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Fun With Photoshop - How To Ink and Color a Pencil Drawing in Adobe Photoshop

Fun With Photoshop - How To Ink and Color a Pencil Drawing in Adobe Photoshop

Everyone dig out that little pencil sketch you’ve got stuck in a drawer or on a bulletin board.  You know the one, the one you want to add some color to, but you don’t want to mess it up.  Let’s digitize your artwork.  It’s easy!  I’m using Photoshop CS3, but this tutorial will work with […]

Cultivating Doodles

Cultivating Doodles

Are you a doodler?  I am.  Let me introduce you to Pokey the baby dinosaur.  Pokey has graced the margins of my notes since junior high.  I draw him on napkins, on scraps of paper while I talk on the phone, on painfully blank dry erase boards and even on my websites for luck.  He […]

Learning to Paint Novels

Learning to Paint Novels

Before I sat down to write this article I looked up “writing for artists” on Amazon.  My search came back with dozens of books on basic grammar, technical writing and sentence structure for us language impaired visual artists.  This was disappointing.  I wanted to find references on learning styles and creativity that focused on cross […]

Travels With Ernest - The Adventures of a Nomadic Navy Wife

Travels With Ernest - The Adventures of a Nomadic Navy Wife

In the spring of 2006 my husband left for a deployment.  It wasn’t our first, and it certainly will not be our last, but it was his final deployment before we became parents.  I was able to take advantage of the flexibility of our before-kids lifestyle, and, among other things, I became a nomad, tried […]

Making the Switch: PC to Mac

Making the Switch: PC to Mac

My first computer was an Apple 2C.  My dad bought me a “drawing” program that let you color pictures like a digital coloring book.  It was crude, awkward, had only eight colors and was utterly magical.  My current computer is a brand new iMac, complete with Adobe Creative Suite 3, which allows you to color […]

Don't Just Run... BE a Runner

Don’t Just Run… BE a Runner

I am a runner.  I do not run fast or far, but I do run, and that is what counts.  Deciding to BE a runner instead of just going running was a breakthrough for me.  I removed the option of not going.  I could not BE a runner and not run.  It was a part […]

Have a Happy Family Photo Shoot

Have a Happy Family Photo Shoot

Recently we decided to enact a new family tradition.  The Yearly Family Photo Shoot.  I admit that I am not a professional photographer, but I am a bit more than an amateur.  When you are an illustrator it sure helps if you can take good reference photos.  I’ve also sold photos as stock photography, taken […]