I got a new full time job in April, and I have been working a steady 40 hours a week ever since. It's hard to believe the whole summer came and went and the cold rainy fall weather is here already. It happened too fast...a 40 degree drop in a week isn't cool. I'm afraid of getting sick from this rapid weather change.
Anyway, I work as a contractor for Xerox now and my new job is photocopier and printer maintenance. Not repairs, but replacing toner cartridges and 'consumables' when they run out. In a two-building office complex with about 47 copiers and printers, that is a job in itself. I'm so happy to get a better paying job in my field with the health benefits I needed, but it isn't creative work at all. And 8 hour workdays really wears me out, leaving me too tired to do the art at home that keeps my brain and soul alive. This Photoshop painting I'm about to post is literally the first time I drew anything in months.
Photoshop is actually a really powerful paint program if you know how to use the brush tools properly. The variables you can change for brush tools are almost infinite. It has options called "Jitter" that let you vary the color, size, shape, angle, texture and scattering within a single brush stroke of your mouse or tablet stylus. I won't go into details here, but if you have Photoshop it's worth taking a few online tutorials to unlock the power of brushes. All the fun of painting, without the mess to clean up afterward.
Here's a seasonal doodle for you, using the brush effects I just described. All the leaves and tufts of grass were 'scattered' with swipes of the brush, not cut and pasted. This took me less than an hour.
Tired or not, I just have to force myself to sit down for an hour a day and do this. Make something.
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