I tried to paint using just vibes and intuition this time, and it turned out alright, I think. It was actually really fun to paint again, which I haven't done in a long while. I even remembered to hit record this time, so that's nice.
I hope you like it. I certainly do.
I wanted to try out the new SK3 pencils bundle in Krita. Safe to say, I love them!
It's been going great so far. There's a lot to learn, still. I tried to make some drawings and studies using it, and I think they turned out okay.
I hope you like it.
I had a lot of fun customizing my own brush. I thought it would be a good idea to try and use it for studies and a quick 30 minute sketch. It's my first time trying to make one myself, and it's quite addictive. There are still some tweaks needed (I would love to try out a fading, gradient effect, and maybe even changing size based on tilt) but it's good enough for now. I've gained some insight into how I make my own brushes, which is brilliant, and I'll definitely try to see how I can make it even better.
I hope you like it.
I haven't posted anything in a while, so I thought I'd remedy that. I've been practicing less than I'd like, but I'm preparing for univerity again, so there's that. It's supposed to be a stylized self portrait, which is always fun. I usually try to do one every year on my birthday, but I missed the date... By a lot. Better late than never, I guess.
I hope you like it. It was a lot of fun to draw.
I finally got myself a laptop, and I really feel like I lucked out on this one. I'm soon going to be studying for my masters degree, and while I previously wrote my whole bachelor's degree on my phone, I don't think it would be a great idea to try that again. It's a a T15 gen 2, I7 1185g7, 32gb ram, Nvidia MX450 2gb GPU, and the battery health is at 80 percent. The screen is only FHD, but it's more than enough for me. My own desktop monitor is 1080p, and I wouldn't want to try and run a 4K display using a 2gb GPU and a laptop battery anyway. I really like it, it's great for browsing the web, 4k videoes on YouTube and such, light graphical work in Krita and Blender, which is why I wanted a model with a dedicated GPU.
I found it for just shy of 300 USD, which is a steal in my country, especially with 32gb dual channel ram inside of the thing. Normally, this model and it's condition, it's roughly three and a half times what I paid for it. As a comparison, a T14 gen 1 goes for the same price range, usually. For me at least, I got an absolute brilliant deal, and I love it. The general user experience is fantastic, but I do find the touchpad mouse to be a tad bit too slow. I discovered that pressure might have something to do with it, maybe? Also, the vertical and horizontal speeds are different, vertical acceleration being notably much slower than horizontal, so I used a custom acceleration program to fix the speeds to match. It's still a little slow moving the cursor around, even at full acceleration, but at least it's moving at the same speed in all directions.
As for some drawbacks, I feel like it's best if I stick to Windows for now. I tried CachyOS, and I wasn't impressed by the performance. I REALLY like Cachy, don't get me wrong, but I couldn't for the life of me get it to run smoothly. The installation process was extremely easy, but that's to be expected with modern distros. Trying downloading anything, though, would choke the system throughout the duration of the download, except for downloading programs through the repo, that worked smoothly. Using Zen browser was slow and stuttery as well, which was infuriating. The general feel of the OS was just off, even after I messed around in the terminal to see what could be done. Battery life was great, so that's a plus. Sadly, I can't use it, but I'll definitely try to reinstall other distros in the future, just to see if I can get it working more smoothly.
I opted to reinstall Windows 11 completely, which I don't prefer, but the computer runs it absolutely perfectly after I debloated the whole OS.
That's my thoughts on the laptop. Overall, it's absolute brilliant pc, especially for the price considering the ram alone is worth half of what I spent on it. It's snappy enough for my usecases, and it functions without complaints, especially in graphic intensive workloads like Affinity Designer, Blender and Krita, all of which I use extensively. The seller listed the pc as 16gb, which might explain why the price, but I'm not complaining. I wouldn't want to use Linux on it for now, at least CachyOS, as it ran too slow and stuttered all the time, but I'll consider trying again in the future, maybe Mint or PopOS.
I wanted something to protect my X4, and I knew it should be something akin to a flip notebook. As far as craftsmanship, it's nothing amazing, but I really like it. It's made using fake leather, elastic bands, a piece of cardboard for rigidity behind the reader sandwiched inbetween the felt and leather, another smaller one to fit inside the cutout so the magnate would stick. I then finished it by rounding the corners by hand and blackened the outer edges. My previous cover was a 3d printed slide-in with some vinyl and electrical tape to avoid scratches, so this is most definitely an upgrade. I might want to fit in some side panels to protect the sides as well, but this is more than fine for the next few months, I think.
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I hope you like it.
What a brilliant little device. Right off the bat, it looks wonderful, and I was so excited to finally open it up. I ordered it ten days ago, and it arrived ten days early, so I couldn't be happier. I've read and researched beforehand on what to do and such, and it took 15 minutes from opening the box to have everything ready, screen protector and installation of Crosspoint. I ordered it from Alibaba, my first purchase from the site, so I already knew it was locked. Still, it was just shy of 50 usd with shipping and tax, so I think it was definitely worth it.
