Once an artist explores the vast variety of tools and features available on the great programs, we're hooked.

That is, an artist who creates lots of work probably experiences prolific days and slower days.

Sixteen million colors in your palette are hard for any artist, especially a beginner, to turn down.

We also have the option of scanning in an image from outside the computer... a photo, or a sketch done with traditional tools; and we can then paint, manipulate, process, change, and further develop the image within the computer, watching our progress on the monitor.

But in the old days, visual artists used to fall into two distinct categories: those of us who created images with cameras and those of us who applied stuff onto other stuff, with brushes or other tools.

I've had a different kind of career on the periphery of show business. I've never been on any kind of corporate timetable whereby every six months I have to pop out a record like a pulping mill. I've called my own shots. When I get tired, I take time off.