Zazzle has recently added a new product people have been requesting for ages, new all-over printable t-shirts!
I've added some of my wildlife and animal art images to these shirts. The digital bird paintings especially work well for these because the digital images are large and crisp and, therefore, print well on a large surface like this. Here are a few samples of what I now have available in my ForestWildlifeArt Zazzle Store.
Since "big face" t-shirts are popular I edited some of my original oil paintings in Photoshop to have only the face blended with a background pattern. Here are a few examples of those.
More all-over printed apparel is available in my Zazzle store. Check them out!
Jul 10, 2015
Jun 29, 2015
Birds and Butterflies Painting
In a previous post I showed how I painted a butterfly in Photoshop. Now it's time to display the finished painting with butterflies, birds, flowers, and all. The rest of the painting was created pretty much the same way as the butterfly, by layering and blending much as you would with real oil paints.
The main difference between most of the painting and the birds is the brushes. If you look at bird feathers closely you'll see that the finer body and head feathers actually have a texture much like soft fine fur. So I used Photoshop's bristle brushes to create the hair-like texture of these soft body feathers. It took a bit of experimenting with the brush's settings to get the look I wanted.
Here you can see a detail close-up of the resulting texture on the bluebird's throat feathers, and the icon showing the bristle brush used.
And here is the finished painting.
Because this is a digital painting there is obviously no original available. However, there are Fine Art Prints available, as well as throw pillows, tote bags, duvet covers, and iPad cases featuring this artwork.
The main difference between most of the painting and the birds is the brushes. If you look at bird feathers closely you'll see that the finer body and head feathers actually have a texture much like soft fine fur. So I used Photoshop's bristle brushes to create the hair-like texture of these soft body feathers. It took a bit of experimenting with the brush's settings to get the look I wanted.
Here you can see a detail close-up of the resulting texture on the bluebird's throat feathers, and the icon showing the bristle brush used.
And here is the finished painting.
Because this is a digital painting there is obviously no original available. However, there are Fine Art Prints available, as well as throw pillows, tote bags, duvet covers, and iPad cases featuring this artwork.
Jun 7, 2015
Father's Day Gift Ideas - Deer
Lots and lots of products to choose from. Things for the office like coffee mugs, mouse pads, binders, desk organizers, and notebooks. Things for electronic devices like iPhone, iPad, and Galaxy cases, covers, and sleeves. Clothing and accessories like shirts and ties. Household decor items like wall clocks, throw pillows, and blankets. Sports items like golf balls, dart boards, gym bags, and backpacks. The list goes on.
Here are a few featured examples:
Whitetail buck beverage coaster
Whitetail buck wall clock
Whitetail buck and doe iPad cover
Mule Deer buck and doe Galaxy 6 phone case
"I'd rather be elk hunting" t-shirts
And that's just a small sample of the hundreds of products available in my Zazzle store featuring images of whitetail deer, mule deer, elk, and other wildlife art.
Jun 3, 2015
New Wolf Paintings Tote Bags
Pixels.com (aka Fine Art America) now has high quality printable tote bags featuring fine art. I now have about 250 images of my artwork on Pixels.com available as fine art prints, canvas prints, acrylic and metal prints, greeting cards, phone cases, throw pillows, duvet covers and now, most recently, tote bags!
What Pixels has to says about their new tote bags:
Today I'm just going to showcase some from my Wild Dogs category featuring paintings of wolves and foxes.
What Pixels has to says about their new tote bags:
"Our tote bags are made from soft, durable, poly-poplin fabric and include a 1" black strap for easy carrying on your shoulder. All seams are double-stitched for added durability. Each tote bag is machine-washable in cold water and is printed on both sides."
Today I'm just going to showcase some from my Wild Dogs category featuring paintings of wolves and foxes.
Click here to purchase this wolf portrait tote bag.
Click here to purchase this wolf pup tote bag.
Click here to purchase this Christmas fox tote.
Click here to purchase this wolf family tote bag.
Click here to purchase this sun fox tote.
Click here to purchase this curious wolf pups tote.
Click here to purchase this fox pup tote bag.
Click here to purchase this night wolves tote.
May 25, 2015
Painting a Butterfly in Photoshop
In case you're curious how painting on the computer differs from painting on real canvas, I thought I'd put together this little tutorial of painting a simple butterfly in Photoshop CS5 so you can see that, other than not having brushes to clean, it's really not that different.
I'm still somewhat new to painting on the computer so this may not be the best or most efficient way to paint in Photoshop but, coming from traditional oils, my method is similar.
First, I create a new layer in Photoshop and start blocking in the basic shape and colors of the butterfly just as I would on canvas with real paint. I used a simple PS hard round brush for this.
