I'm Oddment, owner/proprietor/designer/dreamer of "Oddment's Alchemy Lab." It is the name of a "sub-company" that I have under the umbrella of my main (read: money-making ) venture, a small, from-my-own-home-office fire protection design firm. I enjoy the work of design, but I LOVE the art of it. My job easily turns into my hobby and sometimes I can spend 16-18 hours right here in my recliner/office chair, making creative do-dads and throw-away crap. I dabble in everything from book art to woodworking to - of course, my first love - digital manipulation. I believe that I am an artist, but accept my limitations. GIMP is one of those programs that frees my creativity from the limitations of my heavy-handed nature.

[Skipable TMI: Scroll to the last paragraph if not interested in "life details"]

My wife and I share a too-large home on over 35 acres in a ghost town on the hills at the tip of the Appalachian Mountains, so hard work keeps my hands stiff and calloused - making it impossible for me to draw or write with any artistic touch. We have 2 cats and an asshat... errr... black lab. Our main focus is healing this abused land and dilapidated home (previous owners, sadly, struggled with "bad drugs" - as opposed to the good kind ;-) ) and both timbered the land and let the home fall into disrepair. Because of their misfortune we were able to pick the place up for just 5 figures. We hope to offer it as a free artistic/spiritual retreat space in the future for free spirit hippie types like us. We both see this as our largest canvas with amazing potential for our best artwork yet!

[Okay - here's the last paragraph]

I deeply appreciate the folks who write and post some of the great tutorials that I've already read/used as a guest here. I am in awe of some of the work that I've seen and hope that I can be even marginally as good some day.

Peace

Oddment

note: The attached image is an old piece that I have not updated. It includes lots of clipart and lacks skill. Please forgive the sloppy.

to Gimp Chat Oddment

Welcome to Gimp Chat Oddment. Looks like to came to the right place, and yes there are a lot of great tutorials all done by our members.

Welcome to Gimp Chat Forum, Oddment,

Hi Oddment, welcome to GC. Good luck with the retreat - it sounds like something well worth doing!

Good day to you Oddment (cool name ) - welcome to GimpChat, I see you already have skill from the piece that you uploaded above. Hope to see more from you my friend .

Hello and welcome oddment to Gimp Chat

Thanks for the kind welcomes. I've been lost in tutorials for a few days. Such a great resource, so much talent here!

And to think, my discovery of GIMP is six degrees of seperation from my desire to find a new phone widget - lol! What should have taken a quick search of the playstore has led to an obsession with graphics.

I used to do simple cut-&-paste collages, now I want to learn everything from scratch - base texture up. This place has already made me much better and I still have a LOT to learn. Big fan of this community!

Oddment not only, it seems, are you someone totally involved in what passions you, but you're a writer as well! Thoroughly enjoyed reading your post and look forward to seeing you grow in your new hobby; Gimping.


A fellow Gimp student

Hi Dalia! Thank you for the comrent/ compliment. I often hesitate to mention that I also dabble in writing because, it seems, everyone is a writer on the internet :-)

I have written, sold, and published a few times (small, niche publications - nothing major) and am currently writing a play on spec (tentatively sold depending on my execution) for a college in Oklahoma.

I have Adult ADHD - only recently diagnosed and treated - and it had become quite disabling (literally headed towards SSDI before I received a proper diagnosis). I share this because: a. Lots of "artist types" struggle with this, often unaware of it; and b. It is the reason I've picked up so many obsessive hobbies. I am still working to organize myself and my projects, but I have been able to start a business and focus on some of these "deeper" thought-involved things, like GIMP! I love the way my brain bounces - and now I'm learning to love the power of focus! Undiagnosed, my processes were random, inconsistent, and often unfinished.

GIMP specificaldy is one of the tools that has helped me sharpen my focus and expand the reach of my expression. This community has already provided the "brilliant, structured mind" that I personally do not posess - lol!

Sorry to ramble, but I do really enjoy and appreciate this place and the generosity of its community.

Albeit, difficult to keep "on track", there you've said it, you are in good company.

Gimp and a detailed project will certainly keep you in the zone. Glad you've joined Gimp Chat!