Hello art community! I have Been gone and out of touch for at least two years. I’ve had some physical challenges due to arthritis and to be honest, it was bringing me down and I was getting depressed and had completely quit doing any style of art. I have drawn and painted since I was very young and this was something that was a part of me for many, many years (we won’t say how many!). I allowed this to slip away even more, when the arthritis in my right hand, my drawing hand, became severe enough, that I was having difficulty just using a fork to eat meals. That’s when I knew I was done and realized how much time I had wasted not painting when I was able. I was down, depressed and feeling like, well let’s just say it, sorry for myself. I was so sure I knew I couldn’t hold or control a pencil anymore that I gave up, in other harsh words, I was a quitter. Then something miraculous happened, my birthday. Not so miraculous I was born, but what resulted as matter of social convention, on birthdays, the ever coveted birthday present. This year, that present was a spectacular new iPad complete with, drum roll please…….a brand spanking shiny new iPad pencil. Well, at first, I thought how cool this would have been several years ago, when I could still hold one of these things, but then I read the message a friend wrote on the box, “Draw everything and anything every single day”. So, I charged up the new pad, downloaded sketch book and proceeded to try to figure out how it works….and get the answer I was afraid of and had been avoiding so long, could I control the darn thing to even draw a simple line. And so, I began trying for three days straight, and while I do have some difficulty with my grip, I discovered I’m not dead yet, and with some practice, maybe I can keep this part of me. They are all comic or cartoon style, but that was the easiest starting point for me and I enjoy it. The style in which paint and ink are applied with these tools, made control much easier for me over time. And the ease of making corrections is a Godsend. If you have never worked with digital media in your works, I highly suggest it, I used to think this was “cheating”, I was always old school and even had always used pen and ink in my watercolors, meaning bottled ink. Anyway, this is not a pity party, millions of people live with arthritis every day, I’m okay with living with it, but, from now on, I’ll live with it the way I want to, not how it wants me to, so, that’s that and the images posted are the result of three days of drawing “anything and everything every single day”.
Dissengallery's Blog 