PBS Studios Blog

Valentine’s Day

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Although it was last Monday, sorry it’s been a busy week. I wanted to share my latest digital painting called Valentine’s Day. It’s a Mixed-Media combining a photograph and digital painting, which I turned into a greeting card for my wife.

Last weekend, I worked on the painting after seeing an old National Geographic magazine Linda had saved about space and space travel. It had a beautiful picture on the cover taken with the Hubble telescope of outer space. I thought that’s a fantastic background for a silhouette. While researching outer space images on the internet, I found several impressive Northern Lights images. One was perfect for my idea of a silhouette. I downloaded the image, which became the base layer of the digital painting.

The rest of the painting is my creation. Years ago, I took a photograph of a couple walking away from the camera on a path. I’d created an outline layer for another digital painting, and I copied that layer and put it on a mountain I painted by hand. Using the “rule of thirds,” I positioned the couple on the hill into a proper position.

 

Making the Valentine’s Day Greeting Card

I copied the finished image to greeting card stock format. Thank you, Avery Paper Co.., for suppling the greeting card designs – a shameless plug for Avery Greeting Card Paper. I added my signature and Valentine’s Day greeting, selecting Vladimir Script, and I found 48 pt size looked best. What do you think?

 

P.B.S. Studios

To see this and other digital paintings and photographs, go to the Gallery Section of my website, www.pbsstudios.com. You can purchase this and many digital paintings and photographic prints through my Etsy store or by contacting P.B.S. Studios. If you want a different saying, use the Contact form to contact P.B.S. Studios. I’m available to customize any digital painting or photograph into a greeting card.

P.B.S. Studios is a feature and content writer/photography/digital painting company that has written and published over a hundred articles for newspapers, magazines, and online publications. I’ve also had many other photographs published as illustrations in commercial and textbooks publications. As a digital photo-painter, I’ve had my work displayed in shops, libraries, galleries, restaurants, commercial buildings (including Manassas City Hall) in addition to banners.

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Thank You for the Flowers

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On Thursday, Linda and I received a wonderful arraignment of flowers that were delivered to our front door. They’re beautiful. It took a few calls, but I found out who sent them, so thank you for the flowers, Elaine.

The flowers came from out of nowhere. We were both shocked. Here was this beautiful arraignment of flowers in a yellow pot with a smiley face. All that was written on the attached card was a short message and no name.

It was a thoughtful gesture and I wanted to thank you for the flowers Elaine and for thinking of Linda.

Early Spring Cleaning

With the temperatures reaching into the low 60’s today, I used the nice weather to walk around the outside the house and clear the branches that fell during the winter storm we had a few weeks ago. While working on the side yard, our next-door neighbor, Madison came out to walk their dogs. She was nice enough to take picture of me in my NMU hockey jersey, documenting my efforts of cleaning the yard. Providing photographic evidence I really do try to keep the house presentable. Otherwise, none of my family would believe me.

 

Golf Season Warm-up

Earlier this past week I dusted off the golf clubs and after a two-hour frost delay, I played nine holes. Although I hit some good shots, there was a lot of winter “rust.”  It’s going to take a lot of work to get my golf swing back to in-season form. Still, it was great to hit a golf ball.

 

P.B.S. Studios

To see this and other digital paintings and photographs, go to the Gallery Section of my website, www.pbsstudios.com. You can purchase this and many digital paintings and photographs through my Etsy store or by contacting P.B.S. Studios. Use the Contact form to contact P.B.S. Studios.

P.B.S. Studios is a feature and content writer/photography/digital painting company written and published over a hundred articles for newspapers, magazines, and online publications. I’ve also had many other photographs published as illustrations in commercial and textbooks publications. As a digital photo-painter, I’ve had my work displayed in shops, libraries, galleries, restaurants, commercial buildings (including Manassas City Hall) in addition to banners.

Johnny Bower Goalie

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I just uploaded my latest digital painting called Johnny Bower, Goalie. The digital painting is based on a photo attachment to an email my bother sent to a group of his friends who are also into hockey.

The original photo was taken from the rafters looking straight down at the Johnny Bower, goalie for the Toronto Maple Leafs. I don’t know who took the original photo, but it’s a great picture of Bower after he made the save – the puck is over to his right.

