so that's why I have a tablet!

I got a little Wacom Bamboo tablet for . . . I think it was my birthday last year. Or maybe the year before. My not remembering the exact date may show exactly how much I haven't used it. I mean, I asked for it, I wanted it, I was excited for it. I'd seen people do digital drawings in tutorial videos and had been blown away by all the options. The possibilities of layers, for one, made me want to dance around in glee, clutching the tablet to my bosom. Ahem. Anyway.

So I plugged it in, loaded the drivers, had fun writing "omg I am writing with a tablet" a few dozen times before dragging out whatever photoediting software I was using at the time (might have been Paintshop Pro, maybe Paint.net). I scribbled excitedly. And it looked like . . . a scribble. A scribble where all the lines were a uniform blackness, a uniform unattractive fatness. I blinked, and tried again. Same thing. Not exactly the sexy depictions of line quality I'd seen in tutorial videos.



Maybe I just needed practice. So I scribbled some more, trying to draw my basic 'face', and getting more and more discouraged, thinking I might have to relearn how to draw entirely in switching to a tablet. I had a bit more success drawing some books on the shelf behind the monitor than my anime girl, but they still looked somehow wrong. Then it clicked. When we draw, our lines aren't all the same darkness. They have different tones, and with that comes gesture and suggestion of importance. Line quality is a big part of what makes a drawing, and mine were coming out like the most determined 3 year old with a big black marker in their fist and their parent's new sofa before them. It was like drawing in capslock.

So I looked around the internets and found GIMP, which I'd downloaded on one computer in the past, looked at the strange floating interface, said "nope!" and gone back to paint. However, GIMP would give me what I craved--pressure sensitivity. So I downloaded it, and learned to deal with the interface. I even found how to bring back my Layers, Channels, Paths, etc. Window after accidentally closing it--that only took me two weeks! (just a note: GIMP is now my go-to for photoediting that Lightroom can't cover--getting past that initial steep learning curve is worth it! I'll drool about Lightroom in another post.)

GIMP gave me what I wanted, as far as making my lines lighter or darker depending on how hard I pressed. But my drawings still looked oddly kindergarten. I once again chalked it up to inexperience, and did my best to practice, knowing that was the only way to get better. But as anyone deciding to pick up a new hobby can tell you, it's a bit harder to convince yourself to practicing when all you produce is crap than when you're decent at something.

So my poor little tablet sat by my computer for the better part of a year, getting dusty, and somehow managing to keep track of its expensive pen companion. I'd occasionally pick it up again after watching another digital drawing tutorial, or after stumbling across a post of somehow talking about how much they wanted a tablet but couldn't afford one. But these awe and guilt sketches did very, very little to convince me to ever use what was turning into a rather expensive brick.

I don't exactly remember why, but I picked up my tablet again today. And I struggled with it again. I tried to slow down, work on hand-eye coordination by writing my name and drawing lines--I even taped a piece of paper over the touchpad to make it feel more like the drawing I was used to. But I ended up putting it away again, still discouraged. And then, feeling like I should accomplish at least something more than reading Cracked.com for hours, I brought it out and gave it one more try.

It was at that point that I, on a curious whim, did the smartest thing I've done since downloading GIMP: I went over to the brushes panel, deselected my big bulky circle, and replaced it with a smaller circle fuzzy.

That was all it took. I could smack myself.

So, after that long-winded post, here are some doodles I did at various stages of this process:


This is one of my early sketches, before I'd tried GIMP.


Likewise, though I'd at least lowered my brush size and tried color now.



I did these two in GIMP, but was still struggling with line width.


This was after I taped the paper over my touchscreen. Better control, but still having problems. (Also, if you save as a jpg, don't let it compress as much as it wants to. I've decided compression means it chews on it for a bit then spits it out into your save.)

And then: see the difference a feathery brush can make in even a quick sketch!


Suffice to say, I'm now much more interested in experimenting with my tablet for sketching!


Though I did get something more out of this struggle before having my epiphany, and that is what I resorted to doing with my tablet once I was sure I'd never get good art out of it: pure, unadulterated, completely ridiculous doodling.







The possibilities are limitless. :D


edit: Oh, and look, a calligraphy brush! And pencil sketch brushes!
(it's hard to do a facepalm when you're shaking your head in disbelief at your own fail :D)

--
Listening to: Still Love by Holly Brook. I want her to put out another album, dang it! I need to google her and see what she's up to. Interesting enough, I found her because one of her songs came pre-loaded on one of my old mp3 players.