I've been trying to post one-a-week tips & tricks for the past few months. So far, so good. Next week I'll be traveling with sporadic internet, so I thought I'd post 2 this week. This is a watercolour Xmas card I did to experiment with lighting and mood.

I use various textures a lot in backgrounds to add a little flair. In this case it seemed especially appropriate to convey "art."

I find adding textures to my art makes it richer and better. I use layers and custom brushes a lot to accomplish this. The key is to use filters to make the textures look more painted, erase or mask so they aren't applied too evenly, and paint some extra scratches & dents by hand.

Making animals look human can be as simple as adding eyebrows. Here I take it a bit further with aging applying similar "rules" that I use for humans.