All I can think of to suggest on this is that I think it's best to merge the analog and digital methods of art. Meaning, start off with lineart on paper... then, after you're 120 percent sure you've got it exactly as you want the character lineart drawn out on paper, scan it, and handle all coloring, shading, and all other touching up digitally on your PC.

Although, this method does require a scanner or all in one, and I'm not sure if you have either one of those things or not. Perhaps not. *Shrugs* Btw, MS Paint is okay I suppose when you're starting off in digital art/painting... but there are EASILY better programs that can blow MS Paint clean out of the water with minimal effort.

And, no need to worry about cost... all of these programs I'm going to mention are free.

First off, let me suggest my fave art program of choice, The Gimp...

Link - Main site is at http://gimp.org/

Another solid one that was intended to be a replacement for MS Paint is Paint.NET...

Link - http://www.getpaint.net/

Also there are others like the free version of Open Canvas...

Link - http://wistinga.online.fr/opencanvas/

And, ArtRage...

Link - http://www.ambientdesign.com/artragedown.html


Once you have settled in with your digital art/paint image editor program of
choice, it's a matter of darkening the line art to pure black, whitening the background to remove paper effect, or flood fill with a color of some sort for the background.

Anytime I've seen art uploaded without being touched up digitally, there always that paper effect look to the image.

Can't think of anything to suggest you draw at the moment, but based on your screen name, needless to say that something with a wolf character (your own fursona) seems like as good a place to start as any, of course.

Also, it could be based on what else you like in life... like say for instance you're a bit of a goth... you could always dress the character in goth looking clothes, not unlike something straight off the rack at a Hot Topic store. Heee. *Shrugs*

Or, if you like music a lot (and frankly, who doesn't, really) maybe your character could be drawn wearing ear buds, and holding a iPod or iPod Nano, or other MP3 player. (Just to name a few loose examples).

To start off... When I first started getting into black clothes, I thoght I was goth then I thought maybe emo. Now I'm pretty sure I'm just old style punk. Which would explain a few things. Second, I was implying gift art. Besides, I want to wait 'till I'm good enough before I reveal Crimson to the world. Third, the line-art is mostly practice so I don't want to waste time making practice pretty. Fourth, my scanner sucks, (that's why I use my more reliable dig. camera even though the quality is poor) and my computer is running and I'd like it to stay that way. Virus or not, downloading more programs would slow it down more than it already is. (And a big no on the ear buds. It's not my thing.)

Ahh *Nods* I see. (And, well said, btw). Oh, and here's something that'll help... MJ Bear once showed this to me out here, and it helps somewhat... if you're lineart comes out a buit jagged looked (which mine does...

not sure if it's my scanner or just me or something) but, somewhat jagged lineart can be smoothed some using Gaussian blur (kind of sparingly though since while it does smooth the linework, it also lightens it up. However, then can just as soon be fixed by readjusting the brightness/contrast levels, or simple repainting the lines black.

Hmmm *ponders and wabbit says to self* "Paint it black".
^.^ (Subliminal pun). Heheh. *Shrugs*

Btw... here's something I do to try to "redistribute the wealth" when it comes to processoir cycles (and maybe this might be of some help for your PC as well)...

bring up task manager... check to see which programs eat up your memory the most, and which ones take it up the east. Any and all not totally necessary programs eating up much memory maybe could be temporarily disabled. (End process). They'll of course reload again next time you power up or reboot, of course.

Plus, there are ram optimizer programs (free ones) like Free Ram XP pro that help your system manage RAM better. Yesh... they DO actually work, too.. I've used them in the past, when I was still under XP. But, also... just because XP is in the name, doesn't mean it won't work with older on newer version of win as well. (Especially if you turn on compatibility mode under Vista for older programs)

Also, Ironic you speak of a Crimson character when I know of another fur out here (a chick) named Crimson Apocolypse. Yup... not identical, I know... but similar.

And... anyways... well, I guess maybe what you mentioned might be the best way to go (Draw your fursona with punk style clothes, or whatever is the same or similar to what you just as soon might wear in rl. I'll stay on the watch for those new character representation of yours... I look forward to it, and no matter what... I'll fave it in order to try to help you get some name recognition out here.

I hate my inability to click reply sometimes.

It's all good. ^.^ I got your reply. Just couldn't think of more to say. *Shrugs*

Nice Rolling Stones quote. My favorite one. The name Crimson is a coincidence. I chose the name, not for the color, but because I have a tendancy to like red eyes which gives a demonic look. In combination with his origin, which is where the bluish white fur comes in, that makes the appearance much more menacing. Heck, if you look at my other art you'll notice torn clothes, another example (with a few exeptions) of what I like to put in my art. I'll have to try the comp stuff when I get the chance.