Updates!

You know those people who just can't seem to grasp technology, no matter how hard they try? Well, I seem to be one of those people. I just got my first smartphone less than a month ago. My own mother got a smartphone before I did. In fact, if it weren't for my tech-savvy husband, my mother would probably own more hi-tech gadgets than I. It's not that I don't know how to use them, I just never see the need for more gadgets. Of course, now that I have a smartphone, I am finding a million and one incredible uses for it, most of which involve wasting large amounts of time. What a wonderful era we live in! Glad I'm finally getting with the times.

When it comes to art, I still prefer old-fashioned media. I have tried for years to learn how to do digital painting. Every time I try, I just get too frustrated to create anything worthwhile. Even if I draw something on paper first and then scan it, it never seems to turn out quite right for me. I had just about given up on digital painting until my husband, in a crazy attempt to help me expand my repertoir, bought me a digital drawing tablet for my birthday.

It's taken me a while to get up the nerve to even try the thing. I played around with the brushes a lot, tweaking them until they felt and looked right. After a couple months of reading and putting off the inevitable, I feel I'm finally ready to give it an honest try. I've been wanting to re-do the Cricket in the Ear logo for a long time, so I decided to make that my first project using only Gimp.

Nothing spectacular, but I am extremely happy with it. Tried to keep it similar to the old logo, but simpler and cleaner. I may still perform some minor changes before I make it official. As for the work-in-progress, feel free to leave any feedback in the comments! I'm feeling encouraged by this little project, so I'll keep trying new techniques. Eventually, maybe I'll get good enough to do some more advanced compositions.

As a bonus, I'd like to share a little logo my husband asked me to design for him:

Pirate Kirby wants to share treasures!

He is interested in a new project called Pirate Box (here is the link if you are interested in reading about it). Basically, he used the Pirate Box software to modify a wireless router for offline file-sharing and message boards. He asked me to design a unique logo for his box. Sticking with the pirate theme, we decided to integrate his love of video games into the design as well. I think he's cute.