Koi isn't finished but I like it so far.
My first attempt at watercolor.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Jack Of The Lantern
As the story goes, several centuries ago amongst the myriad of towns and villages in Ireland there lived a drunkard known as "Jack the Smith". Jack was known throughout the land as a deceiver, manipulator, and otherwise dreg of society. On a fateful night the Devil overheard the tale of Jack's evil deeds and silver-tongue. Unconvinced (and envious) of the rumors, the Devil went to find out for himself whether or not Jack lived up to his vile reputation.
Typical of Jack, he was drunk and wandering through the countryside at night when he came upon a body on his cobblestone path; the body with an eerie grimace on its face turned out to be the Devil. Jack in a somber mood realized this was his end, the Devil had finally come to collect his malevolent soul. Jack made a last request: he asked the Devil to let him drink ale before he departed to hell. The Devil finding no reason not to acquiesce the request took Jack to the local pub and supplied him with many drinks of alcoholic beverages. Upon quenching his thirst Jack asked the Devil to pay the tab on the ale, this to the Devils surprise. Jack convinced the Devil to metamorphose into a silver coin with which to pay the bartender (impressed upon by Jack's unyielding nefarious tactics). Shrewdly, Jack stuck the now transmogrified devil (coin) into his pocket, which also contained a crucifix. The Devil, unable to escape his form (bound by the crucifix) agreed to a demand of Jack that his soul be spared for ten years (in exchange for the Devil's freedom).
Exactly ten years senior to the date upon which Jack originally struck his deal, he found himself once again in the presence of the Devil. Same as the setting before, Jack happened upon the Devil and seemingly accepted it was his time to go to Hell for good. As the Devil prepared to take him to the underworld, Jack asked if he could have one apple, with which to feed his starving belly. Foolishly the Devil once again agreed to this last request. As the Devil climbed up the branches of a nearby apple tree, Jack surrounded its base with crucifixes. The Devil, frustrated at the fact that he been entrapped again, demanded his release. As Jack did before, he demanded that his soul never be taken by the Devil into Hell, the Devil agreed and was set free.
Eventually the drinking and unstable lifestyle took its toll on Jack, he died the way he had lived. As Jack's soul prepared to enter Heaven through the gates of St. Peter he was stopped. He was told that due to the lifestyle he had led, the life full of deceit, drinking, and sinful behavior, he was not permitted entrance into Heaven. Jack in a dreary state now went and stood before the Gates of Hades and begged for commission into underworld. The Devil, fulfilling his obligation to Jack, could not take his soul; to warn others he gave Jack an ember, marking him as a denizen of Hell. From that day on till eternity's end, Jack is doomed to roam the world between the planes of good and evil, with only an ember inside a hollowed Turnip to light his way.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Introduction
I'm new to blogger.com and I'm still not even sure I've configured my settings correctly but I thought I'd go ahead and post a quick introduction and short bio to get it out of the way.
My name is Kevin Smith (most of my friends know me as Deakon), I'm in my early forties, married with 2 teenage children, semi-retired and residing in south Arkansas where I grew up. I've worked in the Information Technology field most of my adult life. I've done everything from residential memory upgrades to commercial network installations to Fortune 500 companies' in-house support to Department of Defense network security. My first computer was a Tandy TRS-80 with a cassette drive. hah! Following soon thereafter was the Commodore64. (I even had a 4-color plotter!)
I was educated in private Christian schools (Southern Baptist) and had a fundamentalist "raising." I graduated valedictorian from HS and went on to college on an academic scholarship as a pre-med student. After receiving a 0.00 on my mid-terms, I moved back home and enrolled in a local technical college majoring in Computer Science. (This was before hard drives! lol) I left college and went to work as an electronics assembler at a defense contractor assembling printed circuit boards for use in missiles. After a year of breathing solder fumes, there was a mass-layoff and I went to work as a printing press operator for a bag (rice, sugar, dog food etc.) manufacturer.
I wasn't a graphic designer but worked closely with them. I was trained on the Pantone coloring system (I was the only one with computer experience so it kinda fell in my lap) used in mixing inks (55 gallons at a time!) and certifying quality consistency. (making sure the red used this week matches the same bag we printed 6 months ago) But my first real experience with computer aided artistry was during the same period...
