March 2011
Dwayne Vance CliQ 2011 The Old Masters: John Singer Sargent
Hi Artists! As always we have some awesome changes to announce in this issue. First and foremost is a reminder that the Digital Art Academy has been approved by Corel Painter to grant educational discounts on the Corel product line. How cool is that? One must be enrolled in a class at Digital Art Academy to be approved and it goes directly to Corel. As we move along it may change a bit but the hard work is done. Specific to Digital Paint Magazine we have a few changes as well. We finally were able to get a subscription page put together. The magazine is still free and can be read by anyone in the new viewer that we have. If you would like to download the information a subscription is needed. You can subscribe monthly for $4.95 billed each month or you can subscribe annually for $49.00. With the annual subscription you also now get premium access (platinum membership) to the digital painting forum. Here is where you can subscribe http://www.digitalpaintmagazine.com/blog/magazine-back-issues/ subscriptions/. Finally we are introducing our Word Press weekend workshop. I have had a ton of requests for people asking about putting a Wordpress blog together. So I had 43 videos recorded (short vids) which are pretty thorough on their own. We will have folks watch the videos and do as much as they can, then on the weekend we will be live via Connect Pro to answer questions and give live help. You can see the advertisement in the magazine or go to the site at Word Press Weekend Workshop. Finally I want to thank everyone who participated in the Winter Digital Art Summit. We had 15 artist webinars and they were fantastic! Unique to this year’s summit is that we have made the webinars evergreen for you. That is, anytime you decide you may want to learn a bit more about a certain topic or from a specific artist those webinars will be available for download anytime. You can see the various artist offerings at Digital Art Summit. Have an awesome month. Enjoy your magazine! Live well, love much & laugh often Tim This magazine is free to distribute by any medium. You can print it, email it, upload it on your web server. You may however not edit any part of this PDF, copy the content, or split the pages. This PDF must remain whole at all times, the content of which belongs to Digital Paint Magazine. All art and trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.
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In This Issue Dwayne Vance CliQ 2011 Cartoon
by Victor Lunn-Rockliffe
The Old Masters: John Singer Sargent By Nadia Lim Truly Scene
by John L. Stevenson
Right Click Take a Look at Look
by Skip Allen
True Colours Teardrops in the Snow
by Joan A. Hamilton
A Blast From The Past With Brush & Pen Cover
Spitfire By Dwayne Vance
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by Barb Hartsook
Marketing Buzz: by Tim O’Neill
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Dwayne Vance I graduated from Art Center College of Design with a BS Degree in Transportation Design. I began my design career with Troy Lee Designs in Corona, California, as a designer of high-end motocross protective gear. I then became a Senior Designer for Mattel, Hot Wheels division. While at Hot Wheels I designed and developed several cars and led teams for entire toy lines. I eventually returned to Troy Lee Designs. There, I continued to design cutting-edge motocross gear including the SE2 helmet and other protective equipment. I now have my own company, “Future Elements - High energy art and design-” and do work for companies such as Mattel’s Hot Wheels, Batman and entertainment divisions, Hasbro’s Transformers and Star Wars division, Texaco, Oakley, Warner Bros, Mazda, Chumba racing, Upper Deck, Blackstar Paintball, Arctic Cat snowmobiles, Corel Painter, Jada toys, Fly Racing, Troy Lee Designs, Flying Lizard Racing, EA Games, Activision, DC Comics and a few others.
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My designs have been widely published in magazines and books including “How to draw Hot Wheels the Hot Wheels Way” and “35 years of Hot Wheels”, Official Corel Painter magazine, Imagine FX, Car Culture Deluxe, 2d Artist magazine, Digital Painting Techniques and Secrets of Corel Painter Experts.I self published my own book along with 12 other hot rod artist called “The Hot Rod Art Book: Masters of chicken Scratch” and now The Hot Rod Art Book: Masters of Chicken Scratch Vol 2. My art work is featured at the Peterson Automobile Museum in Los Angeles, California. I have a series of my own prints and artwork based on Hot Rod and Muscle car art that are created in mixed media. You can find the artwork for sale on www. mastersofchickenscratch.com www.MastersofChickenScratch.com www.FutureElements.net Dwayne Vance Dwayne Vance’s passion for design started at age 3 when he started drawing pictures on his closet door. His natural talent became apparent at that early age, and was nurtured through art classes that began when he was just 5 years old. Cars became another passion, as his childhood collection of Hot Wheels grew into the hundreds. By junior high school, his love for cars and talent in art were converging, and Dwayne knew he would become a car designer. He began his design career with Troy Lee Designs in Corona, California, as a designer of high-end motocross protective gear. Dwayne then became a senior designer for Mattel,Hot Wheels division. At Hot Wheels, he became a prolific designer, developing everything from Hot Wheels cars to entire lines of new toys. Following his success at Hot Wheels, Dwayne returned to his roots
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at Troy Lee Designs. There, he continued to design cutting-edge motocross gear including the SE2 helmet line and other protective equipment. He now has his own company “Future Elements” - High energy art and design - and is in demand for companies such as Mattel’s Hot Wheels, Batman and entertainment divisions, Hasbro’s Transformers and Star Wars division, Texaco, Oakley, Warner Bros, Mazda, Chumba racing,Upper Deck, Blackstar Paintball, Arctic Cat snowmobiles, Corel Painter, Jada toys, Fly Racing, Troy Lee Designs, Flying Lizard Racing, EA Games and a few others Dwayne’s skill as a designer is deeply rooted in his love for automotive art. His Hot Wheels design drawings have been widely published in die cast car magazines and books “How to draw Hot Wheels the Hot Wheels Way” and “35 years of Hot Wheels”. Recently he published his own book with 12 other hot rod artist called “The Hot Rod Art Book: Masters of Chicken Scratch”. His art work is also featured at the Peterson Automobile Museum in Los Angeles, California, in the Museum’s Hot Wheels collection. In a new venture, Dwayne launched a new online store called MastersofChickenScratch.com and it features all of his artwork and art books. Dwayne Vance has a Bachelor’s Degree in Automotive Design from the prestigious Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. His hobbies include spending time with his wife and three children, restoring his 1967 Pontiac Bonneville and riding his mountain bike.
