Well Happy New Year! Man it seems like forever since I've got up early enough to make cup of tea sit down to this blog. Last year I spent about a zillion percent of my time wrapped up on other social platforms like Instagram (@Pinstripe_Chris) where we have just over 53k followers, and Facebook (@Pinstripe Chris or Chris Dunlop) where we have over 13k combined followers- Im also a big fan of Pinterest (@ Pinstripechris or Chris Dunlop). Which got me thinking... reflecting, really, this morning- whats the deal with this blog thingy? In the early days I certainly put more consistent time in to it and and got more interaction out of it- in fact, its one of the few content sharing places where I don't feel limited to writing a short post. I love to write and tell the story behind what im creating, and believe me, there's always a story. While on IG or FB I may say things like, "Quick sketch with coffee" or something to that effect- the reality is I chose that subject, picked out the tools, decided on a perspective., and really years of work have gone in to making my simple sketch elegant. So why the lack of effort here on my part? Hmmm... might just be that I'm used to the other platforms and how they operate, which doesnt sound like a great reason at all. Guess im wondering if Blogging is what it used to be, or maybe I never used it the way it was intended- hmmm indeed. I've actually had this blog since 2010 when we still lived in Maryland and I was struggling as an creative, but starting to understand what I wanted to do. Sure it's only been 8 years, but thats longer then any other platform I share in- heck I dont think I've had my email address that long. Well I'm setting out to make some changes here, not specifically because of the new year, but because I'm always looking to optimize and like trying new things. So let me say a little about that video up there:
Several weeks back I was toying with the idea of shooting a quick video of a proper rough sketch complete with ink/marker/airbrush. Nothing too polished, but enough so that I could get it on camera and see what it looked like. I didn't want to spend a ton of time on my 1st go, so I kept it simple. A few nights earlier my wife Caity had helped me with some filming and I saw the improvements I wanted to make form there. Specifically, I wanted to actually shoot it myself on a tripod and move the camera my self to record the segments I could see I wanted to piece together. So I literally moved the camera, set up the focus & timing for each shot while I sketched- I had my wife help me with a few shots I couldn't easily get myself towards completion. Then I put everything together in an apple based video editing program that I crash coursed my self in enough to get by. Last thing I did was write a short loop of a guitar tune and add it to the video (unfortunately it rendered quieter then planned, but its in there). I really just wanted to see what it would be like to put together a cool vid, Im actually really happy with it for what it is. I also like how it shows the general process I use starting from Bic pens going in to ink, then paint. Hopefully it will help answer some questions I've gotten on the process, and certainly if you do have a question- feel free to ask!
