AuthorTopic: Post your (real) desktop!  (Read 94932 times)

Offline Mathias

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Re: Post your (real) desktop!

Reply #50 on: September 24, 2009, 05:09:57 pm
It's not a bible, hilariously, it's Marxist Ethics by the academy of science of the USSR, institute of external relations by A. F. Siskin.

Oh, haha. I wanted to comment on your setup, that I think it a good example of reasonableness, not presuming the need for a cherried out studio setup to produce good work. HR Giger always said he does his best work when down in the crummy little cellar of his Chur residence. Some stone walls, a huge canvas and some dingy airbrushin' equipment. That's all he needs.

The effect of our immediate environement is interesting, though. Makes me wonder if every artist should pay it any attention, because it seems like a trap sometimes - to get caught up in something futile you sometimes can't really do anything about  -OR-  if it would be wise to "optimize" your creative environment, customize it to your personality so as to feel most disposed to creativity the way you intend. And I'm trying to point that we typically don't understand would be optimizing our offices, since everyone is different and may require optimizing in different ways - what might be helpful? I constantly fall short of my own creative intentions. Sure, lack of skill the obvious reason, but is my office partially to blame? Does it make me lazy? Does it distract me? Obviously certain mental factors play a large role in our creative workflows - some days we don't feel motivated/inspired, other days we experience sharp spikes of serindipity. Helm, earlier you commented in this thread some 'pain is needed to produce brilliance', though a sarcastic comment which I think you may've meant partly seriously, I think there's some truth in that. I seemed to be more adventurous and self-motivated when I all I had was pencils . . . in a way. Now with a full "digital suite" of tools at my fingertips, I value them less than I did my favorite kind of pencils back then. Maybe the idea that I feel less involved in my art than then because I couldn't digitally generate imagery like I can now, with modern methods of expediting projects, leeches away from a percentage of the pride in my own accomplishments, thus failing to compel me to keep groping for more in the unknown darkness that is each person's own ability yet to be unearthed. Because isn't the reason we all persist in creative endeavors driven by the need to answer the question, "What can I really do/ What can I accomplish?" I know if I don't consciously ask myself the question at the outset of a new project, I interrogate myself subconsciously, because, maybe out of vanity, I always want to know good I am, what I can do, etc. It's a source of self-worth/pride. Evidence: those that feel they're not good at anything special feel they're missing something and will seek out new goofy hobbies, or attempt to hone some ability just so they have some obscure talent superior to others, to fill that inherent human need.

The thrust of this post may have spun out of control into undiscernable ambiguity but I only mean to put out there: In the quest for artistic excellence how much does our "real desktop" affect us. And if it does exude significant effects, can we use that to our advantage by determining how our environment should be configured, based on our individual disposition, to be most conducive for our creative ambitions?

Offline Helm

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Re: Post your (real) desktop!

Reply #51 on: September 24, 2009, 06:00:32 pm
I've often said that I'm the most 'ghetto' artist I know, meaning I'll work anywhere, just give me a few pieces of paper and my little chess box of markers and stuff. Same goes for the workspace, but it's not exactly 100% by choice. I don't consider it a point of either pride or shame, just a fact.

I don't have a large income, I live at home with my dad (who well... is never home, I just see him in the Saturdays) and even if I did make a lot of money (like when I used to pursue a lot of pixel art gigs), I'm very averse to actually buying things, I can't explain it any better. Something has to completely break down before I feel okay throwing it away and buying something new in its place. I guess I'm pretty aware that my existence costs money/is a burden to others and I don't want to exacerbate the situation if I can help it.  So yes, I work on this tiny desk and I can't really complain, I can do anything I want to here. Actually the cintiq - or my drawing pad - ends up on a big plastic box I place on my lap and which I use as an inclined surface to draw on. Other people have huge drawing tables that cost 2,000 euros, I have a plastic box. Even the cintiq ended up in my possession because this electronic shop chain owed some money to my father and he could only get it in stock items, I consider it a huge luxury, it costs more than anything else in that picture put together, which is one of the reasons I sit down and use it every day to feel as if it was a worthy purchase, heh.

I've noticed a lot of people self-define as artists and then surround themselves in an environment they think befits an artistic lifestyle. I'm not judging this, my dad is the same way (he works as a cartoonist in Greek newspapers) and I've been around workspaces like these you showed in your pictures since I was 6 years old... my dad constantly complains that he should buy me a proper table and stuff like that. I just never felt like 'if you are an artist you have to show it' so... I don't place my art in meticulously arranged binders, I don't work in a perfect surface, my drawing tools aren't top-of-the-line... none of that stuff.

What I do value though is feeling that my workspace is 'friendly' to me. It's a huge problem for other artists I know, to sleep in the same place they work and to consume entertainment in the same place they work, but it's the only way I can get anything done. For example usually I ease up into the 4-5 hours of pencilling / inking I do each day by first sitting on the computer, reading some manga, listening to some music while browsing the internet, doing some critique etc... at some point I go 'alright, time to work' and seamlessly I start up Manga Studio and go at it. I put some Star Trek TNG to play in the background (like an audio drama) and work my hours. If I had to get up and go to a different room and 'warm the chair' before I could start working I suspect I'd get much less done.

