Saved By The Apple Pencil

I’ve had some physical challenges due to arthritis and to be honest, it was bringing me down and I was getting depressed and had completely quit doing any style of art. I have drawn and painted since I was very young and this was something that was a part of me for many, many years (we won’t say how many!). I allowed this to slip away even more, when the arthritis in my right hand, my drawing hand, became severe enough, that I was having difficulty just using a fork to eat meals. That’s when I knew I was done and realized how much time I had wasted not painting when I was able. I was down, depressed and feeling like, well let’s just say it, sorry for myself. I was so sure I knew I couldn’t hold or control a pencil anymore that I gave up, in other harsh words, I was a quitter. I have not updated my dissengallery.Wordpress.com art blog with any new pieces for two years, partially due to this issue. Then something miraculous happened, my birthday. Not so miraculous I was born, but what resulted as matter of social convention, on birthdays, the ever coveted birthday present. This year, that present was a spectacular new iPad complete with, drum roll please…….a brand spanking shiny new iPad pencil. Well, at first,I thought how cool this would have been several years ago, when I could still hold one of these things, but then I read the message a friend wrote on the box, “Draw everything and anything every single day”. So, I charged up, the new pad, downloaded sketch book and proceeded to try to figure out how it works….and get the answer I was afraid of and had been avoiding so long, could I control the darn thing to even draw a simple line. And so, I began trying for three days straight, and while I do have some difficulty with my grip, I discovered I’m not dead yet, and with some practice, maybe I can keep this part of me. They are all comic or cartoon style, but that was the easiest starting point for me and I enjoy it. The style in which paint and ink are applied with these tools, made control much easier for me and the ease of corrections is a godsend, with paint or ink I would be constantly wasting paper due to my gripping issue. I do need a foam pencil grip to assist me, but that’s easily remedied. If you have never worked with digital media in your works, I highly suggest it, I used to think this was “cheating”, I was always old school and even had always used pen and ink in my watercolors, meaning bottled India ink. Anyway, this is not a pity party, millions of people live with arthritis every day, I’m okay with living with it, but, from now on, I’ll live with it the way I want to, not how it wants me to, so, that’s that and the images posted are the result of three days of drawing “anything and everything every single day”.  