drat, darn, shucks, back to the mouse

Turns out the ceasing of the jitters on my digital tablet connected to my laptop was an anomaly. Oh well. I did find a couple of "how to draw with your mouse" tutorials, one in "Deviantart": http://kazzisato.deviantart.com/art/How-To-Draw-With-A-Mouse-18847145  Yes, practice is the same as exercising spelled differently, no one likes to start doing it, but having started, it's OK!

For the most part doing art on a computer is easy, almost painless. You point and click and boom, it's done. Then you scan the internet for inspiration. Just when your eyes are as big as quarters, you realize it takes knowledge and skills you haven't acquired yet to do stuff like that. Easy is over rated and artist must suffer, you know. I'm not talking about taking out the daily garbage or poor returns for your output of masterpieces. You aren't a master yet, you must face Vader! Where did that come from. Artist suffrage is........a painter who forces his will upon his materials finally learns to work with his materials. The brush stroke with so much paint acts this way, the arm angle, the way the brush hairs bend and twist when you push or drag. What about digital art, sure the computer can do a lot but what if you want subtle effects, fades, blends, sweeps, hard edge and soft shadows. The software is a fancy all powerful brush that you have to learn what it can do and what you can do with it. It is suffering to repeat a new pattern until it is second nature. It is a good thing computers support repeatable results. Do it enough times not only will you learn it, remember it, you will discover new angles too.

Here is my dilemma. Finding my own voice, telling my own stories, taking advantage of my limitations and my abilities. This is why I must draw stuff myself and not rely mainly on clipart and Gimp/Photoshop brushes made by others. Yes it is more work and sometimes takes you off course, but in the end, it is all your work. I don't think artist who do commercial or time sensitive art projects have time to make their own tools, any time saver is welcome. But you with the pocket protector of digital pens and the mouse holster, need to get over self image and get some work done.