Plumerias in Painter

Just to recap: I spend my nights at the hospital with my mom while she recovers from chemo.
I started bringing my old MacBook from college days.
I found an old version of Corel Painter. (X)
It's too hard to actually draw in my journal here, so lately I've been experimenting with the effects in Painter that I never really used.
It's awfully slow, but I'm not in any hurry.

Today I took a picture of some plumerias that the student/groundskeeper planted by the office.
I'm so jealous, he has the colored variety! At home I have only the white/yellow kind.

I asked him about the spitting incident last night.
He said he dodged the spittle, and that the police escorted the homeless lady away, but it wasn't enough to get a restraining order.

Today I really wanted to draw this with watercolor pencils.
I was very frustrated. I didn't think I would be happy with the results tonight.

I simulated the stucco background with a tool called Fairy Dust:

I always dreaded and avoided the Impasto tools in Painter. The 3-D effect was just too intimidating.
Today I was so upset, I used the Impasto tool anyway.

Pushing the blobs around was so engrossing that I didn't save any of the work in progress.
I used a tool called Gloopy Impasto and then used a Depth Smear tool to refine it.

In the end, like the cantankerous hospital security guard, it wasn't so bad after all.
Definitely going to try this out again tomorrow.