A new session has begun at lvsonline.com. As you enter your classrooms and check out the pages you may notice there has been a change in the curriculum.

The curriculum is now 5 weeks long, rather than 6. Lesson 1 will be available to download on Thursday. Next week, also on Thursday, Lessons 2 through 5, and all necessary materials will be available to download. This new system will give those who have the time, the opportunity to work ahead and finish their lessons, and the class, early, providing that this has your instructor’s approval.

Even if you download all your lessons at once, please do them in order, i.e., Lesson 1, then Lesson 2, etc. Most of the classes have been written in such a way that the skills from one lesson will build up in the following lesson, therefore, doing the lessons out of sequence may cause you to miss some important information. In any case, we at LVS hope you will enjoy the new format and discover that it enhances the classroom experience.

See you all soon!

For those of you who are still using versions of Painter prior to Painter 11, Corel is offering a big discount on the upgrade through the end of August. You can buy the Painter 11 upgrade download for $139 or the boxed version for $169, and you will also get a free copy of the Painter 11 WOW book by Cher Threinen-Pendarvis which retails at Amazon for $37.79. This is a heck of a deal.

Find it here: Painter 11 Upgrade

Today is the opening day of registration for the Fall session at LVS Online.  Remember, not only does the early bird get the worm, but the early bird also gets his or her choice of classes. Don’t be left and and on a waiting list. Register now!

If you’re a moderate to advanced Painter user, you can register for my new class, Corel Painter Explorations: Adventures in Scrap Collage, here. If you’re just learning to use Painter, then try the class for beginners, here. You’ll learn a lot and have fun doing so. Read what other students have said here.

Hope to see you there!

I’m so excited about my new class at LVS. It’s called Corel Painter Explorations: Adventures in Scrap-collage,  and you can read all about it here.

You will be able to sign up for the new class when registraton opens this coming Monday, August 2, 2010. This is going to be a wonderful class. In it, you will be exploring new ways to use Painter, and I will be showing you some of the lesser-known features the program offers. You’ll be creating images which you can use to make greeting cards, or wall art, and I think you’ll also have a lot of fun.

Hope to see you there!

Although weather-wise, summer is far from over, in a few days registration will open at LVS Online for the fall session. This year, in addition to teaching both the  Painter Level I class and the Painter Level II class, I will be offering a new Painter class. No, it’s not the long-awaited Painter Level III class, but rather, a class written especially for more advanced students who enjoy digital scrapbook projects and who also would like to explore some of the lesser-known features available using Corel® Painter. The LVS staff and I are in the process of doing some last minute “tweaking”, and as soon as we are finished, I will post more information and the link where you can register for this new and exciting class…at least I think it’s exciting.

Meanwhile, beginning with the fall session, you will find that there have been some changes made to the regular class format. Unlike previous sessions where you downloaded one lesson per week for 6 weeks, from now on, classes will run for 5 weeks (the number of actual lessons will vary depending on the class). During week one, you will be able to download Lesson 1, as you have done in previous sessions. During weeks two through five,  you will be able to download all remaining class lessons and files. This will allow you to work at your own pace, so that those of you who are just chomping at the bit to learn more, may do so without having to wait a full week in between lesson availability.  I will provide further information about this new format in the classroom. For the time being, here is the current schedule for the fall session:

• Registration Opens Monday,  August 2, 2010
• Classrooms Open Monday,  August 30, 2010
• Registration Closes Wednesday,  September 1, 2010
• Lesson 1 will be posted Thursday,  September 2, 2010
• All additional lessons will be posted Thursday,  September 9, 2010

This new format will allow the second fall session to end earlier than normal and give all of us extra time during the holidays. I hope you like these new changes at LVS and I also hope to see you in my classes. Don’t forget to check back soon for more information on the new Painter class!

It’s time again to register for classes at LVS online. This is your opportunity to learn how to create your own web site, a blog, write poetry, take better photos, and of course, learn to use Corel Painter! General information about registration, and also about LVS discounts on software is here.

This session I’ve decided to do something different and I will only be offering the Level II class.

Why you ask? It has been my experience that if the Level I students take the class in May that by the time August rolls around and classes reopen at LVS, most of my students will have forgotten most of what they learned in the Level I class. Of course they could review and practice the lessons during the break, but like most of us, they are too busy enjoying their summer holidays.

So this year, I decided to finish up the 2009-2010 session by offering only Level II. This will also give me more time to write. There is a new and exciting Painter class in the works for the beginning of the new session in August.  Stay tuned for further info.

In my Painter online classes, I constantly hear my students say, “I can’t even draw a straight line!” Each time I hear this I have to laugh because I don’t know of anyone who is able to draw a straight line unless they use a ruler. A straight line is no indicator of whether or not one is able to draw. I firmly believe that everyone has the ability to draw, and what holds most people back is a total lack of confidence.

Of course, not everyone can draw perfectly, and your individual drawing skill will depend on how much, or how little, talent you possess; however, even if you’re unable to draw as well as your favorite artist, nevertheless, you still possess the ability, with practice and training, to draw well enough to achieve a personal sense of satisfaction. My belief in everyone’s ability to draw is a direct result of my exposure to of one of my heroes, the artist, Jon Gnagy.

