Sunday, November 13, 2011

the non-digital part of digital art

Here in the humble adobe of your Linuxville guide, looking through the near naked trees and oh my, my garage roof needs fixin. The penthouse studio is shaping up. I work on one of those pressed wood computer desk. Today the workspace just wasn't big enough. The writing/keyboard area is not big enough, the right side under the cabinet is useless and I keep banging my knee on the right side drawer. Let alone putting the flash sticks and CDs under the desk, I watch the dust bunnies become jackalopes and chase the cats around.

So, I raised the CRT on it's shelf and pushed my old wooden drafting table over the writing/keyboard area, against the front of the desk. Then put the all-n-one printer/scanner/fax/copier on the shelf above the CRT cubby and the PC box on the same shelf on the right end. I can see everything well. The reaches are still a stretch but I don't inhale dust bunnies.

The drawing table is just under counter height and just above the desk chair armrest. The table is big enough to rest my whole arms on when I type and use the digital tablet. Well, the Wacom Graphire 2 is an 8"x 8" plastic square, try holding that in your lap or a narrow desk area. I was thinking about 3/8" chip board for a drawing table cover. I could cut out recesses for the keyboard and for the digital tablet. That would be too static for me, my work situation changes as you can tell. My big printer sits atop an old dresser next to the desk, print supplies are in it's drawers. On the other side of the desk on a printer stand is my spare PC which I can load with reference stuff or run tutorials on. Running two PCs can be a headache if they are not similar. You don't want to do too many different things when you are working. Every operation requires your attention at some point.

Just like some people can sleep anywhere, some can draw anywhere. I am not so inclined. I am trying to set a comfortable spot that is flexible but doesn't change that much. For years I've been a vagabond artist in my own house. We are not talking dream studio, for that I would renovate the garage. This is a spare room I can use that is not in the traffic flow.

The table is light enough to move it if I need to and provides a drawing posture better suited for taming the graphics tablet. You say I am beating around the bush, and not drawing! Yes! This is all part and partial of the whole Gennie gig! Art is not a thoughtless process, perhaps a haphazard one, but not thoughtless. Besides, there are drawing tutorials galore but studio setup ones are rare.  Getting your work space in order helps you to be comfortable when you work. 

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