So yes, the friendliness of a bedroom makes me work much more than a clean and professional artistic studio. But perhaps when I grow up more (emotionally mostly) this will chance and I'll need a professional workspace to do more professional work. Making comics isn't exactly a professional endeavor for me, although I'd like it to be. Doesn't pay to be a comic artist in Greece.



Offline blumunkee

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Re: Post your (real) desktop!

Reply #52 on: September 24, 2009, 08:48:20 pm
Hmm, artist fung shui? I dunno. As soon as I get in the zone, reality melts away and my mind rides upon a butterscotch unicorn into the limitless undulations of...I zone out.



My tablet was large to the point of being unwieldy back when I had a goliath workstation. Now that I've reduced the setup to a single 13 inch laptop, it's just ridiculous, heh. I'm either going to sell this one and buy a smaller Intuos 4, or wait until Apple puts out a long rumored tablet and replace both the tablet and the laptop.

The chair looks like crap but it's extremely comfortable. I ripped the back off and sit on it backwards. It actually improved my posture and my back hurts much less after hours of drawing/coding.

Helm: thanks for the spiel on the pros and cons of the Cintique. I tend to use my tablet for stuff that obviously benefits from the digital processes. I prefer to sketch and draw and ink in warm high-fidelity analog, but I can understand how the digital inking increases productivity. If I had the same stroke of luck as you did, I would have definitely done the same thing.
« Last Edit: September 24, 2009, 08:55:30 pm by blumunkee »

Offline Dusty

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Re: Post your (real) desktop!

Reply #53 on: September 24, 2009, 08:59:00 pm
As for the Cintiq warping... the DS had the same problem on earlier screens. Apparently it was a defect in the touchscreen that has since been repaired in new ones. I'm surprised that Cintiq would still be having that problem if Nintendo managed to find and fix it in a matter of a year of their first touchscreen device.

Offline Mathias

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The Vain Pretense

Reply #54 on: September 24, 2009, 09:21:36 pm
(4K posts!)

Your humility is endearing. I mean that. If Frank Lloyd Wright was less pompous, would he have gone farther? For a creative, I think a humble unassuming attitude is a vital tool in itself. But, that applies to all areas of life then. In the US, gadgets and technology are in high swing and I see people grabbing them up just because they're trendy and whatnot. What a downfall. I work with a guy that got an iphone for its apps such as Sketchbook Pro, by Autodesk. He can now sketch digitally, and with an impressive toolset available in the program I might add. He even got the nifty little specialty iphone stylus for more accurate drawing. Guess how often he actually draws, on paper, on anything. Never. Will he start now? No, of course. But these things are so ostentatious, strong marketing implying they alone increase your skill or ability or whatever the case, that people, I think anyway, in hopes of improving quickly and easily, buy them. Like the treadmill that is used once then gathers dust until the next spring cleaning.

The world is so homogenized these days, I doubt my country is much different than others regarding the "designer culture" phenomenon. "Creative artistic designer" people have a stereotype, and for a reason. They look/act a certain way (not all of course). So along with that goes the material requirements imposed as being necessities. A bad mindset to enter into. Especially to feel impaired by or in want of high dollar supplies before you can do any work. Art supplies is a huge racket, man. Like you, I simply don't have the cash - can't afford flat screens, my wacom was given to me, got the computer desk from a garage sale, etc. It's said the US has become the displosable society, which alleges that us americans dispose of/throw things away and replace them without a thought. Well, I find myself washing disposable plastic knives and forks sometimes, etc,  so hopefully I defy all the stereotypage there.

But this idea of how environement helps or hinders us has been on my mind lately because I've been experiencing a horrible breakdown of self-motivation and joy from art-related things, and I'm trying to figure out why I default to pissing time away instead of getting things done. I feel more ready to work and on-target at work than I do at home. eh, anyway . . .


Blumunkee, thanks for the pic. I happen to have the same GAG pricing guide issue. Too bad the dollar figures named are geared towards big city markets, it's not much use to me in northwest arkansas.
It looks I have the most pretentious work station so far. great

I wonder what would happen if I completely re-did it. . .

Offline ptoing

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Re: Post your (real) desktop!

Reply #55 on: September 24, 2009, 09:33:50 pm
Thought I'd post mine as well \o/

There are no ugly colours, only ugly combinations of colours.

Offline blumunkee

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Re: Post your (real) desktop!

Reply #56 on: September 24, 2009, 09:38:17 pm
C64 and a saddle chair? That's just too much.

Which reminds me, I have an Amiga 500 collecting dust for a couple of years now which needs to get fixed. Snagged a copy of Delux Paint as well but never got to use it.

Offline ptoing

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Re: Post your (real) desktop!

Reply #57 on: September 24, 2009, 09:39:26 pm
Hehe, look at the lower left corner of the pic :D
Got an A500+ (urks) and an A600 (urks) lying around somewhere as well.
« Last Edit: September 24, 2009, 09:40:57 pm by ptoing »
There are no ugly colours, only ugly combinations of colours.

Offline Dusty

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Re: Post your (real) desktop!

Reply #58 on: September 24, 2009, 09:47:00 pm
Is that a Colossus on the right end of your desk?

Offline ptoing

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Re: Post your (real) desktop!

Reply #59 on: September 24, 2009, 09:50:53 pm
Yes, and the box it came in is in the lower left.
There are no ugly colours, only ugly combinations of colours.