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CliQ 2011 features Pro Speaker series JACKSON, MI – PMA – The Worldwide Community of Imaging Associations presents the CliQ, Pro Speaker series, Friday, Sept. 8, in Las Vegas, Nev., as part of CliQ 2011. These six leaders, presenting a different facet of the photography spectrum, include: Jasmine Star is an international wedding photographer based in Orange County, Calif. Though she’s garnished awards for her work and was voted Top 10 Wedding Photographer by American Photo Magazine, her crowning accomplishment was making meatloaf for the first time last year. However, she still needs to work on making the meatloaf edible. Beginning just four years ago, Jasmine developed a voice and online brand by leveraging social media and using techniques to empower clients to become the voice of her brand. She’ll be discussing the importance of branding, why it’s vital to business development, and how to affordably accomplish doing so. Scott Bourne is a digital media pioneer and has been involved in photography for more than three and one half decades. His awardwinning photography has appeared in more than 200 books, magazines, newspapers, television shows, fine art galleries and websites. He’s the author of five photography books including his most recent, “GoingPro,” co-written by Skip Cohen, which is expected to be released in the spring of 2011. He is the co-founder of both the Professional Wedding & Studio Photographers International and Digital Paint Magazine - March 2011
GoingPro, with Skip Cohen. With a passion for capturing the beauty of everyday life in pictures and an unbridled enthusiasm for sharing her musings with the masses, Tracey Clark keeps herself in constant creative motion. She’s found a way to blend her love for photography and writing with the precarious art of raising
both a spirited grade-schooler and a tireless tween, creating what she considers the perfect alchemy. Beyond a career in photography, two published Motherhood Journals (Waiting for Baby and Baby of Mine, Chronicle Books) and is giddy about her newest book (written with the help of the other Shutter Sisters) Expressive Photography : A Shutter Sisters Guide to Shooting From the Heart. She also writes for a variety of publications and websites and muses on daily life on her blog. Tracey is also the founder of Shutter Sisters, a collaborative photo blog and thriving community of female photo enthusiasts. In her spare time, she enjoys sharing her passion, know-how and photo-philosophies at conferences, events, and gatherings nationwide.
Stacy L. Pearsall got her start as an Air Force photographer over ten years ago at the age of 17. During her time in the service, she traveled to over 41 countries and attended S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. She is one of only two women to win the NPPA Military Photographer of the Year competition, and the only woman to have won it twice. During my three tours in Iraq, she earned the Bronze Star Medal and Commendation with Valor for heroic actions under fire. Her work has been published in various media to include Time Magazine, New York Times, CNN, BBC, LA Times, USA Today, Soldier of Fortune, Sports Illustrated, Bahrain Times, Oscar nominated PBS: Operation Home Coming and GQ Magazine: This is Our War. Currently, she is the Owner/Director of the Charleston Center for Photography, a 5,600-square-foot facility offering photography classes and workshops, digital and wetprocess printing, wall studio rentals, youth art programs, photo galleries, photography services and more. Vincent Laforet, a three-time winner at the prestigious 2010 Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, is a director and Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer who is known for his forward-thinking approach to imagemaking and storytelling. In addition to having been commissioned by just about every important international publication-including Vanity Fair, The New York Times Magazine, National Geographic, Sports Illustrated, Time, 9
Newsweek, and Life-Vincent is considered a pioneer both for his innovative tiltshift and aerial photography and in the field of HDcapable DSLR cameras. In fact, his short film Reverie, the first 1080p video shot with a still camera, was seen by more than 2 million times on the first week of its release in 2009. Clay Blackmore is one of the most passionate professional photographers in the country today and a true innovator in the world of wedding photography and portraiture. Working out of Washington, DC, Clay’s style blends the beauty and timelessness of classical portraiture with spontaneity and appeal of photojournalism. Clay’s photographic, business, and educational credentials were meticulously developed during his 25-year association with the legendary Monte Zucker as assistant, business partner, and co-educator. The two-hour sessions will cost $49 each or are available in a three-pack for $129.
PMA introduces CliQ (from 1/11/11) JACKSON, MI – PMA – The Worldwide Community of Imaging Associations presents CliQ, a new branded experience for photo enthusiasts and anyone interested in getting the most from photography and video. “CliQ is a 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week commitment on the part of the association to provide content and tools for everyone involved in photography, from consumers to aspiring pros, to retailers and professional labs,” says Ted Fox, executive director and
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CEO, PMA. “Also, with the recent addition of the Professional Wedding and Studio Photographers Association International (PWSPI) to the PMA family, the association has broadened its appeal to include all segments of the photo/video industry.” The launch of the CliQ website, at www. cliqworld.com, features how-to tips, new product reviews from DP Review, and monthly photo contests. In the coming months, more features will be added, leading up to the annual event in September. CliQ brings extensive changes to the PMA 2011 annual convention, planned for Sept. 6-10, 2011, in Las Vegas, Nev. The expanded event is renamed CliQ 2011, and features presentations from well-known photographers like Jasmine Starr, Scott Bourne, Tracey Clark and Stacy Pearsall. Workshops, photo walks, and seminars will be part of the CliQ experience, along with entry to the world’s largest annual photo trade show. Changes to the PMA annual convention The show will feature interactive zones, spotlighting technology, tips and techniques in
these major areas: Shooting zone – Demonstrations by leading photographers of still photography. Mobile zone – Spotlights the hottest and best mobile phone apps. Software tutorial zone – Learn the ins and outs of leading desktop and web photo applications. Innovation zone – Spotlights new and emerging technologies. 3D zone – Features the emerging area of digital 3D photography and video. Video zone – Features one of the fastest growing areas in imaging today: HD and SLR videography. The show will also feature custom-picture framing and the GoingPro
