I have a new baby :) Its name is wacom :)

Illustrations by Belinda Lindhardt - Digital

Today we received a new baby to our household. Like all new babies it was wrapped up all nice and pretty but moments after bringing it inside the door there was mess everywhere and excitement a plenty.

My two other babies (who are now all grown up) were very excited and inquisitive to see the new arrival and ofcourse wanted to have their turn to play. Like all new babies it was safely wrapped up in cotton wool and not to be touched or played with too much by germ invested and grubby hands smeared with all manner of things. None the less the baby was unwrapped and shown around, everyone got to have a hold or a "turn" it was shown the place where it will be living and survived the first day a little worst for wear with smears and smudges which mum quickly cleaned up. When mum was in the other room the two older babies would sneak in to have a look and see if they could have a play while mum wasnt looking but being a new baby mum was ever watchful and mindful of the two munchkins and made sure the new baby was well protected. There were all sorts of rules put down such as no touching the new baby without mummy, if the new baby is touched or played with in anyway without mummy there will be BIG BIG BIG consequences..I am not sure how long these rules will be adhered to lets see if the baby makes it through day 2. :)

So, incase you think i have gone completely mad (maybe i have) i received my new Wacom Graphics Tablet today (pic to come tomorrow as i cant take photos at night i have no light). I cant tell you how long i have wanted one of these.. actually yes i can tell you basically as long as i have been a designer so about 12 years. I never invested in one as i wanted to get the correct type of work to warrant it. Recently, with my life in an upside phase i realised that i need mix things up a bit and I need to invest first show what i can do and that will hopefully allow me to get the jobs not to mention help art. I chose the Intuos3 9X12 inch (A4). I have been eyeing these off for over a year now and this one seemed the right model / price bracket for me.

Above are my first attempts at playing with the tablet and i am absolutely loving it. The rocket ship i have to say is inspired by the book i was reading to the kids tonight which is "how to catch a star" and i wanted to see if i could achieve a similar watercolour type feel like the book as digitally. The second is of a leaf that we picked up off a tree there are some fabulous colours in the leaves which are dropping at the moment.

I have picked up the techniques so far pretty easily, i have watched many videos over the years on how digital artists create images so i have a bit of an idea here. It also helps that i know my way around photoshop very well so i am not really needing to learn how to use these tools, tho the techniques do alter from when using it with a mouse. So more of this to come as i get more and more practice :)