Give a guy some leeway- i have no idea what I'm doing with this.
So those first two pictures deserve a little bit of explanation:
The little notepad lives in my back-pocket, a lot of the little sketchy chicken feet scribbles you are goin to see here are scanned from that dog-eared little tome. And i caught the love of little pencils from my Dad who in his retirement (and presumably before) would rarely be seen in or around our house without one of these little beauties tucked behind his ear, his were always sharpened using a small maroon red Swiss-army style penknife and each of their drawing points was a tiny beautiful work of art.
So whenever i get the opportunity i will use a knife to sharpen my dinky little pencils, they are then each and everyone unique, both a pleasure to sculpt and to use. It also gives me an excuse to think of my old man, and that in itself would be reason enough.
I started carrying around little books much like this one, after i had an epiphany of sorts. (This one is actually one of a pair donated, very kindly, by a friend who is both an illustrator and animator- cheers Jana!)
This day i was scribbling away with pencil on paper (at the time it was an increasingly rare thing for me to be doing) and upon making a little mistake my brain automatically, and extremely quickly, flagged up the response 'UNDO'.
I had been working on computers so long my brain had for that split-second forgotten that you need to physically rub out mistakes made with a real pencil. I'll pretend here for the sake of arguement that i was hugely galvanised by this momentary lapse and rushed out immediately to buy one of these pads, that may not have been the case, but it was certainly the catalyst.
Now i carry a tiny little pencil and pad with me everywhere i go, and scribble little things on it as often as i can. As it stands this is often the more 'interesting' patrons of the local train-line. I also took up some life drawing (which i sadly haven't been to in quite sometime- sorry Sandy!) Life Drawing is the best exercise anyone wanting to draw can take up, Full Stop, just gotta get over your embarrassment.
Drawing is good for the soul, and i would recommend it to everyone, and i mean everyone. The very act of stopping and looking, really looking, at the world we live in makes us appreciate it just a little bit more and that is a very important thing to do.
The Wacom tablet.
The other picture is of my Wacom tablet.
I suppose some people might not have seen one of these before, and not really know what they are looking at (my wonkily-rotated image won't help that either). Wacom is a brand name like Nike, only i hope, with slightly more scruples than Nike (i remember when she was just a goddess: strength, speed and victory for anyone without goog-skills, or inclination) but they make simply the best pen tablets on the market, this one is a 'bamboo one' the previous iteration of their popular bamboo series and the cheapest they ever made, it cost me about £30. You could get one just like it on ebay for about £15 if you are prepared to hunt. They have now replaced it with a newer version which is much more expensive but without very good reason. I also carry this around with me wherever i take my laptop and rucksack, i tuck it into the little laptop sleeve i have, probably not a good idea, but then it only cost £30. i would show you the one i currently use in work, but you'd keel over at the size and cost of it.
If you are going to make Art on computer buy yourself a pen tablet, it will be the best decision you make. Trying to use a mouse to paint or sculpt on computer is like trying to draw with a bar of soap, it's not easy and it's probably more than a little foolish.
One last thing, i talk too much, and i use too many words, i love words almost as much as i love drawing, but talking is so much easier that i reckon i definitely do it much more.
i'll go post some stuff i made.
i have no idea what order i am gonna do this in so: 'bear with' :)
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