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Bootcamp photography business seminar. “The PMA convention will continue to offer the same leading-edge programming for the retailers, custom framers, studios and chain stores,” says Fox. “PMA members will recognize classic convention features, like the DIMA Printer Shootout, the DIMA Photo Book Showcase, Retailer Hot Picks, Photographer Hot Picks, DIMA Innovative Product Awards, and the Official Business Session.” Core market commitment Fox adds PMA trade attendees will be able to enjoy the widest range of experiences at the September event. Also, as previously announced, North America’s largest photo retail buying group, Photographic Research Organization (PRO), will stage a major buying event in conjunction with CliQ 2011, using it as a launch point for 2011 holiday season merchandising. What is CliQ (published 1/14/2011) After the launch of the new CliQ brand experience, some PMA retail members and labs have rightfully asked, “What’s in it for me?” We’ve distilled some of the most common questions down to this Q-and-A. As always, members are encouraged to call or email PMA for the straight scoop. Also, this week’s special DIMAcast and AIE Imaging Executive podcast features PMA executive director Ted Fox explaining what CliQ is, from a trade perspective. Q: What does CliQ have to do with PMA 2011? Is it a show? Are there trade days? A: The new name for PMA 2011 is “CliQ 2011.” There will continue to be pre-show, tradeDigital Paint Magazine - March 2011
only sessions, as in the past. In addition to trade sessions, there will be programming for enthusiasts and aspiring pro photographers, beginning Sept. 9. Tracks will be labeled for photo retailers, custom framers, etc. The show floor will be open Sept. 8-9 for trade only and Sept. 10 for enthusiasts, aspiring pros, and trade. The show will also have special features for PRO and IPI members. We are also adding special “zones” on the show floor including an Innovation Zone featuring the latest in 3D, Video and other innovative technologies; a Mobile Imaging Zone focusing trends and new apps for mobile devices; Software Tutorial Zone featuring demos on the latest photo manipulation, color management and workflow software; Shooting Zone featuring experts demonstrating advanced photography techniques; “Take it to the Wall” Exhibit featuring the coolest in canvas and custom framing. Q: Is CliQ an association for enthusiasts? A: Think of CliQ as more like a web-site account, allowing access to website features and discounts. A CliQ account does not make an enthusiast a PMA member, but the $25 does provide them some pretty nifty discounts and a one-day pass to the CliQ 2011 event, Sept. 10. Soon, their account will provide them with other website features, related to contests and photo critiques. PMA trade members are automatically members of CliQ, with access to the same discounts. This is now built-in to your dues. Retailers and lab members are also welcome at CliQ enthusiast sessions.
Q: What kind of discounts will CliQ offer? Some other associations are providing discounts direct from manufacturers. A: PMA doesn’t plan to compete with its own members. Discounts will be for magazines, learning resources like Lynda.com, and selected software products. Also, keep in mind, as a PMA member, you can take advantage of these same discounts. Q: What about prizes in the first photo contest on Facebook? A: CliQ will offer prizes provided from a variety of sources. Soon, if a local retailer wants to provide a prize, we’ll accommodate that, too. Q: Seems like PMA is cozying up to the big guys. I don’t get how CliQ benefits the independent retailer. A: That’s a natural response, and not unexpected. CliQ is not fully formed yet, but is moving very quickly. The site was launched with the intent of adding new features and new services over the next few weeks. CliQ aims to be the source for all things photography for a community united by their shared passion for still and motion images, and that community includes local retailers. (In fact, check out the main page of the CliQ site, where that’s stated.) We will be connecting photo enthusiasts to local photo and video events including a retailer classes, photo walks and the like. We will be launching other opportunities to connect PMA member retailers to CliQ account holders and they will encouraged to participate in CliQ events and programs at every level.
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“A line is a dot that went for a walk� ~Paul Klee
http: //cargocollective.com/victorlunnroc Victor Lunn-Rockliffe
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John Singer Sargent By Nadia Lim One of the most successful artists of his time was John Singer Sargent. He spent his career in portrait painting and he created around 900 oil paintings, 2,000 watercolor paintings, countless sketches and drawings in charcoal. Sargent found a steady climb to fame until he found himself ultimately at the center of art world. With this, he had gained both friends and rivals such as Claude Monet, James McNeill Whistler and Henry James. It all started in his nomadic childhood where he was rambunctious child wanting to go outdoors rather than going about his studies. He did drawings and detailed sketches of landscapes and ships on the sketchbook his mother gave him. Initially his father thought that his interest in ships would lead him on a naval career. His American parents had artistic minds and may have greatly influenced the young Sargent. His mother was a fine amateur artist and his father was a skilled medical illustrator. After seeing his son’s potential, his mother enrolled him under Carl Welsch a German landscape painter at the age of 13. He furthered his studies in Italy and Germany, then in Paris under the instruction of Emile Auguste Carolus-Duran. One of his earliest exhibits was at the Paris Salon. Most of these exhibits were full-length portrayals of women. The most notable among these is that of his painting of Madame Gautreau which was exhibited Lady Agnew By John Singer Sargent
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as Madame X. (Editors note: There is a great story behind Madame X that is tied to the Plantations in the Southern United States, let us know if you would like to hear more about it.) People criticized that this painting was provocatively erotic. This led him to move to England and over the next few years made himself one of the country’s leading portrait painters. During his stay in England he painted one of the most memorable haunting war images called, “Gassed”. This painting was commissioned in 1918 to show the cooperation between the British and American forces during the First World War. His idea for the scene was taken when Sargent visited a clearing of casualties at Le Bac-de-Sud. There he witnessed a group of blinded soldiers caused by mustard gas. This painting displays his vision on a naturalist allegorical frieze where it shows the men with bandages on their eyes. John Singer Sargent’s works were made in a time where the art world began to see Impressionism, Cubism and Fauvism. Sargent was able to deliver Realism into his paintings that were greatly influenced by Van Dyck, Velazquez and Gainsborough. During his life his works have received critical responses from his colleagues such as the influential art critic named Roger Fry, who at the time dismissed Sargent’s work saying it lacked aesthetic quality. In spite of having a long period of disfavor from critics, Sargent’s popularity increased gradually. In his lifetime he made many paintings and sketches that have been admired and criticized. John Singer Sargent’s, “Group with Parasols” (A Siesta) painted in 1905 was sold for $23.5 million in December 2004.
