I didn’t want you to think I’d forgotten about you! :)
The past few days have been super busy with family stuff. To top it off, I just found out my best friend is in the hospital having her baby! Yay! So, that’s exciting.
On the Modbook front: I am still learning. There are definitely little learning curves that you have to overcome along the way, but it’s all worth it. Using the Modbook is the most natural digital art experience I’ve ever had.
So, as I learn and work on other articles, I thought I’d share a semi-respectable flower I made. :) I did this piece in Art Rage with the pastel tool. It’s not perfect but, considering I’m still getting used to the Modbook and haven’t seriously done anything artistic in 3 years, I am happy with it.
Have a great weekend out there!
August 23rd, 2008 at 11:00 am
Hey you Ryan, very nice flower! Saw a bunch of those in bloom in D.C. I’m amazed that in such a short time you’ve changed your website - wonderful improvements, nice design. And you still managed a through investigation of your new machine. Well written! I’m thinking this will become a most hit site on modbooks. Anywho, I’m pooped but I’m looking forward to firing my baby up to get back to work this afternoon. But before I do, the reasons I’m partial to SketchBook Pro over Art Rage is the control I have as far as reproduceability. Like you I think ArtRage’s painting/drawing tools are the best I’ve seen anywhere. (Come on Painter, get with it…. Make your interface easier and better yet! We longtime users deserve it! Obviously it can be done.) Matter of fact SkechbookPro could take some tips and refine their media too… but owning both for me is a good solution. I have been doing my “better stuff” in SkechbookPro, I’m very used to the interface now and love it. It’s fast and reliable even at very high resolution. Art Rage has had some resolution problems for me and it must be set up each time, no default controls. The good news is both handle well and in photoshop. Traditional artists don’t use just one pen or brush so we computer artists can use more than 1 program to make our art.
I’m gonna take it easy today, then figure out how to post some work. So you (all) can critique! Then I wanna tackle Illustrator and run it through it’s paces. Enjoy the rest of your weekend. Sunny, warm and nice here.
Baby congrats too. Boy or girl?
August 24th, 2008 at 9:08 am
Hey Suzi! I’m glad you made it back safely! I hope the trip was fantastic! :)
Thanks for the compliments on the site and the flower. I have a long way to go on both fronts, but I’m enjoying the ride so far.
I haven’t run in to any resolution problems in Art Rage yet, but I’m also not working with large files yet. I’m still in the “playing” phase right now, so most of what I draw, I discard. I will definitely keep that in the back of my mind as I learn.
I’ve found the tools in Sketchbook to be lackluster. The paint doesn’t look or react like real paint in any way. It seems more like a heavy marker. The other tools seem the same way: sort of middle of the road. The only exception is the pencil tool. It really does react like graphite.
I will probably buy Sketchbook Pro because I’m sure I’ll enjoy using it for certain projects, but I can’t see it surpassing Art Rage for me. Who knows though! Anything can happen.
I loaded Illustrator over the weekend, too. Love it! I use to do a lot of cartooning in Illustrator and I’ve missed using it. The Modbook experience with Illustrator is so much more simple with the pen/digitizer. I think you will love it!
It was a little girl! She was finally born at 2:30AM. Everyone is doing great! :) Such an exciting time.