Sketchblog and New Graphics Tablets: Horned Girls, Painted

I got a replacement graphics tablet! Another second-hand one off TradeMe, but an upgrade on the Bamboo from two years ago - I nabbed an 6x11 inch Intuos3 for less than half the new price, and while it comes minus box, CDs, and any other extras, I don't need those anyway, and it looks completely unscratched and works beautifully.

It's also twice the size of my old Bamboo fun (which was great while it lasted, until the pen went AWOL - but also bought secondhand, so it was getting pretty scratched up).

From previous research, there isn't really much difference between the Intuos3 and the Intuos4, so I don't care that it's an older model. Works fine, anyway. I think it is actually better than the Bamboo - which was markedly better than the budget Dick Smith brand one from before that (which started dying after three years).

And of course, I fired up ArtRage and uninstalled the old Bamboo drivers and installed the shiny new Intuos ones - the only real problem with Wacom is that it isn't very good at creating drivers that can simply install over pre-existing versions. Haven't quite got the pressure sensitivity working in ArtRage Studio Pro yet, but I think it just needed one more computer restart... so after I get home from work today. In the meantime, ArtRage 2.5 is still slightly easier and more fun for colouring anyway.

ANYWAY I slept not at all last night, and spent the time watching Castle (Nathan Fillion and... whoever plays Beckett = awesome love). And painted. I've been desperate to paint for ages - and I've finally learnt how to sketch and leave it clear enough, and finished enough, to paint over easily later (without having to redraw the danged thing). With the latest series (the horned girls from this post) I really like the pencil textures. Need to rescan two of them though, on the better scanner.

Thoughts: mostly very pleased. Definitely got a theme going - golds, browns, reds and whites.And purple eyes! Just so happy to be painting again, really. I've had the first one in my head for the last few days, bugging me.
Shading really adds an extra touch to it - the horns, eyes and lips are the most real, and I'm playing with fading out to/contrasting with abstract-background textures for the hair and clothing. I want to keep going with this series - and I know just the face I really want to draw next.