Pictures from my new camera: My kitty-cat Shasta!!

Hi all!

I'm sitting at a school computer right now and just loaded the first pics from my new digital camera's flash drive to it. I spent WAY to much $$ on the camera so I've gone through about 5 days of buyers remorse.

BUT...as I'm seeing it's photos for the first time on a large screen I'm VERY happy to discover the pictures are AMAZING!!!!! : )

I did a ton of research before I bought this camera and one of the things everyone said in their reviews was that this camera does extremely well is shooting in low light. And it DOES!!

When I first opened the box and put the lens on, I was sitting in my family room and basically started snapping shot after shot from where I sat. I don't have a flash yet...and the only light was coming from the fluorescent over-head lights in the kitchen.

My cat, Shasta, made a handy model and these are from about the first 10 to 20 images I shot, and other than cropping on the one below it's any Photoshop magic. It was also shot in jpeg which is apparently the default image format for the camera. The best quality is RAW format...and those pics look even better!

Anyway...here's' my little girl doing what she does best: Lookin' fantastic! : )




Thanks for looking in...comments on this or any of my blog posts are always welcome.

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Photo: Copyright 2010, Jeff Curtis, All Rights Reserved

Please visit my site for more examples of my artwork and photography:

JeffCurtisArt

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NEW in 2012:  Buy a poster, greeting card, or high quality print (with options to have it beautifully framed and matted) of Photography and Art-work by Jephyr on Fine Art America.

The story behind my new Sketchbook Pro and Wacom Tablet digital painting.

If you're an artist you've probably heard about the ConceptArt.org forum. It attracts some very gifted artists from all over the world.

It can be a little intimidating to post your work there, but I began to see thread after thread where artists had asked for critiques and worked hard at the ideas they were given...and over a period of months and/or years you can slowly begin to see VAST improvements in their work.

Other times someone will post for a long time...and then all of a sudden they rapidly improve...often making huge leaps in their abilities.

The section most people begin posting in is called the Sketchbook forum. The idea is that you post what you're working on...and that can vary from very rough sketches to completed projects.

With all that in mind I began my own ConceptArt.org sketchbook and have aleady begun to get some good feedback and advice.

One thing I heard over and over right away was that colors in my digital images are sometimes too saturated. One person even called them "violent". : )

So I took most suggestions to heart and created the following digital painting from a "real world" sketchbook drawing I did last summer.

Here's my original sketch (click to enlarge):



And now my digital painting of it (click to enlarge):


I'd love to get feedback here too...so let me know what you think!

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Created using Sketchbook Pro and my trusty Wacom Intuos tablet.

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Images: Copyright 2010, Jeff Curtis, All Rights Reserved

Please visit my site for more examples of my art:

JeffCurtisArt

---------------------------

NEW in 2012:  Buy a poster, greeting card, or high quality print (with options to have it beautifully framed and matted) of digital artwork and photography by Jephyr on Fine Art America.

Cartoon King Chuck Jones Exhibit: Pics and Info

A week ago today a friend and I went to the Tempe Center For The Arts (TCA) in Arizona for their Chuck Jones Exhibit appropriately called Chuck Amuck: A Legacy of Laughter.

Probably everyone knows Chuck's work if not is name. He was an animator and director for Warner Brothers and created or collaborated on the creation many of their famous characters (and/or directed their animated movies and shorts): Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Porky Pig, Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote, Marvin Martian, Pepe Le Pew and Michigan J. Frog to name a few.

There's no admission price (IOW it's FREE!). The gallery/exhibit isn't large and I saw some people come and go in minutes...but if you're like me you'll want to set aside and hour or two to drink it all in! (See dates and times below)

They allow photos (with no flash) so I snapped a few. Click on them if you'd like to see a larger view.

Chuck's paintings of some of his characters.


The gallery has a display of a wide variety of his work as an artist from his more serious fine art to sketches of his characters.


Chuck's desk and books. The LCD TV (perhaps not originally on his desk in the 1940's : ) played a very interesting DVD about his life and it included some of his very funny animated clips.


Some of his original sketches and notes etc in a display case:


A composite I made (it was horizontally mounted) from one of the framed prints (The store has some prints like this available for sale).


And a few more of Chuck's paintings. The girl on the horse is his granddaughter and he used the photo for the character study below it:


Chuck Jones was an American Master (September 21, 1912 – February 22, 2002). His ability entertain with his iconic characters, to animate them with exaggerated but believable movements and expressions, and his amazing body of work is seriously impressive.

If you're in the Phoenix area, this exhibit is well worth checking out.

Chuck Amuck: A Legacy of Laughter Now though June 18, 2010. It's FREE!! : )

Gallery hours are 10 am to 6 pm Tuesday through Friday and 11 am to 6 pm Saturday.

There are other activities and events associated with this exhibit visit the Chuck Amuck link to learn more.