I Needed A Computer and I Got One (Asus Essentio)

While I was writing the last post about my past computer purchases, I was thinking about what I could do not make those same purchasing mistakes again.  I came to the conclusion that I needed to do some research on what kind of performance I would need for my computer.  That way I won’t be so disappointed when my computer doesn’t perform.

So I did my internet research.  I looked up performance requirements for a computer to edit videos reliably, since that’s what I wanted my new computer to be able to do.  After sifting through tons of web pages, it seemed that I would need a computer that had at least 8 gb of RAM, and an Intel Core Duo processor at the MINIMUM.  Armed with that knowledge, I set out to purchase my new computer.

I went to Best Buy, a pretty big chain of computer and electronics stores.  The closest one was in Orange, CT, which I later found out was the best one in the area anyway.

The nearest Best Buy, in Orange, CT

I went into Best Buy and I felt so incredible as I looked around at the latest electronics.  I wish I could go on a shopping spree in that place.  I remember back in the day, Nickelodeon would have these games shows on, like Double Dare and Legends of the Hidden Temple.  And their grand prizes would often be $1000 shopping sprees to places like Toys R Us.  I wished so badly that I could win those shopping sprees and I felt the same exact way as I walked into Best Buy.

I walked into the computer section, and looked around.  Based on my knowledge of what kind of computer performance I was looking for, I immediately noticed that most of their budget offerings were too underpowered.  I’m so glad I did that research ahead of time, or I would’ve most likely ended up with one of those computers.  On the flip side though, I was only willing to spend $800 – $900, and most of their computers that WERE powerful enough was $1000 +.

This Best Buy had a Mac computer section, and I’ve always, ALWAYS wanted a Mac.  They’re reliable, powerful and creative professionals everywhere use Macs as a standard.  But their Macs started at $999, and they quickly got expensive from there.  The cheapest Macs were powerful enough for what I was looking for in a computer, but this Best Buy had more powerful PCs for the same exact price.  I just couldn’t bring myself to buy a Mac this time around.  Maybe a few years down the line when I have the money to splurge and not have to worry about budgets (patiently waiting for that day)

After wandering around aimlessly for a half hour, I came across this one computer that seemed too good to be true, The Asus Essentio CG8350:

Asus Essentio CG8350 Specs:
Processor: 3.40 ghz Intel Core i7
HDD: 1 TB
RAM: 8 GB
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit)
Price: $899

All that for $899?  A Mac with the same specs cost $1499.

REALLY skeptical, I went on my Droid 1 smart phone and did some on the spot research for this computer.  It was designed to be an entry-level gaming computer and it had a whole list of pros with only 1 real con.  The con was that its video card needed to be upgraded in order to do the maximum amount of gaming possible, and to upgrade the video card you need to upgrade other parts of the machine, like the power supply.  But straight out of the box, it was powerful.  Since I wasn’t a PC gamer, I didn’t care about that con really, so it seemed like a REALLY good deal.

Still a bit skeptical, I decided to consult one of Best Buy’s employees.  I forgot the guy’s name, but boy was this guy charismatic as hell.  While talking to me, he would stop periodically to flirt with his cute boss who would walk by constantly.  He talked about his life, about how he used to be a nightclub promoter.

While it was all interesting and everything, I had to steer him back to talking about the Asus computer.  Amazingly, he regurgitated everything I already read about the Asus computer, including that one big con about it being a pain in the ass to upgrade.  I appreciated him not just selling me this computer as God’s personal desktop computer, but also listing its limitations and flaws.  The gist of what he told me was that this computer could do whatever I wanted it to do, and I was sold.  I purchased the computer.

My Asus Essentio Desktop. Sorry for the pic quality, the iPod Touch doesn't have flash >_>

It looks like a beast, doesn’t it?  And guess what?  It IS a beast.  I put the poor computer through hell its first night, because if I wasn’t satisfied at ALL, I was returning it as soon as possible for a full refund.  I wasn’t playing around this time.  But I had nothing to worry about with this purchase.  Like the salesperson said, it pretty much did whatever I wanted it to do.

I did some quick art with it using Paint.NET.  I transcoded video using MediaCoder.  I edited audio using Audacity.  I played some games using my video game console emulators.  I went on the internet with Firefox and went through a ton of webpages, watched videos and downloaded lots of stuff.  It was an experienced I never ever had with my previous computers.  In fact, the experience was comparable to my university’s overpowered PCs, which I thought was amazing.

In later posts, I’ll go more in-depth about how I use my computer for creativity.  The focus of these past posts was just to tell you the story about buying the computer.

