Digital Art Academy The Next Generation in Digital Art Training
	The summer is coming to an end and fall is upon us. Time to think about an online class or two. Registration is underway for the start of Session Six our last session for 2008. We have added a new category called “Self Study”. These classes have minimal support but all lessons are available on the first day of class. Here are just a few of the Self Study courses you can choose from at Digital Art Academy. Discover Painter Brushes: Karen Bonaker- Instructor Support The Digital Paintbrush: Marilyn Sholin- Technical Support and Questions. Illustrator I: Chris Price Digital Print Embellishment: Anne Carter Hargrove- Instructor Support. Scan Your Garden: Patri Faher- Instructor Support DAA will be adding several new classes to the line up for 2009 including your favorite instructors and guest instructors. Look for live webinars and video classrooms coming in 2009 as well. Open Studio Fall Session: This is the last week to register for Open Studio at Digital Art Academy. Join the fun and paint with some of the most talented digital artist as we share techniques, ideas and most of all digital art in a friendly and supportive classroom. Classes begin September 20th! Lessons include written and video instruction. Painter Talk Image of the Month Patty Nice - Painting of the Month for September, 2008 Abstract in Browns I like playing with circles. I paint them and save them and sooner or later, they make their way into a piece of art. I also like to customize brushes for painting my circles. Other than the background, nothing was created specifically for this image, which is composed of an enlarged section of a fractal and layers of circles duplicated, flipped and blended. The first version was Abstract in Orange, and while I like it, I changed the color scheme and called the second one Abstract in Browns. (Isn’t Painter awesome?) I have galleries both at Painter Talk: http://www.paintertalk.net/forum/index.php…er&user=286 and at Painter Magazine: http://www.paintermagazine.co.uk/user/majikat I don’t add to them often because I usually have two or more versions of a piece, and I can’t decide which one to present! LOL (Patty contributes regularly to the Doodle-a-Day threads, always pleasing us with her creative discoveries using Painter and other digital painting tools. Please take a minute to look through her galleries. It’s worth your time - and maybe we can convince her to add more of her beautiful exploratory work, especially here in the Painter Talk Galleries.) Thank you to all who have helped to make DAA a success. I look forward to bringing you the best in digital art training now and into 2009! Enjoy the fall season! Sincerely, Karen Bonaker Administrator, Digital Art Academy

This is the last session of 2008! Hard to believe. Thank you to everyone who has made our first year so successful. We are planning some big things for 2008 so don’t miss out!

Session Six opens on October 25th. We have added a new category called “Self Study”. There are several classes available to you in this category:

Discover Painter Brushes: Karen Bonaker

The Digital Paintbrush: Marilyn Sholin

Illustrator I: Chris Price

Digital Print Embellishment: Anne Carter-Hargrove

These classes have limited support and all lessons are available immediately upon logging in. Self Study Sessions are available from the first day of registration until the last day of scheduled classes. All lesson content must be downloaded by the end of the session.

Several new classes will be added in 2009 with many of your favorite instructors, guest instructors and a few surprises as well!

Dear Members and Guests,

To fill you in on what this is all about:

In short, it’s about a way we can help John and Pam Derry even if our budget doesn’t allow us to purchase John’s beautiful Equinox painting individually. Of course if we can, that’s a good thing too.

Most of you know John Derry was one of the original authors of Fractal Design Painter, now Corel Painter. He’s remained involved with Corel Painter and a great contributor to the Painter community, a talented and generous artist and friend to all of us, to whom we owe a huge debt of gratitude.

Some of you may also be aware that John’s wife, Pam was diagnosed with leukemia about 2-1/2 years ago. Over the past months since February 2008, John has kept us up to date on their journey, writing the touching and inspiring story in his own beautiful way. For the full story, you’ll find all of the entries at The PixlBlog. Scroll down the page to the entry dated February 25, 2008Why I’ve Been AWOL, then read following entries in order from just above that entry up to the top of the page. To see a larger view of the Equinox painting and read a shorter version of the story, or if you’d like to purchase a print of John’s painting, visit this page: Equinox, a Fine Art Print by John Derry

When I posted the news here at Painter Talk in early August 2008, that John and Pam Derry need our help, the response was heartwarming to say the least. Though some members said they could not afford to purchase a print of John’s painting, they all said they were eager to contribute and asked me if I could find a way for them to do that. After thinking about it for a few days, I talked to Karen Bonaker, Painter Talk and Digital Art Academy site owner and Corel Painter instructor, and proposed a solution.

