The Earth-Toned Pill

Link: http://www.jonwalters.net/uploads/gitzo_2.jpg

Eco-Friendly

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Link: http://www.jonwalters.net/uploads/gitzo_1.jpg

Tis the Season

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Link: http://jackal111.deviantart.com/art/Rolling-Fast-103504244

I wanted to do a quick speedpaint and for some reason the M1 Abrams is at the front of my thoughts... No reference for this, just mental pictures for inspiration.

Time involved is about 20 minutes in Painter X.

Link: http://csshowto.com/layout/psd-to-csshtml-in-easy-steps-part-1/

If you're a website front-end designer who is unfortunate enough to depend on others for the actual coding piece of the site development puzzle, then this tutorial is for you!

The folks at CSS How To.com have a massively-extensive 4 part series dedicated to the task that will help get your skills up to par.

Check it out by clicking on the link above!

I've never been a huge fan of Jean 'Moebius' Girard's work (if for no other reason than the fact that I came to his work later in life), but I am quite fond of his character designs and storyboard work for the failed Jodorowsky film adaptation of my favorite book, Dune.

The picture above is one of his fantastic character designs for the film of the character Liet Kynes, the Imperial Ecologist of Arrakis.

Check out this page on DuneInfo.com for more of his excellent work on this unfortunately doomed project.

The Sardukar and the Baron Harkonnen in particular are great!

Link: http://jackal111.deviantart.com/art/Highway-101573565

I've come to the realization that to become a better artist, I have to actually DRAW...

And paint. And create.

I've already known for a long time that you only get better by doing things, because in most cases, practice truly does make perfect. But for so many years, I've neglected my artistic talents and let my imagination become a stagnant nothingness that seems to delight in providing me only with artist's block when I need it most.

So in an effort to take a stand and make a change, I am going to pledge to myself that from here on, I will create at least one work of art a day.

And the digital painting you see above is my first step towards making this happen!

It doesn't matter if its big or small, polished masterpiece or scribbly sketchbook drawring (misspelling intentional), because all I care is that I am forcing myself to create and hopefully become creative again.

Maybe in the process I can get skilled enough to quit my day job too...

You never know, right?

Link: http://www.helpthehoneybees.com/

A friend sent me the link to this Flash site today, and I was really impressed with the complexity and simplicity of the site Häagen-Dazs® put together for their save the honey bees initiative.

The colors are soft and natural, very balanced and in tune with the subject matter. And while it has a good degree of interactivity, it doesn't overdo it on the visuals at all.

Check this great site out when you get a chance!

Link: http://jackal111.deviantart.com/art/Caught-101300023

This is my latest finished speedpainting, done in Painter X with stock brushes. I used no reference for this, but had a general idea in my mind of what I wanted.

One of my main goals was to incorporate color well, and start working my way towards having some realistic lighting and shadows. I know its far from perfect in a lot of ways, but I feel like I'm starting to make progress towards becoming a better digital painter!