A very handy tool in Painter IX is the Perspective Grid, especially for those first working with perspective. The image below shows the Perspective Grid activated on the canvase of a "work in progress".

This is the result from using the Perspective Grid. I made the flowers using the Dab I created last week.

I really found using the Perspective Grid a help and will probably use it more in the future. However, once I have things lined up roughly the way I want them I'll turn it off and be a bit "looser" in my painting.

After exploring the Mixer pad we created a painting using Artists' Oils. While I'm quite comfortable working in layers, and lots of them, I tried doing this one all on one layer as would be the case with a real painting. Between that and playing with all the different brushes this was a challenge.

I used a lot of the Artists' Oils brushes in the painting as I learned more about them. Brushes used include: Dry Bristle; Grainy Blender; Impasto Oil; Smeary Impasto; Soft Blender Brush; and, I'm sure there were others but I didn't write them down. The framing was done in PSP 9.

The next exercise was about working with layers. We use the Image Hose Brush, Spray Size P as the tools for the exercise. After we applied an image from the Look Selector collection to each layer we then repositioned the layers and the images to creater the following:

The last exercise introduced us to the Gradient tool and how to work with it. We then created a gradient quilt stitched together with the Pen tool.

Thanks Karen! It's hard to believe there are only two more weeks of class.