Elias Mina: John's Impasto & Smart Brushes User

Toronto-based photographer and artist Elias Mina works in both Painter and Photoshop. Eli writes, "I used your Smart Oil brush in Painter (John's Smart Brushes) and then moved to Photoshop to use mostly your brushes to paint inside and around the window. I can't make up my mind which is my favourite! I hope you don't mind me sharing with you my excitement. I am applying textures to selective part like sky, etc. and sometimes to a whole image. What a difference they make when I get it right."

You can see more of Eli's work at his web site.

John's Smart Brushes User: Terry Sita

John's Smart Brushes user Artist Terry Sita writes:

I am sending you two photos of painting I did with your Leroy brush. We raise Thoroughbreds so there are always a lot of horses around to photograph. The foals are born usually between Feb. and May.

I rather like the look of the smart oil, since I am a realist painter, but I am trying to loosen up and get more color in my work, so I thought you would like these better.

After auto painting, all I did was bring back the eyes and a little of the hair on the head. If I used the smart oil, I would have to do a little more work to put color into the piece. I hope you like them. I am still a beginner at Painter 12 and these brushes eliminate much of the work.

You can see more of Terry's work on her website. Terry mentions using the Leroy brush. I named this brush after artist Leroy Neiman. and attempted to imbue this brush with some of the vibrance of his paintings.

Mr. Neiman passed away today at 91.

John's Smart Brushes come with installation videos for the different versions of Painter, as well as a tutorial video to help you get the most out of these interpretive brushes.

John's Smart Brushes are $24.95. You can purchase them using the PayPal link below. Major credit cards are accepted if you don't have a PayPal account.

John's Artists' Brushes User: Anastasiy Safari

Developer and photographer Anastasiy Safari writes,

I want to make a small contribution with a small painting I finally made with your amazing brushes. Thanks again!

The Magicpicker Photoshop panel finds daily use in my workflow. This panel provides a visually intuitive tool for selecting color in Photoshop. I find it particularly suited for "painting from scratch" painting. Magicpicker is available for Photoshop CS5/CS4/CS3/MAC/PC.

If you have an image created using John's Artists' Brushes, send me a JPEG and I'll feature it here on the PixlBlog!