I am a long time gamer. I have played games since the the beginning of computer games, lol. I have become more and more sick of computer games as no matter what, they all seem the same to me. All graphics and gameplay and no story. I have always wanted to play D&D since I was a kid but never had enough like minded people nearby to learn the game with. I began thinking going old school with an emphasis on story might be very fun. I recently found a group of gamers who play D&D online using Fantasy Grounds as a VTT and after sitting in on one game and playing a second I am hooked!

After playing and noticing the DM was primarily using the sketch tool in Fantasy Grounds I began to wonder if I could possibly indulge a long time desire to do some creative artwork. I am a Mechanical Designer by trade, but all my "artwork" has consisted of technical drawings. Very linear. I have wanted to get a digitizing tablet and do artwork for years (Like 18+ years, lol) but I never had a purpose or reason to do the artwork before. For me, without a purpose, doodling is just doodling. If someone can USE what I do, well, that would make it worthwhile to me. After offering my fledgling services to do some artwork for the DM of the D&D game and getting a "Heck Yeah! I hate drawing" response, I find myself with the challenge and creative outlet I have been looking for.

I have been looking through all the tutorials I can find time to read on here the past 2 weeks and I have to say this is an incredible resource and source of inspiration! I lurked for as long as I could stand but decided I had better get an account created as I am sure I will have questions. Heheh.

I now have a Wacom Intuos Pen & Touch Medium tablet, Gimp Installed, and a description of 2 projects for our D&D game. One Island about 40 miles wide, and a two story temple battlemap.

This site has been such a time sink as I find myself "walking around" it going Ooooo, and Ahhhh all evening. I have not even started doing anything except trying to get a feel for the tablet using Gimp. It is quite the foreign entity to me with it's absolute coordinate mapping but the more I use it the more I like it.

Well, it's good to meet everyone and thank you for all the knowledge this community has posted up over the years! I will be reading and oogling maps for quite some time now. I only hope I can bring myself to exit out of the forums long enough to start trying to apply some of what I've learned through 2 weeks of lurking as a guest. :-)