Photo by N.Merowna.

"Up, up and away...In my beautiful balloon."

(I might be dating myself with that introduction.)

Here it is. I wish I could remember all of the steps, but I don't. Basically, it's VP Colored Pencil, and then a bunch of stuff to make it look unlike VP.

-Jeff

Nice painted effect, Jeff. I like your strokes. :)

I decided the balloons would look nice over the sea so I combined 2 photos.

Steps:

I first duplicated my original..I put this here as it's a step I tend to forget and end up having to go backwards.
Resized sea photo to match balloon photo.
Shift/Click on Ballon bkg in layer pallet and drag to the sea. It should center but if it doesn't use the move tool to fix it.
Flip canvas horizontal as I did or leave it as it is.
Add layer mask/reveal all
Add gradient (gray/black) dragging tool from bottom left to top right.
Brighten/Contrast to desired effect.
Flatten image
Unsharp mask settings: 187, 85, 83, again this is according to the look you want.

I hope these directions are understandable for other beginners like myself. If not please ask and I will be happy to help. I didn't create this easily but was learning as I progressed.

I realize this is not a realistic look but I like the mixture.

http://whynotme.free.fr/LidoBlu/ci-balloonscopy.jpg

Blu