Initial help for a complete Rookie (digital painting)

[MindCandyMan]

Hi Everyone,
I am new to this message board. My brother introduced me to these forums...man I am amazed...I was looking at Jon Foster's work and was in awe. I can't imagine ever getting to that level... On that note...my question was a simple one...I just bought a 9x 12 wacom intuos 2 board and I just got painter 6 (soon to purchase 7). Everyone in my family has artistic ability of some sort (my brother is awesome...look up his stuff here under "Smeagol71") but I have never tried drawing or painting, conventionally or digitally, until just recently. Does anyone have any suggestions for any books, materials, etc... that can get me started on digital painting. Any help would be greatly appreciated...thanks so much.

[Blind]

Howdy MCM...

This is a great site for links to tutorials, other artists, reference materials, etc. And it keeps growing. Check it out.

Sumaleth's Link Archive (http://www.sumaleth.com/links/)

[gekitsu]

don seegmiller (www.seegmillerart.com) is currently writing a book about character dsign and digital painting.
as he knows his bones (his digitals are great, as are his traditional paintings) i guess this book will be a lot of help and improvement (when it's done)

also, there are lots of useful posts in the forums here.

with your brother, you have some instant help available. use it!

don't worry if your first paintings don't look like what you imagined. we all went through that.