Working on an ocean. It is the cliche ocean waves breaking scene (much like in raytracing, doing the mirrored ball on a checkered plane) but it is also perfect to teach me all about how to use a tablet to simulate an oil painting (sans canvas texture, of course – I may add that in later, who knows?). Mixing colors would be much better implemented if you could actually have a palette board and mix colors as if you were painting for real.
It is rough, the wave on the left side is still elusive, and the shade of green in the sky isn’t my favorite. I also want to slowly tease the green in the wave itself into a slightly bluer shade – it’ll be delicate given the sky color.
(Click it to bigger it)
Next is WIP 2 – with some sunlight added… not sure if I like or not, but the green in the sky has gotta go.
Again, click it to get the larger version.
But, like I said – it’s my first painting of this style and I’m not totally displeased with it. A tablet and pastels/pencils/ink are so different as to be in different solar systems.
For those of you who are interested, the Wacom Bamboo Fun variant of the tablet family is an excellent way to dip your toes into it for $105.
Critical comments and suggestions for improving are welcome. I like advice because if I didn’t need it, I’d be selling art for a living, you know? It’s pretty obvious I could use it. 🙂
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Update: Only slightly disturbing was the hit to my website using these search words:
self defence portable flame thrower
It’s unfortunate because I only sell the plans for the canine-mounted version. A LARGE canine.
Update #2: This is so cool my tongue has dried out because my jaw is still on my chest and my socks flew clear across the room as they were knocked off my feet. Can’t even find my bunny slippers.
NASA’s Mars Phoenix Lander can be seen parachuting down to Mars, in this image captured by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
source: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/images/press/9227-PHX_Lander.html
Update #3: Boo-hoo. Man is this guy a whiny little bastard when things are not going his way. Face it Bill, life just ain’t fair. Your “wife”s votes aren’t being counted for Michigan and Florida because they couldn’t hold to the rules of the game. Typical democrat attitude to try to circumvent anything you don’t like, typically using “It’s for the _____” (insert: children, disenfranchised, environment, lower class Americans – whichever furthers your cause most)
May 26, 2008Bill Clinton says wife is victim of a ‘cover up’Posted: 10:55 AM ETFrom CNN Associate Political Editor Rebecca Sinderbrand
(CNN) — Former President Bill Clinton said that Democrats were more likely to lose in November if his wife Hillary Clinton is not the party’s presidential nominee, and suggested some people were trying to “cover this up” and “push and pressure and bully” superdelegates to make up their minds prematurely.“I can’t believe it. It is just frantic the way they are trying to push and pressure and bully all these superdelegates to come out,” he said at a South Dakota campaign stop Sunday, in remarks first reported by ABC News. “’Oh, this is so terrible: The people they want her. Oh, this is so terrible: She is winning the general election, and he is not. Oh my goodness, we have to cover this up.'”
The former president added that his wife had not been given the respect she deserved as a legitimate presidential candidate. “She is winning the general election today and he is not, according to all the evidence,” he said. “And I have never seen anything like it. I have never seen a candidate treated so disrespectfully just for running.”
“Her only position was, ‘Look, if I lose I’ll be a good team player. We will all try to win — but let’s let everybody vote, and count every vote,’” he said.
The former president suggested that if the New York senator ended the primary season with an edge in the popular vote, it would be a significant development. “If you vote for her and she does well in Montana and she does well in Puerto Rico, when this is over she will be ahead in the popular vote,” said Clinton. (more)
Update #4: This can’t be for real, can it?
IAEA: Iran may be withholding info in nuke probe
May 26, 8:24 PM (ET)
By GEORGE JAHN
VIENNA, Austria (AP) – Iran may be withholding information needed to establish whether it tried to make nuclear arms, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Monday in an unusually strongly worded report.The tone of the language suggesting Tehran continues to stonewall the U.N. nuclear monitor revealed a glimpse of the frustration felt by agency investigators stymied in their attempts to gain full answers to suspicious aspects of Iran’s past nuclear activities.
(Here’s the portion of that article that should get you – LK)
“The intelligence also suggested Iran was researching construction of an underground site that apparently could be used to test fire nuclear bombs and ordered “dual use” equipment from abroad that could be part of an atomic weapons program.
Additionally, Iran possesses diagrams showing how to mold uranium metal into the shape of warheads.”
We all know that shaping of uranium is crucial to generating nuclear power, so what are you worried about? -LK
source: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080527/D90TLAO00.html
Lemur King's Folly 
Argh. I gots me a Wacom tablet and photoshop… but no experience with either. Any suggestions on some reading materials I can pick up to ease the learning curve a bit?
I am just amazed at what yuo can do with one of those tablets, and it was actually one of the first pictures that you did with one (I think it was that black horse) that inspired me to pick one up as well.
