Thinkcage

The fact that I haven’t posted this says a lot about my work/life balance right now. But a couple of weekends ago I couldn’t fight it any longer — I wanted to make something with my hands. So I bought a new bottle of india ink and pulled out my pens, watercolors, and an unused Moleskine watercolor notebook. I did a few simple sketches, inked them and then painted in some color. It felt incredible. There is something in using traditional tools to make something real that cannot be replicated when you work on the computer most of the time. In fact I have been daydreaming about the brush on paper, the smell of the ink, and the utter concentration ever since. I am off of work next week taking a much-needed break and I hope to spend a lot more time off the computer and at the drawing table. I will post the results later.

The first was just a reproduction of a photo I found. The original had lots of great dark areas that would allow me to use lots of ink. The second image was an attempt to do some Frank Miller-style washes over ink silhouettes. I will have to work on that a little more, I think. It has been a long time since I drew or painted regularly and it is a shame. I hope to correct that soon.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 9th, 2008 at 11:23 am and is filed under Creativity. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.