Author: Ted Bragg, Contributing Editor

Again I must express my joy in having available a 'Wacom' pen, to use in painting the varying curves which one can see in an ocean wave. The wave used for this Tutorial was based on a photograph taken off Long Beach, Vancouver Island, B.C. The Wacom pen finds heavy useage on this computer since the 'mouse' has all but retired, and with the 'Wacom' tablet sitting on the keyboard tray, let us get started: Step # 1: I put a sketch under the handy plastic overlay on the 'Wacom' tablet and roughly drew in a few features; paper size 10 x 8, color pale blue. Next, had to decide whether to color the sky in varying shades with a radial fill, or try some faint clouds which could be modified later on.

Step # 2. Then, I thought some color on the waves and rocks might be a good place to proceed using a pale color with a high % of transparency taken from the bottom color bar.

Step # 3. Had fun putting spray on the crest of the waves and cascading over the rocks, using white at high transparency taken from the bottom color bar.

Step # 4. Checked out the result by resampling from 14.4 to 7.2 then printing out for my critic's opinion. Her advice was to not add nothing more and to leave the work as you see it. I thought I might try the 'eraser' function of the Wacom pen but discovered it was inoperable on a file saved as Corel, though it works well at JPEG, Gif, or other settings. I invite you viewers to take the sketch and modify it as you see fit; then send it along with some comments telling us of the changes you had made.

Ted Bragg strives to take his lifelong interest in painting to the computer with the help of an electronic brush and the use of bytes for colour. For views of his work, those interested may look at his online galleries. Ted is a contributing editor to WetCanvas!, and be reached via email at tbragg@ultranet.ca.