To end this post, I present to you video footage (with commentary) of me using my computer.  I used a program to record my computer screen.  Watch as I show off what my new baby can do.  Enjoy:
YouTube Video: Chimeric Muse Raves about his computer

I Need A New Computer

When it comes to being creative, I do most of my endeavors on my computer.  I write my stories on my computer.  I do my art on my computer using tools like a tablet and a scanner.  I edit photos on my computer.  I go on the internet and do research.  About 80% of my workflow is on my computer.  So I was pretty much hit when my laptop computer got the blue screen of death.

The Dreaded Blue Screen of Death. My poor computer

For those that don’t know, when Microsoft Windows runs into a FATAL error, it’ll show a blue screen telling you that it’s broken and why (it’ll give you an error code for you to look up).  While some blue screen errors are fixable, most aren’t (as far as I know.  I could be wrong).

So yea, I decided that it was time to get a new computer.  No, I was NOT excited about this.  You see, I have a history of buying computers that either suck or just didn’t get the job done, in terms of what I wanted.  Here’s a brief rundown on my past computer purchases.

My HP Omnibook 6000

HP Omnibook 6000
Release Date: Late March  2001
Processor: 600 mhz Intel Pentium III
Hard Drive (HDD): 20 GB
RAM: 256 MB
Operating System: Windows XP (upgraded from Windows 2000)

I bought this laptop back in April 2005 from a dealer on eBay.  It only cost $400, which was a far cry from its original retail price of $1,899 (!!!).  It was an okay laptop.  I was using it for light internet use, watching movies and word processing.  From what I remember, the laptop worked decent enough to do those tasks.  But unfortunately, my laptop stopped working mysteriously about 2 months after purchase.  It wouldn’t recognize the hard drive anymore.  I didn’t even get a blue screen of death, because Windows couldn’t boot up to present it.  I was SO pissed off.  I bought a lemon of a computer that worked “just” long enough so I can’t return it to the dealer (30 day warranty).  I think it was done on purpose because I’m cynical like that, even if it doesn’t make much sense.

My desktop computer: Compaq Presario SR1403WM

Compaq Presario SR1403WM
Release Date: 2/16/05
Processor: AMD Sempron
HDD: 80 GB
RAM: 256 MB
Operating System: Windows XP- Home Edition

I bought this computer in November 2005 from Wal Mart for….I wanna say $700 or so.  It came with monitors and speakers bundled.  Let me tell you, this thing worked like a piece of shit straight out of the box.  Slowest computer I EVER dealt with, I was working with a slow 1998 computer in my workplace at the time.  The computer took 15 minutes to fully boot up and about 3 minutes for a window to pop up (yes, I timed all of this).  Windows XP was FULL of Wal Mart bloatware, the pre-installed software that comes bundled with their new computers.

I felt fully ripped off by Wal Mart, and with their track record, I’m not surprised.  You see the model number in the specs section above.  You see how the last 2 letters of the number, after the dash, is WM.  Take a wild guess what that stands for.  My theory is that Wal Mart commissioned Compaq for their own line of computers to sell.  So Compaq gave WM their own special version of the SR1403 computers.  A watered down, underpowered version so Wal Mart can sell it for cheaper than the normal version, and even bundle it with a monitor and speakers (which isn’t standard).  Well you’re plan worked WM.  Ya got me with your “non deal”.

For an additional $150, I bought 2 gb of RAM for the computer, and it now works in a decent manner.  In fact, the computer still works passably to this day.  I used this computer extensively.  I heavily used the internet, and downloaded gigs and gigs of content.  I created and ran my webcomic Niece Web off of this computer, using resource intense programs like Adobe Photoshop.  I played games.  I watched movies and played music.  I edited audio and video….well actually, that’s where my computer drew the line.  It sucked at editing video, which was a motivating factor in my new computer purchase (read further down for more).  This computer became my reluctant workhorse, but it’s, without question, showing its age (almost 6 years old, and the model line itself is probably older).

My Laptop: Acer Aspire 5100-3357

Acer Aspire 5100-3357
Release Date: Late 2006/Early 2007
Processor: 1.6 ghz AMD Turion
HDD: 120 GB
RAM: 1 GB
Operating System: Windows Vista

I bought this baby as a present for landing my first full-time job back in May 2007.  I bought it for….$700, if I recall correctly.  This laptop performed average at best…about on par with my Compaq desktop, which its supposed to be superior to.  The laptop never made me feel confident in its performance.  I always had the feeling that it was underpowered for the average use I was putting it through.  I wasn’t putting it through any of the hardcore stuff I used my Compaq desktop for.  About 6 months in, the screen broke for no reason at all.  It would black out often, and it would only work if I fiddled with raising and lowering the screen for about a minute or so.

