The most amazing online digital art school now has my July class open for registration. Go register now at the DIGITAL ART ACADEMY for the Digital Paint Brush class. Four all different lessons in July covering different subjects.

What you need most of all for this class is IMAGINATION and after that Corel Painter X. We will be doing lessons that are ONLY applicable to Painter X. So if you do not have Painter X, wait for class to start and download the FREE 30 Day Painter X for your platform.
We are also going to using Alien Skin SNAP ART to create layers that will bring new dimension to your art. Alien Skin SNAP ART also have a FREE 30 Day download, so again, wait till class starts to download and install it.
A Wacom tablet is truly the only way to be painting. A mouse can be used, but I highly recommend a Wacom Intuous 3 6×8 tablet as the minimum for painting.
Each week we will be working on a different subject. You may use your own images or the class reference images. It is highly recommended that all your own reference images be 8×10 @ 250 dpi as the minimum so you can truly see what you are painting. Smaller or lower resolution images make it difficult to see the brushstrokes and also hard for you to see details.
The Line Up for the Four Weeks:
Portraits: New techniques to speed up your portrait paintings and simplify them
Landscapes and City Art: Learn ways to improve your non-people art
Painting with Vibrant Color: Ways to look at color and add more color depth to your paintings
Texture and Finishing Touches: Adding texture to paintings and a variety of finishing touches
Once we finish a weeks lesson we will NOT be going back to it. These are Four SEPARATE lessons.

REGISTER NOW as this class already had a waiting list and is filling up fast!

Although the “book” doesn’t ship till January (or sooner!) I have started a Flickr group where I will be posting video tutorials for it and invite everyone to show off their work using the project lessons in the book The Art of Digital Photo Painting Masterpieces. Right now it’s an incredible deal on Amazon at a low prepublished price. Amazon has bought boatloads of it so we are hoping that you all love it!

You are all invited to join the Flickr Group now so as soon as the info and videos start posting you will be ahead of the game. JOIN HERE It cost nothing to join and you will be in on the first tutorials posted and videos!

BUY the book now and be one of the first to get it shipped to you. At this low price, buy gifts for friends for the holidays also! As soon as I see some of the comps (also known as galleys meaning the design layouts) I will get them posted on Flickr. The mock ups are awesome that I saw!

So join the Flickr group now to keep up with the news.

FALL PAINTER BLAST “SECOND SESSION” Oct 26 - 29

The First Annual FALL Painter BLAST SOLD OUT in twelve hours! WOW! So we added a second session the following week October 26 - 29 and the Early Bird Discount is $50 and expires this Saturday May 10 at Midnite. If you got left out of the first session, this is your only opportunity to register and still save on the registration. BREAKFAST and LUNCH and SNACKS included.

Schedule for the FOUR DAYS:

Day ONE: Exploring Different Methods of Painting and incorporating other software to paint also. Day TWO: Fall Photography and Gallery Visits Meeting Other Artists Day THREE: Morning: Painting from the day of Fall photography or your own images or ours. Afternoon: PAINT and PRINT our paintings and prep the paintings for the Embellishing. Day FOUR: Morning: Embellish Prints, paint on them, explore Materials for ART on the prints Afternoon: Share Advanced Painter Techniques and Discuss Marketing, Promoting and Selling Your Artwork
That would pretty much sum it up I think!! We are happy to pick you up at the airport (ASHEVILLE) and get you to the hotel and pick up and drop off every day.
We will send information on local hotels and directions to the workshop (if you are driving) after registration. This workshop is for experienced Painter artists and is not a BEGINNER class. (see below)

Our Workshop room is amazing and we are definitely looking forward to this being a yearly event for those that always want to learn more and are serious about their painting.
My new book ART OF DIGITAL PAINTING MASTERPIECES will be out in January and we will be doing a lot of new lessons from the book also. Pre-Order it on AMAZON now We really hope you join us! Let us know if you need more information. As always you will get a GIFT CD with lots of goodies on it PLUS more goodies in your goodie bags! Save $50 NOW and join us Register HERE

The July 13-14 BEGINNER Painter WORKSHOP is selling out and if you want to learn Painter it’s time to register for that one. Register HERE

Lastly, June 15-20 is my last workshop in California for maybe a year. It’s at the West Coast School in beautiful San Diego and it’s going to be a blast there. REGISTER HERE
August 17-21 is the annual Canada workshop at the fabulous NIAGARA SCHOOL in Canada. REGISTER HERE

Thanks for Visiting the BLOG and please feel free to ask questions and comment!

