Radial Symmetry

I am poor at maintaining this blog, but the new Photoshop 2018 includes a Technique Preview called Paint Symmetry.  I had to share.  It took a blog or two to figure it out, but it is absolutely amazing.  I played with it for awhile and had so much fun.  It is also very easy to use.  Find some pretty brushes and start messing around.  Julianne Kost has a short, but clear tutorial.

I don't know what I will use it for, but it was sure fun to play with!

Smith Arms Entitlement

Heraldry is very complicated, but a person may be entitled to show on his shield the arms of many specified families.  He can show arms of a family with a straight-line male descent, and he can show the arms of maternal families who have no sons with offspring, but have daughters, although this is a simplification.  These daughters are heiresses in the sense of pedigree only.  It has nothing to do with material goods.  With the help of a friend I have discovered that my gr-grandfather was entitled to show 29 coats of arms, and we may turn up more in the future.  Since there is a descent from two brothers it allows the arms of three families to be duplicated because those two brothers had the same ancestry.  Can you find them?  The first and last are both Smith, but the last one is traditionally put in as a space filler.  If I come up with another family with arms to which my gr-grandfather was entitled I will delete that last Smith.

Each little square on this shield represents a different family and it is possible to determine at least some ancestry by working it out.  Of course there are many families that are not represented because there were no heiresses or because a family did not have a coat of arms, so it does not represent a complete pedigree.  I have that in a genealogy program!

It was a lot of fun drawing out all these coats of arms.  The families represented are:

1. Smith, 2. Orlebar, 3. Child, 4. Payne, 5. Boteler (2nd son), 6. Molesworth, 7. Kirton, 8. Peacock, 9. Hervey, 10. Reade, 11. Winter, 12.  Hoddington, 

13.  Cromlyn, 14.  Knovill, 15.  Golofre, 16.  Bassett, 17.  Cassy, 

18.  Thurgrim, 19.  Tirry, 20.  Langton, 21. Chernocke, 22. ?Gurney, 

23. Pynsent, 24. Boteler (1^st son), 25. Molesworth, 26. Kirton, 27. Peacock, 28. Farrar, 29. Whitby, 30. Smith.

Heraldry and the Smith Coat of Arms

I started with a bookplate that was proudly passed on to the family by my great grandfather Charles Edward Villiers Smith.  On that bookplate was the Smith family coat of arms and I became intrigued with heraldry.  I recently learned a lot about the rules that govern the design of a coat of arms and discovered that, although the families portrayed are correct, the order in which they are displayed on the bookplate are slightly incorrect.  The rules of heraldry are very intricate, and when portrayed properly, can tell a lot about the family pedigree.  There is much information on the Internet and in books that explain the rules and symbols, but I am not knowledgeable enough to write a lot on the subject.

The following coat of arms shows a descent from six families in the correct order.  Each cell on the shield shows the arms of a particular ancestral family.

Reading from left to right as you would a book the arms on this shield represent the families of:

1.  Smith

2.  Orlebar

3.  Boteler of Biddenham, second son

4.  Hervey

5.  Chernocke

6.  Boteler of Biddenham, first son

This second version is the one that is on my great grandfather's bookplate and was handed down to him from his father and ultimately from his grandfather.

This is exactly like the old bookplate and was first used by Boteler Chernocke Smith, my gr-gr-gr-grandfather.  The first problem is that the shield is divided in thirds, which is incorrect.  It should be in half with the husband's arms on the left half and the wife's on the right half.  Another thing is that the right third does not even make sense.  Even if it was half of the shield, his wife was not of that family, although he was descended from that family.  Finally the arms of Hervey and Orlebar should be reversed to properly reflect the pedigree and rules of heraldry.  So it is a muddle, but it is what it is.

The families represented in the four small cells are:
1.  Smith
2.  Hervey
3.  Orlebar
4.  Chernocke
The entire right third is Boteler of Biddenham


All renditions of my family arms have a crest on top, which is an oak tree with golden acorns.  The motto on a ribbon across the bottom says "Non deficit alter."  Translated from the latin it means, "Another is not wanting."

At one point in history coats of arms were carefully guarded and registered.  Families had to prove to men from the College of Heralds that they were entitled to bear arms.  They did so with pedigrees that were carefully recorded and became the Visitations that are so useful today to genealogists researching medieval English ancestry.  Later as the culture changed it became less legally important and registration was expensive.  Family arms can still be registered if desired, but it is still very expensive.  My family did not register their coat of arms, and that may be why they are a bit wonky.

