Setting up shop in Linuxville

Things are progressing nicely here in Linuxville. And I am getting into doing digital stuff with Ubuntu Linux as my only operating system. And I am putting my artist genes through a good work out with tools freely available with my Ubuntu install. So my encouragement to all you would be artist is to check it out. Yes, yes, I know about the predominance of Adobe and Corel and all those powerful and highly regarded in the industry applications. I know you will buy or "borrow" a copy to have the industry standard. But consider the opportunity you have here. Free applications that do the same thing and because they are still being developed as we speak, you can have a say as to what you would like to be in it. You can make it compete and be better, did I say it's free? I am still having a CAD shortfall but I can do some useful things with Qcad. Scribus, which I just installed is very skilled at brochures, news letters, etc, etc, etc. The GIMP even has color separation extensions for print publishing. Then there is my favorite tool/toy, Inkscape, with which I am having a load of fun honing my talents. Are there problems? Yeah, some applications have propriety file formats that are not so easily transferable to other applications. I got rid of Krita but I think it was more a KDE thing, Xara Xtreme I really like but its version of SVG in not compatible with Inkscape's SVG. Come on folks, this is not very open source now is it? What good is it to run on the Linux platform if you can't co-operate with other applications. If SVG is a standard, it should be SVG in any application, not some specialized version of it.

My nameplate work is moving along, here is more progress..........

These were done using GIMP to scan the drawing and Inkscape to do the rest. I have other things in the works, but I don't want to spoil the unveiling.

My studio is relatively clean, no paints, no stains, no splatters, so digital art is greener in a sense. What does the future hold? I might hook up my digital tablet which is far too sensitive for me and try to do something with that. Also I need to explore output devices like a wide color printer/plotter to at least do poster size printouts. I am trying to imagine what would be the perfect artist studio machine. I don't have a clue, but I seen some stuff. How about a laptop you put together yourself similar to a desktop. Look at this..........http://laptoplogic.com/resources/detail.php?id=22 I didn't know there were barebone laptops and I think there is a more bang for your buck factor here. I am sure other hardware makers have barebone offerings.

There are other things artist must consider. Like whither or not to become a formal business or not. Ubuntu Linux does have OpenOffice.org and other apps to handle the paperwork. My hope is that I am not over whelmed by the business end and distracted from doing the art. I can see that wearing many hats require a lumpy head, no one person does everything well. We will have to see what services are out there to off load. Looks good from here.