Initial Thoughts on the Wacom Inkling

Well, I suppose I shouldn't be too critical since I've only tried the Inkling once. (Today; it was a Christmas present from my amazing in-laws, but since it's been on back order, I only just got it this past weekend.)  But here are my initial thoughts on using it so far.
It's relatively easy to figure out how to start using it, which is nice.  The Inkling takes normal ball-point pen cartridges, which will be cheap to replace.  I noticed that it didn't start picking up my lines until well after I had started inking, so I had to go back and re-draw some spots.  It also imported some of my spots a little wonky; I was drawing a super-hero type commission and the dude's face ended up all kinds of messed up, so I had to re-draw a lot of that in Photoshop.  I'm used to using Microns to ink with, which is a really nice, warm black, and the ball-point pen is more purple-blue black, so that was a real shocker.  (Nothing a little Photoshop tweaking can't fix.)  It also doesn't like it when you draw past what seems to be it's threshold of letter-sized paper.  The Inkling would be perfect for something smaller, but not so much any big projects on bigger paper.  (Granted, I haven't tested putting the receiver on the side as opposed to the top of the paper.)  I found out the hard way that if you move the receiver mid-drawing, it starts it as a new sketch, so the last few bits of sketch didn't end up on the right file. 
Overall, my first impressions of the Inkling are that it takes some tweaking and it isn't worth the $200 price tag.  At least, not yet!  I plan on using it more to get used to it; I haven't given up on you, Inkling!  Here's a preview of what my first attempt at Inkling drawing looks like:

You Should Go See John Carter

Yep, read what the title says.  I know that John Carter has been given a lot of bad hype lately, especially before the movie even came out, but I really think you should give it a chance.  You can take my opinions with a grain of salt, of course; I'm not saying I'm some pretentious movie critic that demands my reviews be taken seriously.  I loved the movie and have already signed up on Amazon to be notified when it comes out on blu-ray, so I'm a little biased.  Here's why:
It's fun.  I like deep, thought-provoking movies as much as the next guy (gal? ugh I hate that term) but sometimes when I go to the movies, which is rare given the fact that I have two toddlers at home and a full-time job, I just want some full-fledged escapist fantasy.  John Carter fits that bill perfectly.  It's got lots of awesome action sequences, if you're into that sort of thing, there's a star-crossed lovers sort of romance, and four-armed aliens.  Come on!  The tharks look sweet, you gotta admit.  The CGI in this movie is downright fantastic and looks REAL.  Anyways, you don't have to rack your brain trying to "figure it out," since the book it was based on, A Princess of Mars, was written 100 years ago.  In fact, all kinds of movies and genres have stemmed from the John Carter series of books.  (Avatar anyone?  Ripped off the plot from the book.  No wonder I didn't like that movie ...)
At the risk of sounding super girly, I wish the romance sub-pot was a little more fleshed out.  In the book, it was really apparent that John Carter would do anything to be with Dejah Thoris, even if that meant living on a completely different planet.  This eventually happens in the movie, of course (the guy always gets the girl, right?) but it seems John Carter is more reluctant to get involved with anything.  It seemed that all of a sudden he's smooching on Dejah without much buildup or tension. 
I did like the medallion idea as the means of him transporting from Earth to Barsoom.  I've only read the first book of the series, so I don't know much of what happens after the events in A Princess of Mars, but his means of reaching Mars was never fully explained.  And that's OK, I don't expect some scientific babble - in fact, I really don't care to read any of that sort of stuff, to be honest.  It bores me.  (No offense, science peeps.  I just can't get into it.)
I think Taylor Kitsch did an awesome job as John Carter, and Lynn Collins was wonderful as Dejah Thoris, though she wasn't exactly who I imagined while I read the book.  The costumes were sweet (better than full-on nudity like the book!!) and I liked the tattoos the "red men" of Mars had as opposed to having actual red-tinted skin.  Nice touch there, even if it did deviate from the novel.
And then there is Woola.  Oh Woola!  I never thought I'd like an ugly space dog as much as you.  You have to see him to know what I mean. 
I wish more people appreciated this movie!  It breaks my heart a little bit that there aren't more people into it.  Maybe when it comes out on blu-ray, it will have a huge surge in popularity and become a cult movie.  Here's hoping.
Now I want to draw some John Carter fan art.  Perhaps you'll see some pictures here soon? 

Back in the Good Ole Days ...

