Tag: pastel

Blueberry 010

Posted on by jh
Blueberry #10 by Jordan Holden, 10 June 2022

Creative advice from the infamous digital illusionist, Zach King:

“Don’t wait… create!”

Zach King

Similar to another three-word slogan from a famous footwear brand, this advice is deceptively simple. I mean, have you ever asked someone to explain how to do something and they say, “Well… you just do it!” Yeah. Well, if you’re like me, that advice doesn’t always cut the proverbial cake.

Doing “it”, whatever “it” may be, can seem overwhelming, especially if you’re looking down the barrel of a huge project—even more so if it’s something you’ve never done before. I think (maybe—jury’s still out) that phrases like, “Just start”, or, “Just do something”, are probably closer to hitting the mark for me.

For instance, before I’d even heard of a pomodoro timer, I had worked out a bit of a strategy where I’d set a timer for anywhere between 10 and 20 minutes and tell myself, “I only have to do this task for this long, then I can take a break if I want”. It worked really well for things like washing the dishes. No joke, I’d estimate that it would take about 3 hours to wash the dishes and then be surprised when I’d have them washed and dried before the 10 minute timer went off. Crazy.

Anyway, enough about me. If you’re reading this because you got distracted, you should probably get back to what you’re supposed to be doing now. At the very least, just do something. 🎨🫐

Blueberry 009

Posted on by jh
Blueberry #9 by Jordan Holden, 9 June 2022

Honest review: I think the typography lets this one down. Normally I have pretty good spatial awareness but I clearly shanked the text here. That’s the problem with ink on paper though, innit. Can’t edit>undo. Still a good joke though. 🍒🫐

P.s. if anyone reading this has any good tips for colouring, leave a comment. I usually stick to black and white so I’m a bit out of my element here.

Blueberry 008

Posted on by jh
Blueberry #8 by Jordan Holden, 8 June 2022

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]🫐