A Long Road Ahead?

Man when something begins to churn inside one's self it certainly isn't worth keeping it in.  When this old passion began to burn again my imagination got so overloaded that I found myself thinking too long on what I was going to draw first.  I found this to be a problem.

With a strong draw to fantasy art and character creation this Frogman warrior came to life and ended up sketched on my pad.  I was so eager to paint digitally.  I knew I needed a tablet of some sort and zoned in on the WACOM Intuos 5, which was their latest version.  I also new that this would be a learning curve in and of itself.  Can I draw and paint with this thing like I could with a pad of paper and a pencil or brush?  How quickly could I get to a place where I could produce quality art and be OK with it?  Would I be able to learn the in's and out's of this tablet soon enough to be happy about it?  I don't know about you but I just wanted to be proficient as soon as possible.

The tablet was awesome in many ways and getting the hang of it didn't take me too long and the Frogman was my first of many attempts at putting color on the screen.  I had no idea what I was in for.  I still followed Will Terry, his blog and his online class room and had such a hunger for learning more so than I had in years and years.  I ended up taking my first SVS class which was the "Painting in Photoshop" all day live class.  Affordable and like trying to take a drink from a fire hose!!  Soooo Much awesome information and so well worth the money I spent.  Not only did I get to watch and learn from Will, but he had 3 other crazy good artists all at various points in their careers.  Zac Retz and Kevin Keele, who currently works with Disney were 2 of the other 3 artists involved in this all day Draw fest.  What an impacting 8 hours spent watching published artists offer insight into their crafts.  I took notes and soaked it all like a sponge.  It was hard to pay attention because I was so inspired to doodle on the very notebook I was hoping would be filled with notes.

This major step in this new direction was another heart changer for me.  I just thought about illustration all the time.  My wife was loving it as she always knew it was in me.  Frogman was certainly a test for me but after seeing my first finished painting using digital tools I knew this was right up my alley.  I know this was like finding my first love.  Thank you Lord for the open door.

more to come...