Process

Now, as for the computer, tablet, and pen- my main medium is digital art. That tablet is my pride and joy, being one of the first "luxurious" art items I own, and one that I bought myself. I started doing digital art around the 5th grade when I was ten, from the trackpad of a laptop, I eventually got a cheap little drawing tablet for my birthday one year and it opened my eyes even further to how I could draw. Though my hand-eye coordination was never very good, and despite growing accustomed to drawing staring up rather than directly- getting a drawing tablet with a screen was, at least to me, one of the best things I could have done for myself.

Despite the tablet costing a pretty penny, at the time as a high school freshman, there was absolutely no way I could afford anything more expensive than what I had bought. So, rather than something like a Cintique or Ipad which can function on their own with no assistance, this drawing tablet still needs to connect to a computer to function. There are many pros and cons to this, but a computer is basically the lifeblood of creating art for me. Currently, I have my MacBook, but previously I had a desktop that I built myself (it's still back at home, unfortunately.)

Finally, the pen. It could have gotten thrown into the picture of the tablet because of course, you need a pen to draw. It holds its own special place in the process as a little object with the most importance. Without any of these items, I wouldn't be able to draw for a little while- but a pen is a tricky object for that. It's thin and small and has been decided by my cats as a perfect toy to throw around. Because of that, this pen has become something almost more precious than the other items as it is the one that can most easily become lost or misplaced- there is a reason that almost every company sells pens and nibs all on their own.

Process:
The action to pick up a pen to sit down and draw is one that doesn't come very easily. Ideas often float around within my head, but even if I do eventually settle down in one moment to draw, I may just spend hours on sketches and compositions that get thrown away in the end. For me, sitting down and drawing is to sit and complete the work right then and there. If I stop at a sketch, it most likely will remain a sketch forever, unless it's a rare piece that I truly want to put the time and effort into rendering everything out.

The pieces that due get finished often take hours, and again, as I sit down to draw- It either gets done all in one sitting or not at all. In that process, the longest I've ever drawn for one time was 11 hours straight.

This brings out the reason for my water bottle and earbuds. If it wasn't right there beside me, I wouldn't drink water at all. I already struggle to drink a proper amount of water, so keeping a water bottle full and on hand near me at any point of drawing is almost essential, or I probably would have fainted multiple times already from dehydration. As for the earbuds, it seems like a rather obvious choice, spending so long on a single thing in silence is both very admirable, but in my case- would make me lose my mind. Music and podcasts I've learned to drown out in the background, and they help to block away loud noises that may be created around me.