Recent Reads I’ve Encountered And a Review of Art Programs For Your Computer
Monday, December 31, 2007
With plenty of time for study and thinking...Specially when I’m currently sicko and can’t sleep well...I’ve cruised the Net and found several really good things to share.
This one is great. PUSH BACK
I’m opposed to most anything in the media, because it’s either retarded material, or I don’t know what to do with what I see or hear. Here’s a very good take on what we can do about this mess. I still don’t miss my TV. Even Discovery and the History Channel just plain stink. Give me music and books. Interactive entertainment comes in two great forms: Living with my Family and making stuff.
And here is a book to read. Don’t Waste Your Life
This little reading project is making some ripples in my little complacent routine. I am glad I found it.
And an article. Holiness Of Character
Discovered about the same time as the book above.
And an artist of entertaining potential. Sharpfish
I think Ben showed me this site first. I really like the flash stuff. Very creative.
And an artist of audio excellence. Jason Carter
Steve Smith introduced me to this musician. Steve actually knows him and has jammed with him, I believe. Very beautiful guitar work. I should get some of his albums someday.
And a HAPPY NEW YEAR from our friend Jenny in GTMO. This is really cool.
I’ve been sketching and painting for hours and hours in the last week. Very little has come up of value, but the point is actually to get some skills for my eyes, hands and with the various art programs I’m fiddling with. I’m starting to lean away from the Corel Painter program for a couple of free programs. Corel is great, don’t get me wrong, but the disadvantages are kind of overpowering the huge capabilities of the program. PainterX is sluggish, quirky and not always cooperative with what I want to do.
Note: I got PX for a hundred bucks because of the awesome student-version they offer (I was enrolled in Columbia College last year for a course and learned about the discount version then. It’s normally about $400.
Art Rage and The Gimp are both more efficient in their function. Gimp has nearly the detailed options of Painter, though not the naturalistic media types (oil brushes, real-bristle, watercolor) and it runs SO much more smoothly.
Art Rage is exceptional with its limited collection of naturalistic media (great acrylic simulation, which I like to use in the real world). It’s hard to bog down and has really simple technical features.
I think my ideal combination is to put ArtRage and Gimp to work together, but there are still some PX features to use as well.
Most important: I need my TABLET to make these programs work right—a mouse just doesn’t cut it for lines and strokes and all the funky stuff to do with making a cool picture.
One might be able to get away with the old mouse for plain photo fixing, but it’s been said before: “Once you have a tablet, you’re off the mouse for good.” Bamboo is the affordable version. 
I’m gonna get Bamboo for my girls. Mean old Dad took his Wacom with him to the Desert.
Steve set me on to this years ago when he was a DM in the USN. I got to see his shop on the Lincoln.
Okay, so now I’ve talked about something like 6 different products on the market. I have played with a lot of them (exept the REALLY expensive stuff like Photoshop CS2 and all that jazz), including the “essentials” versions of Painter and Photoshop. There are tons of different programs available. I also haven’t tried out Wacom’s competitors (Adesso and others) but I was repeatedly assured Wacom was the best in the industry, so I went with their Intuos3. I’m NOT disappointed. It hasn’t given me a stitch of trouble (maybe the ONLY trustworthy component in my entire computer setup). I ain’t sellin’ these products, but my opinion is pretty much set.