Digital Painting tutorials by artist Barb Hartsook at Digital Paint Magazine.

Introducing With Brush and Pen.  A new column in the magazine by Barb Hartsook.  Below is a bit about Barb. Also you can drop by her blog where she combines stories with words and paintings  at, Over Coffee… Let’s Talk. You can see some of her work  in the PBase Galleries. Following is her bio.

Barb Hartsook author of With Brush and Pen

Who am I and what do I do?

Hi. I’m Barbara Hartsook, and I live in Northern Ohio with my husband, close to our three adult daughters and their families.

All my life I remember loving the splashes of color in my world, and noticing how pretty everything looked when the sun was low in the sky, when shadows danced on houses and tree trunks and lawns… Yes, even as a child I noticed.

Art as a professional pursuit was not an option for me – my parents wanted me to become a classroom teacher, as they were.

So I taught. And hung out with the art teachers. And bought sketch journals, pens, and paints. And started taking classes…

Over my art-life I’ve used pastel pencils and oils and watercolors, acrylics to paint staging sets and wall murals, pen and ink, and liquid pencils (with a brush).

In April, 2006, my girls grown-up with families of their own, I took a week-long class in Durham, N.C. introducing me to Corel Painter software and a Wacom Tablet.

And I had a new love… digital painting and drawing.

My work has sold locally, as well as in galleries online, and has won awards, both locally and online.

I help moderate Karen Bonaker’s digital art forum PainterTalk, where in the past I’ve written and/or edited the forum’s interviews for the monthly featured artists.Where in fact, I was the featured artist one month…

Using Corel Painter as my brush and canvas is pure joy to me. I’m forever learning from others — teachers and fellow students and my forum-mates — all that I can absorb and practice. I love to share back what I’m learning, and so have written several tutorials, some of which are available in the forum and on my blog.

With brush and pen, I tell stories…

Stories are everywhere and can be found just by looking. Life happens when we are not conscious of it, but simply living it. As artists we write and paint the stories that we pull out of the casual snapshot – whether that snapshot is a photo or a piece of daily life.

_______________________________________________________________________

Thank-you Barb!  We are blessed to have you as a contributor to Digital Paint Magazine. To profiles of other digital artists you can visit the contributors page.