Tag: cartoon

Lessons from the blueberry patch:

I’ve been recording myself as I draw (although I haven’t published the videos yet—I might do a patron/subscribe thing for people to access those) and there were a few problems that were annoying the Helsinki out of me:

PROBLEMS:

Problem #1:
I wanted a camera over my shoulder as I drew, so I macgyvered an attachment to screw a small camera onto a mic stand, which worked in theory but fell apart in practice. Also, the mic stand ended up having to be so close to my chair that it was restricting my movement, and cramping my style. Very annoying.

Problem #2:
Background noise was bound to be an issue given that I wanted to record the sound of the drawing with minimal ambient sound. So I started drawing very late in the evening, but this was ruining my sleep pattern, so I tried again very early in the morning. I was getting very exhausted either way.

Problem #3:
The size of the videos was huge as some drawings were starting to take up to half an hour, maybe even longer. It was a pain to transfer files from the camera to a device for editing (for when I get around to that part).

SOLUTIONS:

Solution for #1:
I have a smaller camera tripod that tends to tip over when the camera is in the optimum position for drawing (hence the idea for the mic stand). So I just put some heavy items around the legs to keep it from tipping. That was simple.

Solution for #2 & #3:
I accidentally recorded today’s video as a time lapse. I discovered that it reduced the video length and file size considerably, while also eliminating any concern for background noise. I think time lapse videos are generally more popular than full length drawing videos anyway, so I’m taking it as a God-directs-your-steps kind of moment.

[INSERT RASPBERRY EMOJI]🫐