Am Dienstag, den 04. März 2003, um 15:16h schrieb gnome@hawaii.rr.com:

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Am Montag, den 03. März 2003, um 23:44h schrieb Mike Traynor:

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a professional commercial artist making a very late transition to computer?

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As 'traditional' artist he is probably an experienced sketcher. So software

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like Adobe Photoshop

Forget Photoshop. Get Painter 7. That's the tool for 'traditional' artists.

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Photoshop's a tool for prepress imaging production staff and collage workers,

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not for artists.

I'm not an artist and I don't know "Painter 7" is it 'Fractal Painter'? Does it still exist? (Didn't the Corel monster swallow it?)

Still exists. Corel bought it, brought out the excellent v7, then sold it (and the other Fractal Creations products) to Metacreations, IIRC.

so you are probably right...

although collages are a significant are of computer arts (imho). Also these amazing (Macromedia) Flash animations and website design in general is (a new kind of art impossible without computers).

Basic animations don't require computers - Disney's been doing animation without computers since the 1920's. But *interactive* animation and such realistically requires computers ...

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and a sketching tablet (like those from Wacom) *Only* those from Wacom. The rest are clunky junk by comparison. (Warning: I've been using Wacom tablets for 8 years now.)

are you just using them together with Windows software? I've seen them working perfectly under Gimp (Unix/Linux Photoshop-like software - inexpensive alternative)

I know they work with The GIMP (I use it on my Linux box at home). It's free, BTW. I just don't have a graphics tablet set up on the Linux box.

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are suitable for a painless transition. There are many tutorials on Photoshop on the Internet - a book on Photoshop will also be helpful.

Several books and video tapes and online tutorials will be helpful with Photoshop.

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It has the worst user interface in the graphics business. ;-) """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" You can't see the Image anymore because all of these toolbars and boxes? ;-)

That's part of it. Very cluttered. And too many times you have to change settings at several different places to get the results you want, and sometimes finding those places is very difficult.

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regards from Germany... And how is life in Germany right now?

here it bursts out of me:

Many of our politicians (throughout all paries) are populistic flops. And Media seems to influence politics in a negative way. Really necessary reforms get spoiled by various lobbies.

Nearly 5*10^6 (of 82*10^6) people are unemployed. There are more and more old people and less babies which creates problems with annuities and social wellfare.

But justice is consistent and consequential protecting human rights: Policemen are judged (who threatened a hijacker with torture until he told where he hid the child - he had already killed). Not to misunderstand me: As long as justice stands this hard test, everything is ok.

but after all life is not too bad ;-)

And to topic No. 1: Very few Germans are patriots (in the sense of the American patriotism sensed here - which worries many Germans) and religious fundamentalists have no politic influence. Consequently the German foreign politics sould be more unemotional and logic - but it is not. I think 'Peace' is the correct answer but not the logic consequence of German foreign politics

(without American/international pressure there wouldn't be any disarming inspectors and no disarmament).

If your government thinks it can just replace the dictator it is probably wrong (but maybe I am wrong, too) (IMO the situtation 1945 in Germany was totally different).

Yes, Hitler was actively attaching and annexing other countries. When Mr Hussein tried it (in Kuwait) the UN and US stepped forward and stopped it. I think a better word for "patriot" would be "nationalist."

Fundamentalistic religious idiots in these countries see an upcoming crusade, imperial colonialism, ... and their braindead answer is more fundamentalism, 'Djihad' and violence (see Israel and the islamic terrorism).

Yes, the problem is in many places ...

These countries missed the (historic) Enlightment.

Hmm, one could argue that the Enlightenment didn't really change people. It increased the variety of ideas and technologies available, and made some social changes, but people were still eager to rush to war, use the new technologies for war, and (in a sense) it opened the door for changes like the Industrial "Revolution" which primarily led to a lot of social upheaval and mistreatment of individuals and laid the groundwork for the phenomena of modern war, as shown in the two World Wars ...

The people are poor and feel cheated when they look at the "first class world". The gonvernments are underdeveloped. But it's up the inhabitants to choose their government and it's up to us to help them - but not with the "wooden

hammer method" - with education for example (and not with German machine parts for weapon factories). Catching terrorists is like prescribing a medicie against headache when the patient needs an antibiotic - it medicates the symptoms and the patient feels better for a short time while his situation gets worse. I hope this doesn't sound too arrogant.

And please don't think the Germans are "anti-americanistic". This is nonsense. Many Germans agree with the american war plans - perhaps more don't - including me. But I don't feel anti-americanistic because of that. An American's situation is - IMHO - more difficult: He/she has to reason and to justify if and why he/she or one of his/her relatives is going to war. Patriotism probably helps (while religion is not very helpful ... even if your president tries to polish this by talking of "god's own country"). Nobody can go to a war is he/she is only half-convinced of what he/she is doing. The americans should be sure to have many friends in Germany. Independent of a government's decisions.

sorry for my stumble-english ... AND SORRY FOR BEING TOTALLY OFF TOPIC :-/

No problem at all, Micheal. I wish I had time to respond to the rest of your note, but gotta go out the door right now! David gnome@hawaii.rr.com