First Dip into Digital Art

I just had to share my recent creative escapade using Gimp and a Deco Mini7 XP-Pen tablet. I wanted to dip my toes into digital art.

I foraged through my photos and found one of some goslings that could use some fixing up.

I used the pen tablet as my digital canvas and played around with the Gimp layers. The sensitivity of the tablet allowed me to control the brush strokes with finesse, resulting in an almost hand-drawn feel.

Gimp offered a plethora of tools to play around with. I tweaked colors, textures, and lighting to infuse the artwork with a certain mood. The brush options were good, but I think I might want to try Corel Draw. They offer a better variety of painter-like brushes.

I also have a program called Clip Studio Paint that is more designed for Manga but might be useful for drawing. I haven't gotten a hang of that one, yet. When I become an expert with the pen, I may try Corel Draw's light version. But, I don't want to invest too much at this time.

2 Duckling Souls

This is an acrylic on loose canvas from a photo I took.  The two mallard ducklings didn't survive, but are alive forever in this painting.  They were about three days old at the time.

This art is available as a print on Fine Art America.  I haven't decided to put it anywhere else yet except in offline shows.

"Fish Food Ducklings"

I've been having a ball watching all the little babies around Lake Murray. I call these ducklings the "fish food ducklings" because, when they first hatched, they were living in an area with a lot of large fish that could eat them. There are three, total, but I think there was four originally. One kept going off on his own and I think that's why he went missing.

Anyway, here's the two girls on the shore of the lake.

This is a photo I took while I was at Lake Murray back when I was still using mostly 35mm film.

Lake Murray in January

I took this picture because I liked the way the water shimmered off the lake that day. It was taken in the late afternoon back in January 2008.

Feeding the Birds

When I went walking at Lake Murray, I thought this woman and child feeding the birds were really cute and decided to snap a picture of them.

Settings: f/8 at 1/500 with 200 ISO

Urban Palm Grove

I just discovered this palm grove near Lake Murray across Baltimore Drive. This was taken with my Canon Digital Rebel with automatic settings. Taken at f14, 1/200 sec with a 50mm lens.

Lake Murray Plein Air Oswoa

I started this today and worked on it for an hour. Hopefully, I will be able to finish it some time in the future. It is 4 x 6 acrylics on canvas paper.

Lake Murray Rain Storm

This is a 35mm photo of the rain storm that could be heard from Lake Murray in La Mesa, California, but no rain fell. I used my Pentax K1000 to take this photo.

More of Lake Murray, Photo for Today

Here's another photo taken with my digital snapshot camera. I sent in my film today and hope to get good film shots to be shown at a later time. In about a week, I will be posting daily paintings again.

Today at Lake Murray, Photo

Here is my photo for today. I went to Lake Murray and took this with my fully automatic Argus. There was no touching up except a rotation and sharpening.

Cowles Mountain Small Work of Art

This is my completed painting for today. It was quite a challenge because of all the variety of shrubs in the foreground as well as the mottled mountain in the background. I am trying to get away from trying to copy my photos exactly and make them look better. I also am challenged by water, especially still water like a lake or creek.

This is a 5 x 7 acrylic painting on canvas paper.