Drawing. It’s what’s good for you.

I’ve been using the computer in my professional work for over 30 years, and using it for every illustration project for the past 20.

I’ve been feeling a little digital burn-out.

I enjoy using the computer to draw and especially to paint. I’m not such a great painter (I learned that the hard way.) and Photoshop makes it easy to correct my mistakes and try new colors without destroying an entire piece.

But in the past 8 months I’ve been doing a lot of pen and ink. Pretty large pen and inks, 18x24, 20x27. Maybe it’s just the large size that makes it so fun (Fun? Is drawing fun again? Yes!) but it’s also that good old ink on paper: unintended materials behavior (Ink smear!), no undo (Well, how can I fix that?) and it helps me feel like I don’t have to rush the work (Because you literally can’t. Ink needs to dry and the pen needs to be re-dipped.).

Working digitally became a habit mainly because of convenience and speed. (The AD wants a different color on that background! Meet those deadlines!”)

It’s been seriously refreshing to go ‘off-roading’ with these drawings and it’s a great help with my emotional and mental state. Drawing. It’s what’s good for you.