Dogwaffler of the Moment - May 2005:

"Dave"

David C. Devoe

 "Dogwaffle is definitely the best paint program around."
        
[more DOTM please...]        




Tuktu - Moose in dry Tundra  
     My wife and I have a place in Alaska (Willow - about 100 miles north of Anchorage); most of the time we live in northern Idaho, a few miles south of the Canadian border.

Tuktu

This is my first effort done solely with Dogwaffle (version 2).

     I have produced small traditional art pieces for the tourist trade for several years.  I am 47.
    A couple of years ago I thought it would be fun to try my hand at digital pieces.  I can do things on the computer that are impossible (for me at least) using traditional media.  Paint software allows me to work with several different media - oils, spray paint, pencil, etc., at the same time to get different effects.



Solo Patrol

This picture was a study to see how well I could do auroras.

 Dogwaffle should be much fun once I get to know it better.

 

    I do have a web site. Though it is full of graphics which I produced, it has nothing to do with my art. I came out of retirement to work at my previous profession of intelligence analyst due to the terrorism problem. When I retire for good and become a famous, though probably starving, artist I may put up another site to show off my work :-)

    I was leafing through a computer-related magazine, I don't recall which at the moment, and saw a reference to Dogwaffle.  The name attracted my attention. It's been a while now, I've been using it for close to 2 years, though I haven't had time to really explore all it can do as of yet.
    I began drawing at a very young age.  It is what I enjoy most. I have been fortunate to live and travel in remote areas for much of my life.  It has given me the opportunity to closely observe wildlife and their surroundings.  When I retire for good in a couple of years I can devote full time to artistic pursuits.

    As for 3D, I am interested in doing so. I have a copy of DAZ's Bryce which I have been playing with in my spare time.  Curvy 3d looks interesting; I may give it a try one of these days.
    I recently purchased a new machine, about 3 gigaHertz, with Windows XP.

    Dogwaffle's  interface/menu allows for easy adjustment of settings on the fly.  I also like the color mixer. I remember the first time I tried "oil painting," it was amazing; just like using a brush.

    I was baffled a bit at setting up a color gradient, but reading a discussion of how to use it on the listserve cleared that up - I really like being able to have multiple colors set in a fill gradient.  Of course, I can't say enough good things about optipustics.

     Improvements I would love to see?

    I often do the wildlife in my images separately and save them as transparent .gif files, especially if several animals are to be included.  This allows me to import them into a landscape image move them around and resize them.  The ability to import .gif's would be most helpful. (Unless I am mistaken and that is already the case.)

    [editor's note: yes it is in v3 PD Pro, though we recommend using the native Targa format for better color use]
   Do I user other 2D tools?

    I have been using Micrografx Graphics Suite (I think they were bought by Corel some time ago) to produce graphics for my web site. The image editor has some "painting" functions.  That gave me the idea to delve into digital art.
Tuktu - Moose in dry Tundra     The Tuktu image you see above was the first I did totally with Dogwaffle. 

    Modification of an existing .opt file for Optipustics particle brushes gave me two versions of fall tundra grass to use in the foreground.  This allowed me to get a grass effect I was satisfied with much quicker than I was able to do in the past. 

    The ability to make almost infinite adjustments to opacity and color really helped with getting the mountains to look the way I wanted.  It probably took an hour or so to do the background, including experimentation. 

    The caribou took another hour or so to do, again with some false starts when trying different effects.
All images are copyright(c) Dave or their respective owners  - all rights reserved. No unauthorized reproductions,  please  contact the author. Trademarks or registered trademarks are property of their respective owners and used only for identification purposes.
Are you a dogwaffler too? please let us know
Email us at