Sketches and Pictures: October 2003 Archives

I hate Painter.

I do. I really do. But I didn't realize how much I hated it until I got openCanvas.

For over a year, I've been trying to teach myself to paint digitally with Painter. No dice, on account I tend to be pretty easily discouraged when programs crash, corrupt the save files, and destroy eight or ten hours of work randomly. I'm pretty goddamned pleased to say I won't need to worry about that anymore.

Lea recently recommended oC to me after I mentioned I was drawing on oekaki boards, so I found a copy and tried it out. Blessed, blessed simplicity. It's a little like Painter Lite. I knocked this out in about two or three hours, and I'm pretty sure it only took that long because I have no idea what I'm doing.

So yeah, Go oC go. Gets the Spike seal of approval, as little as that may mean. If Painter's frustrating you as much as it frustrated me, try oC out. Very zen.

Thought I fergot, din'cha?

This is Bo.

Bo's a frat boy without the benefit of a fraternity; a breed of sunburnt bumpkin rarely seen in cities of Templar's size and relative sophistication. He moved to the city from Oklahoma and founded a metal band with hometown friends, Lockjaw... which he promptly left for the more successful Abide to increase his cash flow. "Bad blood" doesn't even begin to describe the ensuing shitstorm, but that's Bo for you.

Formally the alpha male of his own group, Bo's a lot like his mutt, Looney Boy; stubborn, untrainable, loudmouthed, and difficult to control, but ultimately too stupid to do any real harm. Still, he has the dubious distinction of being the only person Gene has ever physically attacked. Ever. Exactly who won, who lost, and whether it really counted as a fight or not is still up for debate.... but everyone pretty much agrees the bastard had it coming. They woulda voted his ass out ages ago if he weren't such a damn good drummer. But life isn't always easy, is it?

Bo has an uneasy truce with Gene, and knows Ben, Scip, Sonny, Reagan, Zora, and Lorne. He doesn't know the Elliots. And Bloom has too much self-respect to even sell the ditchweed Bo smokes.

All in all, a very minor character. But I like him. I dunno why.

Do you have any idea how fast you've got to be going to overturn an SUV?

Neither do I. But I betcha it's pretty fuckin' fast. Or maybe not, higher center of gravity. But still, in a sedan? Gee whiz.

The Intersections of Woe never disappoint. Anyone who's been reading this site for a while probably already knows about how prone the street outside my apartment building is to car wrecks, but I usually just snap these sorts of pictures from the window. This one was actually worth hopping out of bed, getting dressed, and going downstairs to rubberneck for.

I didn't get any shots of the bleeding guy they hauled out of the sedan, the Starbucks counter girl acting as an impromptu traffic cop, or the two towtruck guys arguing over who got there first, each in his own exotic accent. So you'll have to imagine all that.

Strangely enough, the chick in the SUV was perfectly all right; She crawled out of the sunroof after the crash. I guess those things really are tanks. The EMTs made her put on a neck brace and lie on a gurney anyway, but you could see they had to talk her into it.

...but now, I'm posting OEKAKI PICTURES in it. Somebody crown me Empress of the Retarded Internet Cliches, kthnx. Or do I have to start posting Doll Palace graphics of myself wearing a prom dress and faerie/fairy/faery wings before I can claim my throne?

Anyway, these suck. I'm not going to try to defend them, because they don't deserve it. But they're the first three Oekaki drawings I've ever done in my entire fucking life, so they're allowed to be terrible.

From top to bottom: A crappy Drimmer, a crappy Maira with a crappy baby Drimmer, and a crappy demon a la Saint Sebastian, sans arrows.

I'm doing this because Painter is just too complex for me, right now. Baby steps. Still, I wish that PaintBBS had some way of allowing me to draw an antialiased opaque line.

I won't subject you to any more if I continue to suck this badly, but I'll try to post any decent drawings I do. I'm requiring one of these a day from myself. It's time I learned to paint.