Eureka! At least partially...

Have been setting up my iMac G5 with Xubuntu, dual booting with OSX 10.4 (Tiger). I've done so as a means of speeding up my working environment in Inkscape. On my limping G5 it's workable, but a bit sluggish. And at times it's downright molasses.

I chose Xubuntu over other linux versions because my understanding is that it's lightweight, putting less strain on computer resources. In addition to being able to run Inkscape natively, that's what I'm looking for in running linux. More pep in Inkscape even with aging hardware.

Simply installing Xubuntu was a headache that I spread out over a few days as I figured it out. At least it was a headache for this non-linux user, and indeed a non-programmer of any kind.

But I got it installed, and today! I got wireless internet to work! and was able to download inkscape! albeit for some reason it was Inkscape 0.46 instead of the latest 0.47 (?!). So, I need to figure out how to update Inkscape to 0.47. Edit: as Esther points out in the comments, the latest Inkscape is available with the latest Xubuntu, so when I upgraded, Inkscape 0.47 became available.It's not like installing on a Mac or in Windows, where you go to Sourceforge.net, find the file, download and install. As far as I've seen, in Xubuntu I can either use the Add/Remove feature which does all that for me (but to an old version?), or open Terminal, type in commands to download, and type in commands to install the software. But, the instructions for that is all gibberish to me.

I also need to figure out how to get my Wacom Bamboo to work. At this very moment I am upgrading to Xubuntu 9.10 from 9.04, and maybe that will solve the Wacom Bamboo problem (?). Not sure why I didn't initially instal 9.10, maybe it just came out in the last few days?

In another post I'll rundown what I did to get Xubuntu to work, at least as far as I have gotten it to (that is, if I can manage to retrace my steps, picking out the information sources that worked for me from those that didn't).

My brief test with Inkscape in Xubuntu seems to show it to be much, much faster in Xubuntu (over running it non-natively in OSX via X11). Still need to work with it more to be sure. It better be, after all this time to get Xubuntu set up :)

They Draw and Cook

They Draw and Cook is a fairly new blog created by Nick Padvick and Salli Swindell. Picked up word on it via Steve Mack's blog. This here's my submission. Apart from that, there's some really great work being posted there. Have a look.

Roar

Been working on a series of animal illustrations intended to have some of the flavor of vintage posters. In the beginning I planned on making about two a week, but have pulled that back to about one every two weeks. Other work has slowed this project down a bit. It's still on, and prints and sketchbooks/journals made with some if these images will be available in my shop within a month's time. For now, this lion is a preview of more to come. Roar.

Giddyup!

Selling Handmade Books on the Internet

My wife Karleigh is writing a series of Tuesday blog posts over at bookbindingteam.com. I drew up this illustration to accompany her articles about selling handmade books on the internet, or more specifically, on etsy.

Lollipop

This started as an accident. In inkscape I set the pencil tool to spiro, and scribbled a line, and out popped a shape that when I saw it I said, that's hair. And so I drew the girl to go along with it. She could use a few more details, but I'm liking her well enough for now.

Almost a year ago...

...is when I made the second illustration below. The one above is my update. I have to admit, it's getting better. For a more direct comparison between the old and new, an update without the background elements is shown beneath the old version.

To be fair, in that old version I was trying to capture the charm of the initial rough sketch, but instead of charm, it just looks sloppy. I have no excuse for the coloring. Except that I was new to the medium (and illustration as a whole, really), so I just didn't have an eye for it when it came to my own work. Funny how I immediately have an eye for the quality of other's work, but my own requires setting it aside for at least a few days, maybe longer, until I can really see it for what it is. But who knows, a year from now, after I improve further, I may come back to this update, and find it lacking too. Edit: Just a few days later, I've already adjusted my update. No dramatic changes, just some details to make it pop a bit more. What's shown above, and at the very bottom image are this revised revision.