Fantasist's Scroll

Making art is fun and easy!

I’ve never understood people who spend all the money on high-end graphics software only to claim they still can’t produce any art. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, it’s not the tools, it’s the workman. I’ve seen artists who painted with coffee and rusty water. I know a guy who takes old bill-board canvas and makes collage art out of that. (In fact, I hear it sells for a pretty penny!) But, me, I’m a computer geek, so I make computer art. Hmm, I wonder if it’s worth putting a copyright statement on these?
Oh, you may notice that this is a square instead of my regular full-screen rectangle. “Why?”, you ask? Well, simple. I was over at Cingular, looking at graphics, and it occured to me that I could use their custom picture tool to send a nice picture that I created to my new phone. So, I made a square graphic that I can compress with their program and fit onto my phone’s little, square screen. It may have taken all night to render, but, I think it was worth it.
In any case, I hope you enjoy it.

Yes, I keep making more art.
I know, this has got to get boring for you few regular readers, but I’m having fun. I’m really enjoying making some pictures of things that have bounced around inside my head for ages. Vue d’Espirit really lets me take some basic shapes and objects and combine them into very interesting pictures. The islands floating in the sky in this picture has been a theme for me ever since I first saw Views by Roger Dean. He had the most wonderful paintings of floating islands that just fired my imagination beyond belief. So, you can imagine how thrilled I am to be able to create my own visions of that theme. You can expect to see more!

Look, I made more art!
I needed a fantasy world to escape into, so I made one. Well, part of one. So far, I’m just experiementing with some stock images, but at least I’m producing things. ThisVue d’Espirit program is really intuitive, for me, and makes great output very easy to produce. Or so I’m told. So far, I’ve only made really good output, but I see the potential for great. Who knows, one day, someone might actually donate money for the art I produce! Yeah, okay, that might be asking too much, but, still… On the other hand, I’ve been thinking about saving up the money for a new color printer. Rumor has it that Epson produces archival quality inks for their inkjet printers. In theory, I could use them to produce prints that I could sell. Make a limited number of prints, frame them, and sell them on eBay or, dare I say it, my very own web page!

Not just water and rocks!
Nope, this time, I included some free science-fiction objects with their “skins” mapped differently. In their original forms, they weren’t shiny enough to be science-fiction. If it’s not sparkly and shiny enough, it just can’t be high-tech! (Hmm, I should make sure my brother in R&D at Motorola knows that…)
Anyway, I created this because someone who reads my site complained that my digital art was all a little too antediluvian for his taste. And, I have to admit, it all did seem somewhat, well, “prehistoric”. Now, keep in mind, these pictures are all done with the FREE version of Vue d’Espirit which is several revs behind the full version and severly lacking in features. Also, all the good free stuff is done for the newer versions, so my subject matter is fairly restricted. Still, I think I do a fair job, all things considered. I can only imagine what I could accomplish if I spent the money on the full version. Someday, perhaps, someday….

More art!
Yeah, I seem to be stuck in a “water and rocks” phase, but that’s mainly because the free version of Vue d’Espirit that I’m using has very limited materials and objects from which to choose. Still, it is fun to mess around with now and again. I’ve been thinking “nature themes”, lately, but I’ve also been messing around with some more, well, abstract stuff as well. It’s a little strange, like most modern art, and, again, defined somewhat by my limited toolset, but, I think it’ll turn out okay. In the meantime, you can enjoy this simple scene.

Yep, that’d be me.
I did this with a free version of a neat 3-d program called Vue d’Espirit. And, I did it all myself! I’ve really always wanted to do this kind of thing, but, well, personal reasons kept me from getting into it. If I showed too much interest, it was frowned upon by someone I cared about, who saw it as a kind of competition. Which is sad, really, because we could have had fun doing this together. Or, maybe not. In any case, it’s something that has interested me and, when I saw this free version in a magazine, I decided to play around with it. Not bad, considering it took me about an hour and I used nothing but free software.