We learned how to create Dabs and save them, which is easier said than done! I created 3 Dabs - a flower, vine and leafy vine. The hardest part of the process is learning how to save them in my own category without overwriting another Dab. I finally was able to get three saved - once I got the sequence of the process.

I started playing with some of the brushes and painted a clown. I initially framed it in Painter and then took it into PSP 9 to add a bevel as I could not find a way to do it in Painter after saving it and going back another day.

On this image I used the 2b Pencil for the outlines. I then used the Airbrush to paint the various parts followed by the Blender brush. The Eraser was used to remove the strings from the top of the hand. In creating the frame I added 50 pixels on all sides then applied the Lotus Petals fill. Next I blurred the fill a few times and ended up with what you see. I also applied the drop shadow in Painter to the inner edges of the frame.

My last painting is the fish scene where quite a few brushes were used. The paper is a grey with the first paper texture selected. I used a lot of Chalk, including for the blue background. After painting the fish using Chalk I then used the Blender brush, Just Add Water, to blend the chalk. (Love that Blender, Just Add Water brush!) I used a grainy chalk for the grasses and then also used the same Blender brush.

For the sand I started with the Sponge and then added the Impasto brush, Texturizer-Fine to create the grains of sand. For the fish bubbles I used the Watercolor - Bleach Splatter in a shade of blue and then the Impasto - Smeary Bristle Spray in a very pale blue/white. The framing was done in PSP 9.

Once again there was a lot of great information in this lesson. I'm still working on the rest of the assignment. Thanks, Karen, for all your hard work in putting this together!