Next Art Tool Purchase

This will work great with my Motorola Xoom. This brush works on all capacitive devices, like my Xoom or a Kindle or iPad. It's about $40, so it will have to wait a bit, but looks very promising.

Studio/Office Open House

This Saturday is the Open House of my Office and Studio. It's the place where many of my projects come to life. I wanted to take an opportunity to show our family, friends, supporters and prayer partners the inner workings of what I do. Angie and I are getting excited as we finish preparing it. We talked about h'orderves last night, which is just another aspect of creating! And in one corner of the office there will be a prayer station. There you will be able to look over a list of prayer needs, spin a globe and pray for various missionaries and people groups around the world.  It's on the campus of Highland Park Christian Church in the 2:20 Center. It will last from 2-4PM and you can come and go as you please. Hope to see you there!

Bear in the Woods - Quick Sketch

Here's a quick sketch I did of a nondescript bear in the woods. I used my bamboo graphic tablet and Autodesk's PC Sketchbook Pro.

Three Stooges faces

Here's a quick practice illustration I did of the Three Stooges, one of my favorite comic teams. After watching some of their shorts, I was inspired to do this.

The Crucifixion Sketch

Here's a quick sketch I did today.

Red Painting

This is another painting that I did recently. It has a very intense red theme to it.

Spring Flowers Painting

I've been painting more lately. As I completed a decorative project for my office, I would find myself with leftover paint that I didn't want to go to waste, so I painted a few extra paintings. Here's one I did with a Springy influence.

Brinkley BW and Color Illustrations

Here's a couple illustrations I made with my new Graphics Tablet. These are a caricature of our little Yorkie Puppy, Brinkley. I did a BW one and a color one.

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Artist Notes - I used a Wacom Bamboo Create Graphics Tablet and drew on my PC in Autodesk's Sketchbook Pro. Then I exported them as PNG files.

New Bamboo Graphic Tablet

Last week, my new Wacom Bamboo Graphic Tablet arrived. This is a tablet that connects to my PC via USB. It comes with a pressure sensitive pen (cordless and with no battery). The end of the pen there is a nib (that can be replaced) and in various software I can draw/paint directly onto my PC. The other end of the pen is a simulated eraser. With that I can flip the pen over and it automatically switches to an eraser and it feels like an eraser as I remove strokes from the screen. There are tons of possibilities and I've already done a couple illustrations for a Bible Study I'm working on for Peru. Here are those images:

Here's a link to the original sketches I did for these horses: http://mattsketchpad.blogspot.com/2012/03/horse-sketches-for-bible-study-project.html

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Artist Notes - I used a Wacom Bamboo Create and CorelDraw X5, then exported the images as PNG's.

Horse Sketches for Bible Study Project Illustration

These are some quick sketches for a Bible Study Project I am working on for Peru.

My Favorite Apps/Programs

I thought I would do a post highlighting some of my favorite apps/programs that I use to create art on various devices. Some I have been using for years. Others are brand new, but I already have found great use in them. Check them out below...

On my PC - 
CorelDraw X5 - this is the program that I use the most and one in which I am very well versed. I have been using CorelDraw since 1993 or 1994 with version 3. The latest version, X5, is actually version 15 and there have been leaps and bounds in the capabilities.

Sumopaint - This a a great painting app that is available for download on the Chrome Webstore within the Chrome browser, or just go to www.sumopaint.com. You can also download an offline version for twenty bucks.

Camstasia Studio - This is a brand new app that I used to do a screen video capture while I created a Lion in CorelDraw. I then took the video that was captured and tweaked it, as well as speeding it up from 30 minutes to 6 minutes. I have been thinking of various new things I can make with this cool software tool.

Sketchbook Pro for PC - It's made for a touchscreen surface, but it has great uses and reminds me of my favorite Android Tablet app!

Adobe Dreamweaver CS 5.5 - This is what I use when I need to get detailed in website creation. I can also just notepad to edit some html code or even CorelDraw for very artistically produced website designs.

On my Xoom Android Tablet - 
Sketchbook Mobile Pro - Has to be my all time favorite app ever created for any mobile device! I can use it to create quick sketches or full shaded, colorized pieces of artwork that can be used in final project versions.

Pixlr-o-matic - This is a very packed photo editing app that can change all sorts of color options, borders, special effects, etc...

On my Windows Phone 7 - 

Fantasia Painter Free - Very versatile little app for the Windows Phone 7.

Drawing in CorelDraw X5 (Video)

Here's a six minute video of me drawing in CorelDraw X5. The drawing actually took me about thirty minutes to make, but I sped it up to six minutes. See how quickly you can guess what it is!!

Artist Notes - Done in CorelDraw X5 on my Dell Inspiron 1720 laptop with Windows 7 OS.

Electrocute

This is my first attempt using a new software called SumoPaint. Great potential for this program and I look forward to what else I can create with it.

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Artist Notes - Done in Sumo Paint. It is a free App for the Chrome Browser. It is found in the Chrome Marketplace. There is a downloadable offline version available for purchase.

The Accuser

This is a color version of an illustration I'm doing for an international study tool. The accuser stands pointing at our sin, but Christ stands in and defends, in fact, pardoning us from our sins.

Presidents Day 2012

In honor of Presidents' Day 2012, I'm posting a couple illustrations I did for Angie's preschool class to color tomorrow. The versions I did for her are in Black and White, but I colored them for the blog. Below are two great presidents, President George Washington and President Abraham Lincoln.

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Artist Notes - Both illustrations done in CorelDraw X5 on a Windows 7 Dell Laptop.

Ichthus - Fish Symbol

Here's a promo that I did for our church here in Tulsa. It is for a five week study in Luke. I actually preached one of the sermons in the series and it can be found at Highland Park Christian Church's website at http://hp4christ.org/#/media/sermons. You can launch the sermon player and find my sermon on January 22, 2012.

Artist Notes -  I created the fish and background on my Android Tablet using Sketchbook Mobile Pro. Then I exported it as a PSD file which I opened on my computer in CorelDraw X5. I added the text in CorelDraw.

Face Sketch

This was a quick sketch I did on my Xoom Tablet.

November 2011 Turkey

Gobble gobble gobble. Here's another Thanksgiving themed November sketch.

Artist Notes - Done in Sketchbook Mobile Pro on my Motorola Xoom.

Character Design of Moses for Children's Curriculum

Here's a character design for Moses at various stages of his life that I did for an International Children's Curriculum I am working on.

Artist Notes - Done with a 2B Derwent Graphic pencil on Hammermill Color Copy Digital paper (28lbs, 100 brightness)

More Curriculum Coloring Pages

Here's more coloring pages that I have done for an upcoming curriculum package. These are from the life of Abraham. The first one is God telling Abraham the promise of descendants. The second is the birth of Isaac to Abraham and Sarah. The third one is Abraham sending Hagar and Ishmael away.