Maybe it wasn’t my laptop hardware at all that was underpowered.  Maybe it was the fact that Windows Vista SUCKS.  The operating system felt so clunky, slow and unpolished.  The laptop wasn’t powerful enough to run the full visual power of Vista, but from what I saw, it was underwhelming anyway.  Programs would frequently freeze, idle or crash with no reason, especially during its final year.  Windows XP on my Compaq wasn’t like this at all.  Months before I got the blue screen of death, my laptop was performing at an all time low and I knew its days were up.

Those were my past computer purchases.  With my new computer, I was so determined not to repeat the same mistake twice.  I wanted a computer that I would be happy with right out of the box.  In terms of performance, I wanted a computer that I could edit videos with, since my previous computers couldn’t reliably get the job done.  If my new computer could do that, then it could do ANY of my creative endeavors, which is the most important thing to me.

Did I succeed? Find out in the next post!

Oshawott Pic: Finale (Colors, Backgrounds and Borders)

"The Power of Oshawott"

By far, the hardest part of the whole artwork was the coloring, especially with the background designs.  Choosing colors was simple for me.  Oshawott has a primarily blue and yellow color scheme, so I picked colors that would go well with those colors.  Different shades of blue and yellow and purples.  I added some reds and oranges to give it a little variety.  The difficulty with the coloring is HOW I would use the colors.

I first started coloring the Oshawott in the center of the pic.  He was the easiest to color by far, because the character’s color scheme was pre chosen and pre thought out.  Then I colored the aura energy sections.  I chose yellow because it was a nice “energizing” color, that went well with the blues in Oshawott’s color scheme.  I added the blue and white energy streaks to give the section some variety and to further tie it in with the Oshawott centerpiece.

Next I colored the “attack” sections of the artwork (upper left and lower right).  I colored the mini Oshawotts in their standard color schemes.  The coloring of the water attack in the upper left section is self explanatory.  For the background rectangle of that section, I decided to color it in a blue “streak” design, to accent the blues of the section.  I did the same thing for the lower right section too, except that the color scheme is now red/orange to match the red/orange aura of the Razor Shell attack.  Now if you check out the reference pic for the Razor Shell attack, you’ll see that the aura is actually supposed to be a teal color.  I decided to make it red/orange to give the whole pic some variety, instead of being predominantly blues and yellows.  There’s nothing wrong with it being predominantly blue and yellow, but its just a personal preference.

The background of the whole picture was a BITCH to figure out.  Looking back at the composition sketch:

Composition Brainstorm

You’ll see that I left the background pretty much blank.  The only thing that I knew I wanted to do, with the background, is have it fully in color pencil, instead of being an inked design.  But when it came time to actually coloring the background, I was stumped for a good while.  What would go well with the foreground Oshawott theme?  I decided to go with a moonlit ocean like setting, to emphasize the water theme for Oshawott.  Also the darkness of the background would make the energy sections of the foreground pic pop out more.  It took awhile, but I colored in the background with dark blues and purples, that gradually got deeper the further from the moon (right center section of the pic) it got.

I finished up the entire artwork with the border.  I decided that I wanted to do a wavy line that’s reminiscent of waves of water.  I added little bubbles and shells in the 2 corners of the pic to give the border some variety and to add something extra to the designs around that area.  For added variety, I colored each of the 2 corners using the color scheme of its opposite corner (the lower right uses the blues of the upper left section, for example).

Well, that about wraps up the Oshawott pic.  I hope you enjoyed my tour, from start to finish, of my creative process in making artwork.  Hopefully I didn’t drive you too crazy lol.  Look forward to seeing more artwork from me in the future.

“The Power of Oshawott” Artwork: Energy Sections

After discussing the different sections of the final artwork, it’s now time.  Time to reveal the final artwork in its entirety.  Are you excited? After discussing this art project for a whole month, I’m definitely excited to show it.  My muse’s excited to show it.  Let’s do this:

The Final Artwork. Title? "The Power of Oshawott"

What do you think?  It took me about 20 hours to complete the pic, from inception to completion.  I’m very happy with the way it came out, especially since I haven’t done any kind of non-digital coloring in several years.  I was afraid that it wouldn’t come out good because I was so rusty with color pencils, but I had nothing to worry about.

