The Transition to Digital

Every time I find a new brush, pen, pencil, or mark maker I get a new wave of excited gitty-ness. I felt exactly this way, but times ten, when I was giving my first bamboo tablet almost a year ago for my birthday. At the time it was just something I would dabble with occasionally but as the months passed I thought about it more and more. Finally I decided that I needed to know how to use it properly. I set out to master the tablet...and it kicked my butt. My most difficult challenge was getting used to making a mark with my hand and looking somewhere else to see the result. Something about that disconnected brushwork troubled my traditional medium brain. I did not give up. My first attempts were...well...first attempts.

I was mainly trying to learn how to use the darn thing. Everything that I spent years on perfecting, like making a straight line, went out the window. There were so many colors and tools to choose from that I didn't know what to do. I either used them ALL or used only ONE. 

I do feel like progress was eventually made. Maybe a little. There is so much more for me to learn! I am both excited and a bit intimidated at how much more I want to accomplish and improve on. Digital painting is not only a new medium for me but also a medium that has made me revisit and re-evaluate what I have learned as a traditional artist. I caved and bought a Cintiq HD13 which has completely resolved my hand to eye disconnect problem but has not made me any better of an artist (which I really hoped it would do considering how much I paid for it). Onward, my trek continues.

As far as traditional mediums, I've been dabbling with Copic and Prismacolor markers :)