I got a new PC recently. Nifty all-bells-and-whistles one with an up-to-date graphics card for a change, a huge amount of free disk space and Win7 preloaded. All well and good, you might think...

...except for just one thing. My pen tablet can't work, won't work. The pen skips over the screen or barely moves at all. I've tried updating drivers, uninstalling/reinstalling, looking up similar questions on the Wacom forums, and it's still a mystery to me.

Bum.

Ah well, maybe if I wait a bit I'll sort it out. I've got to admit that I'm not sure that my drawing was improving much with tablet usage. It's too easy to change and modify, which should be a good thing but it doesn't help me with observing something accurately in the first place, perhaps. Oh sod it, I'm lazy as heck about drawing practice anyway.

In the meantime I'm tempted to do a bit more in the way of 3d pictures because I find that rather fun. First I have to get all of the stuff off my old PC for good, because some of my figures aren't loading due to missing bits and pieces. Probably because between downloading various DAZ and Poser freebies with different file structures, I end up with this big huge mess. Finding anything in DAZ3d is rather like walking into a room with numerous dusty boxes all piled up on top of each other... XD

...is at [link]

The page you're on is for my fan art, 3d art and digital painting, the other one is for photography and anything else. I've thought of merging them but I like to compartmentalise my life sometimes.

I haven't been drawing at all lately, due to the fact that using the tablet seems to exacerbate some ongoing problems I've been having with my right shoulder. I think it's RSI made worse by doing some pretty heavy-duty DIY lately - like taking up the cracked kitchen floor tiles. It was really bad over the weekend but has calmed down again. I should probably do some proper drawing on paper where it's easier to get into a comfortable position, but I'm more inclined to play around with the tablet.

I've been messing around with DAZ Studio a little after downloading it, although that too buggers up my shoulder so I'm taking a break from it. I've got to admit that I don't fully see the point of these 3d programmes compared to drawing yet - the figures invariably have this creepy glass-eyed mannequin look to them. Of course, if that's the effect you're aiming for, that could be a good thing... Still, it's fun playing dress-up games with the models - M4, V4 and the aptly-named Apollo Maximus (snigger). I absolutely refuse to spend money on buying clothes/hair for them, however so my fad will probably be short-lived, as I haven't a clue how to make my own.

One thing I'm feeling pleased about is that I've now managed almost 71,000 words of my fanfic. OK, it's only fanfic, not 'serious' writing, but I have never managed to write that much before in linear order. When I tried to write a novel I never wrote in sequence and kept chopping and changing things about the plot so often that it never formed a coherent whole. I also tended to wait for inspiration to strike, which seemed to happen about once every 3 months maximum. Of course it helps that I've got an existing plot to hang my other bits of plot onto, but I'm still pleased with myself for persevering. Now if only I can translate this into doing the same for a novel sometime, that would be better still... but I feel like I'm on the road towards being more disciplined with it.

Has anyone else noticed how incredibly slow-loading dA has become since the recent *cough splutter cough* 'improvements'?

I think they've made it a bit more crap for non-subscribers too - correct me if I'm wrong but I think you have to subscribe now to watch other members.

The irony is that I was thinking of subscribing, but since it's been worse ever since the new version, I'm inclined not to bother.

Grumble grumble grumble...

That's because I've been having a tidyup at my other account (stellaria11) and decided to move anything which was fanart or fantasy art related over here.