playing around with Corel Painter

Realizing I had spent a hundred bucks on a program I never learned how to use properly...I decided to have a go. It's actually quite nifty. I used an oil brush and a blender brush, and then applied some yellowy lighting effect. All while watching Fargo.
Does anyone else find that exertion can shut down the subtleties of the visual mind?

help...

After Dimitri's rally cry to "get better", I started on a drawing idea that was lingering in my mind...one inspired by the large tree in my backyard here in Brooklyn:


Now, I intend to render this, by hand or machine. I started coloring the leaves, to moderate success:


I'm not sure if I like where this is going or not. I did bring it a little further than this, but became frightened, that the style of the drawing was getting lost in a cloud of PhotoShop techniques. I might just shade it all delicately with pencil...dark with highlights.

Thoughts?

polygons

polygons