Monday, November 10, 2014

Grief and Graphics


My graphics tablet died today. I bought it when Barack Obama was still an obscure state senator. Because it was on sale, because I needed a more natural way to work on screen, because using a mouse just didn't cut it.

You can draw with a mouse. With enough determination and practice, you can do contour drawing with a brick but pencils, Pens and brushes are more natural. Easier. Faster to work with.



Add pressure sensitivity, angle and velocity and work becomes play, becomes mind to spirit to hand. Image is a road with no potholes and you drive in sync with the lights, cruising.

A few months back the tablet started losing connection in the middle of a work. I'd jiggle the USB connector, the blue light would come back on and I began to grieve a future loss. more and more often the map of tablet to screen and the function of opacity to pressure, velocity to width was lost. Like watching a companion with a chronic progressive illness. 

Today, I tried to shake my companion awake but the poor thing wasn't breathing



Alfred C. Ingram
Conceptual Design & Imaging

con·cept: November 2014