Johnnie- They look great, but I'm always unsure what I'm looking at on all "Photoshop Artist", is it real, or is it memorex? ;-) The mermaid was 100% had painted, parts (the torso) were done overtop of a B&W scan, but there are no pixels in it from the scan. Photoshops painting tools always seemed crude aproxomations of Painter's to me, but it is partly what you are used to, I'm sure. With Painter I can put a dab of red on the skin and work it into the whole area, just like you can with real oils on real canvas, I never get that kind of control with Photoshop's smudge tool. To each their own, I'm sure! I hardly use Painter anymore (I do most of my artwork in mesh these days!), but I used to really enjoy it. It is a shame they interface got weird in version 3.