Living with a serious illness sucks, but I have to make the most of it. I am too unwell to work, at least for the foreseeable future anyway; never say never, though. Filling my time, therefore, can be a challenge. I need to try and keep my brain occupied, but have to battle fatigue and concentration problems.
I have taken up painting as a new hobby, but as I can’t afford, or have room for canvas and paints in my tiny little home, I have taken up digital painting on the laptop using Corel Painter 2016. It’s not cheap, but boy, was it worth the money. I am sure I would have spent the equivalent in paints and canvas over time.
What a fantastic piece of software! It has hundreds of brush types in dozens of different mediums. It has taken me months of experimenting to get the hang of it. If you are interested in taking up digital painting, I cannot recommend it enough. Tip – they have regular sales with significant discounts – buy it then!
It is filling a large hole in my time; I spend most of the morning painting. For someone who finds it hard to concentrate on things like books and tv programmes, it is unbelievable how much I can do. On those long sleepless nights, painting is also perfect for relaxing me and taking away the anxiety of not being able to sleep.Ā 
The feeling of satisfaction when my creation is complete is worth the effort. It has done wonders for my confidence and mental wellbeing. Although I a loving painting landscapes from reference photos, one of my biggest achievements was painting a picture of my cat, Charlie. There is a photo of him on my ‘About’ page for comparison.
If you are thinking about it, go for it! Here are a couple of my landscape efforts:
Very nice!
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Thank you š
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Great artwork!
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Thank you š
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Wow, Shirley, you have a real talent there! That painting of Charlie is amazing! And the landscapes look absolutley stunning! And you say you have only been doing this for a few months? You could do book covers and things. Make some extra dough. Check out DevinatArt. It is a collective of artisans in differnet mediums and this site allows you to post stock photos and share you work with the whole community. I only mention it because my ex is on that site and she does photo manipulations and she is now learning digital painting. It’s really some cool stuff.
http://freespiritfotography.deviantart.com/
You could connect with a whole bunch of people and gain a new audience too!
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Thank you for your kind words, Eric. I have a long way to go yet, or at least I think I do! I love DeviantArt, I have been getting my desktop wallpaper there for years and admiring the fantastic work on there. I have looked at the link you provided; Cindee’s work is amazing, thank you for sharing that. š
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ty from both of us. š
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Lovely article – and great digital paintings! š
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Thank you so much, I am pleased you like my work š
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