Alright, I have my monitor callibrated to be bright, but is it better to draw with a darker monitor or brighter? I downloaded the WiziWYG XP that marcello told someone to use to callibrate their screen, and it says that standard graphic art is supposed to be dark. Which should I do?

my brightness is at 63% and my contrast is 100%. thats what i find i like the best.

Those percents change from monitor to monitor and mean basically nothing. If I put my contrast at max, my screen is completely white/black.
It's better to draw on something that's balanced, you should be able to distinguish the full range for greys.

Great, thanks :) I can distinguish the entire spectrum of greys when it's on it's brightest pretty well, just making sure that if i drew like this, that the detail would show up on other computers

Note that it is also important to keep the room at a constant light intensity. The environment lighting should be a tad dimmer than the screen, otherwise you'll start to have trouble distinguishing colours.

Hello,
There is an artifact knowen as a spider that can calibrate your monitor and graphics settings, though I belive they are to expensive to want for a personal item perhaps you could find someone who could do it for you... It's the only thing I know that actually set's it to the as near as possible correct settings. Mine is properly calibrated but I have a computer coverd in red lights sitting next to it I'm sure that doesent help me get my colours right ;)
There is also a thing somewhere on the Renderosity tutorials area that has a graphic letting you see the base greys and being able to set your screen so you see all of them. mostly the human eye itself is a good judge of the monitor settings, its when they get old and start to actually discolour that problems begin :) I'm sure your's is close enough correct that it should not detract from your works :)

I just calibrated my monitor and now the colors are all different. I was used to it having a gamma setting much higher than it should have been, according to adobe's calibrations, so what I was used to was washed out compared to where it is now. Most things look better now though, but I didn't realize the sandstone skin was this strong of a color before

Hunterkiller: Well, I don't think that's going to be an option because the people in the library might get a bit upset with me :) but if I ever make enough money for internet at my house, I'll keep that in mind! Thanks