swell we can talk with people all around the world just like that!  How are things in Scotland today/tonight?  Whatever time it is there???

Let me see if I can upload another pic here - I just tried doing one and it said the image was too big, so I'll try another.  This is a field of sunflowers I passed every day on my way to work last summer.  I hope they grow there again this year.  Let's see if this works.

Welcome to the forum bonnie. I really like the stuff you are posting, you seem to be capturing a real mood with your work. I look forward to seeing more of it.

Hi Bonnie and Welcome.

It's a lovely thing to be able to chat to so many different people around the world and view their world through their paintings.

I've enjoyed your barn paintings and the sunflower one too.

I look forward to talking with you more.

The barn and the sunflowers are fabulous, you really seem to have taken off from the technology and reached another level!

Your sunflowers are beautiful! Here is a shot of some at a farm not far from my home that I painted last year. I love Essentials!