As I am going through my old CDs and transferring them to my computer, I am finding lots of old treasures.
In 1998, we purchased our first computer to create my concept drawings. The computer was a custom-built machine, the most powerful at the time. We also purchased a flatbed scanner, a printer, a digital drawing pad and the latest graphics programs. The salesperson told me the machine was insanely fast and that I most likely would never need anything more powerful. The package cost a whopping $20,000 in 1998 dollars. The first drawing I produced was this concept. The drawing worked, although I had so much to learn. This first iteration of this new tool was memorable because, in spite of this new machine’s supposed ‘incredible’ speed, there was a considerable lag between my pen stroke and the line appearing on the screen. The drawing pad of those days had no screen. I would draw a line, wait a second or two and then see the line appear on the screen. But this new tool was amazing, and I could see the potential. Within a year, my hotrod computer was retired to the office and replaced many times over the years with ever faster machines. Eventually, I switched from a Windows machine to a Mac, and the digital drawing pad became an iPad, which made things more compatible and eliminated the lag. This worked the best for me because I could draw more naturally, as I did on paper and watch my hand drawing instead of the computer screen. Although I still enjoy drawing, at least the original sketch on paper, I love the ease of creating concept art on the computer. Changes and additions are easy. The steps from drawing to presentation are now instant. I would never go back to ‘the good old days.’
