One of those days when things get off track in so many ways

With a new project at work and some software problems in the art studio, there was no art made today. Nothing.

My new project at my square job took longer than I thought it would. I’m really not surprised at that. I usually give a cockeyed optimistic estimation of how long something will take to complete. Then I double it because I know that I always underestimate the situation. And then the job always takes longer than my doubled estimate. Is quadrupling next?

The other problem came out of the blue. My wife’s Wacom tablet stopped working when she unplugged the USB cable and plugged it back in. The stylus stopped working. We know the tablet’s good — I plugged it into my computer and it worked fine. We reinstalled the tablet drivers — several times. We installed the older version of the driver. Nothing. We’re at this moment using the hated Time Machine backup program to restore the Library folder that might not be screwed up. If that doesn’t work we’ll wipe the disk and reinstall the OS from scratch. That will take another 4 hours. Over the last year I’ve had nothing but problems with my Apple devices. My new iMac has been screwy and weird from Day One. My next computer will be running Windows.

A Floundering, Frustrating Day

I made a big mistake today. That translates to, I switched from Photoshop to the desktop version of Affinity Photo to color today’s image. The result was that I wasted today’s painting time. My first error was to forget that I need to practice using the Wacom tablet to get my touch back. My second error was to naively assume that Affinity Photo was a drop-in replacement for Photoshop. It’s not. It’s as different from Photoshop as French is different from ancient Latin. I see now that the only reason to switch to Affinity Photo is to avoid paying for Photoshop every month. I’d rather pay $50 a month than use Affinity Photo.

Here’s a doodle.

Picture #31, Family United

Now that I’m not using wi-fi and not using my iPad, I inked this picture on my desktop computer with my Wacom tablet and Affinity Photo. I felt like a clumsy beginner. But I will get better as I do more work. I used a plain round brush with no personality except for the characteristic wobble that my lines normally have. Wobbly lines have become the hallmark of my style.