I believe that you are an artist. I believe that everyone is an artist. When I say this I am not trying to be sensational. I merely state it as a conviction which has been proving itself for years in my beginners’ art classes.
—Jon Gnagy

Jon became very famous in the 1950’s as a result of his TV show which continued to be shown until 1970, a very long-running show indeed. I guess I was about eleven when I discovered Jon, and I lusted after his “Learn to Draw Kit”. The kit was out of the question for my mother. In those days a single parent, especially a woman, had all she could do to keep food on the table, much less buy art supplies for her child, no matter how much the child wanted them. …and so, I made do, with a #2 pencil and a rubber eraser, and I followed Jon’s show for several years, learning to master his basic shapes, the ball, the cone, the cube, and the cylinder. As the years passed, I went on to other interests, but always returned to drawing. These days, I can afford wonderful pencils, pens, brushes, and pastels, but they have never replaced the early thrill of being able to produce “art” from my simple tools, a pencil and an eraser.

More than Jon’s lessons, his philosophy is what kept me pursuing art and drawing over the years, and I believe his philosophy to be true, that everyone is an artist, and that each of us contains that spark. So, don’t let your lack of confidence hold you back. Pick up a pencil, a pad of paper, and an eraser. Set up a still life in your kitchen, go out in the yard and sketch a tree, hold your hand out in front of you and draw it, but whatever you do, don’t stop trying. You will never know where it can lead you, and the journey will be one of the best ones you will ever take, because don’t forget “You Can Draw”!

The other day I received an email from a potential student asking if she could use Painter Essentials 4 to do the Painter Level I and II lessons at LVS. Unfortunately, I had to tell her that wasn’t possible. For those of you who have PE3 or PE 4 and were wondering the same thing, this is the information I sent to the student:

***********************************************************

Hello XXXXX,

No, I’m afraid you cannot follow the Intro to Painter classes using Painter Essentials. The class is written for the full version of Painter, and the majority of the lesson material simply would not apply. The lessons refer to Painter IX.5, Painter X, or Painter 11.

Here is the current description of the Intro to Painter class:

Intro to Painter Level I

Painter Essentials is an extremely “light” version of the full program. Corel sells it for the sole purpose of whetting your appetite so you will upgrade to it’s big brother. However, there are a few tutorials available online and also some u-tube videos. Here are some links for you:

PE4 – Photopainting

PE4-Training and Tutorials

Note: the above video was created by Rob MacDonald, the Corel Product manager. In the video, he explains how to use the Painter Essentials 4 guidebook and the included tutorials.

…and finally, a link to a drawing tutorial, in which the author uses PE4 to draw a rose:

http://drawsketch.about.com/od/flowerdrawing/ss/digitalrose.htm

I hope you find the above information to be helpful, and should you ever decide to buy the full program, please consider signing up for the Painter classes I teach at LVS. I think you will find them to be very useful.

Elaina
[Corel Painter Instructor]

Registration for the January 2010 session at LVS is open!

Classrooms open Jan 4, 2010

Registration closes Jan 6, 2010

First lesson posts Jan 9, 2010

Course Fees:

$30.00 New Students

$24.00 Returning Students

Painter Level I class

See what other students have said about this class

Painter Level II class

See what other students have said about this class

Want to see a sample of some of the things you will be doing and learning in these classes? Take a look at the Student Gallery.

Hello Painter Users and Students,

An online friend of mine has put together an image sampling of all the Painter brushes through Version IX.

Her name is Valerie Beeby, and she has graciously given her permission for me to post the links here. I’m going to post a link for the main index, plus a list of links, one for each Category. I’m doing the latter because the page is not so easy to navigate because of the particular page design.

When you get to the individual brush Category pages, you must click on each thumbnail to see the larger image and then right-click to save the image to your own hard drive.

The list presently only goes up to Painter Version IX, but Valerie is currently updating it through Painter 11, so you may want to put these links into your bookmarks and check them again at a later date.

Main Index:

http://owler.com/

Cloners, Erasers, FX, Impasto

http://owler.com/-painter-brush-box/1-painter-cloners-erasers.html

Airbrush, Pastels, Acrylic, Artists’ Oils

http://owler.com/-painter-brush-box/2-artists-oils-acrylic-pastel.html

Pencils, Pens, Gouache, Liquid ink

http://owler.com/-painter-brush-box/3-gouache-pens.html

Watercolours and Digital Watercolours

http://owler.com/-painter-brush-box/4-watercolour-brushes.html

This was a labor of love for Valerie, and a lot of work. I’m sure she would appreciate a “Thank you”. You can email her at:

Owlatowler.com

NOTE: delete the word “at” and replace it with an “at” symbol (@), then copy and paste the address into the “To” box of an email. Unfortunately, this is a necessary precaution in this day and age.

More will be added as time permits. Enjoy, and please do thank Valerie if you have a moment.

Elaina