Karen immediately and enthusiastically agreed. This was not surprising as Karen is always cheerful, kind, and generous, and it was pure pleasure working out the details with her. In only a few days, Karen set up a way for all of us to show our support and appreciation for Pam and John Derry’s courage through a difficult time. In addition, we can do this while honoring John’s wishes to help by purchasing prints of his beautiful Equinox painting.

Now, whether or not you’re a member of Painter Talk or purchasing John’s Equinox print is within your budget, you can help. Karen will explain in detail below. Thank you, Karen!

Thanks to all of you for caring,

Sincerely,

Jinny Brown

Thank you Jinny! Well here we go! When the digital world comes together they come together BIG TIME! So let’s make a difference in the lives of those that need our help.

Contest Rules:
1. To make a donation click the “Make A Donation” button above. Use this link to make your donation.

Make My Donation

2. Members of Painter Talk and Guests are eligible to win a print.

3. Members and Guests may contribute as much or as often as they wish to the fund, however an individual may win a print only once, giving others a chance to win.

4. To ensure we remain unbiased, Karen Bonaker, Painter Talk staff, and Jinny Brown may contribute as often as we wish but will not be eligible to win a print.

5. When enough funds are received to purchase a print, names of donors up to that point will be gathered, tossed into a hat, and without seeing the names, one name will be drawn by Karen or another unbiased Painter Talk staff member.

6. At that point, a John Derry Print “Equinox” will be ordered and delivered to the winner. We will ship framed prints of ‘Equinox” to the winners unless, within 48 hours of being notified their name was picked, the winner sends an e-mail response saying they would prefer to receive an unframed print. In that case, an unframed print will be shipped. The difference in cost will remain in the fund to build until we have enough to purchase another framed print and pick the next winner.

I will post updates here so all can see just how many prints we have been able to purchase and who the winners are! If at the end of our campaign, if there are any left over funds, they will be sent to the Derry Family.

Thank you very much for your support!
Karen Bonaker

Jill will be joining the Digital Art Academy Team and will be introducing you to her wonderful style of painting. Look for more on Jill shortly.

Jill’s Websites

Hannah’s Eyes Photography

Step into the lab and experience a completely new way to learn! The Painter Idea Lab is not a standard, run-of-the-mill class, but instead a completely organic, social learning experience. To put it in simpler terms - there is no set lesson plan. The class evolves week to week based on the needs of the students (with a few surprises added in to keep it interesting, of course).

This course is all about creativity and applying that creativity in Painter to learn the software “as you go.” The course is participation driven, so for the class to be a success, students must be willing to contribute questions, share their work with everyone, and HAVE FUN!

So how’s it work?

Each session begins with a set of random resource materials — these could be photos, sketches, incomplete paintings, custom brushes, fonts, short tutorials, videos, short music clips and basically anything else. These are to give the students a jump start and to get the creative juices flowing. The easiest way to get over the fear of Painter is to actually use Painter. Of course, my normal rule of, “Just do it — it doesn’t matter if the end result is ‘pretty’ or not. The key is to sit down and play!” applies to this entire course.

With resources in hand, students are released “into the wild” to conduct their experiments in Painter. Some students may choose to “paint in the sketch,” while others “complete the painting,” or “paint a set of photos.” As students have questions, comments, etc, they post them to the classroom’s forum. With the questions posted, the direction of the class starts to form and the instructional materials begin to materialize. The instructor will provide information and tutorials based on the interests of the students (Lab Reports), provide constructive critique, demonstrate techniques in video and more. The possibility for a variety of topics per class is limitless!

To keep things interesting, there will also be specific challenges for each week of class as “extracurricular” activities. These are simple suggestions that focus on different parts of the whole Painter experience and encourage the students to think outside the box. For instance, one week’s challenge may be, “What can you do with this photo and 15 minutes?” or “”Don’t touch that Cloner!” Of course, these may spur more questions and more topics to discuss as a class.
At the end of the class, all “Lab Reports,” important shared information and samples from throughout the weeks of class will be packaged and available for download by current students. Of course, students are also encouraged to save anything they wish from the classroom itself for their future reference.

Due to the nature of the class, a minimum enrollment of 10 students is needed (and the maximum is set at 60).

Also, each session will be completely different, so if you come in for the first session (Session 4 @DAA) and again for the second session (Session 5 @ DAA) - you’ll have a completely different experience each time. This is going to be one exciting class!