Background:
I’ve drawn horses my whole life. I took courses in art from Northern Virginia Community College. I taught myself Photoshop 5 and Adobe Illustrator 8. I learned Web Design and the much newer versions of Photoshop and Illustrator at Woodrow Wilson Center For Employment. I worked in web design at Weathervane Graphics and now work for Willowkeep doing the same, while still doing my art and selling it.
I’m familiar with:
HTML
CSS
Basics of Javascript
Basics of PHP
MySQL
Adobe Creative Suite
GIMP
Inkscape
Wordpress
Joomla
For my hand drawn artwork I use marker and color pencil, usually the Prismacolor brand, though I’ve had to try other marker types lately. Prismacolor stopped selling individual markers and its far too expensive to buy a whole set for just a few that I use the most. Sometimes I experiment with watercolor pencil. Occasionally I just stick to pencil or play with oil pastels. Horses are my specialty and I could do them in my sleep. For other animals I still need a few pictures for reference. I’ve done a lot of teddy bears and I’m currently experimenting with drawing dogs.
None of my art is AI. I might manually photo edit, but I don’t want to use AI. It made for a fun toy but I don’t consider it a replacement for real art. Real art involves emotion, spirit, and learning it is uplifting and challenging. AI may look like it has the same result, but its surface level only. It’s taking the training and effort of countless years of effort and sacrifice of real artists. In the Renaissance, artists struggled to find patrons. I recall an artist learning & practicing who made a deal with a roommate. They would each take so many years to work, while the other learned and sold art. Then change places. But when it was time to switch, the hard work had so damaged the originals hands, he could no longer do the art. Today art is still good for the soul of both art and artist. But its still not cheap. Paint, marker, ink, color pencils, art paper is all pricey unless you buy less effective kid’s brands. Even art you do yourself on computer requires software, and these many of them want subscriptions. The closest you can get on a computer of original art is to use pen and tablet, that too, adds to the price. Computer, hardware, and software. As for AI: no it isn’t really free. It’s learned off art (not just public domain and not with any compensation) that others made. It’s datacenters take electricity and water and are sometimes put in to the detriment of the locals, who have to deal with the side effects (could they avoid this, putting it in? Maybe. Will they? Probably not.)
I used to work in the stable caring for horses, so I’ve seen them and know how smart they can be and how they show attitudes, emotions and how to pick up on their character and mood. Hang around with them long enough and it’s hard to miss.
My artwork is available on products at the print on demand online sites of Cafepress, Zazzle and Greeting Card Universe. My shop page will take you there.
My favorite model horse and me in the Star Wars Galaxy
What on Earth is that picture?
It’s not on Earth! Fulfilling my childhood dreams of having adventures with Star Wars characters, I used this challenge to learn Photoshop. I shrank myself, enlarged the horse, and used screenshots to plant us both in the galaxy. It was an excellent and fun way to educate myself. No copyright infringement intended, it was done purely for education and fun. I could do a better job now, but I have fond memories of these.
It is my belief that learning never stops. Given how much of our lives is spent on it, it should be fun and tie as much as possible into our interests.