Types of pencils used to draw a map

[CaptainJohnHawk]

As far as a map like that would go, the trees would be consider a frame. I almost always start with a very rough idea of were the frame is going to lay out (usually just wish a border line). I work on the actual frame and its detail very last. I try to do digital work like I do real painting, which you pretty much always start in the background and sky color and work to the foreground. No real wrong way to do it necessarily (especially digitally)

[markem]

Yeah - especially when layers. (Which I wasn't using - just trying out the program to make it installed properly and maybe to get started on my map.) Last night I spent looking for an e-mail I thought I had sent to myself. All to no avail. Never got to put pencil to paper at all. This morning I decided I must have sent it to myself and then when I had to re-wipe the drive I wiped it out. Resent it to myself. Hopefully I get it tonight. If not I'll have to bring a jump drive. I tried my Tooya tablet and it worked beautifully. It has 256 levels of pressure and is 12"x10" (or maybe it is 12"x12"). I actually liked the two trees I drew but like I said before - I didn't use layers and so I just mucked them up. Tonight I have some programming to do but I'm going to try to get everything out to do the sketch. My fingers are itching to get started. A bit distracting here at work. I keep thinking about doing the drawing. :-P

[CaptainJohnHawk]

I hear ya on that one. I do my most of posting at work, and I have no drawing tablet here. So I normally do basic sketching and waste time haha. I wish I could get paid to doodle. I would be a rich man

[markem]

I've worked on my programs for years creating libraries which handle the web. I started out using C then went to Perl and now PHP. A lot of re-writing. Then someone introduced me to jQuery. I'm in the process of converting my Javascript library over to using jQuery but more importantly, the $_SESSION variable that never worked for me is now working properly ever since I started using WAMP. My routines all used a stack in that once you loaded something once it wouldn't load it again. I had to do this because all of the languages will allow you to load duplicate functions and then just crash. Since PHP went to version 4.0 - the crashing stopped but it still causes your programs to run slower as PHP re-loads the entire function in. To prevent this, PHP came up with the INCLUDE_ONCE way to include files. But Javascript has no such ability. When I am through revamping my Javascript library I'll have something that will work all the way back to IE 3 and Netscape Navigator v2 (NN2). That means all the way back to 1992. Most people go "Why?". Believe it or not - there are people out there who still use those browsers. Hackers use them because they let them see source code a lot easier than current browsers. (If you look at Silverlight it can disable a lot of things in browsers such as cut/copy/paste which I absolutely hate because banks use it to force you to type in your passwords. Since my passwords are like 16 random characters, numbers, and special characters it is a real pain in the rear to do that.) Anyway, I am really motivated to finish this up so I can finally finish some of my programs. I finally have everything set up to handle hackers with a database class that automatically removes parts of strings if they are too long, corrects the type automatically, encodes everything that goes in to a database, and does the one-way encryptions for passwords. Basically everything that I need. At work I've been writing a new website from the ground up. Resolved a lot of problems I was having with my libraries and showed me how the hackers had broken in to my websites before. Now - I'm hoping I've got all of the angles worked out.

Ok - so why the "WHA!!!!!"? I'm hoping my websites start to bring in enough money I can retire and just work on my sites and drawings. :-)

[markem]

Been very busy trying to get Viewing Dale installed and more software installed. Up to 200GP of software. About another 100GB to go! Did a few preliminary sketches on the frame/trees. :-) Also started on the revamp of my Javascript library I use to write websites. A lot of changes that will either increase or decrease the size of the library. The library is written using a stack so when you request one of the functions of the library it won't send you duplicate requests. So as you go along it actually gets faster at serving what you need back to you because it will skip over trying to send you another copy of some routine. I'm hoping by Sunday to scan in just the trees. In the way of maps - this is more of a picture than a map although it can be used as a map also.

[markem]

STILL very busy. Drove out to Katy, Texas last night because I needed to go to a big and tall shop for socks. They were closed. So I drove all the way across town and down to NASA where I used to buy all of my clothes. THEY were closed too. So I wound up going home and directly to bed. Drove for over two hours in rush hour traffic. Houston is a large city. But the good news is - I got my printer back up and running. I figured out how to clean the nozzles which were clogged. This is no mean feat on an Epson WP-4020 printer because the print head is permanently attached. I thought about taking the printer apart (found a YouTube video) but decided to try out an idea I had. Bsaically, the print head will move up and down depending upon what thickness of paper you use. You can manually set the print head to go up and down also. So I set it to be thin paper and instead put in photogaphic matte paper. This caused the clogs to be dislodged but then the printer just really used a LOT of ink. I'm thinking the ink got backed up from my prior attempts and that is why it just flooded the paper with ink. In any event - it is working terrifically now.

One tree kind-of done by the way. Once I get the second one done I'll see about scanning in the image. :-)

[markem]

Started it: Map