Madame X By John Singer Sargent
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Gassed By John Singer Sargent
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TrulyScene John Stevenson jstvnsn@photoscena.com March 2011 Introduction This is the latest in a series of tutorials, all published in this magazine, which were devoted initially to exploring digital painting using the newest version of Adobe Photoshop (CS5). Last month’s contribution dealt however with the joint use of Photoshop together with a much newer image manipulation software toolkit: PostworkShop, as developed by Xycod Informatikai Kft., which is based in Budapest, Hungary. PostworkShop is compact, easy-tolearn, visually and ergonomically elegant, inexpensive, and - best of all - extremely versatile. It brings a whole slew of new creative possibilities into play, when used alone or if coupled with Photoshop. And during the last month it has been upgraded to a v.2.0 public beta release. The work included as examples in this article was all performed using the new version of the program, in its Pro edition. (PostworkShop is available for use with either Microsoft Windows or Apple Macintosh operating systems.) The objective of this article is two-fold. Firstly, I will provide a summary of the new features of the program in its 2.0 version. Second, I will describe a specific project completed - inputto-output - solely by use of the program in its original standalone mode of use (that is, with no use of Photoshop at all). The project itself was briefly referred to in last month’s article; it incorporates luminance masking into digital painting. Illustration 1 here is one of
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Illustration 1: the original photographic Image Source (Cwm Einion, “the Artist’s Valley”, near Aberystwyth, Wales)
two original photographic images used for this project, as digitally scanned from a Fuji Velvia 35 mm film positives. An Overview of PostworkShop 2.0 PostworkShop can be used to perform photo-manipulations in a “one-click” mode.
The software comes bundled with over four hundred pre-built Styles for use in this manner. However, the most creative applications center on either combinations of these Styles or the production of output images based upon Styles entirely constructed and customized by the user. My article in the prior (February 2011) edition of this magazine covered several of
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Illustration 2: Opening PostworkShop from within Photoshop (the Plug-In Filter mode)
Illustration 4: the PostworkShop Style Layers rendered and returned into Photshop.
the key attributes of the PostworkShop software, as applicable to the second of these two scenarios. Without elaborating here on those any further - so as to save words and pages (!) - it should be noted that the new release primarily adds or upgrades the following: 1. The Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh versions of the program in its Pro Edition both now include a dedicated 64-bit application. Accordingly, rendered image size is now unrestricted.
Illustration 3: PostworkShop Style Layers (two) added to the active Selection made originally in Photoshop
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2. The PostworkShop Pro Editions can also both be invoked as plug-ins within Photoshop (or other image editors which support Adobe Systems’ plug-in framework). However, this linkage is of the now more common type, where the Filter menu command of the host (say, Photoshop) allows a moreor-less complete version of PostworkShop to operate with it, in a parallel, temporary session. It is unclear to the author here, at present, how productive this can be to the user who is intent on developing their own custom-built Styles in PostworkShop. Notably, one restriction is that PostworkShop Project files cannot be saved from within the plug-in operational mode. Additionally, not all of the active portions of a given Layer in Photoshop transfer in full to PostworkShop. For example, Masks are not respected, though active Selections are. Illustrations 2, 3 and 4 are screenshots which
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demonstrate the new operational sequence (in a case where a Selection was pre-established in Photoshop at the outset). 3. The new PostworkShop Artist and Pro Editions include a manual digital painting “engine”. This, in function, is based partly upon the excellent open-source MyPaint application. But, operationally, within PostworkShop, there is now an added GUI panel named Bitmap Editor (it can be seen as a tab in the upper-left portion of Illustration 3) where brushwork/ painting can be undertaken. This uses a different set of symbolics than does MyPaint. However, it needs to be noted that manually laying down color via this Editor is done in the PostworkShop Preview mode, with full-scale rendering still to be completed. Thus brushstrokes are made at a lower resolution on-screen than they will appear in the final output image. There are several procedural steps by which this can be circumvented, such as pre-setting the Preview Scale to 1:1, for example. Nevertheless, several major image rendering tasks are well supported by the Bitmap Editor without such workarounds. Specifically, the manual retouching/enhancement of images produced using the Xycodsupplied Styles, plus the manual creation of alpha channels (for masking within PostworkShop itself), as well as “cloning” (which, for preference, might be better called image-sampled painting) as one component of a photo-manipulation. Finally it is noteworthy that the Bitmap Editor can be introduced as a new filter node in any unsealed Style and also that manual painting can be undertaken within the standalone program as well as via the plug-in mode of operation. 4. The Artist and Pro Editions now include an auto-save feature, wherein Styles are added to a (new) History repository. (This is a little similar to the feature of the same name in Photoshop; however, not every step of the workflow involved in constructing a PostworkShop Style is recorded. But, on the other hand, the recording can be held permanently.) Illustration 5 shows a simple example, where the very same sequence as is captured in the screenshots of Illustrations 2 and 3 was repeated. Now the prior work can be called up directly from the panel on the far-right, where the filter configuration utilized in the last session (as a plug-in) is displayed as an additional Style icon. Finally, please note that a purchase of PostworkShop software now automatically qualifies the user for free use of the 2.0 beta version.
