A New Direction

As a professional artist, it is easy to fall into a rut – where the familiar is easifly found, the usual processes make things simple, and re-hashing subjects saves time.

Guilty as charged. Of all of that.

But, because the creative, slightly whacky artistic part of the brain demands to be fed, there is also the “I Double-Dog-Dare You” of the mind, to slip out of the comfort zone into something a little more unccomfortable – the Zone of the Unknown.

 New techniques.

New subject matter.

New ideas.

New Production methods.

Perhaps a new location. Anything to change the stagnant one way roads on the mind-map into a new, interesting tapestry of interestiing things to explore.

And so I diverted from the Sheep Incognito path for a few moments – not burning bridges behind me, but rather a step off of the well-worn path into a small patch of forest I have not explored yet: the hugely diverse, and not yet familiar field of digital painting. Something I’ve been wanting to try for years, but had not yet had the chance to play with.

Armed with a huge list of questions, I approached some good artist friends, to ask a hole in their tummies about best software? Best hardware? Best computer? And, most important: will I be able to keep my work recognizeable, even with a different media and technique, possibly with new subject matter, as well?

Being blessed with good people to know, is – in fact – as they say, a blessing. I learned more in a five-minute conversation with them, than I would have been able to find in a library in weeks…  so, thank ewe, dear friendly Friends (ewe know who ewe are, cawcawww) – for inspiration, support, and confidence-building. This is a step into the unknown – so here goes…

After a few initial mis-starts, I just finished my first full-fledged digital painting. I did use reference photos, simply because there is no reason to do things a difficult way, if the easy way works better.