Projecta Scope

Update: 7/17/08 - I get so many hits on this post from searches done on 'Projecta Scope' that they ought to pay me money. But they don't. On the other hand, I haven't asked, either. Anyway, click here to go to my latest post which will be where you'll find my latest painting. Maybe made with the 'Scope' - or maybe not. But take a look.

I have purchased a 'Projecta Scope' - a device for projecting images onto a surface for the purpose of drawing and/or copying them. In a way it kinda feels like cheating, but I think it will help me develop my technique in contouring and shading. And, in the meantime, I should have some fun with being able to produce a quality of image I might not get to, otherwise, for a time.

Part of the original motivation for this drawing class was the notion of being able to inform my work as a photographer. I have always felt that my photography suffered for a lack of understanding of composition. Learning to draw, I felt, would help me better understand the 'art' side of things - and I would, naturally, take better pictures. I'm beginning to see, however, that better pictures come from practice - just like better drawings come from doing the little exercises over and over again. Now I understand why artists do 'studies' - painters will do drawings of elements of a planned piece until they get all of the parts and pieces 'right' - but in the meantime, they have learned how to portray the images of the things that make up the parts and pieces of the work. It's a study AND a practice.

The other thing about pictures is the digital camera. I have learned more about photography and the process involved in the last year than I did in all of the many years I have been taking pictures - with film. I am not one of those people who is organized enough to record all of the settings and such that a picture was taken at. I don't keep a log. So there was always this disconnect between what I did to take the picture and the end result. After all, it used to take several days to get pictures back from the processor, and in the meantime, everything you did to create the shot, successful or not, got lost in the intervening time period. One hour photo processing helps, to a degree, but the disconnect is still there - at least for me. But digital has solved all of that. The feedback and the learning is IMMEDIATE. And now that I understand more, I am seeing things differently and I am ready to start taking photographs to use as a source/model for my pencil work.

This is getting to be so much fun there MUST be a law against it.