This year I’ve started to move more and more into hand drawn animation, building on what I started years ago with a Wacom tablet and Studio Artist software. This time around, I’m mostly using Procreate, along with TrueGrit Texture Supply brushes. This is because while I have been working from home because of the pandemic, I haven’t had much time to isolate and sit by myself at my desk, so a mini iPad has been my savior in terms of being able to keep working despite that lack of alone time.
Eventually I will create a section for these experiments here, but for now I’m letting them reside on Vimeo here on my homepage, in an area of their own at the top of my profile.
Drawing animation, even with the aid of digital tools to speed the process up a little, is still hard and slow work. But I’m determined to put the time in, because frankly, it’s the step I need to take now in my development as an artist. As someone who comes from a drawing and painting background, but who has not been actively practicing since starting a family and continuing to work outside the home, it’s a natural for me. And although for a time working in digital, which is not as slow as doing things by hand, created a necessary and vital pathway for me to keep working on my art despite all my responsibilities, not having the ability to manipulate what I am doing directly with my hands leaves me feeling a bit empty and bored. So, if I’m going to keep going, I need to get away from such a “head” environment and move into a physical one more and more. Digital is a tool. But making things with my hands satisfies me in a way that pushing buttons and sitting in front of a screen does not.
More as time goes on…
Odilonvert 