 

Hockey Goalie Masks

What is amazing is Johnny Bower played goal during a time when goalies did not wear a mask on their face. When I was a kid, I remember reading a Life magazine article on the dangers of being an NHL goalie. In the accompanying photograph illustration, Life magazine hired a make-up artist to paint all the places on Detroit Red Wings goalie, Terry Sawchuck’s face where he had stitches from pucks hitting his face.

After Jacque Plante introduced the facemask (in 1959),

Boston Bruins goalie Gerry Cheevers used to mark his goalie mask with the black stich marks showing where the puck hit his mask. By the end of Cheever’s career, the mask was covered with black marks.

Since then, the hockey goalie mask has evolved to become more protective. They’ve also become works of art. Would you believe, some company is selling a current goalie mask with Gerry Cheever stitches painted on the mask!

PBS: I found these other images on the Internet. They are not mine, they are used to illustrate the column.

 

Digital Painting

During the email that contained the original picture, John made a comment about the picture looking like a painting. Well, during last week Washington Capital hockey games verses the Penguins and the Oilers, I took up the challenge and created the digital painting based on the photograph.  Create using Adobe Photoshop I used the original photo as a guide to get the perspective correct. Then I completed the rest by hand, trying to emulate the original photo. I like the graphic quality of the digital painting. With plenty of open space at the top for text, it’s perfect as an illustration for a hockey article.

 

P.B.S. Studios

To see this and other digital paintings and photographs, go to the Gallery Section of my website, www.pbsstudios.com. You can purchase this and many digital paintings and photographs through my Etsy store or by contacting P.B.S. Studios. Use the Contact form to contact P.B.S. Studios.

P.B.S. Studios is a feature and content writer/photography/digital painting company written and published over a hundred articles for newspapers, magazines, and online publications. I’ve also had many other photographs published as illustrations in commercial and textbooks publications. As a digital photo-painter, I’ve had my work displayed in shops, libraries, galleries, restaurants, commercial buildings (including Manassas City Hall) in addition to banners.

 

It was 40 Years Ago – Golf and my father

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May be art of 1 person, sky and text

John Smolens, my older brother and the family historian, reminded me that yesterday was the anniversary of our father’s death.  As we reminisced about the exciting moments via text messages and emails, I was reminded of a column I wrote for Washington Golf Monthly about golf and my father. Warning: Long Post

Golf with Jack – A Tribute to my Father

Although Wellesley resident, John (Jack) H. Smolens, my father passed away in 1981, I feel his presence every time I step onto a golf course. It was because of him that I play golf. He instilled a love of the game in me at an early age. He was my most significant influence on golf and life.
Far from a natural, my father was your weekend golfer with a 16 handicap. But you would never find a more dedicated golfer than my father. I think he discovered the game like many through the big three, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, and Arnold Palmer. It was because of them; he joined the Wellesley Country Club.
I was ten years old when he asked me to caddie for my mother. A struggling beginner she played on Sunday afternoons with my father. Because of the lack of available caddies, my mother wanted to make sure she had a bag totter. Being the middle one of the three boys in the family, (older brother John was already showing promise as a tennis player and my younger brother Michael was too young) I was the logical choice.
I spent the afternoon walking around the hilly Wellesley Country Club golf course, pulling my mother’s cart. At the end of the round, my father gave me two dollars (we’re early 60’s). My getting money for spending the afternoon with my parents, my employment future was set. I couldn’t wait for the next Sunday!
In the beginning, everyone thought it was cute, that my mother would have her son carry pull her golf cart. Mom told one of her friends, “at least I know he’s not getting into trouble.”
Once school let out for the summer, I went to the club to caddie. Although I didn’t know it at the time, this simple act of a youthful teen wanting to make some money caused quite a stir with some of the club members. A member son who wished to be a caddie?
Thankfully my father and Les Bond, the golf professional at the club, came to my rescue. They had the insight to be rational about the situation. The club needed caddies (this was before golf carts took over) and here I was willing to work. So it was decided that when I was a caddie, I was to be treated like a caddie. When I came to play, I was a member. It worked out because club rules stated only adults could play on the weekend mornings (Little did they know I would later break that rule when I qualified for the Club Championship at 16 years old).
By high school, I became one of the top caddies in the club. Club members would request my services. Still, one of my proudest moments was being asked to caddie for my father in the annual member-guest tournament at the club.
Through caddying, I learned how to play the game of golf. Throughout my teens, when I was not caddying, I worked on my golf game. By my junior year in high school, my handicap was in the single digits.
It was that spring that I played my first “real” golf tournament with my father. His regular partner for the annual “Spring Cup” golf tournament at the club was injured. Needing a partner, he asked if I would consider playing with him instead of working as a caddie. I jumped at the opportunity.
We did ok. The “Spring Cup” was a two-person best ball tournament based on handicap. We played pretty well, qualifying for the first flight. Over the next few weekends, we moved through the field only to lose in the finals to a man who while getting 16 shots off my handicap shoots a lifetime best 83 on his ball. Although I played well, shooting 75 on my ball, we lost two up with 1 to play.
The few times I played golf with my father during high school were always a treat. He had a way of making me feel relaxed – to enjoy the game of golf. In my senior year in high school, I was regularly shooting in the low to mid 70’s, but I could never break the par barrier. It finally happened while playing with my father. During qualifying for the club championship I finally broke par, shooting a two-under-par 70.
A once in a lifetime round, my drives were staying in the fairway. The irons were heading at the pin, and even some of the putts were dropping. As we played the last few holes, I started to realize what was happening. But Dad always knew what to say to keep me level-headed. Sinking the short birdie putt on the 18th green, I don’t know who was happier. All I know is I will never forget the smile on my father’s face when I looked up after hearing the ball fall into the cup.
After high school, I had moved on starting on a road to becoming a professional golfer working at country clubs in New England.
In the mid-’70s, my father was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease – a deadly form of cancer. With his health slowly deteriorating, rounds of golf with my father became special. I made it an annual event to have Dad join me for one afternoon of golf at the club where I worked. Those days became cherished memories that I will remember for the rest of my life.
The last round of golf we had together was in 1979 while I was Assistant Golf Pro at Nashawtuc Country Club in Concord, MA. Although he didn’t play very well, as I recall, I remember every time I looked over he was smiling. During the round, I asked him why he seemed happy.
“The circle was complete,” he said as we rode in the cart. “Seeing the way you hit the golf ball, I know that golf will always be in our family.” Happy Father’s Day dad – you’re the best!
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Latest Digital Painting