At the time I was earning a decent salary (for my area) and had just married my sweetheart. A friend told me about a BBS (pre-internet means of computer networking) in Germany that had tons of "cracked" software so I bought a 300 baud modem and started downloading. Of course I found dozens more BBS numbers and started spending all my spare time downloading "warez." I had a decent selection when I decided to start my own BBS. Shared the phone number with a few friends and within a year I had to install 2 more phone lines, added a hard drive (more storage), learned how to crack software myself and had over 500 subscribers. I noticed a trend from Germany of using customized menus created with ANSI graphics so I started learning. Let me tell those of you who missed out on the ANSI art craze... There were some VERY impressive pieces done in this medium. Since there were no editors in the beginning, it all had to be typed... codes, spacing (alt+255 ftw!), character shapes, shades etc. etc. It was a lot of work which made it even more impressive.
Of course it stands to reason that since I was a computer geek, I'd eventually fall-in with the Dungeons & Dragons crowd. (We had a weekly game...) And since I had a huge arsenal of illegally acquired games for my computer, I was pretty much spending all my free time either working on electronics, tinkering with my computers or drawing maps, characters, weapons, sceneries etc. to help with the D&D interest or playing games. OH... I also was painting D&D miniatures (won a few contests) for myself and friends.
After several years working at the bag company I left and opened a comic book and trading card shop. I met several artists and became even more interested in drawing. I'd been drawing all my life (even got charges of demonic possession leveled towards me due to the things I tended to draw... Dragons, barbarians, elves, monsters etc. Remember I went to Christian school) and I even took an oil painting class but didn't enjoy it. So it wasn't a fresh interest in creating art.
The comic shop bombed after a year so I started contracting by working on computers and installing networks and eventually starting taking long-term contract positions out-of-state because the pay was AWESOME! lol One of the jobs was for DOW Chemical in south-east Texas. I had extra money and decided that I wanted a new tattoo so I drew what I wanted and colored it then hit the local tattoo shops to start price-hunting and check out the cleanliness and quality of the artists. (Here's where this post stops sucking so much. lol)
One of the artists I visited was impressed by the design and said that he would do it for $100 less than pretty much everyone else quoted, because he wanted to put it in his portfolio. (Which was small but impressive.) So I went back the next day and he got to work. 2 hours later I had a new friend, a new part-time job at night drawing tattoo designs and a tattoo apprenticeship which all lasted a little over a year. I became a licensed tattoo artist in Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama and Micronesia. While working overseas for the Army on a DoD contract, I started drawing things other than tattoo designs, made some prints and sold quite a few.
After leaving the Army job, I came back to the States and became a full-time tattoo artist on the Gulf Coast. I worked in some awesome shops and I've worked in some real hell holes but I learned something from every one of them and made some good friends in the meanwhile. I recently moved back to my hometown due to family obligations and took an I.T. job for a life-long friend who owns a construction company. Life is good... I'm relaxed. lol
I met a few "long-lost friends" after moving back and one told me about a game called Guild Wars. So I went and bought it. That was a few months before the Eye of the North expansion. I was blown away by the graphics! I started watching videos on the internet and stumbled across some speedpainting (think I was searching for "speedclears" and seen painting in the suggestions list). So... I bought a Wacom Bamboo, upgraded Corel Paintshop Pro and picked up a copy of Corel Painter and a couple of how-to books and I'm gonna try and give this a go.
And here I am. It's a pleasure to meet you and I apologize for lying to you. (I believe I used the words "quick" and "short" in the beginning.) Sorry! :)
So... I plan to document my progress (or lack of) here once I get familiarized with all the features. Please feel free to leave comments on any post. Constructive criticism is appreciated and destructive criticism tolerated.
My name is Kevin Smith (most of my friends know me as Deakon), I'm in my early forties, married with 2 teenage children, semi-retired and residing in south Arkansas where I grew up. I've worked in the Information Technology field most of my adult life. I've done everything from residential memory upgrades to commercial network installations to Fortune 500 companies' in-house support to Department of Defense network security. My first computer was a Tandy TRS-80 with a cassette drive. hah! Following soon thereafter was the Commodore64. (I even had a 4-color plotter!)
I was educated in private Christian schools (Southern Baptist) and had a fundamentalist "raising." I graduated valedictorian from HS and went on to college on an academic scholarship as a pre-med student. After receiving a 0.00 on my mid-terms, I moved back home and enrolled in a local technical college majoring in Computer Science. (This was before hard drives! lol) I left college and went to work as an electronics assembler at a defense contractor assembling printed circuit boards for use in missiles. After a year of breathing solder fumes, there was a mass-layoff and I went to work as a printing press operator for a bag (rice, sugar, dog food etc.) manufacturer.