My favorite section of the final artwork is the Dewott/Samurott energy sections (the lower left and upper right hand sections).  The energy is supposed to represent Oshawott’s aura.  And Oshawott’s aura shoots out from his body and takes the form of his evolutions, Dewott and Samurott.  It suggests a hidden power hidden deep within Oshawott.

Its my favorite section because my muse really worked its magic with this one.  Check out my line work with the aura energy.  I never used that “feathered” kind of line work before, and I think it came out good.  I think it did a good job of showing the movement of the energy as it radiates from Oshawott.  My coloring helps the sense of movement too, with the blue wave streaks mixed with the yellow energy.

The really unique part about the section though is the little circles of “energy” that surrounds Dewott and Samurott.  Believe it or not, those circles are spots of whiteout.  I originally used the whiteout on a coloring mistake I made, but my muse got the better of me.  It inspired me to dot the whole energy section with the whiteout and color over it with yellow color pencil.  For trying something new, I think it came out pretty cool.  Even if it didn’t come out so great, I would be happy that I tried it anyway.  That’s the fun thing about art, trying different techniques, experimenting and seeing what works.

Oshawott Pic: Side Sketches?

I decided to work on the background art of Oshawott’s evolutions: Dewott and Samurott (the lower left and upper right corners of the pic, respectively).

Time to do the Dewott and Samurott Sections of the Final Artwork? Right?

But when I attempted to start drawing them, I realized that I was too unfamiliar with the characters to draw them faithfully in the final artwork.  So I did what I call “side sketches”.  They’re sketches I do on a separate piece of paper, during my work on the final artwork.  These sketches are where I work out some challenging parts of the final artwork, without working them out on the final artwork itself (to reduce constant erasing and tinkering about).

On one particular day at work, I had some VERY RARE free time, so I decided to do some side sketches of Dewott and Samurott then.  But  since I was at work and away from my reference pics, I had to draw them all from memory.

Dewott Reference Pic

Samurott Reference Pic

Dewott and Samurott Side Sketches

Aside from some very minor mistakes, the 2 sketches of Dewott and Samurott came out pretty cool.  Dewott was easy enough, because its head is still heavily based on Oshawott’s head.  Just with smaller nose and eyes, and big, boomerang like whiskers.  Samurott was a bitch though.  Especially with that shell helmet, and trying to get his facial features positioned and sized right.  But I’m still happy with the way Samurott came out.  In fact, Samurott in particular had inspired me to draw a little off model for the final copy, to add my own personal flair.

I also did a freestyle sketch of the energy portion of the final artwork.

Dewott and Samurott Energy Beam Side Sketch

I definitely like what I came up with.  The energy will have a lightning-esque outline to it.  The inner line work of the characters will be in a feathered type of line (forgot the name of the line), so as to suggest movement toward the outer corners of the paper.  And there will be energy particles that’ll surround the outline of the energy, which will add a cool effect to the drawing.  This will probably be a pain in the ass to draw, but I’m committed to making this pic come out cool.

Littered around these side sketches are little side notes that I wrote down.

Oshawott Pic Energy Coloring Side Sketch

That’s me taking notes on how the tone of the energy’s color will gradually darken as the energy reaches the edges of the page.  There’s also a separate note on how the particle’s tone will change too (it’ll darken at a slower rate than the main energy area)

If you look back at the energy sketch above, there are notes too.  One note says that the energy particles will have little light halos around them, and that they’ll blend in with the bg color.  Another note suggests that my choice of bg color should be dark so it makes the light of the energy portion pop.  Finally, I note that both ends of the energy stream should be colored the same since Dewott and Samurott have the same skin color. But Samurott’s shell helmet should be done in a slightly lighter color, to reflect the different tone levels.

(Note: In my written notes, you’ll see that I refer to Dewott as Futachimaru and Samurott as Daikenki.  Those are the original Japanese names for those characters, and the English names of the characters weren’t released at the time.)

I also did a really tiny sketch of a possible page border idea:

Oshawott Pic Border Side Sketch

I was thinking of having it as a water design, and the water would reflect whatever color is near the border.  For example, for the portion of the border around Samurott, it would reflect the color of the energy stream.

Oshawott Pic: Final Artwork (Part 2)

For the next section, I started to draw the upper left section of the pic, with a smaller Oshawott attacking by shooting water out of its mouth.

