daily-ish notes…

  • on plein air lunch breaks, part one.

    I’ve been taking my pocket sketchbook to work with me, the little one, the wallet-sized, fit-in-your-jacket-pocket, discrete-to-carry-around moleskine that I started sketching in almost a year ago but have only filled about a dozen pages, that one.

    The goal, and one I need to more consciously aspire towards now that spring is here and outdoor sketching is a reality, is to find somewhere to sit downtown and draw, downtown where the architecture is more interesting than the cookie-cutter suburban sprawl of single homes, four storey condominiums, and mini-malls.

    I did this yesterday. I went and found a small bench in a nearby park, and inked out the basics of a small restaurant brewery built into a gentrified commercial building from the last century.

    Plein air season is here.

  • of ai, part one.

    Almost everyone is talking about or writing about AI these days, and in particular with regards to things like the arts the latest generation of artificial intelligence tools are creating a massive shockwave of speculation and curiosity.

    This morning I watched a demo reel from a gaming engine company for their newest updates to an AI-based procedural scenery generator. A few numbers input into an editor and a second later the software creates a photo-realistic three dimensional environment with things like life-like trees, roads, insects, and atmospheric lighting.

    Meanwhile, I spend hours with a pen, paint and some paper sketching something that almost looks like a proper tree with some smudgy blotches of colour.

    While it’s tough not to feel incredibly inferior to a machine when that machine can outpace my artistic efforts in the blink of an eye, there is another (sometimes elusive) perspective that reminds me that there is much more to art than just perfect pixels.

  • for finding inspiration, part two.

    I sometimes see artists depicted in film, fiction and media and consistently those artists tend to be singularly focused on a single point of inspiration.

    They draw a thing.

    Not things.

    A thing.

    It makes me wonder, as I search each day for something unique and interesting to draw, if I need to focus more — though not singularly — on drawing a thing, one thing, repeatedly to define and hone myself as an artist.

    I’m not sure what that thing is yet, or if that is merely a trope in fiction, but… finding that thing could be an interesting challenge in itself, no?

  • on fountain pens.

    I’ve been trying out fountain pens again.

    About a year ago I bought a dip pen, some ink, and a bunch of motivation to learn to use them.

    It turns out I’m not a fan of dip pens. Fun, but delicate and messy. Not my style.

    But then last week — in my ongoing search for a cartridge-based fountain pen — I ordered a Lamy starter set. This has taken me down a bit of a rabbit hole of inks and converters and nibs and relearning to sketch with a pen that isn’t a felt-nip.

    I will likely have more to write on this topic later, but for now I’m experimenting and learning.

  • of spring-spiration.

    It’s the first day of spring. Or, officially, the spring equinox and the astronomical point at which the planetary axis corresponds to this thing we think of as a seasonal change.

    I was thinking about being outside again and painting in the fresh air.

    I could, in theory, paint outside year-round, but since watercolour needs water and water freezes below zero degrees Celsius, then my options are paint faster or paint inside.

    Or wait until spring.

    Which is today.

    Horray!