Unfortunately, I don’t have any photographs of my father playing golf – shame on me. My latest digital painting, part of my silhouette series is a tribute to Dan Gibson. Dan recorded nature sounds and put them to music. For years, they have accompanied me on this writing/photograph/digital painting journey. Playing nature sounds and music while I write. It’s the best way I know to keep out the distractions of a busy office. It’s based on a photograph of Dan Gibson in a Canoe.
Check out the gallery section on my website, www.pbsstudios.com to see this digital photo painting and other examples of my work. Please Note: all items are for sale. Send me an email: psmolens@pbsstudios.com. Payment is arraigned through PayPal, check, or credit card through my square account.

Mary B. Smolens – 100 Years Old Birthday Tribute

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December 27, 2021 – I can’t believe I forgot that yesterday was my mother, Mary B. Smolens’ 100-year-old birthday until I saw my older brothers and sister’s photo collages on Facebook. My brother also sent the family an MS PowerPoint of old photographs he found of our mother. Thank you, John. It was great seeing those old photographs.

How did I miss the signs? I went back and looked at recent emails sent by my family about last night’s weekly family zoom meeting. All of the emails mention our mother’s birthday, which is on the day after Christmas, and that it was a 100-year celebration. Thanks to John Lennon, I guess it’s true, “life happens when you’re busy making other plans.”

Photographer of the Family

What makes me so crazy is I’m the photographer of the family. Since I was ten years old, I took photographs starting with a Brownie box camera and Kodak roll film. It began in Dr. Taggart’s (our family doctor and his son. Jeff, my childhood best friend) darkroom, and I watched him develop a photographic print; I was hooked. Since then, I have branched out to add the writing (copy, content, and feature) and digital painting to my photography talents.

Since then, I have become our family’s photographer. I’ve taken many photographs of my mother. Upon her death in 2007, I created a collage of images of my mother. I have a printed copy hanging on my corkboard near my work desk. I spent the better part of the morning looking for the original images of the collage. I know I have it back up somewhere on one of my many external hard drives. But I couldn’t find the folder with the original images. So I scanned the print. That is what I uploaded with this blog entry.

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Greetings from P.B.S. Studios Christmas Day, 2021

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Greetings from P.B.S. Studios on Christmas Day, 2021. Now that my family has received their holiday card, I can share it with my friends on the web (and Facebook.) You’ve seen the original digital photo painting is called “Retirement!” The image was also the cover of this year’s calendar. So it was an obvious choice for this year’s holiday card. I hope you like this year’s edition.

