MerCave

I actually had over 300 personal messages. You'd think people would stop writing me after six months or so. Well, if you want a story, here it goes. Computer crashed. Bought a new one. It was crappy. Moved. Moved again. Got a new computer. Got a tumblr. Made gifs instead of art. Moved again last week. Now I'm back. Still haven't installed paint shop, but I'll check in every once and a while. Sorry for all the messengers but I just deleted the entire stack without reading. If you have a new message, I'll be happy to reply. Now I must go and make some overdue apologies to some people. Ciao.

I know I've been slow getting back to you guys. I'm working through a huge contract right now that has got me confuddled and running around like a headless chicken. I will try to keep up with my commitments here, but I'm going to be mostly a no show until late January. Sorry Sorry Sorry!

Hey, you paint shop pro users! We all know that the majority of brushes and tutorials are made for Photoshop. Don't let that stop you! I've perfected the art of reading Photoshop Tutorials and Using Photoshop Brushes in my Paint Shop Pro. Here's how!

(This tutorial is a work in progress. If something is not clear, please say so.)

The complete guide to converting Photoshop Brushes and Photoshop Advice to Paint Shop Pro.

First off, you should know that both Paintshop and Photoshop have the exact same commands. They're just called by different names. The only real difference between the programs (besides the price) is the quality of your one pixel brushes, how the layers are handled under the hood, and the resources available for each. Plus a few more things that aren't really worth mentioning for us amateur but amazing artists.

It's real simple. Just use this handy translator: paintshoppro.info/tutorials/ph…
This page is so vital to me that I have a copy saved on my hard drive and another in my dropbox account.

Go ahead. Do a few tutorials for Photoshop. The more you go at it, the easier it gets.

Next, we have a three part process for converting Photoshop brushes into Paint Shop Pro. (Cuz' we all know the best brushes are found on that side of the pond.) The short of it is; download the Photoshop brush, convert the brush to .png, then convert the brush into .PspBrush. It's less complicated than it sounds.

First we need a way to unzip (or extract) a .rar file. If you already have one (most of us do), proceed to the next step. If not, download the free 7-Zip from www.7-zip.org/ . Install and move on.

Next we'll need the ABRviewer. It lets us view the Photoshop brushes (.abr) and also convert them to .png. Download it here: abrviewer.sourceforge.net/

Okay, so now you can find a photoshop brush you always wanted to try out. Download that and then open up your ABRviewer. Go to File>Open Brush Sets. Then Export>Thumbnails.

Viola! You've got amazing brushes in .png format.

Now open up that Paintshop Pro. Load those .png images. Then go to File>Export>Custom Brush. Make sure Save Variance is check marked, name the file something descriptive (and add the author's name if they require credit when you use) and then hit OK. If an error occurs due to the size of the brush, don't freak out. It will tell you what the max size can be (varies depending on version of PSP) then go to Image>Resize and you can repeat the process.

I promise you, it's all easier than it sounds. Now get crackin' and let me know what doesn't make sense. I'll be making a real tutorial out of this soon.

Oct 12

I've been working on a faux stained glass sketch. It was supposed to be real simple. Draw a mermaid, the water, a few fish, buy some acrylic paint and transform my bathroom window for under ten bucks. Guess what? There are sea turtles, plants, coral of every shape and size, shells too, rocks, squids, octopi, eel, jelly fish, bubbles, a sting ray, and about a million other little things. I was thinking this little project would take hours. Now it's going to be days with all I've got planned here. Then the drying. That takes forever, too. Yeesh.

