Quill Pen and Paperless Society

Long before we use stylus to write emails or notes on the screen of our smartphones and iPad, people used quill pen to write. A quill pen was made from the feather of a swan or goose or other large birds. I created the drawing below using Macromedia Freehand MX. I saved the digital artwork in png file format to maintain the transparency of the drawing when placed on any printed medium such as T-shirts, mug or cell phone case. I tried to upload the vector illustration several times to my zazzle account but I failed. So, I closed my Google Chrome browser and then reopened it again. This time I was able to upload the digital illustration.

Back to the story of the quill pen, according to Wikipedia, vast majority of medieval documents, such as the Magna Charta, and the Declaration of Independence were written on paper using quill pens. Today we don't see this writing tool on the shelves of office supplies stores anymore. Now I write most of my articles by pressing the buttons of keys of my laptop. I also do the same when using my cell phone to send text messages.
We live in digital world where writing and sending messages to many different parts of the globes is as simple as pressing (virtual) buttons on the screen of our Samsung Galaxy smartphones and iPad. Users of tablet PC use stylus to create a "hand writing" files.  The same messages needed several months or even years to travel from Asia to Europe in the medieval era.
The use of electronic devices in writing and sending documents via the internet has significantly reduce the amount of paper that we use every day. Paperless society is good for the environment but we cannot eliminate the use of paper completely during this modern time. Who knows that one hundred years from now, people will not use paper anymore.

Illustration for T-Shirt Design

Today I created another digital drawing using Macromedia Freehand MX. The following image is a group of Convict Surgeonfish (Acanthurus triostegus). These fish usually move and feed in large groups in tropical waters that have coral reef.

I saw these fish when I was snorkeling at Abasi beach. My friend used Canon Powershot G1X to shoot them. The camera is a powerful photographic device to capture underwater subjects.  There are a lot of other fishes that I saw at that time including various damselfish, and striped surgeonfish.
I offer snorkeling and birdwatching trips to people who come to Manokwari as tourists. Traveling is my job and also may way to make photographs that I need as inspirations to created artworks. If you are interested in hiring me as digital illustrator for your projects, please, do not hesitate to contact me by e-mail to peace4wp@gmail.com

2-Eye Butterfly

After trying to master Freehand MX in the last few weeks, finally I can create my 2-eye butterfly that I trace using the powerful pen tool of the software. Although Adobe has not updated this vector software since 2004, the Freehand MX is still powerful in helping artists create beautiful artworks.
People still need clip art when they want to write messages or emails to their friends that are beautifully decorated with drawings.
I plan to sell my vector artworks in T-shirt printing company when I have reached an advanced level in using the software. Today Adobe Illustrator and Coral Draw are considered as the most modern digital drawing tool but as long as the Freehand MX is still running on my laptop, I will still use it. Because most of my artworks will be saved or exported in png format, I don't think I will face any difficulties in delivering them to the T-shirt or digital printing company that is interested in selling them.
I also try to learn Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop for my other digital art projects. I will upload them in this blog too. Vector art can be resized easily without loosing the accuracy of the lines and fill of the drawings. Most of my illustrations are based on things that I see in my surroundings when I walk in the jungle or swimming over coral reef.  This two eye butterfly usually live in the lowland forest of New Guinea island. I saw it when I was trekking in the north coast of Manokwari. I takes around 3 days to draw it and I hope that all of you like the artwork. by Charles Roring