... I would have hours upon hours of free time to sit in front of the computer and digitally color my illustrations. Now I have to wait until my day off (Wednesday) for the two hour window when Fiona sleeps before I can get any computer work done! I wouldn't trade any of it for the world, but I do miss being able to crack out fully-colored drawings in one, sometimes two, days. Ah well, I've still been told I produce illustrations quickly, especially given how little time I have to actually draw. That always makes me feel better.
I've still been working on Otherverse Games commissions, as well as a portrait of three young girls for an etsy customer. That one has taken me lots of tweaking to get the sketch just right, but I want it to be perfect.
Pretty soon, I should have some stock art packages up on indie rpg game websites, thanks to Chris Field. I just wish I knew more about some of these programs (that I don't have the money to purchase) to be able to figure this stuff out on my own! What I really want to be able to do is make a badass website. Alas, I shall suffer with my poor attempts at one for now; it's served me well so far and gotten me lots of commissions. If only I could continue to do this as a full-time job! That seems to be my most common complaint/rant, and a similar one for other freelance artists as well, I'm sure.
Here's another art teaser for you guys. This is the finished inks illo called "Shiftsteel Symbiont" for Otherverse Games' "Psi-Watch." I'll be coloring this digitally pretty soon and I am quite excited about it.

Lots of Work

As the title says, I have been busy the last week or so with a bunch of new commissions, most of them from Chris Field for his Otherverse stuff. Here's a little preview of what I am working on:


I don't normally post sketches, as I tend to look upon my own with disdain for the looseness and overall messiness, but I know people sometimes like to see the "works in progress." I've always wanted to do a Mucha-style illustration, and Chris's "neo-Witch Midwife" commission gave me a perfect opportunity to do so. I'll try to post the finished images as I get them done.

On top of commissions, I've got the impending artprize 2010 to work on. I'm feeling nervous already, since I haven't started any of the drawing yet, even though I have, technically, until September. I know how stressed out I was last year scrambling to finish all of my Tarot cards, and I definitely don't want a repeat. Hopefully fully illustrating a fantasy fairy tale won't be as crazy as an entire deck of Tarot cards ... riiiiiight. At least I KNOW that I can finish these huge projects; it makes me feel better knowing I've got that going for me, at least.

In non-art related news, Fiona is growing SO FAST and is a little girl all of a sudden. When did this happen? She's almost 19 months old. We went to the Grand Rapids Children's Museum yesterday with my best friends, Kate and Brad, and their son James, who is two and a half months older than the Fij and who I babysit once a week. (It's so cute that they are growing up together. Kate watches Ona once a week as well.) They had a BLAST and I realized how old I was when I was tired after an hour of chasing after a running around little girl!
She loved those Legos. Dad will be pleased!

Some Artprize Musings

So I didn't do it for the money, let's start right there. Since artprize began last week, I've seen some really awesome pieces of art in the limited areas I've traveled downtown Grand Rapids. There's been a lot of controversy surrounding some of the artists, some of the rules and voting procedures, how the contest is set up, etc. I'd like to draw your attention to this article over at the Grand Rapids Press that pretty much sums up how I feel about artprize so far:
http://www.mlive.com/entertainment/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2009/09/artist_asks_to_be_withdrawn_fr.html
Lots of artists have been given free press from the news stations around here, the papers, all other various media outlets, like Rob Bliss with his 100,000 paper airplanes and the huge table and chairs setup atop the bridge. (I'm too lazy to look up the actual name of that one, sorry. Just look at the top 25 artists on artprize.org and he'll be one of them, I promise.) So basically what this boils down to is: If you are an artist participating in artprize and you aren't at the BOB or the UICA or the Old Federal Building as your hosted venue, or you don't have huge sculptures outside for all the world to see, you aren't going to get any prize money, publicity, or votes. I'm not trying to sound bitter, but this is absolute fact. We'll find out for sure Thursday based on who the top ten artists are.
Besides all of that, this is a wonderful opportunity for people to get their names out there. I am so thankful to Independent Bank, especially Nickie Leppek, for hosting me at the Monroe Center branch; I had 100 business cards sitting out by my piece, unaware that they would all be gone in two days! I was utterly unprepared for the huge response artprize has had on the people of Grand Rapids. Makes me proud to live here. :)
There's one more day to get registered and vote, but even if you don't, please take some time to scope out the little known venues, because lots of them are packed with some really great artists. Who cares about the prize money and which artist was the most popular? It's about the artwork and the joy it brings people to see it.
All of the art will be up until October 10.