Exercise for the artist

Everyone needs exercise. Including sedentary careers like being a full time artist. I have something called a pedal exerciser (or mini exercise bike). It looks like the bottom half of an exercise bike. I set it on the floor in front of a chair and then start pedaling with my feet (they can apparently also be used with hands on a table).

A picture of a Pedal Exerciser:

Pedal exercisers are best used while watching Netflix, reading, playing games, or using a phone or tablet. I sometimes even do work while using it. In fact, I've heard of people using these under their desks while using a computer. 

I use mine for 2 hours a day, every day. These give such light exercise that it takes hours to feel any benefit. But it's easy to exercise for hours while watching TV anyway.

On top of that I do a small amount of strength training. I do 100 crunches and a 100 pushups every day. It's easy to do and only takes a full minutes. Although with pushups it takes a while to build up to doing 100 of them.

This is what I do to keep healthy as a full time artist.

~CandiPiggy

The colours I use - and the colour blue

An example piggy:

Blue, pink and purple are my most worked with colours. They are either the colour scheme entirely or mixed in with other colours. For my digital paintings I often do a blue lighting effect. My drawings usually have a blue shading effect.

Blue is a very calming and peaceful colour. It is apparaently the world's most popular colour. 

I find that when using pink, the addition of blue softens the colour scheme. And pink or tanned pink is the most common colour of piggies; in both cartoon and realism. 

My favourite colours are also blue and pink. So it's nice to work with my favourites. That choice of colours adds to the cuteness of the piggies, which is what I'm aiming for. Blue is also in my paintings, with shading for landscapes and other backgrounds. (Blue shading is common technique of Impressionism art, which I'm often inspired by).

I suppose the main thing is I enjoy working with these colours and they portray the meaning and feelings I want to express.

~CandiPiggy

Corel Paintshop Pro - An Artist's Review

A link to the Corel Paintshop Pro website:
https://www.paintshoppro.com/en/

Paintshop Pro is the program I use for my digital paintings. I have found it to be the best of cheaper alternatives to Photoshop.

It's main disadvantage I can think of is that it is only available with Windows, so those with an Apple computer will lose out and be forced to choose a different program.
There are other minor disadvantages when comparing it to Photoshop. It's soft paint brush tool isn't as soft as Photoshop's and therefore it can't be as smooth when digital painting. It has less filters than photoshop, but for a digital painter that isn't important. That would be more important for someone doing photo editing. The brush size also doesn't get as large as it does in Photoshop.

However, there are quite a few advantages to the program. When considering it as a cheaper option to Photoshop, then it is better to buy than Photoshop Elements. The reason for this is that the program has more tools and features for a similar price to Photoshop Elements. Yet oddly enough, Photoshop Elements is what is recommended when going into a computer store. Causing more artists to buy a hobbyist program like Photoshop Elements, when it isn't likely to be want they want to pay for. Computer experts aren't art experts, so be careful who gives you a recommendation. As I've seen more actual digital artists recommend Paintshop Pro and not Photoshop Elements.

Another advantage to Paintshop Pro is that it is a one-off purchase and not a subscription. There's also the fact that its main brush tool has more of a painterly effect than Photoshop's main brush tool. Photoshop's main brush tool generally gives off a more plastic-looking effect and has to be altered to get the same effect that Paintshop Pro has.

So far, all my current digital piggies have been digitally painted using Paintshop Pro as a program. I may choose to use Photoshop in future, when it is more affordable (Photoshop is thousands of dollars where I live, I'm pretty sure it's cheaper in the US, as is Paintshop Pro too). But I'm also used to using Paintshop Pro and might not make the switch even if I can afford it.

The conclusion to all this, is that I would recommend Corel Paintshop Pro for artists, as I myself have chosen to use it.

~CandiPiggy

2020 Art Goals and a Recipe

My art goals for 2020. Everyone has goals for the start of each new year, and me being an artist, must have art ones. I have lots of artworks planned for the year already. So far this year what has gone of January, I've done about 10 digital painting piggies. I still haven't made my January goal so far. I intended to have 30 digital paintings done before February.  So I better get a move on very quickly because I still have 11 digital paintings to go (Ihave done 19).
Some of these completed digital paintings of piggies have been added to my portfolio page. So you can check them out there.

But here is one piggy: My bubble piggy

...a Recipe
I also mentioned that I had a recipe. I've been learning how to cook. I'm hoping to share some recipes on my blog here occasionally. This isn't a recipe website but I thought it would be nice to occasionally mention things other than art about my daily life.

Lately I've been working on smoothies. I've made a few good fruit smoothies and hope to create a green smoothie. I've been working out ways to make these smoothies as healthy as I possibly can. All without sweeteners and having their natural sweetness.

Here is my best smoothie recipe so far:

Strawberries and Cream Smoothie:
Serves 1 or 2 people

Ingredients
1 cup frozen strawberries
1 fresh banana
1 1/4 cups sweetened almond milk or unsweetened vanilla almond milk
1/2 cup unsweetened Greek yoghurt

Method
1 Add frozen strawberries to the blender.
2 Slice banana and then add it on top of the strawberries.
3 Add Greek yoghurt, then add milk.
4 Put the blender on high for 1 to 2 minutes. Then press the pulse button until well combined. Then put the blender on high for another 1 to 2 minutes.
5 Serve in a tall glass.

~CandiPiggy