Well I have nothing but praise for you brotha… I have no idea what this WACOM tablet thingy is .. but it looks pretty cool! I was once a very talented arteeest myself… wining many competitions as a kid all thru-out my school career but stopped when I moved out on my own. Life as I knew it before was no longer my muse… My life changed.
So I’m very impressed… and can only offer praise, rather than a creeeteeek!
Very nice.
My advice (repeating something I said on my blog) is to hang out at the Concept Art forums and lookit the pitchers. I do, lots. I don’t know which I learn more from, the really great artwork or the really horrible artwork. Both teach you things about handling Photoshop.
Yeah, I remembered that actually.
You might identify with this… between playing artistically, blogging, catching up with folks… it’s a juggling game. I just hadn’t made time to do it yet. I wasn’t flaunting your advice! 🙂
I’m too poor to afford P-shop. I’ve got Elements, which is ok as far as it goes but it could be better – LOTS better.
Old Iron, sorry I dropped your comment.
I’ve been goofing around with GIMP and PaintShop for years and years so the curve was minimal for photo-editing.
Painting… I used to (no kidding, really) sit and watch my mom paint for HOURS and asked her enough questions to drive a saint insane. I think she honestly enjoyed teaching art so it was fun for her (she was not an art teacher).
The tablet… I have been feeling my way around, too. No books or materials (and their e:manual sucks) That is what I meant by the tablet being so different from other forms.
1) the tactile feedback is way different – oil and palette knife or brush flow/glide, pastels grab slightly, and ink slides with drag depending on the nib and angle
2) Amount of media that transfers to your canvas is highly dependent upon opacity and fade, I tend to set the fade to like 24 for the oil painting stuff and fiddle with opacity more – that may flaunt all conventions but I need to check out the site that our favorite mustelid pointed out
3) I’m used to being able to roll a brush or pen mid-stroke, whereas you can’t do that with a ‘boo stylus.
Photoshop is outside of my monetary means. If any of you see a deal that is out there or know of avenues where I could buy even an older copy at cut-rate it would help me dramatically. Elements does not give you access to alpha channels and lots of other bells and whistles with layer manipulation, which is an indispensable tool.
I can say that using your wand selection tool and painting subsets or regions that way is the single biggest help I’ve run across lately.
KC – as much as I hate to be a free spokesman for a company, I’m in love with the tablet. I’ll never use a mouse again when it comes to graphics. Mice are nice, but wholly unsuited for art. You sound very much like there’s still an artist in you!
Hmmmm. I might be able to get you a copy of ‘Shop when I get back to the house. I’ll hit you up when I start heading that way so I can get it to you as a “Thanks for the comments” gift.
Let’s just say that I have a spare lying around…
Version 6 is the last version of P’shop that doesn’t phone home. <koff>. Just sayin’.
Weas, … noted.
(Thanks for the heads-up)
That would be cool. I’m saving up for CS3 but it’s going to take a while. I wish they’d let you buy an older version (much older) and then buy incremental upgrades as you were able. I think they’d actually sell more product overall if they did that, but it probably goes against their business models.
Sales/suits don’t always function in the real world. The big guns (graphics companies/depts) will always want the best and latest, while the rest of us would be happy to start with an older version and work up rather than just be priced out of the market outright.
All this computer geek talk… makes me wanna go out and check out these products. I’ve never used PS or this Tablet… I see courses offered on PS all the time and have often thought about taking it… but useless unless one has the product.
Gonna … go snooping around to see what’s what… !!!
As far as the arteest in me… well I think I’m spewing forth too much venom these days to come with something pretty… but once the waves calm down… who knows what can happen??!!
Just google “Wacom bamboo fun” You want the “fun” version. It’s silly to name it that, but that’s it’s name. The other version is more for if you want to use it as a tablet for work.
Ok, about the pictures. I like the water texture on the waves, those are really done nicely. I’m not crazy about that sky though. It’s too grey and too much the same, I think. You need some darks in there to punch it up, particularly in the second one where you’re playing around with the crepuscular light rays. You need some darks up there to contrast it.
Back to the waves – you had some green in the top picture that you pulled out of the bottom one. I think you might want to revisit that. I think you’ll like some more color variation in the waves. Try a darker and bluer green in the waves, particularly right up next to the foam. You need some darker values there to pop the foam and give more depth to the wave. You have a nice background fade, so I wouldn’t mess with that but you do need to punch up the foreground waves to get some separation and provide a focal point.
There’s my $.02.
Oh, and there’s another minor comment elsewhere hanging out in the spam bucket.
Cool, thanks Enas. Good solid comments to work on. I’m working again tonight but hope to take Friday off – if so, I can play tomorrow night with it.
I’ll go roto-rooter your comment out of the spam filter.