Oooh, he's so lifelike!! Love his krinkly eyes, pudgy nose and of course his rosey cheeks. The blue background goes great with his blue eyes. You got him just right. Perfect Santa man. :) ~Anj

Thanks Anj, I love painting Santas - on gourds, cypress knees, lightbulbs, anything I can find. Are the photos too big? I selected Message size. I will try a different approach this time. {{!gwi}}

OMG, what great painting you do! You are wonderful on the detail work and all the shading and hiliting. They are just adorable. Agree with all that Anj said, and that ear--you even painted an ear peeking through! Luvs

Thanks Luvs, I don't know what happened to my post but will try again. I think Santas are the easiest painting to do, and I have so many. Christmas is lots of fun around here and I love painting and crafting ornaments and decorations. For the hair and beard, you can't beat that cheap $3.00 Soft Grip Rake or Comb brush. I am in the process of painting 62 ornaments for my grand daughter's school and each one has a different look on his face. later

Your Santas are beautiful. Please don't make the pictures smaller, the size of the first one is perfect, you can really check out the details.

Sal

Your Santas are wonderful!! Just the right sparkle and glitz and glitter!! Just great.Jlily

Oh, the SANTAS are spectacular! Lively facial expressions! GREAT JOB....

OMG, They are so life like. The beard looks so real. You are a great painter!!!
Cheri

Yall are very kind. I am on a roll now with these ornaments. The beard is the easiest to paint, especially with the rake brush. I love the way it makes all of those individual lines - I use to do that with a liner!!{{!gwi}}

I want that one! He looks so pretty and sort of Victorian--my favorite of them all so far. Can you tell I love anything with pink roses on it? Can't believe you are doing all that detail on 62 ornaments! Just beautiful. What more can I say? I am in awe. Luvs

Wow!! Those are wonderful!!

You people amaze me with your talents!

Hi Gram, Good to hear from you again. Are you working on any projects now? Would love to hear about them. Getting colder now, so more of us will be inside working on our crafts. I'm in Ca. and we are finally getting a nice rain. Even if you don't post pics, you can always come chat with us, okay? Luvs

That one is very soft looking. Like it a lot. Some of us are still using the liners. ha I'm going to add one of those brushes to my Christmas list! ~Anj

Thanks Luvs, I have been peeking in since our email conversations. I haven't really done much this last year. But, you all sure give one inspiration! I mostly do recycled things, like the snowmen bricks, but hope to do more painting this summer. Till then, I WILL be watching and drooling over all the wonderful things posted here!

What nice people we have on this forum. You are certainly good for a painters soul. Do any of you belong to a painting club or the Society of Decorative Painters? Do you have shops in your area that teach painting? We have none in my area of Florida. I had a decorative painting shop about 20 years ago and then an Arts and Craft Gift shop. I loved teaching but lately there seems to be very little interest - unless it is the Donna Dewberry style. I personally think that style of painting is harder than the traditional type of decorative painting but I am for anything that gets people painting.

Paintingfool~ A few of us here are self-taught painters. I am. There used to be a few places around here that offered classes, but I always had to work or had small children and never got to take any. I think Michaels offers painting classes on specific things every now and then on the sign-up board outside their teaching room, but it's mostly jewelry now. I think it will make a come-back though. Most things go in cycles. You really have to love something to stick with it and make time for it. We here are die-hards! ha I'll be painting until the end. I'd like to learn to do watercolor or oils one of these days. Possibly when all my kids get in school and I have the full day free. :) ~Anj

I took some classes way back when with a girl who taught classes in her garage. Learned allot of tips and techniques from her and a good foundation about shading and highlights. Then she moved away and the rest I have just learned on my own from books and a couple of videos.

Wish I would have found another small class, but it was really hard time wise back then since I was a supervisor at a bank and working lots of hours.

Still have lots of old pattern books. Have liked lots of different styles. Do you remember Donna Spiegel, and Juliet Martin. My instructor liked them, so those were some of the first books I bought. Painted quite a few items from them--still do once in awhile. Painted lots of Lori Holt, Cheri Saffoite, Karen Stone, Myra Mahey. Now I like Renee Mullins, Laurie Speltz, Nancy Wood, and several others.

I really enjoy doing Donna Dewberry's One Stroke too. So far, I've gotten pretty good at the roses and leaves. Still need to practice and learn allot more. She sure generated allot of interest in painting--and I'm all in favor of that!

I paint for pleasure and don't really sell my items. Use them mostly for myself or as gifts--once in awhile someone will ask to buy a piece, and I will sell it much lower than a gift shop would.

All of our local shops have pretty much gone out of business. So sad because I used to love going in them and soaking up the atmosphere and enjoying all the painted samples.

Like Anj, I will probably always enjoy painting. Just love finding a pattern, cutting my wood piece and then painting it. Later I look at it and can hardly believe I actually did it! Such a good feeling.

I miss all the painting magazines too--only a few good ones left. Since I like the easier patterns, I only subscribe to Painting and Quick & Easy Painting. Will sometimes buy a Tole World or other painting magazine if I see one that has projects that don't look too difficult. Scrapbooking came along and most turned their attention to that. However now some are combining both.

Everyone tells me that the imports made it hard for the painters to make any profit, so allot of them gave up. I sure hope we will see a comeback--just have to wait and see.

We are sure glad to have everyone join in here. It keeps me motivated when I see pics of everyone's projects. So much fun to sign in here and find messages waiting and someone with new ideas to share. Fun to be able to encourage the new painter too. Glad we all found each other.

Luvs

Those are Beautiful!!!
You do a great job. Thank You for sharing.
Diana