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On Luminance Masking The primary, and most traditional, use of luminance masks has been within photographic image adjustment and correction. The first tutorial material that the author here is aware of on this subject was published in 2004 by Darren Bernaerdt. The principal objective of the technique described therein is to counter the dominance of large areas having high or extreme contrast. And, in fact, the image included as Illustration 1 here is a good candidate for the corrections outlined in the 2004 publication. Basically these involve using a grayscale version of the original image as a Layer Mask. The Masks themselves then carry a full representation of all of the luminance values recorded in the initial photograph. In fact, a convenient way to prepare a Luminance Mask in Photoshop is to temporarily convert the image into the Lab colorspace, from the Mode command list, and then to use the L (Lightness) channel from there directly, via a Copy and Paste step. Finally, either duplicate Layers and/or specific Adjustment Layers are blended with the original, with the outcome dependent directly upon the localized density of the Mask. Illustrations 6 and 7 cover the construction of exactly the luminance masking scheme which is detailed in the tutorial cited above, but within PostworkShop as opposed to Photoshop. In the first of the two screenshots, the Style Editor is captured. The image that is used to define the overall luminance range in the original image is generated there by the Grayscale Building Block filter, and is utilized twice (so as to produce corrections in the upper portions of the shadowed regions and correspondingly the lower highlights.) This confirms that PostworkShop can have applications in advanced photo-correction as well as photo-manipulation. The output image which is captured in the screenshot of Illustration 7 is that which was used as a basis for the digital painting project detailed in the remainder of this article. On Digital Painting with Luminance Masks The whole purpose of digitally painting an image which refers back to an original photograph seems - to the writer here - to give some stylized re-representation of the original a better chance of being evocative and intriguing to a viewer. Painting in the digital domain ought - in some ways – to give the artist an improved avenue towards representing what only the mind’s eye can reveal. We start with reference digital photographic material being as close, if the photographer wishes it, to the most graphically clinical and accurate representation that can be made of a specific scene, as per Illustrations 1 and 7 here. But the human eye, as an optical instrument only, does not function
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in the same static, singular manner as the camera’s lens and shutter. It references a scene via a set of rapid and dynamic glimpses and associates each of these with entries in a mental “lookup table”. The individual viewer has most usually seen something similar before, and uses that prior experience for cues and also emotional references. So, as a basic example, what appears as a shadowed area is recognized by a flat, and certainly less featured or textured, zone in the scene as whole. Shadows often have some coloration within a deep tone, but it can be difficult to recognize. Think, as a case in point, of a large tree, side lit, casting a long shadow at dusk. The shadow itself is less dark furthest from the tree trunk. And will often be slightly golden in appearance there. Highlights, at the opposite end of the tonal range, can have a diffused character (a glow even), but bring the details of what is strongly illuminated into a much more easily recognizable form. Think, for example, of a backlit flower petal. The incident light reveals even the smallest discontinuities very sharply and may even make the petal appear to sparkle. For the auto-painting work completed within PostworkShop for this project I used three auto-painted renderings; all correlated, but separately bringing a different scaling of brushstrokes into the shadowed, mid-tone and highlighted regions of the original. Just to keep all of this simple, these were completed with the Random Painter Building Block. The basic setup for accomplishing this is shown in the Illustration 8 screenshot. The settings used for the Random Painter function are shown on the right-hand side. (It is noteworthy that a very wide range of different results can be obtained just from this one filter. In this case, for this particular Image Source, the specific Brush selected, the Number of Strokes and the Sampling Radius settings were particularly influential, while the Number of Layers and Color Tolerance were much less so.) Also note from the Style Layers panel in the lowercenter portion of the screen that the Bitmap Editor is active. This – as is summarized in the short review of the primary new features included in v.2.0b of the application (see above) – is where manually painted, additional brushwork can be laid down. One means of undertaking this is from the Style Editor, as can be seen in the next Illustration (number 9). Here the Bitmap Editor exists as an independent Style (at the far right side of the screen). There are also three other means for creating the same supplementation of the filter structure directly from within the Compositing Editor. Please note that the Bitmap Editor allows the use of three independent inputs; the upper pin on the filter (marked Input) is a mandatory connection point, while the lower two (Cloning Source and Reference Image respectively) are optional. Switching then to the Bitmap Editor tab to activate its panel produces what is shown in Illustration 10. The Settings panel shown there is actually much more similar to the Photoshop Brush
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Illustration 5: the new Style History feature in PostworkShop (auto-saved in the User category)
Illustration 6: PostworkShop used for photo-correction(s) based upon luminance masks - the Style Editor
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based upon different random Seed Value settings (as per Illustration 8) in combination.
Illustration 7: PhotoworkShop used for photo-correction(s) based upon luminance masks - the Compositing Editor, showing the result after use of the Render command
Panel than to what MyPaint offers. But there are three notable and unique additions at the bottom; dealing with operation(s) in a cloning mode, the establishment of reference guides (temporarily, for guided painting) and options for the backdrop (termed the Canvas).
As with much of the prior work done by this author with PostworkShop, the custom Style itself (see the next Illustration, number 12) was assembled by using a test pattern as the Source Image. I have found that this is by far the best means of keeping track of the interplay between different alternative configurations of the Building Block component filters, as well as the principal variable parameters of each. For example, there is a major difference between the luminance masking included in Illustration 12 (for painting) and that shown earlier (in Illustration 6, for photography). The latter was based upon a Grayscale filtering of the Source, where the entire range of luminance/lightness is represented in a single mask. In the Style shown in Illustration 12 however the Luminance Key Building Block is used in three instances (see the second, fourth and last filter in the sequence from top to bottom on the left-hand side). This effectively “slices” the Input Source image into three complementary portions from the lightest to the darkest areas. And, subsequently, the two topmost “slices”, featuring the highlights and mid-tones, are converted into black-on-white alpha channel images (for the masking). This can be seen from the center portion of Illustration 12, but also more clearly in the simplified setup included as Illustration 13. The test pattern Source Image allows for the effect of each filter node to be understood more quickly and thoroughly.