Oct 10

I had a minor disaster with my planned dessert this week, so invented something new. I call it the Party Pie. I had my graham cracker crust all ready on the counter and was digging in the cabinet above for my pudding mix when this giant can of green beans falls and slams down right in the middle of my pie, exploding the thing into a million tiny pieces that covered half of my kitchen... the dogs loved that... and then it bounced and broke open a banana. So I rescued as many crumbs as I could from the counter (did I mention that I had JUST cleaned that counter? Egh!) and threw them back in. Made my fudge pudding mix and gave the whole thing a twirl. Then I sliced those bananas up and added that layer on. Then I thought, what the heck, and put on a layer of nilla wafers or whatever they're called. Then I threw on the cool whip, topped it with cinnamon, green and red sparkles and chocoloate deco flakes. And it was good. Lets review the layers visually here:

-------------- <--Chocolate Deco Flakes
********* <--Green and Red Sparkles
####### <--Cinnamon
~~~~~~~ <--Cool Whip
OOOOOOO <--Nilla Wafers
ooooooooo <--Sliced Banana
@@@@@@ <--Fudge Pudding
.................. <--Graham Cracker Crumbs

So anyway, here's my new synopses of the NaNoWriMo book:

"A space western starring: The Widow; Mrs. Lizzie McEllis, The Kingpin; Mr. Avery Holloday, and The Mercenary; Mr. Brady Boyd. In the rugged mountains of a moon called Jade, Mr. Holloday will stop at nothing to appropriate Lizzie's little chunk of land. Can a stranger that crash lands in her back woods save the day?"

Oct 08

Yeah... now I know why Lizzie McGuire sounds so good. Call me retarded. New name coming up shortly.

Oct 08

NaNoWriMo!

Alright! I know what I'm going to be writing this November! Care for a little synopsis?

Mrs. Lizzie McGuire is a spunky, gray haired widow fighting to keep control of her chunk of land. A forested land located on a rugged, mountainous moon circling some other planet in some other solar system. She's up against Mr. Avery Holloday who has lied, cheated, and bullied his way into controlling nearly half of said moon. A genetically engineered dude who needs a cool name from the Old World (Earth) crash lands in Lizzie's woods and she is pissed. Especially since she assumes ole' Holloday is up to something. Drama ensues. There will be battles. There will be explosions. There will be friendships and betrayals, terrorism and exploration, bad ass moments and tender moments. It will be completely awesome is what I'm saying. I think I can name three things that inspire this tale to some degree. Lackadaisy, Firefly, and Ponderosa.

Does DeviantArt have a NaNoWriMo club? I need to be in that.

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Oct 07

Can't wait to put up the Halloween decorations. Gotta wait for mid month, though. It would look a little tacky otherwise.

Check out my gallery. I went anal and organized the crap out of it. Woo.

I really think it's time for a premium account here. Thirty bucks for a year. Not bad if I had thirty bucks lying around. Hehe.

Who are you and why are you talking to me?

You may be asking this question and so I'll answer it here.

If you've made a mermaid, then there is something really unique and awesome about it. I wouldn't favorite it otherwise. There are plenty of great mermaids on deviantart that I haven't favorited. There is something about your piece that is unique or just plain gorgeous. If I didn't say, ask me. I'll be happy to tell you what caught my eye.

If I critiqued your piece, chances are it is a contest entry for ManipulateThis. I just became a judge there. Please remember that my comments are just my opinion. I make it a point to find good things and bad things to say about every single piece. If I think a piece is perfect, I'm still going to find something wrong with it. Please don't take that personally. It doesn't mean you have to listen to anything I say. What I say will not affect your chances in the contest or challenge in any way.

In other news, I've been living in this house for a year. I love the house, but not so much the town. Turns out that Wylie is pretty nosy. They have some kind of vendetta against chickens and unregistered dogs. I lost my job in February so no new updates on the house. Can't wait for my new bathtub. Come on recession! Let me back in!

Things I do here:

Crappy Comics

Best Photomanips: mercave.deviantart.com/art/Bro… mercave.deviantart.com/art/Red…

Best Icons: www.deviantart.com/deviation/4… www.deviantart.com/deviation/4…

And that's what I do. I photo manipulate, make icons, and occasionally try to draw something.