If you’ve known me a bit longer, then you’ll know that I occasionally draw and paint. It’s something that comes and goes, but it always comes back again. I’ll spend a few weeks immersing myself in watercoloring or portrait drawing, and then it goes on the backburner for a while. Despite it not being a part of my daily life – for many artists, it’s second nature – I do feel that it’s a part of who I am.
My preferred methods have always been traditional. I started with pencil drawings, moved on to acryllic paint in my teens / early twenties, went back to pencil drawings and then finally found a love for ink, watercolor and gouache.
But I live and work very digitally as well, as a photographer. And a lot of what I wanted to achieve, didn’t quite fit with the supplies and tools I had at hand. Some ideas work beautifully in watercolor, other ideas just didn’t quite translate as well for me with traditional methods. I wanted to not only draw and paint, but also digitize some works. I tried scanning and editing them on my computer for a more graphic-designy-feel, and while some work looked lovely that way too, others work was benched because it didn’t look right.
It’s possible even that having had to put a lot of ideas on hold for a while is also part of the reason why I at times shift my focus back to photography fully. Because I felt quite literally blocked by not being satisfied with how I worked.
Last week I finally treated myself to a digital drawing pad, and it’s been a breath of fresh air to sit down and easily translate ideas into versatile, easily changeable digital illustrations. Different colors? In a jiffy. Add other elements such as text? Boom, done.
Paint and ink are permanent. Some works demand it. Some works need to have that clear human touch, that unpredicability. That’s why I love watercolor so much – it never looks 100% the same if you repeat it. But some ideas I want to be able to quickly change up and work in many different ways. I’m happy to have the best of both worlds available to me now.
Anyway. This post was brought to you by a semi-insomniac who’s been up since 4:30AM. I don’t know if much of what I’ve written made any sense :’) but just keep an eye on that instagram page that I’ve linked up there, I’ll be adding more digital drawings to it as they come, as well as (reposts of) traditional works. And of course I’ll be updating here.
