This hyacinth macaw is special for a number of reasons. Most importantly, his species is endangered and needs help (you can read more about that here).
Secondly, you can grab him for your own card making and craft projects here.
Thirdly (and less importantly, but still a fun fact if you're into digital art) this is the first digital painting I've completed from start to finish in the new ArtRage 6 program. I'll need to use it more to have a fully formed view, but my overall impression is that whilst none of the updates in this version is particularly flashy, they are all well-thought out, useful and well worth the upgrade. (Though I confess, the upgrade itself was a birthday present from the Computer Man in my case....am soooo lucky!)
In particular, I've been enjoying the ability to try out digital impasto, and to change a range of brush shapes straight into erasers of that same shape. Also (and this may or may not be confined to my PC, I don't know) all the brushes simply seem to work faster and more smoothly than they did in ArtRage 5, with less "lag time" between making a stroke with the graphics pen and seeing the full result on the screen.
But as I say, am still testing this-will let you know any more thoughts I have on it if you're interested.
