Greetings and bleatings, fellow Prophets!
Welcome to your weekly Fuzzy Friday open thread. And you're welcome to ignore my bleatings and blitterings and go about your business in the comments. It's what an open thread is for!
A bit of my nonsense and a few little scribbles are tucked under the ginger hairball.
By training I'm a graphic designer and illustrator. I've been keeping busy this week with scanning my own drawings, correcting the colors on dozens of drawings that somebody else scanned and preparing some sample page layouts for a book. And it's all been a struggle against planned obsolescence.
Much of what I learned in school is now useless. Even before I left school my skills were becoming outdated. But I've more or less managed to make a living as a graphic designer over the years.
I have an old Agfa scanner. It's one of the best electronic thingamajigs I've ever bought except that the damned thing just won't die. Agfa stopped making scanners years ago. The company no longer makes drivers for their old products to keep them up to date with the latest operating systems. And of course the latest operating systems can't use the old drivers-- so I've got one wheezing old Windows XP running beast whose only job is to run my scanner.
The other scanned drawings are going to be part of that book I'll be designing. Many long years ago I bought a suite of expensive software from Adobe for desktop publishing. Part of that collection of software was the original InDesign™ which nobody ever used. I know I certainly didn't. And of course, computers used for graphics work just don't last all that long. And eventually 'ol Apple decided that nothing I ever bought would be compatible with their new Intel based computers. So, I eventually gave in and bought a new computer and then bought all of that software again -- well, just the programs that I actually used. And now, ironically, some of the files I was given to work with for that book are InDesign™ files! Huzzah! And the brilliant part is that none of the other programs made by Adobe can open an InDesign file. But I scrounged from the internet an older version of InDesign™ that Adobe in their generosity have released as freeware-- and it can run on an Intel based computer! The best part of all this is that after downloading and installing the nearly 1GB file for that program it still turned out to be useless. It couldn't open the newer InDesign™ files-- it just garfed back at me a list of a dozen or so missing extensions needed to open the file. The design was very simple -- it was just not compatible.
Backwards compatibility is just not a priority for software designers.
I'm unreasonably pleased that the company that will be handling the printing for this book project doesn't really want files in some strange InDesign™ format. I think the once completely ignored InDesign™ is managing to once again become irrelevant to the publishing industry.
I've tried not to become one of those grumpy old geezers who keeps all the baseballs the neighborhood kids keep batting through his living room window but I think a bit of geezer is seeping in. I'm cackling with glee that my favorite printer (a family run business where I'm regularly greeted by three generations in the main office) has decided that if something works there's no need to spend thousands just to keep up with the latest version. I do find some comfort in that one of my friends who actually has the cash to keep up with the trends and has the love of technology to be first in line at the local Apple store for the silicon soup of the day is 88 years old. Am I just slow to accept change-- or perhaps I just have an obsessive dislike of trends and fads?
I'd like to think that I just have a healthy skepticism regarding innovation for the sake of novelty but I know I'm kookier than that.
And surely, much of what is being pushed on consumers of computers and software is just the equivalent of disposable razors with more than two blades. Yeah, I'm old enough to remember when a triple-bladed razor was the subject of a parody skit on Saturday Night Live.
Lately I've begun to wonder about many other aspects of innovation in my life. I began to think about new things that have replaced old things. I found myself thinking about the new nails I've bought and a can of old nails that I have discovered in an old barn. The new shiny nails bend at the slightest off-center strike as if they were made of aluminum foil. The old nails, dark and slightly rusty, with their square heads and delicately tapered, four-sided shafts can be driven with ease into hardwood even with my inexpert flailing. The old nails are my hand-forged treasure trove. The new nails were a real bargain though...
I'm now learning to make my own nails.
And I'm threatening to take up shaving with a straight-razor. I've already long ago dumped shaving foams and gels in favor of simple shaving soap and a brush. Less waste, less money spent on slippery stuff. I'm about ready to make the leap to just using water-- a hand mirror in the shower, how hard could that be?
I've got my time-machine in reverse and I'm backing up over the curb and into my neighbor's mailbox.
I'm perhaps hoping to find the answer to the question of just when it was that Vitamin A decided to go pro.
In the spirit of my journey into the past I've found myself drawing with crayons. There was probably a time in my past when I wasn't trusted to draw with anything else. They're not just for breakfast anymore. I'm wondering about this progression of artists materials that have paraded through my life. Why did we stop drawing with crayons? Are the rest of the tools I've tried been truly better or just different? Were colored pencils, watercolors, gouache, oils ... all just needless innovation? No, I think they're all just different tools. Like different instruments in an orchestra-- each has its own voice. So why have I shunned the voice of the crayon for so long? Are crayons somehow inherently a tool for children? Perhaps I'm due for a second childhood.
I now present to you a few of my more recent crayon drawings:
I get the feeling, somewhat, that I've forgotten how to speak with this voice. I need to explore its range again; discover just what it can do, find the limits. In a drawing I did just last weekend I tried to draw a portrait from a picture of a man in a magazine instead of just making stuff up like with my dragon and ogre drawings:
And with that I find I've run out of time for writing. Drawing with crayons is like rereading a book I loved as a child or discovering that a song I enjoyed as a teenager is really nothing to be ashamed of.
And in the spirit of embracing the new and finding new things to love I'll hope to be here to present a few of my digital paintings to you next week. Unless there's something else you'd rather I blither about?
Thanks for stopping by!