Thursday, June 22, 2006

Graphics tablet


Late last year I obtained a digital graphics tablet with the help of a friend in the United States who is in the computer industry. They can be purchased in Canada, but as with all things, if obtained at source, you can get a better price and quicker service. This tablet is a middle range one, price wise as I didn't want to invest a lot of money in one, not knowing if I would use it much.

I have experimented with it and played with a number of graphics programs on it such as Adobe Photoshop,Artrage, Dogwaffle,and Twisted Brush are just some of the available programs either for sale or to try for free. They all have a lot in common, providing a variety of mediums and supports to create art digitally.

Effective digital art has a steep learning curve, dependent on the program that you are using, especially Photoshop. And at this point, I use the most basic features and still haven't taken the time to study or experiment indepth. Time is always the challenge for me. But when I browse forums that produce extraordinary art created digitally, it always inspires me to pull the tablet back out and try again.

This watercolour started as a sketchbook doodle, which just seemed to flow. Can I recreate on watercolour paper? Its fate is in the hands of the gods of watercolour on the day that I try. I'm waiting patiently (well somewhat patiently) for my waterbrush to arrive. Russell Stutler provides a great piece on the different brushes available. Then I can take it on some sketching field trips. These are neat little brushes that eliminate the need to trek jars of water around with me when I want to do some watercolour work with pans of colour or watercolour pencils.

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