My setup of the Random Painter filter for this project includes the use of a family of simulated Oil Brush strokes (see Illustration 8). And the addition of extra strokes from within the Bitmap Editor (Illustration 10) allows the selection of individual strokes from this same set. Neat! This – taken altogether – confirms the point made earlier concerning “the manual retouching/enhancement of images produced using the Xycod-supplied Styles”. Returning now to the primary aspects of the project at hand, the Photoshop screenshot included here as Illustration 11 includes snapshot portions of three painted renderings – the outputs of the setup shown in Illustration 8. These were used as the basis of a painting and masking filter, in which the shadowed regions of the image were represented by the left-hand snapshot, the mid-tones by that in the center and the highlights by that on the right-hand side. Such that the darker tracts of the output would then be dominated by larger brushstrokes and the lighter/lightest areas have the most detail (from the smallest individual strokes). The small gaps visible in the image on the right are of no concern – if necessary, the final work can use two of these renderings
Digital Paint Magazine - March 2011
Illustration 8: auto- and manual painting in PostworkShop - the Compositing Editor view
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Finally in this progression, Illustrations 14 and 15 show how it would be, easily, possible to revise/rework the alpha channel image directly using the Bitmap Editor, within the v.2.0b program. (Note how the painting itself is done in the center portion of the Editor, with the Brush and its associated settings being made from the two menu panels shown open there, to the lower right and center right respectively, while the overall (rendered) output can be previewed in real time within the window at the upper right sector of the screen.) Even neater!
Illustration 9: auto- and manual painting in PostworkShop - the Style Editor view (with the Bitmap Editor Style visible)
Moving on now to the use of the custom Style in rendering the original Source Image, Illustration 16 here provides a capture of the initial Preview mode. My own choice is always to work with a transparent Canvas – this can be set up at any point in a PostworkShop project from the Preferences item in the Options menu. In this instance, the preview shows that large portions of the painted image are not fully opaque. The Properties dialog on the right-hand side confirms that the Blend modes in use for the image layers which contain the mid-tone and highlighted portions of the rendering are set at Lighten and Screen respectively. Though it would be possible to increase the opacity of the complete work by changing these, that would be against the intent of the effort as a whole. So, as already noted, this issue can be overcome by rendering out multiple and slightly different versions of the painted output. Two or more of these “partial” outputs can then be used in combination within a separate post-processing step. This is exactly what was done to produce the image in the final illustration (number 17). This is a completed work, based upon an original photograph taken at the same location on the same morning, but a little upstream. It carries several of the characteristics sought from the outset and introduced via the luminance masking technique. For example, the tree trunk on the left-hand side carries far fewer identifiable features and detailing than do the branches through which the light of the sky can be seen at the upper right. The sunlit bank at the riverside in the center of the picture contains the biggest extent of color distribution. But, also, there is structure to be seen in all of the brushwork – the image in its entirety has some character which changes depending on how closely it is viewed. What is diffuse and scattered at one glimpse can appear more elemental, perhaps structured, at the next.
Illustration 10: the new PostworkShop Bitmap Editor, setup for retouching of a Style output, in an Image-sampling (i.e., cloning) mode, and with a painting guide active
Digital Paint Magazine - March 2011
I have no doubt that this work can be improved upon. As a simple first example, I have used none of the capabilities which PostworkShop offers in order to bring a more topographic characteristic into (any of) the three auto-painted images utilized in the custom Style as it is fashioned to date (i.e., via the excellent Simple Strokes Building Block, which was introduced just briefly in my previous review article).
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Illustration 11: portions of three renderings, gained using the PostworkShop Random Painter Style at different settings
Illustration 13: one branch (for the highlights) of the custom Style developed for painting based upon luminance masking in PostworkShop (in trial with a test pattern image)
Illustration 12: the custom Style developed for painting based upon luminance masking in PostworkShop (in trial with a test pattern image)
Illustration 14: one branch of the Style developed for painting based upon luminance masking in PostworkShop (with the Bitmap Editor inserted)
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Illustration 15: using the PostworkShop 2.0 Bitmap Editor for manual enhancement of an alpha channel image
Illustration 16: the custom Style developed for painting based upon luminance maskings in PostworkShop (executed on the original Image Source)
Resources, etc. Hopefully this article, plus its immediate forerunner, will have provided the reader with some useful insights into the PostworkShop application and introduced some interesting artistic concepts along the way as well. I always welcome any questions or feedback the reader may have. Just send e-mail to: jstvnsn@photoscena.com. Additionally, the custom Style developed for the specific project described in this article and a selection of my test pattern images will be made available upon an e-mail request. My next article for this magazine will include a simpler tutorial, with a full review of the manual painting function and features in PostworkShop 2.0 (when working from a Source Image initially prepared as a photomontage). Acknowledgement I would like to thank Xycod for making an alpha version of the v.2.0 software release to me for use in developing the material and techniques described here. The support and advice received are also gratefully recognized.
Digital Paint Magazine - March 2011
Illustration 17: a painted rendering, based upon luminance masking, and via use of the Random Painter Style in PostworkShop 2.0
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Take a Look at Look What? What in the blazes does that title mean, I can hear you saying. Well, Painter has a little known feature that is pretty cool. It is called the Look Selector. It is located on the Toolbar with the other Selectors: Papers, Patterns, Gradients, Weaves, and Nozzles. See Figure 1. The Look Selector is special because when you save a new Look, it not only retains all the variant settings, but will also save the paper, pattern, weave, gradient, and nozzles selectors. Remember all those brushes that you created on the fly, and never could remember how to make them again. The Look Selector is your answer. The steps to creating a cool Look are very simple. To start we need an adjusted variant that we want to associate with a particular paper texture. Remember you can associate it with any of the other selectors, too, but for this tutorial, I am going to show the association with a paper. I decided to make some changes to Chalk > Real Soft Chalk. The changes are shown in Figure 2.
Digital Paint Magazine - March 2011
In case it is difficult to read, the settings are: Size: 30.0, Opacity: 12%, Grain: 60%, Resat: 5%, Bleed: 100%, and Jitter: 0.02. The resulting variant gives a nice blending soft chalk. See figure 3.
Next we want to set our paper to Artist Canvas, or to any paper we want to choose. Then we need to make a few strokes on the canvas layer to illustrate what our variant will look like. Again see Figure 3. Using the rectangular selection tool, we make a square rectangle
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selecting the brush strokes we made. See figure 4. Almost done. We need to switch back to our brush tool, and open up the menu of the Look Selector and click on Save Look. See Figure 5 When we click Save Look a name dialog box opens, and we can name our Look. If you look in Figure 5, you will see Soft Chalk Blend at
the top of the Look list. That is the saved Look I did for the variant illustrated in the demo. And friends, that is all there is to it. Next time we need that brush, all we have to do is click on Look, and it will be the current variant. No matter what paper we had selected, it will automatically switch to Artist Canvas or whatever we associated with the variant. Enjoy the Look Selector.
