Florida Finished

Well, it's finally done!  This is the first state bird project I have completed since I moved to Reno last October.  I am very happy to get the series going again.  This was done differently than last projects. The project combined elements of conventional drawing, digital drawing, and altered imagery.  I drew a sketch of the bird with a pencil and markers.  I then took a photo of the sketch with my cell phone and downloaded it to the computer.  The next step was to download an image of the Florida flag from the internet.  When this was completed, I took the bird and flag elements and created separate layers from them with the GIMP application. GIMP was then used to merge the bird and flag layers together.  Finally, the GIMP pencil tool was used to create the text and purple heart logo. This is the first time that I used GIMP exclusively for all the digital artwork.  In the past, I used Jpeg, as well as GIMP.  I prefer Jpeg in all honesty, because, the tools are far more familiar to me.  However, these tools aren't available to me right now.  I will have to wait to get my own computer shipped to me from Texas.  There was quite a learning curve using GIMP, and there will be a steep curve for sure on future projects.  All in all, I am pleased with the way it turned out, though, considering all the frustrating trial and error that took place.

Source for sketch:  National Geographic's Birds of North America.
Source for flag image: www.aafordableart.com