My Favorite New Tool
My favorite new tool is an automatic pencil sharpener. Yup that’s right, a pencil sharpener. It’s really not even new, as an invention or in terms of model, but it’s new to me. It’s vintage with a faux wood grain around the barrel that holds the mechanisms and batteries with a beautiful guilloches pattern on the top. The top is clear plastic and holds the shavings and houses the blade. Around the top part that spins and sharpens your pencil are the words,”Press Gently.” Words of wisdom both for the act of sharpening and for sketching.
Wishing for that Analog Feeling on a Graphics Tablet
First let me just say that I absolutely love using my graphics tablet for work and play. Using the digital pen instead of a mouse is absolutely ideal for the type of work that I do and because of my background in art it’s a "natural" fit. I have it mapped so that there is a one-to-one relationship between where I point the pen on the graphics tablet and where my cursor is on the screen. It is superior to the frustrating scrubbing that is so common with using a mouse.