Happy Birthday GaGa…

An illustration for the current ‘Queen of Pop’.

Apparently, Lady GaGa turns 24 (maybe?…24ish…) today. So as a present to her that she will never know is here or exists at all, my bamboo pen (if you still don’t know what this is, get up to speed here, SLOW COACH) and I collaborated to produce this. GaGa in one of her most peculiar outfits yet – in fact I’m not even sure I can refer to it as an outfit, because quite frankly, it scarcely exists. Who knew someone could look so fashion-tuned in that horrible CRIME SCENE – DO NOT CROSS tape that frequents less on the catwalks and more in CSI:NY. Nevertheless, she’s rocking it. Happy birthday Lady G.

Illustration creation

Another product of my Bamboo Pen. Drawn on 08/03/10.

You may recognise this drawing from an earlier post, as it features, well, myself. Have a look. The inspiration for this drawing was taken from a photo that my friend took of me for a project that was meant to capture my creative side. So sticking with that theme, what could be more creative than creating an illustration of a creative photo that captured me being creative? Exactly.

A little look at my Bamboo Pen

A small review of one of my birthday presents, my Bamboo Pen, and a little look at an illustration I created with it.

Having always had a passion for drawing/painting/sketching and the rest, I realised I needed to catch up when art went digital. I was still doodling around with my sketch pads and pencils when everyone else were creating computerised master pieces. So for my birthday my boyfriend bought me a Bamboo Pen – a tablet for my PC. As a tribute to the little object that rebooted the flow of my creative juices, I thought I’d write a tiny review about it, but bear in mind I am not a technical person. I can’t provide you with a comparison against any other tablets because, well, I don’t own any. But, I can tell you from my own human experience, that it is.. how shall I put this… WELL GOOD.

For those who have never come across a tablet, this is what it looks like. It’s effectively a pen and pad that enables you to translate handwriting and sketches into digital form, and makes any sort of image editing a whole lot easier.

On first use it sort of feels like you are learning to write again. I couldn’t understand why my normally controlled handwriting and sketching abilities were translated into messages and drawings that looked as if they had been created by a five year old. But, like most things, with a bit of practice the Bamboo Pen becomes a nifty little tool for navigating around your PC and creating digital images and illustrations – or whatever it is you are in to.

Like I said, I can’t offer a comparison against other tablets, but if like me you’d never laid your hands on one of these before but were interested in getting one, then I’d recommend the Bamboo Pen. Not only is it extremely easy to use after a couple of practice runs, its also really good fun. Beware though, that once you start getting creative with it, you can waste hours of time in one go because you just can’t put it down.

So you see exactly where I’m coming from, here is a fashion-type illustration that I drew on my first try with my little bamboo friend. I usually do these sorts of drawings with pens and watercolours which can take up to three or four hours to complete. This little sketch took me roughly twenty minutes on Photoshop. I then, however, wasted another five or six hours because I couldn’t bring myself to stop drawing. That’s a reflectionof my self control though, rather than a negative aspect of the pen.