Stylized Dornier Wal

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

The worst because I wrenched my shoulder on Friday and I've been in excruciating pain since then. It turned out to be a simple case of tendonitis, but even with pain killers and ice packs I've only been able to sleep for an hour or so at a time and my left arm is effectively non-functional.

The best because my inability to sleep has forced me to keep busy at the computer learning the ins and outs of Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. Up until Friday I've been producing all the graphics you see here with a ten year-old copy of Paint Shop Pro. Since then I've distracted myself from the red hot iron poker lodged in my shoulder by starting to explore what the Adobe products can do. As I mentioned yesterday, the learning curve is very steep, but I'm already getting a feel for just how powerful the programs are. Here's the first pure Adobe project I've completed: a stylized Dornier Wal aircraft for the new version of the ATMOM Miskatonic expedition patch.



It still needs some tweaks, but after hearing all kinds of horror stories about how difficult Illustrator was to use I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to bang this out two days after I started learning the program. One of the recurring bits of feedback from the original patch is that folks wished the Wal replaced the rather generic aircraft featured in the original. Since this graphic is probably the most complex part of the revised patch I suspect I'll have a finished version for your perusal by the end of the week.