I wasn't a graphic designer but worked closely with them. I was trained on the Pantone coloring system (I was the only one with computer experience so it kinda fell in my lap) used in mixing inks (55 gallons at a time!) and certifying quality consistency. (making sure the red used this week matches the same bag we printed 6 months ago) But my first real experience with computer aided artistry was during the same period...
At the time I was earning a decent salary (for my area) and had just married my sweetheart. A friend told me about a BBS (pre-internet means of computer networking) in Germany that had tons of "cracked" software so I bought a 300 baud modem and started downloading. Of course I found dozens more BBS numbers and started spending all my spare time downloading "warez." I had a decent selection when I decided to start my own BBS. Shared the phone number with a few friends and within a year I had to install 2 more phone lines, added a hard drive (more storage), learned how to crack software myself and had over 500 subscribers. I noticed a trend from Germany of using customized menus created with ANSI graphics so I started learning. Let me tell those of you who missed out on the ANSI art craze... There were some VERY impressive pieces done in this medium. Since there were no editors in the beginning, it all had to be typed... codes, spacing (alt+255 ftw!), character shapes, shades etc. etc. It was a lot of work which made it even more impressive.
An example of ANSI art which consists of type-able characters that would slowly scroll up the screen allowing you to only see a portion of the entire picture at a time. It was pretty cool stuff at the time.
Of course it stands to reason that since I was a computer geek, I'd eventually fall-in with the Dungeons & Dragons crowd. (We had a weekly game...) And since I had a huge arsenal of illegally acquired games for my computer, I was pretty much spending all my free time either working on electronics, tinkering with my computers or drawing maps, characters, weapons, sceneries etc. to help with the D&D interest or playing games. OH... I also was painting D&D miniatures (won a few contests) for myself and friends.
After several years working at the bag company I left and opened a comic book and trading card shop. I met several artists and became even more interested in drawing. I'd been drawing all my life (even got charges of demonic possession leveled towards me due to the things I tended to draw... Dragons, barbarians, elves, monsters etc. Remember I went to Christian school) and I even took an oil painting class but didn't enjoy it. So it wasn't a fresh interest in creating art.
The comic shop bombed after a year so I started contracting by working on computers and installing networks and eventually starting taking long-term contract positions out-of-state because the pay was AWESOME! lol One of the jobs was for DOW Chemical in south-east Texas. I had extra money and decided that I wanted a new tattoo so I drew what I wanted and colored it then hit the local tattoo shops to start price-hunting and check out the cleanliness and quality of the artists. (Here's where this post stops sucking so much. lol)
One of the artists I visited was impressed by the design and said that he would do it for $100 less than pretty much everyone else quoted, because he wanted to put it in his portfolio. (Which was small but impressive.) So I went back the next day and he got to work. 2 hours later I had a new friend, a new part-time job at night drawing tattoo designs and a tattoo apprenticeship which all lasted a little over a year. I became a licensed tattoo artist in Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama and Micronesia. While working overseas for the Army on a DoD contract, I started drawing things other than tattoo designs, made some prints and sold quite a few.
After leaving the Army job, I came back to the States and became a full-time tattoo artist on the Gulf Coast. I worked in some awesome shops and I've worked in some real hell holes but I learned something from every one of them and made some good friends in the meanwhile. I recently moved back to my hometown due to family obligations and took an I.T. job for a life-long friend who owns a construction company. Life is good... I'm relaxed. lol
I met a few "long-lost friends" after moving back and one told me about a game called Guild Wars. So I went and bought it. That was a few months before the Eye of the North expansion. I was blown away by the graphics! I started watching videos on the internet and stumbled across some speedpainting (think I was searching for "speedclears" and seen painting in the suggestions list). So... I bought a Wacom Bamboo, upgraded Corel Paintshop Pro and picked up a copy of Corel Painter and a couple of how-to books and I'm gonna try and give this a go.
And here I am. It's a pleasure to meet you and I apologize for lying to you. (I believe I used the words "quick" and "short" in the beginning.) Sorry! :)
So... I plan to document my progress (or lack of) here once I get familiarized with all the features. Please feel free to leave comments on any post. Constructive criticism is appreciated and destructive criticism tolerated.