Welcome to Gaia! ::

First off, I'd like to introduce myself. My name is... Froggy!! I am an art student in Cleveland, Oh. My experiences are part classroom based, part self-taught, and part in creating collaborations with friends. I started out in digital media (graphic design), and soon found that the studio (traditional) was my favorite thing. I got into everything from sculpture to life drawing, and dabbled in many side things (sumi painting, portraiture, landscapes, character design).

If you have a question about anything within the range of what I have done, I will do my best to help you out.

Here's what I can help with;

Tools
Brushes! What to use for watercolor, acrylic, oil etc!)
Pencils (graphite, sizes, mechanical vs traditional etc)
Crayons (conte, wax) and charcoal sticks
Pastel (light colors first, blending with brush, rubber erasers, etc, what to fix it with)
Watercolor (use of salt, washes, glazes and working knowledge of resist mediums, working light to dark)
Gauche (working knowledge only)
Acrylic paint (use of mate mediums, )
Oil paint (how to thin, use scrapers and clean up, how to make it do what you want)
Drawing from life (figures, structures, how to measure and make it accurate! How to make invented things look real)
Beading and Jewelry design (crimp beads, quality of materials, how to measure)

Programs/ Design knowledge
Illustrator CS2
Photoshop CS2 (self-taught, tutorial based, Fluer can help with this also)
Page layout and design (for books, art- heavy or not, and advertisements)
Typesetting and font design (concepts, not programs)
Creating a character (visually and personality-wise)
Logo design (Fluer has more experience here)
Banner, web ad design (made the one for the guild in my siggie)

What I have dabbled in
Animal portraits (making them look alive, capturing movement)
Digital painting in photoshop
Found object sculpture
Sculpy (making beads, tiles and 3d animal sculptures)
Crochet (like knitting, only no needles)
Weaving with a simple loom (hats, scarves)
Hair wrapping (same knots as traditional friendship bracelets)
Scriptwriting (concept mainly, and settings that pertain to mood) (this area is also something WriterPrincess1984 is good at)

What I CANNOT help you with!
Printmaking
Ceramics
Costume design
Computer animation (flash games, etc)
Digital design for 3d use (package design- that's fluer's area again)
Scrapbooking (see our fearless leader WriterPrincess1984)

So- knowing all this, you'd better ask me stuff! Ask me anything! Nothing is weird, and asking is a lot better than NOT KNOWING!
I will also offer critiques on your work, but not in this thread! Please do not post images of your work here, unless it pertains to the question at hand (Such as, here's MY approach to this person's problem', or 'how do I measure to correct the angle of _____(fill in the blank)' etc)

My favorite of all the things I've done is definitely character design and plot developement, I live for a good story, and love to draw! I am an avid anime and manga freak, and am learning Japanese. nice to meet you!

NOW then, Assssssk meee!!

ninja

I can help when it comes to info on printmaking.... it is amazingly fun once you try it out. I am aware that froggy and our fearless leader are more experianced when it comes to some things, but if you ask and I know I'll help. However if you ask and I don't konw, I will find an answer for you... but if you don't ask... I can't help you. So... ask and you shall receive. Knock and the door shall be answered, or however it goes. Peace!

Jack/Map/Patrice/Pam

I took a course in film and film editing using avid. I also dabbled in Photoshop a bit but I don't have it anymore so I don't recall any of it. I took 3 years of sculpture/printmaking with sculpture varying from wire sculptures(which are just far too time consuming) to paper mache to clay (OMG I HATE CLAY TIS SO HARD TO WORK INTO PERFECTION) to cloth mache to mixed media and printmaking with rubber blocks carved and then stamped or silkscreening or plexiglass scratching then impression(but you need a press to do that). I also like to paint and sketch random things. I'm not GREAT but I'm also not HORRIBLE. Ummm.... I think thats it... If I think of more I'll get back to you.

Would you happen to know if it's possible to hand-sew slightly fuzzy fabric? o_o;;;;