Ben Benner’s Blog

I have used this saying quite a few times over the years. But as I am often described as a ‘Jack of All Trades’ it is hard to claim, let alone practice a given craft.

I haven’t had a chance to draw anything, aside from the random doodle on a piece of scrap paper. I have been bringing my wacom tablet into the office the last week or two, in the hopes of actually using it to aid me in creating some mockups/wireframes for a work project.

I decided to use it to just do a quick digital sketch this evening after work, while I was waiting for Gina to finish up. I couldn’t think of what to sketch, so the first thing that came to mind was the the fire power flower from Mario Bros.

I then decided to try and draw a few other Mario Bros items. In doing so I was also trying to test out Pixelmator’s different features. I need to get the wacom tablet’s software installed, so that I can switch between options from the table, having to stop and use the mouse is quite annoying.

While not nearly as good as some of my friends’ or family’s work, it felt good to sketch something. I was amazed at how easily I could use the pen to sketch what I wanted to draw quickly and more accurately than what I was able to do on the tablet.

But all of it is just a matter of practice.

Laterz

bdbenner art, digital drawing, sketching, wacom

For those that do not know, the Dominguez part of Dominguez-Benner is known for their artistic talents. I got some of this talent, but to be honest, just never practice. I have tabled in clay as a medium, making small ceramic things and painting them. Some of which I felt were good, those being the ones that came after doing, many, many in a row. i.e. ‘Practice makes perfect.’ (Notably my Mother and Sister are very good artists, and my Abuelo (grandfather) is a real Renaissance man of art, all of my uncles have the talent as well.)

I can definitely feel that practice makes you better, in my opinion there is no such thing as perfect, sorry Google and Apple, but keep striving for perfection, please. Back to the real topic of this post. I have probably always been a sketcher, a doodler, someone who likes to draw little things. I really, REALLY enjoyed the drawing class I took with Rachel (the only other Dominguez-Benner in existence) a number of years ago.

Well, technology has gotten better at allowing artistic expression and thanks to the economics of technology (i.e. it gets cheaper every year), the cost of really GOOD digital drawing tablets has come to the point where it is not a MAJOR investment to get one. Particularly, when it is your Birthday.

Gina bought me a Wacom Intuos4 Small tablet. Kevin has one at work (technically two Wacom tablets, the small and I believe the mediumis at home). I had thought about asking for one of the larger Bamboo brand, also made by Wacom, but Kevin advised me that the sensitivity of the Intuos is just better.

I hope to be able to get the hang of digital sketching and also definitely work on doing some ‘photoshop’ editing of pics. Just from playing around with it for the about 15 minutes, I can tell that the sensitivity that it provides would allow for some very creative editing of existing digital media.

Here is the pic that I drew real quick. I was just messing around and it all sort of came together, I tried out doing the different pieces in layers and seeing how they blended onto one another.

Time to go to lunch with Gina and John.

Laterz

bdbenner art, digital birthday, drawing, gina, wacom