Hi Silvia and all-
        Me again. We have a saying around our house, borrowed from Star Trek
II: "you hve to know how things work on a starship" - Kirk and Spock are
using the ships's basic function to thwart a takeover attempt; the young
cadets don't understand what's going on because they don't understand
how a starship works, they just know how to push the buttons.  To REALLY
make something work for you, you have to understand the
fundamentals...this holds true for starships, traditional art, or
computer graphics, or anything else. Bad design is bad design, no matter
how it is produced. Relative ease of use., and the ability to create
computer generated "art" without understanding the principles involved
allows many people to call themselves graphic artists when they really
don't have a clue.
        The basics are essential; and nothing replaces holding a pencil or pen
or brush in your hand and making a beautiful mark with it.  The computer
just makes it a bit neater, and really easy to change, but the mark
needs to reflect that basic skill, that sense of style that an artist
has no matter how it is produced - or an artist's "eye".  I hope that
traditional skills are never lost, or overlooked in art schools or
anywhere else. I love my computers, love to play around with them, and
love the things I can produce on them; but I bring all of my previous
experience in tradtional art to bear every time I sit down to the
keyboard.
        I'd better stop here, as I can rant for quite awhile on this topic! (no
kidding!).
        Hi, Paul - do you understand scanning resolution yet? Does anyone? I
think I've got it, but sometimes...My other big problem is calibrating
the monitor. I keep checking everything, and it seems to be right, but I
never know what will come of it. Any clues? (not just Paul).

-Gail