Tag: gimp

Happy Valentine’s Day

Pictures
Birds flying high You know how I feel Sun in the sky You know how I feel Reeds driftin' on by You know how I feel It's a new dawn It's a new day It's a new life For me And I'm feeling good Fish in the sea You know how I feel River running free You know how I feel Blossom in the tree You know how I feel It's a new dawn It's a new day It's a new life For me And I'm feeling good Dragonfly out in the sun you know what I mean, don't you know Butterflies all havin' fun you know what I mean Sleep in peace when the day is done, that's what I mean And this old world is a new world And a bold world For me Fooor me Stars when you shine You know how I feel Scent of the pine You know how I feel Yeah freedom is mine And I know how I feel It's a new dawn It's a new day It's a new life hu It's a new dawn It's a new day It's a new life It's a new dawn It's a new day It's a new life It's a new life For me And I'm feeling good
A dizzy heart...

Just a quick picture for the day… while drawing this, I hit some button in gimp that caused the program to lock up.  Since I hadn’t saved the file I decided to just let it sit.  The program wasn’t responding but it was cranking at 50-60% CPU.  It took nearly 2 hours, but finally gimp came back to life and I didn’t have to start over.  *wipes sweat off his brow*

A Guy with Glasses

Pictures

I’m a doodler.  At work, when I’m on the phone or thinking about programming solutions, I’ll grab a pad or a stack of post-its and a pen and doodle.  I used to do it during boring meetings, but I don’t have those anymore (one of the joys of working for a small company).  That said, I’ve had a Wacom Bamboo tablet for some time now and put it to very little use.  Having learned to make graphics using Paint Shop Pro (versions 4 thru 7, before they got bought by Corel and all the program controls changed), I’ve never been comfortable with the way that programs like Photoshop and GIMP do things, so whenever I needed a new image for my website, or even work, I’d often try to use some other program and then run back to PSP once I got frustrated.

So, in a concerted effort to learn GIMP, use my tablet, and doodle more than just randomly, I’ve decided to dedicate Saturdays at the blog to posting doodles I’ve made n GIMP with the tablet.  I’ll try to post at least one image per week, but we’ll see how that goes.  Without further ado…

A Guy with Glasses
A Guy with Glasses

As you can see, my hand with the Wacom stylus is a bit shaky.  I’m just not used to drawing with one hand while watching the screen, translating movements out of site to movements on the screen.  I suspect I’ll get better, because I do actually have quite a fair bit of hand-eye coordination.  But just like perfecting a no-look baseball catch as a kid, it’ll take some practice.

Another thing I’ll be working on as I do this is repetition.  I’ve always wanted to draw cartoons, and I’ve been told that, at least with pencil and paper, I’m not a bad artist.  The one thing I can’t do is repeat an image, or draw a similar image with slight changes.  You know, like a character from frame to frame with movement.  They always end up distorted, with different shaped heads or different proportioned bodies.  If anyone knows of exercises they’d recommend for improving drawing consistency, I’d appreciate hearing about them.