Time to discuss the upper left of the final artwork

Final Artwork Upper Left Section: Oshawott Water Attack

This is an original pose that I didn’t have a reference pic for. So I’m mainly drawing from my knowledge of Oshawott’s measurements and my own imagination.  It took awhile to get the kinks out, but it came out good.  I drew this Oshawott using the same technique of starting with simple shapes and becoming more detailed.  I decided that for Oshawott’s water attack, I would render it completely in color pencil, instead of inking it first.  So I took my 2H pencil and VERY LIGHTLY sketched in the water attack.

After I finished penciling in the entire area, I inked Oshawott with my Copic Multiliner pens.  For the portion of Oshawott’s body that’s behind the water attack, I inked it with a loose, open type of line.  I felt that this line gave the water attack a motion effect, as the water left Oshawott’s mouth.  Exactly like drawing speed lines next to a pic of a car in motion.

Finally, I did the lower right section of the pic, with another smaller Oshawott using his shell as a blade.

And now for the Lower Right Section

Final Artwork Lower Right Section: Oshawott's Razor Shell Attack

Luckily, I had a ref pic that I can loosely base this attack pose from.

Oshawott's Razor Shell

But still, about 1/2 of the pose came from my own tinkering around and imagination.  Otherwise, I did the same exact method I used with the upper left section of the pic.

Don’t worry, I’m not skipping any discussion about my coloring.  I’m saving that for its own dedicated post later on.

Oshawott Pic: Final Artwork (Part 1)

Oh how I wish I could go back into time.  I would remind myself to take pics of my progress while working on the Oshawott pic.  But as it stands, I don’t have any “work in progress” pics.  I was too focused on completing the artwork to take the pics.  So for the rest of the Oshawott posts, I’m going to post the final artwork, and explain my process in creating it. But I’ll only be posting sections of the final artwork, while discussing them.  When the time is right, then I’ll post the final artwork in its entirety.  So let’s get started with the discussion.  I first worked on the very center of the pic:

This sketch is a diagram of the final artwork. The highlighted section is the section I'll be talking about

The centerpiece of the Oshawott Final Artwork

I drew Oshawott pretty damn good here and accurate.  How did I do it?

First I drew the basic shapes that compose Oshawott’s body.  A circle for its head, a pear shape for its torso, cones for its arms and rectangles for its feet.  I drew them with a 2H pencil.  2H pencils are a nice light pencil, that’s easy to erase.  The point of me drawing basic shapes is to get Oshawott’s body proportions absolutely correct, before I get bogged down with details like eyes and shells.  If I get the proportion of Oshawott’s body wrong, then its easier to erase the basic shapes and start again fresh.  For the record, it took me 3 tries to get Oshawott’s body right.

After I got Oshawott’s body proportions down pat, I started to flesh out the basic shapes, and turn it into Oshawott’s proper body.  For the most part, I used freehand.  But for Oshawott’s head, I used a compass, because drawing a decent circle is actually pretty hard for me.

My Compass

Once Oshawott’s body shape is fully fleshed out, I started to fill in the details.  remember the “Measurement Hell” post I did?  I used the measurement notes from that post to position Oshawott’s bodily details.  Eyes, nose, ears, shell…all placed where they’re supposed to be placed.

Finally, I inked over all of my pencil work using a set of Copic Multiliner pens:

Copic Multiliner Pen Set

The Copic Pens give a nice, smooth, consistent black line.  Not only that, but the line work won’t fade over time.  Important if you want to save your original pen artwork.  Plus I really like the feeling of them gliding over the bristol board.  Almost therapeutic in a way.

That’s how I drew the Oshawott Centerpiece, in a nutshell.  As a summary, here’s a visual diagram of my drawing methods, from start to finish:

My drawing method. From simples shapes to inked drawing

You may be wondering why I chose the pose I did.  Or you may be wondering about my coloring.  Well, you’ll have to wait til a later post to have your curiosity satisfied.

Oshawott Pic: Measurement Hell

I estimate that I spent 3.75 hours total on the planning stages of this pic.  I don’t know if that’s quick or long for planning out a drawing, when compared to other hours.  But i personally think that its quick, because I didn’t do a lot of character studies, and I made some quick decisions about what I want to draw and how.  But the biggest reason for the quickness is because I didn’t really do any hardcore planning.  Most of my planning decisions will be made while doing the final artwork.  So to make up for the quick planning, I’m going to have a longer time doing the final art.

Also the way I’m going to go about doing the final art, will include more side sketches and studies.  And i”ll point those out when I reach those points during the process.

To start off the pic, I taped it to the drawing surface, so it will stay in one place.