Can’t Make it to Any of the Hands On Workshops?

Don’t Panic! Instead, join my subscription Digital Painting Forum and learn on your own.
ALSO take my ONLINE class for July at the Digital Art Academy! Registration is starting May 15th. Contact DAA to register for the July Online Workshop.

We hope to see you at one of the events!

Follow me on TWITTER: msholin

First session October 19-22 SOLD OUT! We have added a SECOND SESSION the following week OCTOBER 26-29!

Please REGISTER IMMEDIATELY before that sells out also. That will be the last FALL ADVANCED PAINTER BLAST for 2008!
New workshops will be scheduled for 2009 shortly.

Call to REGISTER 305.794.3343 OR email: marilynsholin@gmail.com

We will get the registration for that session up this weekend but we have a waiting list already from the first session that
have first choice to register so don’t get left out. Do it on the phone or via email.

FOUR DAYS of ART,EDUCATION and PHOTOGRAPHY! Dont’ miss it. This years attendees will have first choice to register
for next years FALL PAINTER BLAST also!

And don’t forget, if you want to take the BEGINNER PAINTER X WORKSHOP in JULY sign up now! It’s getting close to filled also!

Marilyn

Just wanted to remind you that the Fall Painter Blast $100 discount expires today! We don’t want you to miss out.

You can register at: http://tinyurl.com/55gf5z

OR Register here also: http://tinyurl.com/ywtm6t

Cost and info is all there on the sites.
Schedule for the Two Day is intensive two days at the computer learning the software and painting.
BREAKFAST and LUNCH and SNACKS included.

Schedule for the FOUR DAYS:
Day One Exploring Different Methods of Painting and incorporating other software with the paintings also.
Day TWO: Fall Photography and Gallery Visits Meeting Other Artists
Day THREE: Morning: Paint from the day before photography (if desired)
Afternoon: PAINT and PRINT our paintings and talk about Embellishing the prints and seal them to prep them
Day FOUR: Morning: Embellish Prints, paint on them, explore Materials for ART on the prints
Afternoon: Share Advanced Painter Techniques and
Discuss Marketing, Promoting and Selling Our Artwork

That would pretty much sum it up I think!!
We are happy to pick you up at the airport and get you to the hotel and pick up and drop off every day.
We will send information on local hotels and directions to the workshop (if you are driving) after registration.

Our Workshop room is amazing and we are definitely looking forward to this being a yearly event for those that always want to
learn more and are serious about their painting.
My new book ART OF DIGITAL PAINTING MASTERPIECES will be out in January and we will be doing a lot of new lessons from the book also. Pre-Order it on AMAZON now: http://tinyurl.com/2nf8vg

We really hope you join us! Let us know if you need anything or other information.
As always you will get a GIFT CD with lots of goodies on it PLUS more goodies in your goodie bags!

Save $100 NOW and join us!

Just updated all this info with many specifics. Please read through it all and if you have questions, email direct.

October 5 and 6 2008

$400.00
We do have EARLY BIRD PRICING for this workshop. To take advantage of it please email Marilyn DIRECT at:
marilynsholin@gmail.com
SUBJECT HEADING: VANCOUVER EARLY BIRD

Register by May 15th….get a whopping $75 OFF plus a BONUS FREEBIE of my Photoshop Mixed Bag CD FREE
(CD’s will be delivered on site AT the workshop and not shipped)
After May 15th the price is $50 off until June 30th NO FREE CD
After June 30th…Full Price….NO FREE CD…NO EXCEPTIONS!

Join us for a PAINTER X Workshop in Vancouver,BC.
We will be covering all the tips and tricks to paint from photo
reference skin,hair,eyes,backgrounds and details. Everything
you need to sell paintings in your studio. Learn the right
brushes and how to customize them for each type of portrait
painting.

We will cover studio,environmental and even wedding portraits.
This is a Beginner/Intermediate Workshop.

SEATING IS LIMITED! We will be at Karen Anne Learmonth
studio: 21308 RIver Road, Maple Ridge, V2X 2A9. Canada
Call Karen for directions: 778-840-5676

Register Here or go to the Workshop site.

By reserving your place, you are agreeing to the terms and conditions for this workshop.

MORE INFO:

You do NOT need to have Photoshop for this workshop.
I will not spend time in there. We will do it all in Painter, but
if everyone has Photoshop I will just show a few things in it.

