My hearts are slightly less than perfectly symmetrical, but I kinda' like 'em like that. It took several tries, but I really think I'm beginning to get a feel for how to use the Pen tool - not to mention improving my ability to actually get my selected fill into the shape I've created! Progress...

This is my 'mountain with flowers, clouds, and road' scene. I'm not sure whether I was using the Hose Tool correctly, since I had to click for each flower I placed. I sort of expected it to work more like PaintShop Pro tubes - just click and drag and there they are! There is, no doubt, some setting I haven't yet discovered to fix it!

And here's my original composition, created almost exclusively with the pen tool. I did use the pencil for the shading on the 'river bank' and the smaller branches on the tree.

The main part of the tree was done with the pen tool as a single shape.

I really love working with layers, which I first really learned in my Photoshop class at Capella. This image, needless to say, has about a zillion layers (okay, 7), including one for the branches behind the tree and one for the branches in front.