I then created a 1 cm border.  I include a border because I don’t like drawing to the end of the paper, and also I use this border to make little markings used for measuring.  Plus the border has other uses like having a dead space to attach a separate border frame, along with sturdy paper backing.  There’s a special name for this type of frame, but I pretty much forgot it.  I created the border using a combination of a T-Square and Triangles.

After the border, I decided to divide the paper into 4 quadrants, to better position elements of the composition

My artwork all measured out

Then I started drawing the Oshawott that’s in the center of the pic.  The vertical line that divides the paper in half came in real handy in positioning Oshawott dead center in the pic.  Not only that, but Oshawott himself is split in half by this same line.  So now I can also use the vertical line to draw Oshawott’s body and its details faithfully.

Before I started to draw Oshawott, I measured one of the ref pic, to see how its proportions are.  Here are my findings:

One of the Reference Pics I used for measurement

-The halfway point of Oshawott’s body, from the top of his head to his feet, is its mouth, believe it or not.
-The Halfway point of Oshawott’s head is the upper 1/3 of Oshawott’s nose
-This nose is almost as tall as his eyes.
-If you split Oshawott’s face into quarter circle quadrants, the tip of his ears are at the center of the quadrant
-This is a little hard to explain with text, but the width of Oshawott’s ears line up diagonally with the size of his eyes, if you can visualize that.
-The vertical line splits the shell on Oshawott’s torso in half.
-The halfway point of Oshawott’s shell (the top portion) lines up with his armpit
-The lines connecting Oshawott’s torso with its head, line up with the inner edges of Oshawott’s eyes.
-The bottom width of Oshawott’s pear-shaped torso is the same width as its head.
-Oshawott’s arms in its relaxed position lines up with the edges of Oshawott’s head.
-Oshawott’s limbs outstretched form a perfect half circle, starting and ending at each arm’s tip.
-The halfway point of the torso is the center of the top part of Oshawott’s shell.

As you can see, I meticulously measured Oshawott’s proportions, similarly to that Leonardo DaVinci sketch of the human body.

Keep in mind that my measurements could be way off, but these measurements helped me to draw Oshawott tremendously and faithfully.  I used a ruler to measure the body, a T-Square to line up my measuring lines, a protractor to make sure any straight angles are consistent with each other, and a compass to draw a perfect circle for the head (I suck at drawing circles by hand).

Oshawott Pic: The Drawing Table

My Drawing Table

I’m doing my final artwork on the drawing board in the photo.  My friend Dragon Maiden gave it to me, and its made drawing easier for me.

Before, I used to draw on a clipboard while sitting in a recliner, or draw on my flat kitchen table.

My old drawing table: the kitchen table. Not so comfy

Those methods are ok, but it starts to get uncomfortable after drawing for a period of time.  Especially with my back hunched over my kitchen table.  Can you visualize me at the kitchen table in the pic above? Pretty painful position isn’t it?

My drawing table set up

With the drawing board, the surface is at an incline.  So not only am I not hunched over trying to draw, but I can also see the entire drawing as I’m doing so.  The surface is big enough to tape my sketches and thumbnails for easy viewing.  Also the surface helps me use tools like T-Squares and Triangles better.  I can go on and on about how beneficial this drawing table is.  Don’t get me wrong, there’s way better models out there, with accessories like supply trays and built-in lamps.  But I don’t really need those bells and whistles…I’m a simple man with simple needs.  So I’m gonna take time to thank Dragon Maiden for her wonderful gift, and its being put to good use now in drawing her Oshawott pic.

Oshawott Pic: Paper Selection for the Final Artwork

Its time to work on the final artwork!

For the final artwork, I decided to do it on 11″x14″ smooth Bristol Board.

The Packaging for the brand of Bristol Board I used

11" x 14" Sheet of Bristol Board that I will be using for the final artwork

It has a nice surface to do pencil and inks on, and sturdy enough to be kept for long periods of time.  This is the type of paper I used to do the original inks for my old Niece Web comic, and those originals are still intact and in good condition, after 4 years.  A good paper for an artistic gift.

As for the size of the paper, I was thinking of doing 14″x17″.  But I realized that I would be traditionally coloring my artwork..  I haven’t done a work of art in traditional coloring in GOD KNOWS WHEN.  seriously, it’s probably been since 2002.  I’m not that rusty in coloring, since I digitally colored Niece Web with Photoshop.  But traditional coloring has its own techniques, that I AM rusty at.  So doing a smaller pic size of 11×14 feels comfortable for me, until I get used to traditional coloring again.