Steven Powers (SMP)

Linux Mint-12 Upgrade from Ubuntu





I have been quite happy with Ubuntu up untill 11.10 when they dropped Gnome for Unity leaving us without a choice.  But I tried to get use to it but found it somewhat glitchy.  Then I kept hearing talk about the Mint branch of Linux.

MyPaint 1.0 for Windows and Linux



MyPaint 1.0 is now available for Windows users.  This is still an experimental build but seems to be quite stable.  There have been a lot of changes including dockable menus.  For full features, changes and download go to MyPaint's home page HERE. You can thank tumagonx for the Windows build. For those on Linux that want to try the newest build with the latest features, a PPA as been created. Just copy and paste the commands listed below that were posted by David Revoy:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:achadwick/mypaint-testing
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install mypaint

I will have a short video on my workflow utilizing GIMP 2.7 and MyPaint 1.0 hopefully before the birth of my son. After that, all bets are off.

Thank you,
-Steve

Tree Study

  

Here are a few drawings of trees I did for fun recently.  They are done with a mix of graphite and charcoal on smooth Bristol paper.
-Steve

Quick Tip: Why Calibrate My Monitor


Calibrating your monitor.  What can I say?  We all try to get away with calibrating our monitor by eye, but that only works for so long and unfortunately our eyes change.  Not just over the years but throughout the day.  We get use to seeing a certain way and we adapt in different lighting situations.  In the end our paintings, photos or what have you suffer.  Our darks are too dark, the colors are to saturated or the hues just don't look right especially when we go to print.  So we are left to buying hardware to calibrate our monitors.

Synfig Studio: 2D Animation Suite




This one is for anyone interested in 2D Animation.  Synfig Studio is a open source, cross-platform animation package.