Thank you for the kind words. I use photopaint quite a bit, it has some nice features, one that is nice is that you can use "texture" on the image list (nozzle/tube) feature; also the vignette is useful. I usually ship things back and forth between the programs. The background is really the birds picture created using KPT6 sky feature. I have been exploring the use of different aspects, gel, overlay, colorize, etc. The Painter graphic pens are great also. Dress and other "detail" were painted on.