Spinning Top.

Just an experiment in using the "oil brush" tools and inserting some text. The background is using the "digital watercolour" with a "wash" brush.
I wanted to make her hair carrot red but even though I changed the colour it remained the same violet as her dress. Looks like the oil brush tool could be useful for cross hatching.

Raining in Spain.

The beach is flooded but two people swimming today.

Guitar classes have started again. Chosen "Retrato Brasileiro" by Baden Powell for the next adventure. My teacher says it is obligatory to take him seriously this year as apparently we are moving up a level. Ooops. Now he's given me two sets of excercises to get up to speed with my right hand. I can do it fine at home but as soon as I am in a class my hands turn into jellyfish. He's started his subtle hinting that I have to learn to play in public which I firmly refuse to do.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5C8b5Wtmzk

Thank goodness nobody watches me draw.

Playing with a Wacom Tablet.

Oh boy, do I have a lot to learn about layers! I can't see where to type in a name for each layer. Line art on one, colours on another. I used "waxy crayons" for the lines and "digital watercolour" and "digital airspray" for colouring. I still haven't worked out where to change the pen pressure to make the lines taper. Plod on, and find out.

It's bucketing with rain.

I have got to bar six in "Mysterious Habitats" but it still sounds pretty wonky. I am really going to have to start doing the exercises in the music theory book.

Found a bunch of well known guitarists having a good laugh with a guitar. Here's the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaDxTPpPmVw

The email.

Woohoo!

First drawing attempt on the tablet, not a scrap of paper involved. Actually it's the second drawing, the first vanished quite suddenly and sent me back to the desktop. I've no idea what I pressed. I used one of the "pattern" pens for the linework, paintbucket for colouring in and "digital airbrush" for the shading. It's quite a wierd sensation using a tablet but I love it. The image I worked on is 500 by 500 pixels which I have not resized.

The traffic is insane, everyone rushing to do everything before Thursday because Spain is shutting down for the day. Only two people in the sea today and four sunbathers, three cyclists, two roller skaters and the usual tank ladies.

Digital Tablet

Carrrrumba! I have finally got a Wacom Intous 3 tablet; size A5. I haven't even begun to understand it all but I have quickly and easily reverted to being four years old again. It's like suddenly having access to every crayon, pen, paint, technique ever invented. I am in paradise. It comes with Corel Painter 2 which is not frightfully impressive but certainly has enough to keep me entertained for the moment. I'll probably stick with Photoshop Pro. Well, actually...I am just overwhelmed by it all. The tablet is easy to draw on using the special pen. In this picture (which started from a black and white photo)...oh...I have already forgotten how I added the butterflies and small fish...then I turned it into "woodcut"Coloured in with the paintbucket tool in the background and with a paintbrush on her arms and face. I mean there's like a million different brushes. Oh well, no housework for the next two years. Quentin Crisp once said you don't notice the dust after four years.

The timing in "Mysterious Habitats" is sending me mental. I am so confused by "negras", "corcheas" "cuartos" and crochets. My playing of it sounds awful so far and that's just the first three bars.

The beaches are more or less abandoned except for a bunch of Dutch and Swiss Amazons at the campsite. Campers are settling in for the winter and have placed pots of cactus and ferns outside their vans. They are amazingly houseproud and have definate boundaries marked around their spaces with breakfast tables and chairs, sattalite dishes, motor bikes and bicycles. Nobody ever says good morning but sometimes I get a sort of sideways beginning of a smile as I cycle by. I over heard two workmen talking about hookers and a bunch of Spanish Ladies (who sail along the promenade like tanks) saying "Ayyee, pobre don Pedro!" (Poor Master Pedro). I wondered what had happened to him?

Day in the life of a Guitar Teacher

I admire Joe Galambos very much as a guitarist but he also makes films that make me cry with laughter.Here's a link to his short film on Google about a guitar teacher. I wish my teacher spoke English but I'm sure if I show him this he'll get the point.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=348561601138092221&q=joe+galambos

I've finally got a Wacom Tablet so I'll be posting about that soon but I haven't unpacked my bag yet. The airports in Britain are a nightmare now. Not going back there until I have to!