No matter, my gr-grandfather was proud of his family heritage and his coat of arms, even though he left England at age 19 and was a pioneer in Nebraska where he married, raised a large family, and is buried.

Carter Coat of Arms

I have been working on a different kind of digital art lately. I have been interested in genealogy for many years and am descended from an English family that had a coat of arms. My husband also is from an armigerous English family. Believe it or not our families lived about four miles apart in the 17th century. So I have been updating my rendition of the coats of arms. This one was used by the Carters of Kempston, Bedfordshire, England. The earliest immigrant of the family was Capt. Thomas Carter who arrived in VA in the 1690's.

This painting wasn't all brush work.  It took some drawing, some painting and a lot of playing with gradients in Illustrator.  The dogs were done with digital brushes in Photoshop and then moved into place in Illustrator.

Flower the Mule Deer

At last, my digital painting of Flower the Mule Deer is complete.  It took longer than planned because of too many other projects that needed attention.  I painted this beautiful buck from a photo that I took in my back yard. I had planted a large wildflower garden and the deer spent a good part of the fall gobbling up everything edible in preparation for the winter famine.  They aren't as hungry in the summer so we enjoyed the flowers for a long time before they became wildlife fodder.

Flower had beautiful antlers, five points on each, but they take up a lot of space in a painting or photo.  I chose to focus on his beautiful face.  I spent quite awhile sitting at the edge of the garden, very close to him, admiring his lovely markings.  I hope he comes back to visit next year.

Flower the Mule Deer

Wacom Pen

My new Wacom pen arrives on Monday.  I can't wait to get back to painting.  Don't know about Wacom?  They produce an electronic tablet that connects to the computer and has a special pen for drawing and painting on the tablet.  The designs I make show up on my computer in Photoshop.  There are all kinds of brushes available and you can make your own as well.  With these brushes you can create strokes that emulate oil painting, water color painting, charcoal drawing, ink drawing - the list covers all drawing and painting tools.  It is truly amazing and so much fun to play with.  You can see the pens and tablets at Wacom.

I hope to finish "Flower the Mule Deer" as soon as I get my new pen.  I just hope and pray that it is what is causing the problems.  We'll see!

Foiled!

Yesterday I was planning to finish "Flower" the Mule Deer, but my Wacom pen gave up the ghost.  I have ordered a new one, but it will be a week or more before it arrives.  The old one works a little bit, but is causing so much frustration that I have decided to work on some other creative activities until my new pen arrives.

"Flower" - How he got his name.

Stay tuned.  I will finish him as soon as I can.

Back to the Mule Deer

I have been remiss about maintaining this blog.  The holidays have passed and I have still been too busy to paint, but finally picked up the virtual paintbrush and worked on Flower the mule deer.  These deer are appropriately named for their huge, mule-like ears and I find them fascinating.  I had never noticed that those ears are very hairy.  It took a couple of hours to finish painting one ear, and I thought you might be interested in seeing it.

Ear of a mule deer.

One more ear to go and then he will be finished.  Stay tuned.

Holidays

I had hoped to finish my mule deer and have gotten quite a bit done.  However, the holidays have encroached on my painting time and now I see that he will have to remain partially unpainted until after the holidays.  He is standing patiently munching on a bunch of flowers from my wildflower garden.  I have decided to name him "Flower."  I can't wait to show him off, but won't do so until he is finished.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS.

I will type at you in January.

Meanwhile enjoy Kiki the Schnauzer.

Back to Painting

I am currently working on a beautiful mule deer buck that frequented our yard with a few lady friends in the last few weeks.  I got stopped by life-type responsibilities and the breakdown of my Wacom pen.  I got the new nibs in due time, adjusted the sensitivity of the pen and am now ready to paint again.  I am eager to show you the results, but it is just not ready yet.  I will put him on the website as soon as I am finished.  Thanks for dropping by.

"Kitty" the Calculating Feline

I recently completed this painting of an extraordinary house cat named "Kitty."  Apparently no ordinary name stuck so the cat retained the nickname of her class.  Kitty is a pretty cat with a wild streak.  She attacks canine invaders by sitting in wait behind a chair and leaping out unexpectedly to terrify all comers.  Bathroom doors remain closed as she has a predilection for toilet paper.  She may leave it in clawed tatters or roll it out upon the floor.  She tiptoes regally across the half-wall above the stairs to drive the dog crazy, then dashes down the stairs in a mad sprint calculated to evade all pursuers.  This is not a memorial painting as Kitty is alive, well, and as mischievous as ever except when she is cuddled up with her loving owner.

