Great to be on holiday and stumbe lazily on my blog.
We are staying on our land at Fernside. Did a sketch.
Pods — 2014
Did a few of these after I came back from a month in the bush. Posted here now as I tried to get it into the media library from Apple photos on thr iPad …. But no, it publishes it as well.
Ink & Pastel
From ThousandSketches 2006
Ink
I have been making ink sketches with the grandchildren 5 and 7 years old. I offer them watercolours, soft pastels and ink. Ink! Did you bring the ink! Nice to work with but it takes some heavy supervision.
Efforts below. Some are mine. All the photos are mine and they add to the composition.
Some favourite digital sketches — A Gallery
Browsing through old images I’ve made I’ve picked these out as favourite, more or less figurative, ones. I may add more.
Continue reading “Some favourite digital sketches — A Gallery”
Illegible Calligraphy
A gallery of images — virtually illegible!
Line & Wash Gallery
I’m learning to use Jetpack for this blog. I’m also working on my art journal This is one of the Gallery sets that was in is my art blog but is not there now! Jetpack is doing a nice job!
I used to a lot of these, but no more? I still like them. I’d even forgotten there was a name for the genre.
Joined online creativity group with Jan Allsopp
I’ve joined a creativity group with Jan Allsopp who I’ve known online for a long time. My commitment is for a month (at least). Committed to 15 min a day for the month of January – I’m working on a book. I’ll post more about the book as time goes on. Today is day six and I’ve produced a lot each day. I find it helpful to have such a strong focus. A simple idea, choose a route – i.e. the tools. Mine are the Google files (Doc and Slides) I’m using to write the book. In addition we create ‘cruise control’ – a voluntary frame in which to work. Some voluntary restrictions I’m using are:
- No new sketches.
- Work on the book proposal only, not the whole book.
Also good to see other peoples art – so far so good. It will get harder as the month intensifies.
This is what the spreads in the book look like:
iPad Pro – Pros and Cons
I would love it – for one thing: Drawing. iPads have never really done that well. But maybe this one, with its Pencil, beats the Wacom tablets.
BUT
Its not a computer. It drives me crazy on the iPad to add items to a calendar – to edit anything, it is such a pain to try to get the curser to go to the right place! I can’t see it replacing a Mac where the input options include a trackpad and a mouse. Touch screens that flop around laptop-style are so wrong – as Steve Jobs said “ergonomically terrible”!
But a Mac is no good for drawing.
I had a Toshiba M200 that was ok, it converted quite well – back in 2002! (Images) It went from vertical to horizontal.
Steve Jobs would not have succumbed to the vertical iPad. There has to be a better solution. An OSX device that incorporates touch, something like the new Surface Book (Images) is one possibility. I can’t bear the thought of going back to Windows & Microsoft, Surface Book reviews mention the crashes, the lack of attention to detail in the hardware design. Will convergence that allows conversion in hardware and software functions come to Apple?
In the meantime – and for a long time I imagine – in the Apple world we are stuck with the need for two devices, a Macbook and an iPad Pro. Probably three devices, I’d still want my iPad Mini for curling up with, the iPad Pro seems too big for that.
I hate seeing the iPad Pro used like a laptop, copying the ergonomically terrible Microsoft devices. As a horizontal drawing tool they look great.
Best advice for Apple: Create a touch/non-touch convertable OSX beta for the iPad pro. Maybe they are working on this?
Three new sketches & tools
First time in months I’ve put pen to screen! Playing.
The last one called “Making Time” Mostly using ArtRage on the Toshiba M200.
I love the process. I am so familiar with the tools – the software and the M200.
I have my eye on an iPad. It will not have the pressure sensitivity. What it will have is mobility. It is so sad that MS did not have the ability to develop the Tablet. The Toshiba M200 is small enough, but impossible (for me at least) to master when folded into its slate form. And the battery life is measured in minutes even with my new battery. There is still IMO a place in the market for MS to make a Windows 7 convertible. I am over my initial iPad disdain. I am appreciating Apple’s solid building and pragmatics combine with the revolutionary. They took over the music industry even though they came in late to the mp3 market, not a mean feat brilliant strategies!
Tools evolve, and the best use of any given tool is of value. I have done a lot of sketching on my Palm PDAs – tool I’ll never use again – but therein lies something of value. The lead pencil has no colour. But look what has been done over the centuries with the humble pencil, and it lives. The current – no pressure iPad will die and be gone, but I look forward to making use of it, while it is in its first iteration. What can the finger do on that thing?
Here are some examples, some good stuff there.
✔ July 2021