Time to upgrade

My state of the art (four years ago) laptop is really showing its ago now. Can't blame it. It's been hard working and has delivered well thru these years, but alas, it's time to upgrade.

For all the tech geeks out there. The image above is the product of only 1 hours work on a duo core 2.5 Ghz laptop running photoshop 6 on windows 7. Image is 150 dpi, 8bit RGB, and only 3 layers... And my poor laptop was having trouble keeping up with my brush strokes. Poor thing =(. Obviously a ways to go before it start looking like the way I want it too, but it'll never get there with what I have now.

So I'm off to my hardware dealer and to talk about a new desktop. I need the horsepower to take my work to the next level. Only place I see that my pencil skills would fit best is the comic book industry. Of course I still plan on perusing the comics thing in a big way, but certain opportunities have come about that require me to embrace digital.

Far be it for me to ignore destiny when it walks up and kicks me square in the nuts.

"Be good, get good, or step aside."


- It's good to be the king =)

Frustration, thy name is technology

Having too many issues with my laptop.. Go figure, a gaming machine that's about 4 years old and has always been a heat monster is having trouble running photoshop 6 with windows 7. I got a few big things coming just around the corner but they all require me to brush up on my digital painting chops. Solution? I'm digging up my old (emphasis on old) desktop. P4 2.0 GHz that I'm hoping to turn into a photoshop ONLY machine so I can get work done. Been havin to call my tech geek friends a lot lately, but whadayagonnado? Can't let a minor issue like tech deficiencies get in the way of my plans of world domination!

Just got the call! Time to get my MacGuiver on!

Now I'm putting my work on stuff you need, come check it out!

Check out some of the stuff I'm putting my art on =)

make custom gifts at Zazzle

"Act of Valor" review

So I finally had a chance to watch "Act of Valor" 2012. Movie about Navy SEaLs. All and all... it was alright. It's not "Saving Private Ryan", but i think it was fairly well done. Acting sucked, but from what i understand, the characters were actually played be real Special Operations Operators so I guess it's to be expected. I would venture to say that 99% of effects and such were accurate, there were only a couple small details that i could nit-pick, but all and all, pretty convincing. The story, I feel, seemed like it was a much bigger story with a much bigger impact that had to be cut down to fit into the time allotted. Even though they basically tied off all the loose ends, it still felt unfinished. Being a military buff and all, having a pretty heavy military family background, and having served myself and been friends with servicemen and specops personnel.... I give this movie a 8. Lots of military movie cliches, but it was alright all things concidering.


- It's Good to be the King =)

Nature Vs. Nurture

Had to revisit a discussion I've had with a few people about being an artist and other high discipline occupations. The conversation usually ends up in the neighborhood of nature versus nurture, talent versus practice. Now, i cant speak for other people, but i tend to get annoyed when people when the word "talented" starts getting thrown around. The gist of it is that no one is born truly great at anything beyond crying, eating, pooping... and all the other things we can do naturally out of the box... so to speak. We all have to learn how to do and excel at the things we end up doing. A master pianist still has to learn how to play the piano and make it do the things they want it to do. A doctor has to learn medicine before they can use all the thing they know to cure diseases. I had to learn to use to tools i use and learn how to make them do the things i want them to do. Practice. My point is that anyone who ever got good at something got that way because they have at least some interest and then likely spent a great deal of time mastering they're interests.

So here's the rub. Again, i cant speak for others, but i find it kind of irritating when someone simply attributes what i create to simply being talented. dont get me wrong, it is flattering and it is a nice thing to say... but at the same time, i spent a great deal of my life and energy trying to GET good. Being a good artist (at least the kind of artist that i'm trying to be) requires lots of study and practice. I didn't fall out of my mom able to do what i can do today. Yes, a degree of talent is required to get anywhere in any given discipline, but simply saying someone is talented at something and not acknowledging their hard work can be a little insulting.

So there's my little rant o today. Take it as you will.


- It's Good to be the King =)