Earth Day

     I am currently residing in California on a visit with my good friends Skunkie and PolyVector. We decided for Earth Day we were going to try and limit our usage of things like electricity (a very trying thing for us tech junkies to do). I also decided in honor of Earth Day to completely rework the look of my MacBook Dock, wallpaper, and other various icons in the system by use of CandyBar 3 (which Skunkie and PolyVector were awesome enough to buy me for my birthday two days ago (Thanks guys!).). While the aesthetic appeal of my desktop may not contribute to the Earth directly, I hope that it will serve as a reminder to myself to think about the amount of waste and energy usage I create in my daily life.

     

     I found the various icons and docks in places like Deviantart.com and MacThemes. I’m gonna go ahead and link to a few of the artists that supplied the icons and such. If I miss anyone, I’m sorry, or if you know of someone I missed, let me know and I’ll gladly link to them.

The wallpaper “Simply…” is by Assydious
wikinerd’s “Now Wooden” and “Now in Wood” collections were great for apps like iTunes, 1Password, Transmission, etc.
kano89 made awesome wood icons for things like Finder, Safari, and Dashboard.
Thvg made all the wood disk drive icons and system folders I am currently using
HYBRIDWORKS made the icons I am currently using for Colloquy, Stanza, and my trash
kano89 also made the Dark Wooden & Glassy Dock I am currently using

     Thanks to all the talented people that make customization so easy. I really appreciate it. And big thanks to friends that make it even easier by getting me an awesome present like CandyBar. I hope everyone has a wonderfully aware Earth Day. I’m off to read using good ol’ sunlight as my lamp.

 

March ‘09 Screenshot

It has been ages since I’ve posted a screenshot of my desktop so I finally decided I better get the ball rolling again.

Naturally I found the wallpaper on MacThemes. The wall is called Grain by enzudesign. There are a bunch of other wallpapers I have been using since the last time I posted a screenshot that I have really enjoyed. I will have to get screenies of those ones as well up here some time. Icons were found in various locations by various artists.

 

Getting my paint on…

     It has been a busy week, which means I haven’t had much opportunity to continue working with some of my digital art projects. Tonight though, I made a little time to sit down and work on some stuff I’ve been wanting to get back to. I don’t see any reason to drag this out, so the first picture is a digi-painting in the early stages. As in, this is where I left off last time I got to use my tablet:

     This next one is how far I’ve gotten this evening. A lot of the changes are either subtle or blatantly obvious. Anyway, here goes:

     Welp, I hope my progress meets expectations. Haha. I do really enjoy using my Bamboo tablet though. I find it very fluid and natural to use. Which is very nice.

 

Just messing around…

     Last week I ordered a Wacom Bamboo Tablet (a relatively impulse buy after a frustrating week) and it finally came today via UPS. Once I got home and got settled, relaxed for a few minutes, goofed around with my pup Princess, I was ready to rip open that box (which was way too big for this tablet) and unearth my new toy. It is certainly thinner and smaller than I imagined….not in a bad way though. I don’t really have a whole lot of desk room, what with my messy habits and all, so small and lightweight works for me. Anyway, I began fiddling with the tablet (after going through their tutorial) and opened up a painting program in order to start “painting”. This is why I got the tablet after all. I love traditional art and if I was intensely serious about my art, I would bust those paints out everyday or leave my art area set up constantly, but, sadly, I’m not. So, in general, pulling out my paints or pastels or anything can be a real hassel in the midst of day to day bustle. I generally also only have one day a week off, and I usually end up fairly lethargic and lazy on that day off. So, at this time in my life, it just isn’t practical for me to be all dedicated artsy…

     My way of compromising between traditional art (which is a lot of work and I admire those who make the time for it no matter what is going on in life) and no art whatsoever, was this tablet. While the extravagant side of me would love a huge, kick ass Intuos series tablet, it’s way too expensive and way too pro for me. I just wanted something that would be decent. So, back to the Bamboo… Why I am really posting was just to share a couple of initial drawings that I did for practice and getting the feel for the tablet and pen. One drawing is the initial sketch and the other is a partially colored in variant of the sketch. Obviously, I am not completely familiar with all the functions and tools of the painting program, but I think for 40 minutes of drawing, I got along nicely. Anyway, here are my “paintings” (don’t laugh, these were both done in a span of 40 minutes and are extremely rough):

     

     I’ve always wanted to share more of my dabblings in artwork here on Lit Bit, but my workings are so far and few between, that there is rarely an occasion of creation for me to share with you all. I’m hoping with this new lil’ tablet I’ll get around to doing more artwork, even if it is just casual.

 

September Screenshots: Double Duty!

     Welp, it is, indeed, already into another month. I swear, the older I get, the quicker they go. Not nearly enough time to do everything I need and want to do. But such is life, right? Anyway, I’m not posting to complain about life and aging, rather to post my new screenshots for the month. And this is my first post that features both screenshots from my 20″ iMac as well as my new purty MacBook! Not much is really special about my set-ups on either computer, and unfortunately, I can’t remember who made the wallpapers I am using on either computer. Shameful, I know. If you happen to know, feel free to link to them in the comments or let me know and I’ll put the links . Otherwise, my apologies. First up, iMac September shots:

          

And now for the MacBook screenshots:

          

     I really like both of these wallpapers. Especially the one on the MacBook, though when I tried using it on the iMac, the texture made my vision dance around. It was very dizzying. We’ll just have to wait and see how goes on the MacBook!