~:Frequently Asked Questions:~
This FAQ will be added to as the need arises. At this time, I'll address some personal
questions as well as matters concerning art.
Q: Who are you?
A: My name is Norma Peters. I live in Nova Scotia, Canada, and I have one daughter.
I am widowed. My birthday is September 18, so I am a Virgo. I live on property that was
once an old farm, and we are often visited by various kinds of wildlife.
Q: What are your interests?
A: Besides drawing and painting, I like to read, mainly fantasy novels, mysteries, true crime, and
biographies. I love movies, animals, travelling, and walking in the country. I like to
sew, and play computer games, but get little time for either nowadays. Genealogy is a
special interest, and I've been heavily involved with family research for the last couple
of years.
Q: Who are your favourite authors?
A: Robert Jordan, Tad Williams, C.S. Friedman, J.K. Rowling, Ruth Rendell, Dorothy L. Sayers,
John Dickson Carr, Robin Hobb, Oscar Wilde.
Q: Favourite artists?
A: Aubrey Beardsley, Gustav Klimt, Kuniko Craft, Karl Bang, Stephanie Law, Linda Bergkvist,
Toulouse-Lautrec, Alphonse Mucha, Lucien Levy-Dhurmer, Carlos Schwabe, Dante Gabriel Rossetti,
Edward Burne-Jones, William Morris, John William Waterhouse, Michael Whelan, the Art Nouveau movement,
the Symbolists, the Pre-Raphaelites.
Q: Favourite movies?
A: The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Pirates of the Caribbean, X-Men 1 and 2, Ghostbusters,
I Love You to Death, Mixed Nuts, Jurassic Park, Bullets Over Broadway, The Burbs, Jaws,
The Sting, The Hunt for Red October, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Independence
Day, Gremlins, Psycho, Aliens 2, Sleepy Hollow.
Q: Favourite Books?
A: Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" series, especially the first few. Tad Williams' trilogy, "Memory, Sorrow and Thorn."
C.S. Friedman's "Coldfire Trilogy." Eve Forward's "Villains by Necessity." Robin Hobb's "The Liveship Traders."
"Autumn of Terror," by Tom Cullen. "The Nine Tailors," by Dorothy L. Sayers. "Hag's Nook," by John Dickson Carr.
"Treasure Island," by Robert Louis Stevenson.
And now on to the art...
Q: When did you start drawing?
A: I was about 1 1/2 years old. My father, a talented artist himself, saved and dated my early pictures, and I have them
today. They show faces with enormous eyes and masses of hair. When I was twelve I started
painting in oils. In 1999 I began working with digital software.
Q: Do you have any training in art?
No formal training, but I got a lot of support, encouragement and advice from my father.
There are a lot of artists, both professional and amateur, on both my father's and mother's sides of the family.
Q: What media do you use to do your pictures?
A: At one time I worked extensively in oils, pencils, and india ink. However, all my work that you see
online is done with Corel Painter and a Wacom graphics tablet. I started with Painter
Classic, and worked my way through the various upgrades, Painter 6, 7 and 8. I'm now using Painter 9.
My first graphics tablet was a Wacom Graphire, but during the summer of 2004, I purchased
a Wacom Intuos 6 x 8. I do not use Photoshop for drawing or painting, but I do use it to crop and resize my pictures, and to make banners.
I am, however, planning on doing some experimenting with Photoshop in the near future.
Q: Hey, wait a minute! Isn't computer art cheating or something? Doesn't it only take a few minutes to make one of those pictures?
A: Apparently some people actually believe that, and unfortunately they haven't a
clue about how graphics programs work. They seem to think that a couple of clicks of a mouse
will produce a finished picture. Wow, wouldn't that be convenient! (But not much fun or
challenge.) Art is art, whether it's drawn with a burnt stick on a cave wall or rendered
in a high-end 3d graphics program like Lightwave or Studio Max. Each of my digital pictures is the result of hours of work, sometimes days, depending upon the complexity.
Trying to produce a good digital piece is never easy. There's crappy digital work out there, and there's crappy natural media.
Just look at some of the scratchy anime pencil sketches at Elfwood if you don't believe me.
Using natural media doesn't make you special. You get what you give. Garbage in, garbage out.
Q: So how do you make those pictures in your gallery?
A: I plug my graphics tablet into the USB of my computer, and open my graphics program. Using a "stylus" that
makes the tablet respond to pressure, I sketch the picture I want to draw. As I sketch, using a pencil option in the program,
the picture appears on the screen of my computer. I can erase any lines that go wrong,
just the same as if I was working in pencil. The "canvas" is very large, which enables me to add lots of detail. When I find myself at a place I'm satisfied with, I save the picture.
Once the sketch is complete, I begin to paint the picture. This is the time consuming part. I choose from an
extensive variety of brushes in my program, mix the colors of paint I wish to use, and painstakingly begin to paint the picture.
I blend colors together as if I were actually painting with oils. I save often, at various stages. I use no "tricks" or shortcuts.
I don't use filters or special effects to change the look of my picture. I don't even use layers.
The only difference between this and actual oil painting is the fact that I don't have to buy the canvas and paints, or
wait for the paints to dry. Since Painter and a Wacom tablet are costly, I'm glad that I don't have any added expense.
When the picture is finally finished, I downsize it to a version that would look good on a webpage, but I always save
my larger version on a CD.
Q: If I buy a tablet and Painter, will I be a good artist?
A: If you drive a Porsche does that make you a better driver? Expensive graphics equipment
can't give you artistic skills. Some people seem to be born with an artistic talent, and display
advanced skill from an early age. For others, it takes a lot of extra work and practice. No matter what your skill level,
practice will make you better. It goes without saying that, no matter how much we practice, we're not all going to rise to the same skill level.
Q: What about that tutorial you've been promising for the past two years?
A: It's coming soon. Really. I get a lot of email from people asking questions such as
"Will you teach me to draw?" or "Please give me some pointers on digital art," and even
"Can you write an article for me on computer art." If I answered every one of these letters
in the necessary detail, I would not have time to eat or sleep. Nobody can teach you to
draw over the internet. To do that, I would have to sit down with you in person, analyze
your art in its present stage, and work with you on improving the weak points. However, I
can give you some tips, most of them simply common sense, as well
as tell you what works for me, and lead you through a few pictures, step by step, so that
you can see how I do things.
Q: Will you draw a picture for me?
A: No. Unfortunately I no longer have time to work on requests. I have a number of interests
and responsibilities offline that cut back on my drawing time. I would like to have time to work on personal artwork, too.
Q: May I use your artwork on my website, as a story illustration, as an RP character, etc?
A: Absolutely. I would be delighted if you could find a use for any of my pictures. You may also use it
for signature tags, icons, avatars, or anything else I haven't mentioned. You may crop the pictures or make any changes you wish.
If you actually claim that you drew the picture yourself, I might get a little annoyed,
but other than that, knock yourself out and have a good time with the pictures. :)
Tangled Dreams (c) Norma Peters
I can be contacted at the following e-mail address: arrow at ns.sympatico.ca
Since July 1999
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++Outside Galleries++
Epilogue
Elfwood Fantasy
Elfwood Fanart
DeviantArt