I is be the man!!

Don't you just hate it when you have to fix or replace something that worked so well and lasted so long you forgot how it worked? Maytag washer repair guys and Toyota mechanics (so they say) and Linux users. We all know about set-it and forget-it.

My PC network is centered on a Linksys WRT54g router. It just stopped getting on the Internet one day last week. I bought a D-Link DIR-601 router about a year back, never installed it. It took me a couple of days to bone up on the network knowledge I thought I knew. Then I had to humble myself to read the instructions and submit to the play-by-play install wizard. I kept injecting my do it this way skills and thwarted the system every time. The wizard probed my system, popped in some settings and it worked and I'm clueless how we both put in the same settings and mine didn't work. I think my settings were only similar and not the same. My defeat issued into a working system.

The worst part of the whole ordeal was having to use XP to use the install CD. You'd think they could write a program that executes in Linux like they do for MACs. I guess they figure Linux users are a minority. Anyway it runs and works fine. I set it and will forget it, until the next time, a few years from now.

did you catch that epiphany?

Did you catch the epiphany of the last post? A digital tablet lets you draw using the skills you got. It don't do nutt'n to make you an artist. That being said I do recommend you newbe want-to-be digital artist in the making to get some traditional art lessons. If you start out with nutt'n, you'll have nutt'n to work with but hard knocks or knuckles.

We are going backwards because hindsight is a mug. So not to baby you get your Google (or Yahoo ) skills and get "The Complete Book of Drawing Techniques by Peter Stanyer". You can get a free PDF download or a print book via Amazon. It is an Bauhaus art course, it is the basic stuff, can't go wrong.

Then get "Digital Foundations" art course. You have to look around, it comes in two version as far as I can tell. An Adobe Creative Suite version and a FOSS (Free Open Source Software) version. I downloaded the FOSS version as a free PDF. Now this book is the same as The Complete Book of Drawing Techniques but integrates using Photoshop (Adobe) or GIMP (Open Source) softwares. I am a GIMP user.

Now you got two related reference books and you can get an art tutor, art teacher or artist mentor to keep you to task. The point is artistry requires some training to get the mental mind set, mechanical hand-eye sync. To get the basic instruction in "natural media" is the big leg up, then once you figure out how to use the PC hardware and software there is a skills transfer that happens. I can slide lead, roll ink, smear paint and now push pixels. It's the same but different.

Comparing peas to beans, you learn using a steel sword then move to the light saber. Same skills but man, what a rush!!

the digital media input device mod

So I showed you a pic of my tablet work, then the screenshot of MyPaint software, now we will look at the digital media input device.

The story goes like this. I really wanted a graphics tablet, really really bad. I got the least expensive one with the possibility of working with Linux OS. Wacom was/is the way to go with Linux OS. I got the thing and tried it out, hated it. The surface was too slick, it was too small and I really didn't have the desire to actually use it. Up in the cupboard it went. I'd pull it down every now and then to see if I had the gumption. I discovered that I was so used to drafting with instruments and with a mouse I didn't trust my ability to freehand draw.

Then after a few years of sketchbook sketching I developed some freehand skills. It was time to pull it out of the closet. What to do about the size and the surface slickness? I taped the tablet to the inside of an old laptop lid, it seemed better to work with. I found an even older discarded laptop. The old laptops were thick with a 12" screen. I removed the lid and took out the screen. Then I cut the bottom edge of the Wacom tablet off by 1/2". It fit right into the display lid. Then I used foam-board to fill in the sides and covered it all with mylar film for a smooth surface. The display frame snapped on perfectly. The slick surface was handled by a square of paper taped to the surface. What? Oh, you want pictures!

On the left the original Wacom Graphire 2, the right the trimmed down and modded. Yes, it works the same just a little bigger and a lot more fun to use.

a picture jumped on the page

MyPaint is an Open Source painting and sketching application that has versions for Linux, Windows and Mac. It is made for the graphic tablet and is quite intuitive meaning, without fuss you can start making scribbles. Learning how to use it to do something with it however takes time.

I want to be a painter, I buy brushes, tubes of paint, canvas, great desire and go to it. I squirt, I brush, I dab, I smear and discover I needed to prepare the canvas first, then proceed to paint with forethought mingled with invent as you go. I'm not knocking traditional media, just that the process is the same but different for PC art. Put things in good order so as to not waste valuable art materials. On the PC it is not so much a waste of materials but time if that is important to you.

I was sitting in the gallery office, had the tablet hooked up and trying out the brushes and backgrounds in MyPaint. Each brush lends itself to a kind of line, texture and evokes a look. Just like with real paints you have to discover what you can do. There are movements that are natural to you, those are sweet spots. There are awkward movements, those are challenges.

Like I said many times I want to start by drawing like I do in my sketchbooks, why? That is what I am used to, sweet spots. Then try to move on. I started with a few pages of brush stroke lines, smears, splotches. Then tried to form some shapes of objects. A picture started to take shape. Ooh, the eraser works and the undo and also the save often (learned that from drafting).