Kitty

My Wacom Tablet

I have been working on a painting of a mule deer lately, but began having trouble with the pen that comes with my Wacom tablet.  I suspected that I needed a new nib since the mouse was painting properly.  I found the nibs on the Wacom site, but was unable to determine whether they would be compatible with my older model pen and tablet.  So....I called Wacom support and talked to a young man who determined that all was compatible.  Then he patiently walked me through the process of finding out whether the pen's nib was the problem.  It appears that it is probably the troublemaker.

My interaction with Victor of the support team was outstanding.  He was patient and knowledgeable and spoke clearly to my personal needs.  He even sent me an email detailing the process for upgrading my driver.  If you have ever considered a tablet for your artwork, I highly recommend Wacom.  How can you lose when you have such excellent service at your fingertips?

Paint some pixels today.

From Trouble to Paintings

I have used blogger before, but I really messed up this new blog.  It took several days to get it working right and behaving normally with much outstanding support from the Blogger Help Forum.  In the meantime I learned a lot about Blogger that I didn't know before.  Now I am up and running again and continue to add paintings to the galleries.

People frequently ask me, "How can you paint a picture on a computer."  I am sure some think I paint a picture and take a digital photo of it.  Actually, I take the picture first and use it as a reference for my painting.  Photoshop has a brush engine that can make any kind of brush you can dream of.  I can paint with oil, acrylic, water color, pastel, colored pencil, charcoal, crayon.  I can mix the media if I want.  I can add texture so that the painting looks like it was painted on canvas, charcoal paper, watercolor paper and others.  Some brushes smear the pixels and move colors around just like using paint.  I have a Wacom tablet which allows me to hold an electronic brush (mouse in pen form) like a pen, pencil or brush.  This makes it easier to get the free flowing strokes as if I am actually drawing or using paint.

Make a mistake?  Undo.  No odors.  No paint in my hair.  No studio needed.  No drying time (except after printing).  Can easily make multiple copies of any chosen size.

As you can see I love photo realism so my paintings look much like photos, but have more detail.  I don't take realism into the realm of fantasy as the surrealists do, but I want to have fur look like you can pet it and hair like you could braid it.  I love to make the eyes glow and sparkle.  I like to create images that are a little too perfect.

Like any other pursuit it takes practice.  Look at the painting below.  It was one of my first and I was baffled as to how to use the electronic brushes so I was experimenting.  The child is also very young with skin that had no imperfections to shroud.  It doesn't look very painterly, but I love it and learned from doing it.  You can see most of my efforts in the rendering of the background.  Hey...that's a start and we all have to start somewhere if we want to learn.

Troubles

Just want you to know that I am in the process of solving some design problems.  Please come back again when I get this up and running the way I want it.  Thanks.

Lady

Lady was a wonderful, mellow collie who helped to raise my grandson.  She was smart, loyal, and a joy to have around.  She crossed the Rainbow Bridge in 2011 and I memorialized her in a painting from the following photo.

Lady

The beauty of working from a photo is that I don't have to worry about my subject moving around.  In this case it allowed me to relive the memories after her death as I painted.  One of those memories is of her laying calmly amidst a bevy of boys who were engrossed in their video game.  One time I even found her sitting on top of one of those boys.  He didn't seem to notice that he was being used as a sofa.  You can see the finished painting here.

Yellow-bellied Marmot

This delightful creature inhabits the high mountain country, scurrying across the rocks and tundra, often giving a distinctive whistle.  They have gotten used to the tourist incursions during the summer and often pose for photos as this one did.

Photo of Yellow Bellied Marmot

He was the perfect subject for a painting.  You can see the painting here.

Getting Started

Welcome to the "Pixelated Paintbrush."

I have spent several days getting my thoughts in order for this blog and figuring out how I want to arrange it....and all that stuff.

I began painting in oils many, many years ago, but eventually found it too hard to set up easel and paints with numerous, vibrant children racing around.  I turned to other creative pursuits and eventually bought a Canon camera, which I love.  I learned Photoshop and started painting with Corel Painter using my photos as a starting point.  Soon Photoshop evolved to the place where it is possible to paint with their brushes.  With the help of some online and DVD classes I have learned techniques from Fay Sirkis and Patrick LaMontagne.  I can now paint with my computer and a Wacom tablet with no fuss, no mess, no smells (I love the smell of oil paint, but my husband doesn't).  I can use brushes designed by others or I can design brushes to meet my specific needs, and I always have any color I want at my fingertips.

You can see my gallery of paintings by going to the menu tabs.  I am in the process of loading those pages, but they will be sparse until I get the job done.

Thank you for stopping by.  I look forward to meeting you through your comments.

Mardi