YOU NEED:
Painter X (not 8 not IX not IX.5…you MUST have Painter X)
Wacom tablet with stylus to paint
power strip
recommend a wireless mouse

If you are PC download Alien Skin Snap Art the week of the workshop and install it to the PLUG INS folder of Painter X.
It has a free 30 Day download.
If you are PC you can download Alien Skin Snap Art and install it in Photoshop or the pther host applications.

Here is the info for Snap Art:

On the Windows system, here are Snap Art’s tested and supported hosts;

* Adobe Photoshop CS or later
* Adobe Photoshop Elements 4 or later
* Adobe Fireworks CS3*
* Corel Paint Shop Pro XI or later

… on the Mac;

* Adobe Photoshop CS2 9.0.2 or later
* Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0.1 or later
* Adobe Fireworks CS3*

WORKSHOP INFO: This is a TWO DAY Workshop which is a short time to try to cover everything I like to cover and share all my new techniques for painting. I will DISCUSS embellishing the final prints but will NOT be doing it on site. That would take too long and be too messy. We can schedule another workshop that includes that at another time, or please come to NIAGARA SCHOOL in Ontario where we will be doing that in depth.

Also, we will be discussing the business of being an artist, but again, we are really there to PAINT. I will share my ideas and marketing and most current successful campaigns and resources for more information on selling your art.

HANDOUTS: Everyone will receive a CD with documents on it and files that are printable. They are NOT meant to be the workshop instructions on a CD. They are a supplement to the class and include articles,resources,magazine articles and other information that I share with my students. Brushes and images for class are also included and we will be installing them. The CD is my gift to each student.

Digital painting done in Corel Painter X using sponge brushes and a little charcoal. Always wanted to paint this one and needed to get the right mood for it and love the hair flow and curls.

If you want to learn how to do this, come to a Digital Painting Beginner Workshop in July in Asheville,NC. More information can be found HERE There are only a few seats left in this small private class so register now. Asheville Workshops for Digital Art include breakfast and lunch!

Impressions of Fishing, originally uploaded by marilynsholin.

Here is a new fast painting done with Painter X. It was for the new weekly challenge at the Digital Painting Forum.

Blackbird Frame and Art Gallery had a wonderful opening yesterday at their new Lexington location which is full of light and amazing frames and art. My good friend and artist Binna Green had a showing of her fabulous ceramics and her "Goddess" greeted you at the front door! We were so taken with a beautiful battered colorful tin mirror by Silo Valley Copperworks Jesse Lee that it had to come home with us. Like many artists in Asheville Binna and Jesse are too busy to get their websites up but you can see their work at the gallery live and in person.

After the opening we went to Rezaz for lunch which was, as always, fabulous but the stand out for me was the humus with pomegranate and walnuts. WOW! Fabulous! Everything was good but that really got my attention.

Had a wonderful "artful" day and now it’s back to work.

This is an exciting project! How I wish I had time to take off to do it! There are a million reasons why I SHOULD but even two million reasons why I can’t right now. We have to choose our priorities and while I can’t choose this one this year, there’s no reason why I can’t encourage others to do it.

DAY IN THE LIFE ASHEVILLE PROJECT

I hope someone reads this and participates. Years ago I was part of the Day in The Life of Miami project with ASMP in Miami, Fl and it was an exciting few days (planning meetings and after work also) and I still have the film (yeah, guys, we used to use FILM!) I shot from that I think. I covered children for the day and the cross section of children in Miami. From the secure safe kids playing in the parks with their mommies and nannies to the handicapped and waiting for surgery kids at the Ronald McDonald center by Jackson Memorial Hospital.

But the most life changing kids that still to this day are in my heart and memories are the ones I met and photographed at the Miami Children’s Home.It was an emotional experience I will never forget as I was swarmed by dozens of kids of all ages begging me to touch them,hug them and take their picture. I was not allowed to take their faces so I had to create shots that did not show them, but still captured the emotion. The stories each child had that the volunteer told me kept ripping my heart out.

Afterwards I donated whatever I could to them to help out. I even went for a few meetings to get trained to work with them, but the emotional pull I felt from them was just too much and I decided to support them from the outside. I couldn’t get so personally involved with each child and hear their story.

Bottom line being, A Day in the Life of Asheville might be YOUR life changing, meaningful experience and if you can do it DO IT and make it part of your life.