The real reason I keep doing this blog is to challenge myself to represent whatever the hell I’m thinking about in some way or another. Today I actually failed miserably at the representation, but what matters here is that I went through the exercise.
The photography posts are almost cheating in this regard, really, but there are other things I am practicing with those.
I’ve been giving the blog a bit of a facelift tonight.
I’m in the habit of reading my RSS feeds during my lunch hour, and when I closed the feedly tab I had this blog staring me in the face and I thought, “Wow, I really haven’t posted anything in a while. And I’m really tired of this theme.” The wheels began to turn.
Tonight, I have:
Also, let’s call a post a post. This totally counts as creative energy spent. I spent more time doing this than I do on most things I post here.
Yes, the blog has been quiet.
I started work in a new position within my company recently and have had to move to a different city to do it. I am still in the process of getting my stuff moved over (I have moved in with friends, so have been “roughing it” with little more than my clothes, and only two hats), and haven’t really had any time to think about this blog or much else other than working and moving.
Never fear, the blog will return once I have everything settled in, hopefully with at least as much regularity as I’d had before.
Note: I actually tried to post this yesterday, and then had web server issues of doom. I’m pleased to see most of my text preserved, so you get to read it after all.
I tend to be a minimalist when it comes to detail in a drawing. I know that the more detail I include, the less likely I am to be satisfied with the outcome, for the simple reason that I am equal parts perfectionist and impatient. When something only takes me a few minutes to draw (few of the drawings on this site took more than 10 minutes to execute; the “Wombatilim” image being the biggest exception, since I was planning on using it as a more widespread avatar), usually it comes out “good enough.” The more time I spend working on something, the higher my demands are for the final product because “Goodness, that took me how long?” The thickness of the brush I use to draw things for this blog is deliberate; aside from being fairly sure it will reduce well, it also provides a limit on how detailed I can be at all without everything becoming a black jumbled mess.
Occasionally, I’ll draw something that really needs background; the image just entirely lacks context without it, or the subject just looks strange without it. I have to figure out how little I can do while still getting the point across, and hope that I don’t feel it’s lacking when it’s finished. I also really don’t like drawing the background around the subject, mostly because the thick brush means the edges between subject and background get blurry and twonky and generally don’t look right.
Fortunately, Man invented Layers.
What ends up happening is that I end up drawing the entire background, and coloring it, and the entire subject on a different layer and coloring that too. Double that, because the color is generally on a different layer from the lines. In this case I actually wound up with three layer pairs, though the 2 most background layers got merged before I was finished.
One reason I enjoy photography is that the details are already there; I just have to worry about how I want to fit them into the picture. ;)
In an attempt to get my creative juices flowing, I have created this site with the intent of posting something every day.*Â Hopefully it will be something original, but failing that I will at least attempt something informative and/or inspirational.
Today, of course, my thing is the website itself.
I hope you enjoy my little experiment.
* Exceptions made for occasions when I absolutely cannot get online.
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