 

Christmas Day, 2021 Greetings

Linda and I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. I hope you all have a safe and happy holiday. Hopefully, we’re on the downside of the pandemic. The sooner everyone gets vaccinated with the three shots, the better we’ll all be able to deal with whatever variant that comes down the pike.

 

Linda Birthday

Before I forget, Linda wanted me to thank you all for the wonderful comments on Facebook. She appreciates the thoughtfulness of all her friends as she goes through this trying time of her life. She wishes she could be more active, she hopes you all understand.

 

P.B.S. Studios

P.B.S. Studios is a feature and content writer/photography/digital painting company that’s written and published over a hundred articles for newspapers, magazines, and online publications. I’ve also had many other photographs published as illustrations in commercial and textbooks publications. As a digital photo-painter, I’ve had my work displayed in shops, libraries, galleries, restaurants, commercial buildings (including Manassas City Hall) in addition to banners. This year’s banners were located on the streets of the City of Manassas at Church Street, across from the US Post Office. and in front and across the street of Okra’s Restaurant.

Check out the gallery section on my website, www.pbsstudios.com to see digital photo paintings and other examples of my work. Please Note: all photographs and digital paintings are for sale through my Etsy store or from me. Send me an email to psmolens@pbsstudios.com Payment is arraigned through PayPal, check, or credit card through my square account.

Happy Holidays!

 

Art Inventory Sale at Harris Pavilion This Saturday!

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P.B.S. Studios will be part of the Manassas Art Guild (MAG) group art sale at the Artist Inventory Sale at the Harris Pavilion in downtown Manassas, VA, on Saturday, October 23, 2021.

At the Art Inventory Sale at Harris Pavilion, I will be showing a selected number of digital photo paintings. There will be both framed and unframed matted versions of my digital photo paintings for sale. Also for sale is the 2022 P.B.S. Studios Digital Painting calendar and my book, “Digital Photo Painting using Adobe Photoshop. The show will run from 1 – 5 PM.

 

P.B.S. Studios is a writer/photography/digital painting company that’s written and published over a hundred articles for newspapers, magazines, and online publications. I’ve also published many other photographs as illustrations in commercial and textbook publications. As a digital photo painter, I’ve had my work displayed in shops, libraries, restaurants, and on the streets of the City of Manassas. This year you can see my banners on Church Street across from the Manassas Post Office. Other banners are located on Battle Street in front of Orkra’s and at the end of Monza Restaurant,

Check out the gallery section on my website, www.pbsstudios.com, to see digital photo paintings and other examples of my work.

 

 

P.B.S. Studios 2022 Digital Painting Calendar Available

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P.B.S. Studios are proud to announce the P.B.S. Studios 2022 Digital Painting Calendar is available. The calendar contains 13 reproductions of my digital photo paintings. The 2022 Digital Painting Calendar includes a selection of my landscapes, cats, silhouettes, and other paintings.

 

The cover is digital photo-painting is called “Retirement.”  The digital painting is based on a card I found (and gave to my wife) from Blue Mountain Greeting Card Company. As many of you know, I have created a number of digital photo paintings based on cards from Blue Mountain Greeting Card Company.

I tried to match up the paintings with the seasons. All 13 (cover and 12 months) images within the 2022 Digital Painting Calendar are also available as prints and greeting cards. To view samples of the calendar images, click on the link.

https://pbsstudios.com/pbs-studios-2022-digital-painting-calendar/

 

You can purchase the P.B.S. Studios 2022 Digital Painting Calendar through Etsy or by contacting P.B.S. Studios. The cost of the calendar is $20. USD. plus $5.00 for shipping and handling orders in the US.  Payment can be made by credit card and Paypal. Use the Contact form to contact P.B.S. Studios and order the calendar.

P.B.S. Studios is a feature and content writer/photography/digital painting company. I’ve written and published over a hundred articles for newspapers, magazines, and online publications. I’ve also had many other photographs published as illustrations in commercial and textbooks publications. As a digital photo painter, my work is displayed in shops, libraries, galleries, restaurants, commercial buildings (including Manassas City Hall) in addition to banners.

Check out the gallery section on my website, www.pbsstudios.com, to see other photographs, digital photo paintings, and other examples of my work.

 

Art Show Next Weekend.

