Raven for ArtRage! (Get it? Raven… Raving… hahahaha… I kill me sometimes!)

These guys from New Zealand have put together a great, low-cost painting program called ArtRage. In short, it ROCKS! Now, don’t get me wrong…it ain’t Painter X, but it also won’t cost you $429!

I’ve got the full program, which costs only 25 bucks, and I’ve already done several illustration projects using either ArtRage exclusively or an ArtRage/Photoshop combo. The above pictured illustration about Elijah is for a magazine article(hence the big honkin’ empty area under the ravens), and was done using ArtRage’s oils and pastels over a base sketch done in Photoshop.

You can also download the demo version for free, and still get a lot of goodies to play around with. Be sure and check it out.

Images are © In Touch Ministries

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But..but..but…I LOVE waffles!

Although not as widely known as their shoemaker-assisting counterparts, the waffle-whacking elves of southeast Belgium are beloved in that region for their tenacity, altruism, and the excellence with which they carry out their duties- not the least of which is punishing poorly-made waffles.

It’s the little things…

Sometimes, you have to find pleasure in the seemingly mundane.

An Elusive Tease, or Who’s Sam?

As a child, back in the pre-internet days (remember those?) and growing up in a small town, one of the most frustrating things I would encounter was what I’ll refer to as “comic book snippet syndrome” (CBSS). I’d catch a glimpse of some comic book, or even read the whole issue if there was time, as I wandered through a bookstore on one of our occasional visits to the “big city”. Then, being from the booming metropolis that I was, and having NO BOOKSTORES in said hometown, I’d never get to read the rest of the story or find out what happened after the cliffhanger ending that only made me want more.

Oh, the agonies such teasing, elusive comic book encounters can inflict on the tortured mind of a ten-year-old boy!

But I also feel like not knowing helped me. It forced me to create my own stories in my head, and to draw them out on paper. Those teases were the seeds of creativity, the impetus for all my future artistic endeavors.

So now I’m giving a little back to the great Swirl of the Unfinished. This doodle started out as the big pointy frog thingy. Then I realized he had to be talking to someone….hence the little man. The dialogue…well…heck, I don’t know where that came from. Or where it’s leading. Or who this Sam character is they’re talking about.

That’s up to you. And the curious, hungry-for-more ten-year-old I hope we all still have inside.

 

 

Meetings, doodle fodder for the doodling doodler

Meetings. They can either bore you to tears or inspire rampant doodling….’cause they sure as heck don’t serve any real business purpose!

Why, that’s downright STIPPLICIOUS!

I was perusing the ‘net for facial expression reference pics, seeking inspiration for a work project I’m doing, when I came across the photo that inspired the above doodle. He ain’t pretty, but he’s definitely interesting, which is a heckuvalot better in my book.

And–since I found him interesting–I, of course, did what anyone would have done in that situation. I stippled the daylights out of him.