caviar in the sack lunch

I love the comedy routine where the guy pulls a gourmet dining spread including a lit candelabra out of his gym bag to impress a chick. My vision of a roving artist is similar. There is a physical trade off. My graphics laptop is hefty, wide and along with it's power adapter fits in a large laptop bag. Then I put my graphics tablet, CD case, tool kit in a smaller bag. This is fast to set up and use but transporting it all is giving me muscles. I can get an hour of battery life or unplugged drawing done if I don't use the CD drive too much and off-line. Newer stuff is built to better specs and longer battery life. The pro photographers carry battery packs for potable lighting. Something similar for extended remote laptop usage would be wonderful.

Portability is of prime importance along with size of screen, power to get work done efficiently and battery life. Doing art in the studio is one thing, on the road, at the park is another. I envy the painter sitting beside the river, folding stool, easel, small canvas, pallet, casual moves, totally distracted by his work at hand.

Things you use have to fit. My standard mouse is too big, my daughter's laptop mouse is bug sized. My fingers had to adjust a lot to use it. Then I stumbled upon the iHome Laptop mice. They have a middle size, just right. I have a Wacom Graphire 2, ancient but it works well. Using the pen takes getting use to. I was a CAD drafter for years, using a mouse is normal for me.

Habits and patterns, the laptop can allow you to bend the rules. I move from house studio to the art center. Working in the car is space awkward, working in a waiting room is people awkward. If the weather is nice our city has a covered landing next to the river. It has picnic tables and is not occupied between events. Oh to quite my thoughts for two hours, no folks to attend to, no urgencies, no ego trying to get noticed. I have the isolation at home, to have it in the open air, that takes some personal adjusting for me. I spend a lot of time dodging, juggling and managing situations and people. It takes a while to settle down and do art. You have to slow the flow of differing influences. It is cool to do all kinds of stuff but starting and finishing means giving up the wealth of many for the poverty of one idea. I was overdosed on all the colors, then I narrowed my pallet, I immediately knew which one to choose.