Zombies, digital painting and photoshop!

A couple of things caught my fancy lately. Zombies and Digital Painting. Here is the synthesis of the two:
So, on the zombie front, here is some knowledge I can impart:

ZOMBIES:

1. Read The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman published by Image comics. For the time being the first issue is a free read here: The Walking Dead issue 1. If you can get past the similarities to the movie 28 Days Later (which is purely accidental) you are in for a TREAT!
   
2. Play Urban Dead. It is an online, turn-bases, MMO zombie/survivor game. I don't know why, but it is addictive, and since my wife won't let me play WoW, and you only earn 1 turn every half-hour, this is as good as it gets for a while.

DIGITAL PAINTING:

1. Download the free version of ArtRage. It is fantastic, the tools are super intuitive and if you have a tablet or Tablet PC then it is as close to real natural media tools as you can get, and you can't beat free. The upgrade to full-version is a whopping $20, so if you like it stop being a cheap bastard and buy it.
2. As much as I love ArtRage, I am not very good at getting tight detail, so I started using Photoshop, and I found a few (probably obvious) tips that help speed things along. For now, some keyboard shortcuts.
   
   KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS (When in Brush Mode):
   
   • B for Brush
   • [ and ] to change the brush size
     
   • Shift+[ and Shift+[ to change the brush the brush softness
   • , and . to cycle through the available brushes. These are also the < and > keys which visually help you remember.
   
   

Buy the way, I am using Photoshop CS2 if that matters. Also, I drew the zombie before I started reading The Walking Dead, so... I am not as happy with is as I was before I saw the beatiful zombie art in the book.

Also, with all this zombie love, you can bet your ass that I will be trying my hand at a zombie game of some sort.

A brief introduction

So, here is the "Hello World" of blog entries. I have had false starts on blogs before, but I have HIGH hopes and a New Years resolution to try to stick with it.

Here are my goals with this blog:

1.) To share the knowledge I have gathered in the mobile application and video game industry.

2.) To have a central place to measure my personal growth and hopefully grow from mediocrity to excellence.

So, about me:

I am a 29 year old father of two. I design and create graphics for games and applications for mobile phones. I come from a multimedia design and programing background and by change happened to get involved in pixel art and mobile device graphics. After 3 years of moonlighting I now do it full-time. Kids, if I can do it... SO CAN YOU!