After I was done with the rough blocking in I put another layer under the butterfly and filled it with hot pink. I use hot pink because it's definitely eye-catching and unlikely to be used anywhere else in most wildlife scenes. This helps me see if I missed any spots, such as leaving holes in the butterfly. It also makes outside smudges show up easily, like the one above the butterfly's left wing, so I can be sure to clean that up.
Once the holes are filled and the smudges cleaned I hide or delete the pink layer and continue to work on the butterfly, now blocking in more details. Here I've added the smaller spots around the edges of the wings.
Now that it's all blocked in it's looking a bit too much like graphic art with harsh lines and sharp edges everywhere. That doesn't look much like a painting. So next I switch to the Mixer Brush in Photoshop and set it to Wet. I turn off the setting to Load the brush after each stroke so no color will be added when I paint on the butterfly. At this point I just want to blend and soften the existing colors. I also turn on the setting to Clean the brush after each stroke so color from one part does not contaminate colors on another part. I pick a basic brush type from the Brush panel and set the Hardness to 0 so we have soft edges.
Next I go around the edges of the colors of the butterfly and blend them slightly to get them a softer look. I do this by hand rather than using some Photoshop filter because I want the blending to be a little irregular and uneven so it looks natural, as you would expect in a real hand-painted piece of artwork. Here's a close-up of a portion of the wing after blending.
Here's the finished butterfly with the background added. The flowers were painted in much the same way as the butterfly.
If you're new to painting in Photoshop, or just curious, I hope this has been helpful. If you are already experienced in painting with Photoshop and have some tips or suggestions on how I can can improve my Photoshop art, or work more efficiently, feel free to contact me or leave suggestions in the comments here. Thanks!
I'm still somewhat new to painting on the computer so this may not be the best or most efficient way to paint in Photoshop but, coming from traditional oils, my method is similar.
First, I create a new layer in Photoshop and start blocking in the basic shape and colors of the butterfly just as I would on canvas with real paint. I used a simple PS hard round brush for this.
After I was done with the rough blocking in I put another layer under the butterfly and filled it with hot pink. I use hot pink because it's definitely eye-catching and unlikely to be used anywhere else in most wildlife scenes. This helps me see if I missed any spots, such as leaving holes in the butterfly. It also makes outside smudges show up easily, like the one above the butterfly's left wing, so I can be sure to clean that up.
Once the holes are filled and the smudges cleaned I hide or delete the pink layer and continue to work on the butterfly, now blocking in more details. Here I've added the smaller spots around the edges of the wings.
Next I go around the edges of the colors of the butterfly and blend them slightly to get them a softer look. I do this by hand rather than using some Photoshop filter because I want the blending to be a little irregular and uneven so it looks natural, as you would expect in a real hand-painted piece of artwork. Here's a close-up of a portion of the wing after blending.
Here's the finished butterfly with the background added. The flowers were painted in much the same way as the butterfly.
If you're new to painting in Photoshop, or just curious, I hope this has been helpful. If you are already experienced in painting with Photoshop and have some tips or suggestions on how I can can improve my Photoshop art, or work more efficiently, feel free to contact me or leave suggestions in the comments here. Thanks!
May 9, 2015
New Goldfinches and Birdhouse Painting
Goldfinch Garden Home
34"x24"
Fine Art Prints and Greeting Cards available here.
Fine Art Prints and Greeting Cards available here.
May 2, 2015
New Birds and Birdbath Painting
I just finished another new digital painting of some birds and a birdbath in a spring garden. Here we have eastern bluebirds and goldfinches enjoying a stone birdbath fountain water feature. Behind them is a white picket fence covered with a purple clematis vine, and yellow and blue daisies fill the garden below.
Fountain Festivities
34"x28"
Original: Digital
I want to clarify something about my digital art. A lot of people seem to scoff at the idea of a digital painting being fine art. I can understand why since, if you were to do a Google search for "oil painting in Photoshop" for example, you will find tutorials on how to make a photograph look like an oil painting. Unfortunately, a lot of people will do this sort of photo manipulation and try to pass it off as a real painting, or at least least hand-painted in Photoshop or the like. Taking a photograph and using the mixer brush on it in PS to give it a painted look is not hand-painted art, in my opinion. So I can understand why people are skeptical when someone claims their image is a digital "painting".
I want to point out that my paintings are all hand-painted from scratch. I paint each and every brush stroke of my digital painting by hand just as I would a real oil. There is no photo manipulation in this painting. There are no photographic elements at all in it, in fact. The only "cheating" I do in digital painting is reusing some of the elements from other paintings I did. For example, I did use parts of the birds from my previous birds and birdhouses painting. It isn't as simple as copying and pasting in most cases, though. I did things like turn heads, and adjust feet and shadows, so it still required some work. But this was only after creating the first image one brush stroke at a time. A digital painting can be just as much work, and take just as long to create, as an original oil painting. So I hope you can appreciate the time and effort that can go into such a piece next time you see a digital painting.
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