There’s nothing like learning how to do something over and over again. Ok, that’s sarcasm. Truthfully, it’s a little frustrating.
I draw and paint a bit. I usually work in pencil, some pen and ink, chalk pastels and occasionally water colors. While I’m a little rusty, from spending a lot more time working with computers and playing guitar, I’m still pretty good at being able to pull out a pencil and sketch up something fairly easily.
Things change though. Now days with the Internet and the crisp, snazzy graphics it won’t do to whip up something on a sketch pad, scan it, crop it and call it good. It may be a pretty picture but for a logo or some of the other bits of art needed on the web, it’s just not going to fly. Sigh.
I have some artwork that I need to do for some websites and even a book. All of it needs to be done digitally. The website art because it’s the web. The book art for so many reasons, one of which is how much easier it is to send a file to the printer, exactly the way you see it, instead of worrying about the paste up.
Because of these projects I have been working with and trying to learn some of the Adobe softwares. I’ve even got a stylus and tablet to make it easier. While it helps, it’s just not there, yet. I know some people can pick this stuff up like they were born to it. Or it seems that way. It’s easy enough to goof around in the programs, it’s another thing where it comes time to sit down and do something specific with it. It takes a lot longer to do than I think it should, which makes it frustrating.
Oh, and it’s not that I’m learning to use one or another of the programs. No, I’m learning two straight graphics programs and an animation program. While there are similarities in the interface of the programs, they all function different and what takes little effort to do in one program can be challenging in another.
Still the art needs to be done and in spite of the frustrations, digital really is the best medium for the pieces. And so, I get to learn how to draw a square over and over and over again. That’s before we even get to the 3D programs.