I'm trying to find the right voice for my blog. I suck with tense and passive verbs. I can really use any help you can offer. Sample, upcoming blog post: If I like something, I tend to hate its opposite. I can’t see the gray in things. I never have. Either I click with a person, or I can’t stand to be around them. In addition to setting up potentially awkward social situations, this on-off switch has, at times, negatively impacted my work. Take this blog, for instance. I feel like the current WordPress theme is running in a direction that I am trying to move myself, and the way I position my work, past. Rather than use what I have until I can make something better, my taste for firing up Safari and hitting WordPress admin has totally soured. I’ve been AWOL because merely disliking my blog template wasn’t enough. I had to /hate/ it. For the longest time, and largely because of my joint love affair with technology and all things geek, I held the same zealous fervor in my staunch defense of digital art. Rather than being able to see the shade of gray and acknowledge that digital was a useful tool, but that traditional was in no way diminished, I evangelized the use of digital art eschewing traditional tools and materials. “After all,” I said, “No one says that Jimi Hendrix’s guitar work is any less valid because it’s electric.” A fellow illustrator, and a real talent to boot, Tristan Henry Wilson, held a similarly strong love for traditional, analog art. After a few heated, but amiable, debates, I decided to give traditional a shot. I had some Lord of the Rings sketch cards to draw and I banged out some of my first ever bonafied brush and ink work. The pressure sensitive nature of the Wacom tablet I’d been working with set me up for an easy transition to a real brush. The same steady hand and reliance of varied elevation and pressure served me well with either tool. The real surprise, however, was the dynamic lines given by, and the accuracy of, the real brush. When drawing with the tablet, a certain amount of cognitive dissonance was a given. Your hand moves on a flat piece of plastic. Your head is left staring at your monitor. Because I’d started my career by that method, I hadn’t realized just how much of a difference looking at your hand as you make your marks amounted to. The last time I’d done that was nearly a decade past. My work bore more resemblance to the picture in my mind when working this way. Drawing without that cognitive disconnect produced better results. Rather than make the logical conclusion that I should incorporate more traditional methods in my work, I reacted by buying a Cintiq. “Surely, drawing directly on the surface of the monitor was the answer,” I thought. After a year of Cintiq use, the accuracy and natural, comfortable method of drawing traditionally was even more pronounced. If anything, the Cintiq pointed out just how far digital input tools have to go, not how far they’ve come. Slowly incorporating traditional methods, learning mass drawing, doing life drawing, sketching in public, I’m left with the conclusion that I greatly prefer analog art. There’s something about getting ink on my hands, cleaning a brush, and making a physical object that digital doesn’t sate for me. I’ve been struggling with this realization. To use digital tools for only a small portion of my work is a big reversal of my methodology. Not to mention, my peers know how much I’ve championed digital art. I have to learn to exist in the gray area. That’s hard for me, but I have to remember that I’ll benefit the most from using both tools. So, here’s to moving forward sporting a well rounded, open-mind and attitude. And to living in the gray area. And to real brushes and ink. 2009-06-04T23:18:01-04:00 7 2009-06-04T19:06:21-04:00 true 0 36741 false false 1404 5738 1 2009-11-21T19:26:27-05:00 275 Seems fine to me Frenden, intelligent and well written 36741 Post 2009-06-04T19:40:10-04:00 1058931 2329 2009-06-04T19:40:10-04:00 I really enjoyed this, although now I'm pissed that when I go to check out your blog - I have in fact already read it :) 36741 Post 2009-06-04T19:43:23-04:00 1058951 3005 2009-06-04T19:43:23-04:00 I dunno, Ray. I don't have much to offer in the way of critique. It was a very good read. Plus I'm sure a lot of people will relate to the conflicted sense of holding true to one methodology and slowly coming around to another, all while not wanting to doubt your previous ideals/self. Existing within the gray area is a beautiful analogy for the things we all need to do to be successful in various aspects of business and life. The insights and analogy provided help me to gain perspective and perhaps an additional coping mechanism for the next time I find myself needing to let go of personal stubborn "truths" and reach a more open-minded state of being. Good show!... and long live traditional media! 36741 Post 2009-06-04T20:03:00-04:00 1059271 6468 2009-06-04T20:03:00-04:00 Thats a very interesting work of writing, and I had a similar debate in my head before getting a tablet. I became worried I would stop working traditionally and it would fade out of my life so I try to do at least half and half when I can. I think you have written a nice and intelligent blog. 36741 Post 2009-06-04T20:03:53-04:00 1059281 13026 2009-06-04T20:03:53-04:00 Where'd you learn all those words, talk like a dick school? No but really, right now your authorial "voice" sounds like you have the attitude of sitting down to write something - not sitting down to tell a story. Granted you're not tucking us into bed and and reading Goodnight Moon, but imagining you have someone sitting across from you, rather than a computer screen, never hurts. I suppose in your case you'd be trying to find the happy medium. A good trick is just trying to convey exactly what you're saying by the simplest means possible - in the end the simplest means tend to be your own bare bones 100% individual voice. Maybe that's just my preference, but I think it'd lighten your tone and make it overall more relatable. And since this whole thing comes down to you trying to share an experience, relatability is important. <blockquote><cite>Ray Frenden said:</cite> I feel like the current WordPress theme is running in a direction that I am trying to move myself, and the way I position my work, past.</blockquote> Awkward! Something more like "I feel like I'm trying to move myself, and the way I position my work, past the current direction of the WordPress theme." Something like that ya know. Also you make weird paragraph breaks and use commas for inconsistent reasons, which breaks your flow. <spoiler>I use to take talk like a dick classes at talk like a dick school</spoiler> 36741 Post 2009-06-04T22:01:53-04:00 1060951 2712 2009-06-04T22:01:53-04:00 Less thought in writing. More writing in thought. 36741 Post 2009-06-04T23:15:06-04:00 1062151 3501 2009-06-04T23:15:06-04:00 A+ for Jayna 36741 Post 2009-06-04T23:18:01-04:00 1062201 1404 2009-06-04T23:18:01-04:00