Next Saturday, October 23, P.B.S. Studios are participating in the Art Inventory Sale at Harris Pavilion in downtown, Manassas, VA as one of the artists with Manassas Art Guild (MAG). I’ll be showing old and new digital paintings including framed, unframed, greeting cards, and the new P.B.S. Studios 2022 Digital Painting Calendar.

Latest Digital Painting – a Female Golfer

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This past weekend, I created my latest digital painting – a female golfer while watching the American triumph over Europe in the Ryder Cup. It was a great weekend! Golf, painting, and writing, a perfect combination. Add taking care of Linda, and you have a snapshot of my life.

For three days, I saw the best golfers in the world take on one of the most demanding golf in the world. The shot-making was incredible. The putting in the stiff wind was remarkable.

Even playing lousy on Friday morning – I guess I couldn’t concentrate like the Ryder Cup golfers. Well, I do have an excuse – it didn’t count. I had extra rounds “in the bank.”

 

Digital Painting – Female Golfer

I worked on the digital painting while watching the Ryder Cup. The germ of the idea came while I was watching the Solheim Cup – the LPGA version of the Ryder Cup.

During that weekend, I completed another digital painting assignment. I’ve done multiple digital paintings that included men, never of a woman. It was a perfect subject to paint this weekend. The painting is based on a photograph of an LPGA golfer. I took the photo when the tour made its stop at Kingsmill in Williamsburg, VA, a few years ago.

I used one of my favorite techniques. Making the photograph the base layer of the painting, I started the process by outlining the subject. Then, fill in the spaces with color. I use a method many of my friends who paint using their traditional way of painting. They use reference photos and draw an outline on the canvass.

This digital painting is also an experiment. In David Cole’s book, he called the process, “Line and Wash.” In this painting, I used some of his elements and tried creating a hybrid by incorporating graphic illustrations. Did I succeed?

To see this and other digital paintings and photographs, go to the Gallery Section of my website, www.pbsstudios.com

 

Published an Article

Last week after sending a follow-up email about a recent submission, I found out that Great Escape Publishing is publishing my article on Favorite Online Editing Tools in their newsletter. Woohoo! The bad news, according to the editor, this is the last newsletter the company is publishing. Over the past few years, this company has published many of my articles on writing and photography. I’ll post a copy soon.

 

 

 

 

New Digital Painting – “Walking the Dog”

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While watching American and European women on TV battle for the Solheim Cup this past weekend, I created a new digital painting – “Walking the Dog.” The digital artwork is my latest entry into my Silhouette series. I made the painting while watching the Solheim Cup.

At first, it was a color exercise. I had seen a video on TikTok where an artist put different watercolor paints on paper as horizontal strips of color. From top to bottom, the background covered the entire color spectrum. It was interesting to see as the colors merged, making a different color. As a digital painter, I could duplicate the process using Adobe Photoshop and Mixer Brush to blend the colors.

I started painting Saturday afternoon during the alternate-shot matches. It was close, but Europe made the putts to get out to a commanding lead. The USA came back some in the afternoon.

Painting Trees

Although I have several Tree Brushes and have used the Render Tree program in Photoshop 2020, it’s now grayed out, and the explanation is I need a faster computer or a better graphics card. And Adobe wonders why I use Photoshop CS5 to create the trees manually.

Using the Bob Ross method of creating a pine tree, I use the fan brush that is customized to be horizontal to create the silhouette of the pine trees. Although Bob likes to go back and forth across the width of the tree, I often go down one side and then changing the angle of the brush to paint the other side of the tree. In the end, I liked the contrast between the different colors in the background and the pine trees silhouette in the foreground.

Still, I need somewhere for the viewer to focus. On Sunday, during the golf matches, I found a picture of a girl walking her dog in my files. I drew an outline of the subject and painted it with black color. I then transfer and resized the silhouette of the girl and her dog. The result is my latest digital painting and congratulations to the European women for winning the Solheim Cup.

To see this and other digital paintings and photographs, go to the Gallery Section of my website.

 

Happy Birthday, John

Yesterday was my brother’s 72 (?) – must be, he’s four years older than yours truly. Although I called last night and left a voicemail of “It’s Johnny’s Birthday” from the George Harrison’s “All Things Must Pass” – not as good as your and Ellen’s rendition of the Beatles, “It’s Your Birthday” video, but an excellent last-minute substitute. Sorry for the poor quality of the CD, my computer speaker sucks. Sorry, it’s late, but a card went out in the mail over the weekend.