Digital Paint Magazine - March 2011
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Teardrops in the Snow Planning and Sketching your Painting The first step is sketching your floral scene. Make sure you do it on its own layer and lock it, so that you don’t accidently drop it to the canvas layer. Chose a fairly simple composition and consider the lines, the shapes and the values. Keep your palette limited to key colours and build it as you are painting. eg; add the greens you’ve chosen from the colour wheel to the palette because you will likely need it again. Try to stick to a certain range of hues for colour harmony. Many spring florals are painted with vibrant fresh greens and soft delicate pastel hues. I chose the flowers and the colours for this painting because of what the painting meant to me. I used the sketch alone as part of the cover design on a Celebration and Remembrance Mass for my mother. It can be seen on my website along with a poem she wrote. Snow Drops were used for their symbolic meanings to me. My first thoughts were of “against difficult odds,” many together, first spring flowers, very clean and pure, and elegant in their simplicity. When I looked up the symbolism of snowdrops I found that they are thought to be “a simple, delicate symbol of hope, purity and consolation.”
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Paint the Shadows on the Petals On a new layer using the Digital Watercolour brush Pointed Simple Water (PSW) paint the blue shadows on the white petals. Leave the white areas the white of the paper. Change the default Composite setting to gel. The shadows towards the bottom of the painting are slightly darker because the top of the painting will be lighter than the bottom. Use a Combination of Digital Watercolours and Wet Watercolours
Digital Paint Magazine - March 2011
I have found the easiest and best way to get an authentic watercolour look is to use a combination of both types of watercolours. You can use Painter 11 brushes, vary your own or use some of Skip Allen’s excellent watercolour variants. They are available on the Painter Talk Forum. First use the PSW brush in a few greens of similar hue and tone to lay down the base colours of the leaves. You can paint with the diffusion on in some areas and some with it off to vary your soft and hard edges. Next apply some very light wet soft glazes to the leaves especially in the darker areas. 31
Apply a Non-Destructive Watercolour Texture
Applying a Non-Destructive Watercolour Texture using the Italian Watercolour paper helps give the painting a grainy look consistent with watercolour paper. Don’t go overboard doing this, it should be subtle, but visible. Blending and Diffusing You can blend and diffuse the DWC layer with an Unsaturated Pure Water brush. See the settings in the illustration (4). Varying these settings varies how the blending works, so experiment with this first in a scrap document. You can Unsaturate brushes by changing the Well setting to 0%. Digital Paint Magazine - March 2011
Don’t try to blend the colours too much or it won’t look transparent. The less paint you use and the more deliberate your strokes, the fresher and crisper your painting will be. Don’t be afraid to scrap a layer and start over. (I did lots of times!) Techniques to Achieve a More Traditional Watercolour Appearance
The illustration shows WC Layer 1 in the Layers Palette. It was previously a Layer painted with DWC only. I wanted to see how the colours would blend and look wetter if I dropped, dried then lifted the canvas to a WC layer. I also Wet the entire new WC layer slightly. Along with the Nondestructive Texture Layer this added a subtle grainy wet look. 32
The background watercolour wash is visible on the Layers Palette as WC Layer 10. It also had to be dropped to erase the petal and leaf areas from the WC layer. It is difficult to erase tiny areas of watercolour without it going further than you want all by itself! Watercolour Layers 6 and 9 are some soft wet glazes on and around the bottom leaves. I think the illustration shows the PSW brush because I was painting Layers 2 and 3 in digital Watercolours. Painting the Background Layer
I painted a dark background or two before I decided it was too heavy and dark and overwhelmed the delicate flowers and leaves. Decided to try for a lighter, soft diffused background bearing in mind that text would be overlaid in the card version. It is difficult to get a smooth wash like this. There are a number of ways to do it. I used Skip Allen’s Square Wet Brush. Water Control and Brush properties are shown in Illustration 6. Dropping your layers to the canvas mid painting can be a precipitous thing to do! Digital Paint Magazine - March 2011
Because if you do it too many times, your painting will have different textures in different areas and look splotchy in a nasty way! If you really must see what it would look like with these additional techniques do it and Undo the steps afterwards (risky and not recommended). Better yet, just Clone your image and do it on that one. It has the layers already dropped and dried, so all you need to do is lift it to a WC Layer and Wet it. I did it in this painting, but fortunately it didn’t matter too much because I was halfway done and only wet the entire canvas very slightly. The Water Controls and the Brush Property bar show the settings I used. There is a post about this technique and the settings I use on my blog 33
at JoanAHamilton.com. My Most Useful Brush for Fine Detail Final Touches I have used a tiny flat Grainy Stump Blender in my paintings for a long time. It is most helpful for tidying up edges. When I started doing digital
watercolours I missed being able to use it on the “undried” Digital Watercolour Layers. One day I changed the method to Digital Watercolour – Wet Abrasive and discovered it worked like a charm on the DWC.’s It allows me to keep my DWC layers wet for longer periods because minor corrections can be made right on the DWC layer without drying it. Digital Paint Magazine - March 2011
You can also use this tiny brush with 1% diffusion or a little jitter to vary your edges. Final Touches to Your Digital Watercolour At this point with the Sketch Layer turned off, Clone your painting. I do this because I like to keep the versions with all the layers there. You
can now lift the Entire Canvas to a Watercolour Layer and Wet the Entire Watercolour Layer very slightly with My Wet Entire WC Layer Brush (this keeps the settings you want to use to wet your paintings slightly). Next I applied a Surface Texture using the Italian Watercolour Settings (made smaller) and setting shown in Illustration 9. Lastly I adjusted the Brightness and Contrast Levels. Usually needs to be a little brighter and have slightly more contrast. Wetting the paper and adding a texture can make it look muddy when printing if it is not done very subtly. I always reduce the Dye Concentration by about 15% before printing as well, or it will be too dark. My January 2011 True Colours article on making and printing Note Cards explains this. Thanks for looking! Have a marvelous Spring! JoanAHamilton.com 34
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A Blast from the Past People-Photo Inspires an Oil Painting My best people paintings come from photos that suggest a story to me. Nothing spectacular. Usually not posed, and with no special lighting. Even photos taken on a grey day with little color can tell a story so poignant it begs to be painted. I found such a photo among my daughter’s snap shots of their summer vacation. Kali, then 8 years old, caught my eye, and I immediately captioned the shot Just a Moment to Myself… Please!, copied it to take with me, and eventually painted it. I say eventually because, while I knew what it said to me, I had to let those thoughts brew. And then seemingly out of the blue one day I knew what I needed to paint to tell this story on canvas. What was it that drew me to it? Her mood? Is she pondering? Did she just need a quiet time to herself, away from the frivolity of family? I painted it using oils in Corel Painter and had it printed on high quality canvas, 16x20 inches. I used a wide, scraped-white frame and presented it to my daughter, telling her the title and what I had seen in the snapshot. She just stared at it, then at me, and said Wow! You weren’t even there… but you got it! That was exactly her mood! That was the highest form of payment. That and where it hangs in their family room against the dark sand-colored walls.
