One of my favorite technological advancements of all time is a nifty little feature named "Undo". I first discovered this little guy in school, where he was aptly named "Apple Z" for the shortcut command on Mac computers. His PC cousin is "Ctrl Z" and as I am usually choc-full of mistakes, they have become fast friends.
Apple Z comes in handy especially while working on an illustration or another art project in the computer. It's fun (and a huge time saver) to be able to change entire blocks of color, layouts, lines, or anything else and then just undo them. Basically, it's a big help to play around with any element and try new things without having to worry about losing original files or having to take the time to revert to a saved copy. It's pretty cool to say the least.
Of course, Apple Z also spoiled me. Most of the artwork I've done in the past 4 years has been on the computer. It all starts out traditional, then I scan it in and go to town. Adobe Photoshop is amazing, and Adobe Illustrator is another of my best friends. In fact, Illustrator allows me to Apple Z to my heart's content.
But as you may have noticed from an earlier post, I started painting again. Now, I took quite a long break from painting, so it's a little slow getting back into it. Imagine my surprise when I decided to redraw the figure's forehead, only to decide she looked better before hand, and couldn't Apple Z my way back to the beginning.
Well, "fiddlesticks" as Grandma would say. (I didn't actually say "fiddlesticks." While not as playful, my choice of words was definitely colorful.) And silly me, I can't tell you how many times I actually stopped and looked for the undo option during that first couple of hours.
It's quite embarrassing. But it also (re)taught me that no matter how wonderful even the tiniest technologies are, sometimes it boils down to gettin' your hands dirty and doing it the old-fashioned way.
Or Grandma's way. You know, whatever works.
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