Art Academy Contest

... totally forgot to blog the information.

You can find all information on my homepage (onmipresent sign on the front page, you can't miss it).
www.trenchmaker.com

The contest is world-wide, no restrictions except age. As long as you have a shipping address that isn't "moon" it should work. And of course if your postal service isn't as crappy as my DHL one.

IF you have questions, you can ask those here. Otherwise happy drawing & painting!
Please keep in mind that I don't like cheaters so if something looks weird as in traced or copied, you'll have to prepare for the entry NOT being accepted. Sorry, but play fair.

You don't have to create a masterpiece. If you check my favs I have some really charming pieces in that are quite not a daVinci. If it's personal and charming and has something special, it's a good chance you'll get a DS.

Questions? Shoot!

The signed DS, first price, will be personalised for the winner. I won't draw on it before the contest ends. If the person happens to love Kiki or wants a toad/shoe/fingerprint/addfunnwishhere and I doodled Kulla on it might be odd.

New Homepage is UP, UP, UP!

www.trenchmaker.com

ist finally relaunched. It feel a bit weird to have the video online but I hope some people will find it usefull. We're fixing minor bugs and correct some things but basically it's done.

Regarding the video: I know the japanese one is out of space awesome but at some points me and my colleagues discussed if it's even possible. I think it is possible (to achieve those results with AA) but again, for me the DS is mostly a thing for total beginners, sketching on the road and color concepts (again it comes in handy to have something that's small and uncomplicated).

Therefore the tutorials will show only the basics and images you can do in half an hour. Not more. I spend around 1 1/2 on a paprika, which is fine and I like the result but it's not the main point using it as a pro- in my opinion.

There will be a little contest in some months- so if anyboy is keen on getting a DS and Art Academy for free keep an eye on the blog. :)

Regarding my gallery and the more than honest words on the homepage: It sucks a lot if people steal your art. Really. No matter how much I'd like to be cool and stay above... it doesn't work. I get angry every time somebody sells my artwork for 200 bucks upwards and I can't accept answers like "I found it on Google images, what's the problem?!"
The problem is that it's illegal and the bigger problem is that it's my stuff.

So until we find a solution I have to keep the homepage gallery like it is. I am totally sorry (I already had all images ready :/ ). IF anybody knows how to technically prevent those rips let me know. Maike and me are trying to find a solution and every help is totally appreciated.

If you have any questions- let me know. I'll try to repost the text in German language later.

Please keep in mind that you need to have an account to post something here- it's the only solution to prevent massive spam posts from companies offering stuff you don't want to buy.

Art Academy -first try

Well… where to start. I got a DSi XL yesterday and started testing the Art Academy. If you think “Oh gosh, she starts advertising like hell”… nope, I won’t, don’t worry. ;)

The last game console I had was a Sega Game Gear so you see I’m pretty much totally out of it. Or was.Good about the whole thing is that even noobs can use it since 99% are pretty intuitive.

Starting with the bad things: The only thing that is really bad is that nobody considered adding porting. If you finished something and want to show off: Impossible. And I guess nobody wants to  take a pic of the screen everytime. I hope they will add that soon- since I googled it and a lot of people complained it seems to be something nobody likes.

  Free drawing - for those who want to have some minutes off the lessons and those who are too curious to get a lesson *before* they tested everything. You know, artists can be kids. Of course i started painting before even looking into the rest. O.o

The second screen -your touchscreen has all small icons on top. They pop up if you activate them via arrow. It's simple but for such a small screen it's perfect. after 5 minutes it's easy and natural to switch.

The palette acts a bit unusual but it's cool since you see the color wheel on top and can decide which color you add and what color will come out. As you can see I have a light green-yellow in. Activate the basic color and tap on the others and they automatically mix. Nice. Though I miss a cyan.

The blue what's on the palette is a neutral sky-blue. As I said you don't have an "export image" option so those are pics I took this morning.

First day opinion: As a “small console game” Art Academy is pretty much fun. The graphics and especially “Bacon” are nice and make it more appealing than I’d guess.