Arts!

A major part of the equipment the company sent me for my new home office was a glorious new (expensive) tablet.  Unlike other tablets, where you draw on the tablet and it corresponds to the screen ahead of you, this tablet actually IS the screen, and you draw right on it. 

 

This thing is... amazing.  It is also really great for producing completely digital art.  You can adjust your settings in Photoshop and other such programs and the stylus is pressure sensitive, so it's just like drawing on paper.  I had had problems trying to draw and paint using a stylus previously, but that turns out to have been primarily because I didn't realize that the tablet I was using was kind of... inadequate.

SO, I have decided to finally share some new artwork right here on my blog!  These are just a few samples of things I've been doing as I've been growing accustomed to my new equipment and programs.  Enjoy!  

Naturally, my first project was Jasmine, which I tried last fall to much disappointment.  This one turned out much more to my liking.

 

Then, of course, came the Boy Who Lived...

And of course I decided I was finally confident enough with the equipment to do a tribute to my muse!  This one was started early on, but I just worked on it here and there for the last several days.  It's not perfect, but it has the feeling of her.

Then Julie and I had a little art party where we took turns coming up with a random idea and we both had to draw it.  It can be a challenge to come up with interesting and original ideas, but the results can be well worth it.  (I'll leave it up to Julie to post her versions at her own discretion.)  Observe:

First, we each had to draw the adorable and tiny redheaded girl we saw racing around on her scooter when we went to Classic Skating last weekend.

 

Then Julie requested we draw any kind of sea creature:

 

Then I wanted each of us to draw a character inspired by the movie we were watching, which happened to be Napoleon Dynamite:

And finally, Julie suggested we each draw ourselves as a character from Avatar.  Now, as most of you know, I have little to no love for this movie (way too long, kind of boring, visually interesting at times, but it seems to be showing off and trying to make up for bland characters and a blatantly unoriginal story), but the idea for this drawing was kind of intriguing, and two days later finally turned into this finished product, of which I was actually pretty proud.  It's basically a reflection of how I would feel if I were forced to live the way of the Na'Vi.

I call it, "OMG, it glows.  My life is so boring."

And now, to give you just an idea of the kind of graphics I do for work, here are a couple of samples, to be used in training presentations for school administrative programs.  I don't know exactly what copyright laws apply, but, you know, don't use these for anything or whatever.  If you need any drawings done, just ask me and I'll do them for you anyway, no need to use these old things!

And there you have it!  Thumbs-up from us on this moste excellente product!  We call it Steerforth.

(This graphic: Drawing by me, coloring by Julie)