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Do you have a favorite snapshot? When you clean your photo boxes pushed under the bed, or on the spare room closet shelves, does it take several days and boxes of tissues for wiping the tears of joy and fun and sometimes loss? Photos are treasures… especially the candid ones. They capture the people we love and know in the most personal ways. Life happens when we are not conscious of it, but simply living it. We as artists observe, and then paint those stories. Grab a brush and have a good painting day! P.S. This was originally posted at my Over Coffee… Let’s Talk in October, 2008. You can find me most days over there, serving piping hot coffee, over conversation and sometimes paintings.
Digital Paint Magazine - March 2011
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Marketing Buzz By Tim O’Neill
One of my all-time favorite marketing gurus is Dan Kennedy. I have been a member of Dan Kennedy’s group for years and was first introduced to his marketing prowess in the mid 1980s when I was a combat photographer and also was publishing a small fashion magazine. Dan Kennedy’s techniques helped grow my business substantially and I was able to sell it for a decent profit in a very short period of time because of the marketing systems I had put in place. One of my favorite things from Dan is the title of BDC (Big Dumb Companies) to describe large businesses. While I love this I realize this may be offensive to others so let me explain. Big dumb companies is not a slam on any individual regarding their personal intelligence but a statement regarding the overall collective and shared marketing acumen of big business. It is one of a myriad of reasons why I love being an entrepreneur and in my case a solo-preneur. I am a small business hacking my way to make a living I generally outproduce and out-think most large businesses when it comes to bottom line profit and marketing than many of the largest corporations. One of my internal mantras years ago was that my small company made more money than some of the larger airlines. This was not hard to do since these airlines had several years in a row they had hundreds of millions in losses. Nearly every small business was more profitable than they were. But still it served as a mind trick to keep me positive and happily growing my small business. The reason I bring this up is because during the economic slump we have been in the last few years I really have seen the mindset of larger businesses much more clearly. I love this because it shows us areas as small business owners where we literally kick big business butt and I am all for David and Goliath situations any time I can find them. Here is an example: when times get tighter big business has more meetings and cuts marketing dollars. As a small business geek I have no meetings and I double and triple my all around marketing efforts including marketing and education budget. As a result I gain market share they lose market share. Digital Paint Magazine - March 2011
This was demonstrated to me in an in-your-face way last week when I was in San Jose for a conference. The one time I ate breakfast at a regular “big box” or chain restaurant, I had the horrible experience of having to listen to a few corporate folks talking business. They were basically sitting next to me as we were only separated by a short four foot wall. I couldn’t help but to overhear the conversation. I wasn’t sure which was more rude, moving away or listening in. I chose to listen in purely for entertainment value. As you know San Jose is the heart of Silicon Valley, home to many large corporations and many high tech companies. These two high level management people conversing were from a very well known tech company. It was shocking what I heard. What is more shocking is that the corporate mentality finds no fault in the current corporate culture otherwise the conversation I heard would have been in a board room with the blinds pulled down instead of in a public eatery while wearing the company logo on their shirts. Crazy. Anyhow, the jist of the one hour breakfast ordeal was this. Manager A was talking about how they could extract more money from their client base… offensive to say the least. Don’t misunderstand me here, all of us should give thoughtful consideration to maximizing the customer experience and keeping your hard won clients around for the long haul. The challenge is in the positioning and mentality of where the statement, “Extract more money from my clients”, comes from. That is old school and “push marketing”. The question should be how can I better serve my client base. We as business owners are servants not masters. If I can serve clients needs better they will stay longer and refer more people. Dreaming up ways to extract money is catering to the wrong side of the coin. We need to be problem solvers digging deeply to find ways to help people overcome the greatest difficulty or biggest fears in the areas we serve. That is a wholly different thought process. After waiting 45 minutes for my breakfast, which arrived cold, I was privy to hear the managers’ discussions regarding meetings. Manager A 38
was privileged to participate in 15 meetings a week at over an hour each and Manager B, playing the one upmanship game, thought his 18-20 meetings per week was more suited to moving the business forward. What!? Yuck!? I exited quickly for fear of losing my awful breakfast. When did big business in America get to the point where it was a badge of honor to sit in 15 to 20 hours a week in meetings? I have been so far out of that loop I don’t know if that is the norm or not. It matters little either way. The point is Corporate America is broken, so as small business owners let’s not model our business path after that. Let’s serve and create and grow and instead of having hours of meetings each week let us use that time to hang with our families. PS-The remaining part of my trip I ate at small mom and pop joints. Awesome service, incredible food. Vive la entrepreneur!
Digital Paint Magazine - March 2011
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