Hi, everyone,

Here's the first scan off the new machine -  an image of that less-than-bright-but-extremely-natural Japanese paint from St. Louis Art Supply set off by a very small, very red, little bird.  All the brush strokes came out of a water-brush.

Since the bird is a little bit above the sand, not painting red where the little leaf crosses him suggests that he might be
perched on one of the rushes.   Rubbing the top  with a wet towel produced a flock of flying birds and a branch that
wanders off the paper out onto the page.   The smaller vertical stems in the background echo the larger stems in
the foreground, reinforcing a sense of depth.

Is nature really this colorless?   One could convert a palette to these colors by dripping a bit of pure black - or
black and indigo - into each of the paint cups of the palette, on top of the tint.  All at the right side of the paint cube,
so that you brush could pick up very grey paint or slightly grey paint.  You could fade from bright to earthy.

Given that the rest of the painting is so dark, the barely tinted area at center left shows a way these paints may be
used - to paint glare.

But good grief, nature has more color than this.  These dark tones make sense (to me) only as a background.

Corel has a "One-Stop Photo Shop" button in their image editor that could make this painting stunning.  You can
press the button several times.

Thoughts?

Dan