“One day at a time”

Posted on August 17, 2010 by Megan

This image popped into my mind this weekend at church. I was very down and tired and just emotionally drained. As I was praying that God would give me the strength to get through the day, this image came to me.

I sketched it in ArtRage with the pencil tool in about an hour and a half. I couldn’t decide if I wanted to just leave it as is, or to add color. I really liked how the sketch turned out, but I decided to go ahead and color it.

The sketch was done on a top layer, so I just started to lay the oils down underneath it to add the background. I used the big roller brush to lay down a lot of color, and then smoothed out the rough parts using the palette knife. Then I used the square oil brush. Since I liked the sketch so much, I decided just to leave it visible as the top layer.

Here is the finished colored version. I still can’t decide which one I like the best.

Cinderella in the graveyard painting

ArtRage 3.0: Oils

Posted on August 9, 2010 by Megan

I’ve had ArtRage 2.6 for a while now, but just yesterday downloaded the 30 day trail of ArtRage 3.0 to try it out. I was impressed with the new features, and really excited about the new watercolor brush. But first, I played with the oils, testing out the new options. Just to give you an idea of the changes, here is a side by side comparison of the screen from 2.6 and 3.0:

With version 2.6, I never really was able to get the hang of the way the oil paints blended together. Whether this was user error, or a difficulty with the program, I keep me from using it for any full scale paintings. I had fun using it for sketches and speed painting, but not for elaborate illustrations. The fairy on the right was painted this way, in 2007.

I found that with the new settings in 3.0, it was much easier to create the effect I wanted with the oils. Each brush comes with four presets that were helpful. The palette knife also I has a lot of new nifty presets. I really enjoyed working in the program. I spend 2.5 hours on each of the small paintings below, and am really happy with the level of detail I was able to achieve.

393-Metropolis

396-The Internet Died

Drawing with Megan

Posted on August 29, 2007 by Megan

As promised, the video of me painting the Apple Fairy in ArtRage 2.5. Sorry for the low quality, but YouTube is not working right for me now, so smaller the file, the better at this moment.

I’m really impressed with the improvements in 2.5 vs 1.0. And its still a free program, though I paid the $25 right away for the full version, it is worth it.

393-Metropolis

396-The Internet Died

Another WIP

Posted on August 25, 2007 by Megan

Yes…yes. I know finish one first…

Anyways, I’m working on a new picture, in ArtRage. If it turns out well, I want to turn it into a postcard mailer. It is titled “Show and Tell”

Yay for ArtRage!

Posted on August 23, 2007 by Megan

I’ve had ArtRage 1 for a while, but just today realized that they have released ArtRage 2.5. I downloaded it, and immediately bought the 25 upgrade. It is sooo much better than vs 1, I can’t tell you how much fun I had. So I made this today playing around with the new software. I also was playing around with a screen capturing software, so on Tuesday, I will post the video of me painting this. I’m not sure if I’m happy with the software yet, I will try out a few others.