My first impressions are great, it's bigger than I expected. My only other ereader is my Pocketbook Touch Lux 2. In comparison, it's much faster. The text on my Pocketbook is barely legible without using the backlight, so I was weary on how the X4 would be. To my surprise, it's both the same ppi, and it's very sharp, and the contrast is great. That, and it's light and easy to hold in one hand.
All in all, I'm very happy with my new ereader. The only two things that I'll have to get used to is uploading my books manually on my pc, and navigating the UI will take some getting used to. It's easy, but it will be an adjustment.
My next goal will be installing Crossink, which looks brilliant, too. Is it possible to do so from inside of Crosspoint?
I heard that matte vinyls is a good alternative to texture sheets at much lower cost. I love print and play board games, so I had everything already. That, and I was procrastinating from drawing a bit. I figured I'd give it a shot to see how it felt.
The materials I used was:
- Matte self adhesive vinyl
- Two pieces of A3 photo paper
- Black electrical tape
- Corner rounder
- Superglue
As for tool, it's a paper-backed steel ruler, a cutting mat, and a precision knife. I firstly measured the active area on my Intuos Pro L, and I concluded that I'd need an A3 sized paper to cover the area. I didn't want to stick the vinyl directly onto my tablet, it's expensive if something goes wrong, so I'd rather be careful in this instance. After cutting out a paper template, I then stuck some matte vinyl onto a fresh piece of A3 paper. After placing the template on top, I carefully poked holes next to each corner on the square template. I then placed the ruler accurately as possible, and then I carefully cut it out. I made sure to not cut all the way across, so that it was still stuck onto the paper and table, which made the whole process a lot easier. After cutting, I rounded the corners using my Kadomaru Pro. The smallest option fit the rounded corners of the active area absolutely perfectly. After inking the edge to better hide the paper, I flipped it around and glued a strip of electrical tape across the top of the sheet. In retrospect, I should have just taped it to the corners, as I did with the bottom two. They are barely noticeable; they blend in perfectly, while the superglue underneath the paper wrinkled it a bit, but it wasn't noticeable while drawing. I'll keep that in mind, if I ever want to make a new sheet.
As for drawing performance, it feels very smooth, but in a good way. The surface, though, is easily scratched (it's vinyl, so that makes sense) and I'm doubtful it can hold up for more than 20 hours of use. Still, it was a fun exercise, but I'll probably stick to the original surface for now.
Has anyone else tried something like this before?
I love print and plays, and in the past 5 or so years I've mainly applied self adhesive window film on boards and tokens as a finish. It's easy, quick, and it's very cheap. It also helps with longevity, as it helps protect the surface of the board and such. I ran out of my preferred brand of film, and I only had a static window film I bought because of the texture, and sadly it doesn't stick to paper at all. I then began trying out how to attach the film onto the paper, and I tried a bunch of different products. Superglue was highly effective, but it doesn't scale well for bigger boards, and it's too easy to ruin the artwork underneath. I even tried different types of lacquer, but nothing worked. I then found some Elmer's glue in my local book store, and I tried it out to see if it worked. It didn't, and it was extremely easy to peel off. Then I discovered, that the glue left an imprint of the film's texture onto the whole sheet of paper. It's completely stuck to the paper, and it's even waterproof (though it's still paper), while its also very flexible. The second picture shows the paper folded a few 20 or so times, just to see how it would hold up.
I'm completely over the moon, and it looks absolutely brilliant. I didn't even do anything that difficult. I just applied the glue onto the film, making sure it's evenly distributed and not too excessively, and then I stick the paper onto the film. After making sure it's completely secured to the film, I then flip it around to get rid of the last few air bubbles, if there are any. I left it for a day to dry, and I could then peel it off. It's basically a stamp. I haven't tested if the film is reusable, but there's no visible amount of glue on the film itself, so maybe that's a possibility.
I was wondering if anyone else has tried something similar? I couldn't find anything online, so I figured I'd share my result. It might be interesting to see if I can mix in different types of varnishes to see how that changes the feel and aesthetic of the glue? The glue already scratch resistant, as much as a board game needs to be, at least. I can't attest to the longevity, but it seems to hold up to some amount of abuse.
Also, the game is Falling Sky. There's a waitlist for the reprint, so I figured I'd make my own while I wait. Also, the paper I used was some generic photo paper, in this case it was A3 in size.
I hope you like it.
A small one hour study, and I just wanted to share it. Nothing fancy. I used the InkP 16 Marker Bold for this one, and it was a lot of fun trying out a new brush. It's got it's own quirks, but I'm warming up to it.
I hope you like it.