Thursday, June 03, 2010

more on jedi training

Speaking of baselines, If you just got your used or new graphics tablet, jump over to http://blog.dustyghost.com/?page_id=9/  and link, copy, read the graphics tablet tutorial. Do you remember when you first took interest in drawing with a pen or pencil? Sketching with a digital pen is the same but different. The more you use it the more it is useful. The cool thing with todays digital drawing tools is that you can sketch on one layer and draw on another. You can put a base image on one layer and draw over it on another layer. What you draw can be edited, erased and altered. It is actually better than paper if you can get used to it, but drawing on paper is cool also.

If you are like me you need to have all your art stuff in one place. A studio arrangement that is dedicated to the creation task. If you like a more movable situation still the idea is to have what you need in a portable way. I always see the scene painter with folding easel, paintbox, bottles of spirits, brushes, rags and whatever else is needed. Trying to duplicate this with my laptop PC is harder than it looks. If you only have one PC it is hard to dedicate it to just drawing. Those other functions are so intoxicatedly present to distract you from your focus. Seems a shame to bridle so powerful and flexible a tool to one occupation. But the computer in your car is dedicated to running the car, so it's a matter of concept. Besides the traditional painter really likes to comeback to his/her work and continue on where they left off. When you share your PC with other functions it is mind numbing to find your way back. Your paintbox is your paintbox.

I think I am brainwashed to be connected, so hard to turn off my internet. I unplug the ethernet and the wireless kicks in. It's like saying "wait, you need me!" If I was doing paint on a canvas in my room, it is not connected and I would want no distractions as I work out the process. Is it any less with digital art processes? All you trained commercial artist can ignore me, I am talking to the dabblers mostly.

So, my stuff is evolving, I have a main PC, a desktop I can do anything on and a laptop that is becoming my artbox. You know the PC is meant for keyboard input and I have to attach my drawing tablet. I wouldn't mind it the other way around. Put my drawing tablet into the laptop and I attach a keyboard when I need it. I wouldn't try to make it multifunctioned for games, and lots of text input or playing movies. To me those things are counter-productive to my art work. This is what my desktop PC is for. The end result is that my laptop becomes my dedicated art machine. When I look at it I see my creative energies going in and my art coming out.

Sometimes we can get so caught up in the work of others our own focus is diluted. Looking at others stuff is so intoxicating, we get drunk to the point our own work is neglected. Our competing spirit beats us, "oh they are so much better than I!" Use others for a reference, limit yourself to a recalibrating peak once in a while. In other words you are like the main PC, you can do anything, everything, now you need to become a person dedicated to a process to get your art done. All athletes do full body workouts, only runners say "legs go faster!" Basically it is about building body memory and experience, then exceeding. Same with art. I am giving you the play by play as I teach myself.

So, now you got the place, the space, the tools and time, put yourself in there.

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