Subject matter is your passion, superheros, spaceships, animals, faces, you know what you want to do. If you give it a start no matter how cock-eyed it looks, eventually you'll work towards a good outcome. Me, I'm not a natural artist which is rare. I'm a home-brewed, dyed in the wool doodler. If you have professional artist desire, go for it, I'm in it because it's fun and I like it. I have a romantic notion of the fine artist of the past. Today most think of a JOB, get some dime for your time. Keep your passions in sight, prepare for opportunity but, do it because you like it.

let me explain

When I look at accomplished artist's work I realize the time it took to get there plus the start was not via top shelf, top of the line, name brand equipment and materials. My cousins drew on butcher roll paper. My dad brought home scrap paper from a scrap paper store (pre-recyclling centers). Nothing like a clean side of a blank sheet of scrap paper.

The equipment was the same way, but I would have to justify buying the best quality stuff with my proven skills and deep pockets. Now let me hone in. Using a PC to do art in a comfortable way requires a tablet and pen input device. If you are just starting to draw this way and look only at the stuff that accomplished artist use, you will "stifle yourself Edith!"

I am not a school trained or from birth art prodigy. The money I make goes for food, clothes and rent. I do doodle, draw, sketch, etc; and I want to do it on the PC which is affordable. Graphic tablets can be on the cheap end and still do the job. That is allow you to move the cursor with natural hand motions and leave a trail of pixels on the screen. Being able to use hand pressure to mimic a real pencil or pen is great, but if you've ever drawn with a ballpoint or felt-tip pen, the line weight is constant. You don't even have to buy a new graphics tablet. You just need to do it, get into it, get use to it. Then when you can move up in the drawing equipment world, you can.

Spanking brand new, top shelf stuff is fine but used is great. Awkward and unfamiliar stuff test your limits, incites workaround wisdom and inventiveness and work ethnic (I mean ethic). Hey I started drafting with pencils, then pen and ink, then computer aided design (CAD). Even CAD is leaps better now than Cad back in the day.

So, go get a used graphics tablet if you simply need to doodle on the PC and quit vexing your mouse. The fewer bells and whistles the more you have to put yourself into it. Keeps the human touch in art.

sketch what you like

Sketch what you like. I mean that literally. If you are trying out your tablet via tutorials you may make a good attempt, but if you draw what you like it will drive you to draw it like you want to see it. What the first time is not so good! You'll draw it better the next time. Mind you, I'm not the step by step guy here. I do doodle and to digital doodle is the same. I want you to feel your pen and the tablet.

 When I first used a ball point pen for doodling it was messy. Eventually the character of the pen lines plus the occasional ink globs were no longer an unexpected event. When you know what to expect, you trust your tools. Now you can let ideas come through your tools. It is the same with using a paint brush as with a digital pen. You are learning the parameters of the media, the feel, the control, what the output is. Sketch what you like and think about the process. Adjust your input, grade your output.

What I like about drawing and painting digitally, no waste of paper or canvas when trying out stuff or doodling. I can print if and when I want on what ever media the printer will accept and also print via 3rd party printers.

Again draw what you like, that is a motivator. I've been into designing homes using quonset huts and steel cargo containers. Here is a sketch on the digital tablet I popped just before writing this blog post.

Yeah, the house looks like a camera. There is no professional blah blah blah. But the point was to sketch out the idea I saw in my head. I have done this on paper and now I can do this on the digital tablet. Woo, woo, lookie what I did!!!!!!

Now I can pick up a tutorial or two on fine points like perspective, shadows, texture, color, line types. And make use of computer stuff that makes digital drawing so great like undo/redo, erase, layers and masking.

Now some words from the master Yoda concerning knowledge of the (creative) force. Doodle or doodle not, there is no try, just doodle!

tablet cronicles from scratch

For me there there are two main kinds of drawing, sketching and single line. Sketching is used for capturing the idea. There is usually the expectation of refining a sketch to bring the idea into focus. You could very well wind up with a photo-realistic picture if you were of that bent. That is way beyond my skills and desire. Now single line is a way of drawing the outlines. To me this requires a level of assuredness to capture a likeness with simple single pen strokes. This is like cartoon drawing. But can you draw like this right off the bat? I'd say not. Try to draw a circle or a box or a shoe or a bike. We might see it in our head but putting pen to paper requires some concentration and practice.

Now doing this on paper is one thing, on the digital tablet is another. Can be close though if you have comfort and control. On the left of the above pic is sketching and I tried to single line the same objects on the right. The confidence of the single is lacking as I am so used to sketching. I don't draw many objects anyway. What has captured my mind is Zentangles. This is a kind of concentrated single line drawing where perfection is not required. Good line quality can be developed over time. And yes most people approach Zentangles with a fiber pen and a 3.5" square of paper. To do digital tangles is kind of new and kind of awkward. Sounds like fun to me. I'll let you know how I'm progressing.