Hey Friends,

Normally, I wouldn’t be writing about something personal, but heck, my 70th birthday…drum roll please…is tomorrow.  I can remember as a kid, I thought 40 was ancient and gosh, nobody hardly made it to 70.  And here I am; it happened so fast.

As you know, I am teaching at DAA in the Holiday Open Studio class; well, I just finished my week.  I taught calligraphy in Corel Painter.  Since it is my 70th…drum roll please, and I am practicing calligraphy, I thought I would make a birthday greeting for myself.  Sounds sad doesn’t it…poor baby has to make his own card.

The first thing I did was compose the verse.  I enjoyed that.  I’m not a writer and I struggled with the last line, but I like the sentiment.  I don’t view 70 as the end but continuing the journey.  There is always a new block to explore.

Photography is my next exploration.  OK, I have taken photographs for a while, bought a number of camera and lenses, but never really learned to take pictures other than point and shoot.  I am going to spend some time with my camera and learn a few things.  I bought a new camera that is way too fancy, so I have a lot to learn.  I know you want to know what I bought…it is a Nikon D810…and I think it is pretty slick.

But, I digress.  I was telling you about my birthday greeting that I made for myself.  Elaina is teaching the second week of Holiday Open Studio.  Her class is about making a blackboard card for the Holidays.  I figured a black card would be perfect for my 70th…drum roll please.  So I started making my black image.  I created a nifty brush to do the calligraphy and I was ready to start.  The blackboard idea had lots of texture in it, and that made my letters look funny.  So I abandoned the blackboard, but kept the image black.

Keeping it black and slick is a mistake.  It now looks like the text screen at a silent movie.  Oh right, you guys don’t remember those.  Well, take my word for it.

This is a long lead to this silly image.  I hope you like it.

My birthday greeting to myself:

Birthday Greeting to myself, done in Corel Painter 2015, using one of my custom brushes.

Happy Thanksgiving to the Americans…

Enjoy,

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