The passing week has been a busy one for everyone and I do apologize for not posting last Sunday, to make it up I decided to post a day early just for you guys. As anticipated, the Intuos Pro arrived, ah the beauty. The only problem is.. After finding out from an extremely stubborn German Intuos support person, my Intuos graphics tablet is not 'supported' by Adobe or Corel software- because I live in the middle of practically nowhere, you know, right next to Santa Clause's workshop - and thus, I have to go buy a software myself and let me tell you, it is not cheap. However, I've managed to get me a trial version of Corel Painter Lite for about 15 days before I have to go buy it for 60 euros... Or just go ahead and buy the Corel Painter version which is valued at around 420 euros. Peanuts, huh? Anyway as you know, without the software the tablet is as useful as an over grown track pad.
Anyways, here is the beauty. Just today I got to really try it after making the decision to download the Corel Painter Lite, as you can see my drawing on the computer screen which was doodled on the Painter Lite program with the graphics tablet. Even though my tablet is size small, it is quite enough for my purposes and I didn't find it too small, at least not yet. What I'm trying to say is that you don't necessarily need a great big pad for your first one, if it is your first one, the small size is plenty big. Actually it was a great deal bigger than I thought even though I had my doubts about it. With the keyboard, I hear you can speed up your selections and working, but I sure haven't gotten used to any of it quite yet. I had this imagine in my head before I got to drawing that it would be unbearably odd to draw looking at a screen while sketching on a tablet below your nose and I had a pleasant surprise discovering that this wasn't the case. After about 10 minutes of doodling I quickly got used to the setup and found it slightly weird but nothing that I couldn't get used to in a few days of practice. There is a cool rotation function, as if you were actually tilting the paper to draw more naturally, which is a great help to make the procedure feel like you are actually drawing on a piece of paper.
Along with the graphics tablet, I got a few books to get me started and familiar with the functions of the software and machine. Unfortunately, most of these are focused on Photoshop, which I'm not too keen in learning, for instance, using existing pictures etc to make art. I'm more of a 'do it yourself'' kind of person, and I sometimes find it more as cheating than making art which I know, I know, isn't true. Anyway, I've been through all of these books, and they are great for learning and getting used to the software with a few inspiring ideas and tips for the future. I've got a lot to read and learn...
After sketching around with the Painter Lite for a few hours, I tested my skills by drawing out of my own memory and drew this pumpkin in a bit less than an hour. It took me awhile, but I really did think that my first doodle would have gone a lot, I mean a LOT, worse.
So I guess all in all, I'm relatively pleased with this digital art thing. On the pumpkin I first created a layer and drew my sketch with a "2B" pencil, I gotta say it took me awhile to get used to the tilt- function on it, if you wanted a thin pencil mark, you have to keep the pencil at a 90 degrees angle and on a 45 degrees if you wanted a fat, rich mark. So that was one of the obstacles with the Painter but otherwise the experience was pretty authentic. For the colors I used "Bristle Oils" and to blend the colors I used a "Blender Palette Knife". Now, this is my first time using Bristle Oils so I can't say whether it felt realistic or not, but I think it looks pretty real, like paint on a canvas. Yes? No?
Anyway, that's about it for Christmas and today. Now, excuse moi, I've got to get back to my 15-day experience of doodling..
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