Muscle Man Sketch

I just did this sketch in Crayola Art Studio of a random long-haired, bearded man flexing his muscles. The anatomy is not that great but I'm trying to improve. Critiques are invited. I like how Crayola Art Studio's brushes blend. They aren't perfect but some of them do act somewhat like the real thing, especially the watercolour, tempera and acrylics. The one I used was the acrylic, and the way I used it, it actually acted somewhat like one of the more favoured tools in Corel Painter, and a bit like a sketching pencil. Any tips are welcome!

Snapfiles.com - Going Strong Since 1997

Seven or eight years ago, back when I was looking for free graphics and sound programs, I did exhaustive searches on google and other engines for freeware or at the very least shareware that wasn't crippled. I found many websites for downloads, including CNET and The Sonic Spot, but I wanted to find the best programs on a site that had ratings and reviews, and separate sections for freeware and shareware. Soon I found the site known back then as 'Webattack'. It had several clearly-marked sections for different software categories.

Later on, Webattack's name was changed to Snapfiles, possibly to prevent it from being confused with malware. Despite the change of name and to some extent the cosmetic appearance of the site, Snapfiles has remained much the same in terms of quality and user-friendliness.

Snapfiles has a white blue and green colour scheme and a very intuitive interface. The Shareware, Freeware and Features tabs are displayed in the upper right-hand corner where the user can easily find them. There are also several links to the highest rated programs and reviews, highlights and popular downloads. The freeware and shareware sections both have extensive lists showing every section and all the subsections, so you can find what you are looking for very easily just by browsing the types of software.

The lists include Browser Tools, Communication, Download Tools, Email Tools, Graphics and Photo, Multimedia, Server Tools, Networking, Web Authoring, Antivirus, and more. There are very few, if any, games listed on Snapfiles as it is mostly a site for business and creative software. There are some hobby programs however, including a few typing tutors. Each program has three ratings which can be used to determine usefulness: the Snapfiles staff-rating, popularity and user ratings. All programs have summaries of their functions, and quite a few have reviews written by other users to rate their overall satisfaction or dissatisfaction.

Some great programs which are still hosted there include Artrage, GIMP, Pixia and DeKnop. There are others which used to be hosted on Snapfiles but have since been removed - Buttonz & Tilez, Project Dogwaffle, Inkscape, Photoplus, Drawplus and a few others which in my opinion should have been kept there. For those who miss Buttonz & Tilez, however, there is Wood Workshop, a program which can be used to create some cool textures for buttons, backgrounds and more.

Here is where to find the programs:

Freeware Graphics Editors
Shareware Graphics Editors

There are also plenty of websites to search for the programs you missed, including Project Dogwaffle and the last free version of OpenCanvas. I would also recommend going to the Free Serif Software website because they offer older versions of their programs for discount prices or even for free, and their latest programs often only sell for around $100. They also offer great discounts for upgrades and combos, and their programs are comparable with Industrial Standard software including Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator.

So if you want to find a great deal on free or cheap software, go to the website that will give you a great list of useful programs - Snapfiles.com.

Baby Blue & Gold Macaw Sketch

I did this sketch in Crayola Art Studio, a sort of stripped-down version of Core FX Painter. It started out as an African Gray but I decided to make it a Blue & Gold Macaw because of the way I did the head feathers - they looked more like that of a macaw than an African Gray. The swatches are there because Art Studio has no custom swatch feature that I know of, so I needed to have some way to reuse the colours instead of trying to recreate them.

Crayola Art Studio

If you haven't gotten Crayola Art Studio you should check it out. It has a lot of natural brushes including oils, acrylics, poster paint, that kinda thing... even watercolour, colour pencil and of course two kinds of crayons. Those brushes are the best and even though there is no 'blend' brush there are ways to get around that. It's a pretty simple program that is great for both kids and adults. Check it out at The Core Store - there are other programs as well for art, education and design, and a whole lot more!

You can also find Crayola Art Studio at Target and even shop for it in their online store.

Project Dogwaffle

If you love painting and great freeware, there are many programs available on download sites such as snapfiles.com and download.com.

For the Corel Painter crowd, Dogwaffle is a great alternative. It has a freeware version and several levels of pay versions, which allow advanced brush creation and editing and special 'particle' brushes which can create organic-looking branches and roots, somewhat like the tube-brushes in Painter.

In the freeware version, the tools are basic but still very useful. You can create them using graphics files(as demonstrated in some of the 'organic effects' brushes) or using the 'custom brush' tool which allows you to manipulate the size and number of 'bristles' in the brush. Other brush types that can be created are the pastels, which are used with the paper texture feature. This feature can create pastel paper, canvas, watercolour paper, and other realistic or non-realistic patterns which resemble real paper while you paint.

The watercolour brushes in the free version are simple brushes, some with texture and some without, that bleed and blend with other colours for a realistic effect. The oils and tempera are similar to the watercolours, but less transparent. The commercial versions have more options for these brushes as well, including the thick(impasto) oils, dropshadows, and translucent and opaque watercolours. Dogwaffle even allows some animation, and even onionskins for animation cells in some versions.

Project Dogwaffle can be downloaded for free or bought for as low as $29 at this website: TheBest3D.

Recent Designs For Birdbrain Art Studios

Recently, I've made a new design for Birdbrain Art Studios - a cute little design for cockatiel fanciers. It shows the face of a normal gray male cockatiel, painted in Sai Paint Tool. I may add some other cockatiel, parrot, and cockatoo designs soon. Here is the picture:



If you are interested in my shops, here are the links to them:

Cafepress

The Scarlet Macaw
Christmas Cockatiel
The Christmas Cockatoo
Cockatiel Love

Other Birdbrain Art Studios Shops

Zazzle Shop
ArtsNow Shop

Keep checking back for more posts, and check out my other designs there!

Sai Paint Tool

Sai Paint Tool is a welcome change from those Photoshop-type graphic editors. When all you want to do is draw and design, Photoshop or the GIMP(Gnu Image Manipulation Program) are fine, but some of the tools are downright frustrating to use. For example, the smear tool only works smoothly at smaller sizes, but make it too large and smudging with it will take a long time. The smudge/smear tools in Photoshop and most other programs like it take too much memory, especially when larger.

The Opencanvas style programs are a different story, with a less memory-consuming blur/smear tool. The bur and smear settings can be adjusted, and are as smooth as silk even in the larger sizes. With Sai, you can make your own brushes, including watercolour, brush, pencil, and marker. The tool types are few, but their options will allow you to customize them in many ways.

You can even make your own palette, work with some textures and layer options, and even select with a special selection brush. For the layer options, you can make a bitmap(like Photoshop) or vector(like Illustrator) layer. Layers can be grouped into sets and masked with special 'layer masks', and even duplicated. Both have their strengths and weaknesses, and are worth checking out!

For Opencanvas, check out the commercial version here.
The free version can be found here.

For Sai Paint Tool, it can be downloaded and purchased here and here.