A New iPad 2, Sketchbook Pro, and Drawing Challenges

Time for a new post...

Last February, the family and I were finally able to purchase an iPad 2. We've wanted one for a while now, so once we got it we went through the obligatory "Christmas morning" experience of finding all the free goodies in the App Store. "Oh boy! Look at what this one does!" you get the idea.

After hours spent playing Temple Run and other addicting games, I buckled down and got an app I've been waiting to use: Sketchbook Express. This free app is a pretty robust drawing app, and apps like it were a big reason why I've been excited to get an iPad. I've been meaning to get back into some more frequent practice of drawing/sketching, and I knew the iPad had some great apps for just that purpose.

So, with Sketchbook Express in hand, and armed with only my Digitus Secundus Manus, I set off to draw. My first subject was the movie poster from Rise of the Planet of the Apes, featuring just Caeser's face:

In that exercise, I quickly found the limitations of the free version of this app; the biggest of which is that it limits you to only 3 layers. Being a Photoshop junkie, I about died. But, it worked out, and I was pretty satisfied with the outcome. That being said, the free version ran its course, and it was time to buy the full version: Sketchbook Pro.

It's at this point that I'm going to bring up a blog post I recently read that gave a pretty clear definition of the differences between a professional artist and an amateur. Of the six main differences, I most strongly related with "amateurs are not consistent, and wait for inspiration to come to them." Let me clearly state now that I am most definitely an amateur (in case you couldn't tell by the picture already). 

So, the next time inspiration hit was while I was playing with my kids. Some of their toys were strewn on the floor, so I grabbed my iPad and snapped a picture of a toy that seemed like a good model. I like this process. I get a picture loaded in my Photos app, then load up Sketchbook Pro, and use the four-finger swiping motion to flip back and forth between my "subject" and my "canvas."

I was enjoying the process, but was finding it hard to keep myself motivated to draw/sketch consistently. I enlisted the help of a friend, by suggesting we participate in drawing challenges together. He was up to the task, so our first challenge topic was "item around the house." He chose an apple, and I chose my wife's Japanese bowl:

 

Our most recent challenge was to pick our favorite Disney character. My friend chose Buzz Lightyear, and I chose Robin Hood:

 

My drawing is a mash up. It's the Disney character, but the composition is from the movie poster from Ridley Scott's recent version starring Russell Crowe: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Hood_(2010_film) 

So, all that to say: I'm loving our new iPad 2, Sketchbook Pro, and the chance to get back into some creative exercises!

The Implications of a Rapidly Changing Online Experience

This week, Facebook announced a major change (one of many) to it's user experience. Launching in the coming weeks, Facebook profiles will now be formatted in the new Timeline. Here's a promotional video about it:

Essentially, the way your personal information (that you've shared on FB) will be presented is chronologically in a timeline by day, week, month, year. While everything you've already done on facebook (photos uploaded, status updates posted, etc.) will automatically be integrated into this Timeline, users will be encouraged to fill in more information (and upload more content) about their past to flesh out a visual scrapbook of their life.  In light of this news, my mind has jumped from one thought to another about the implication of this development, and of the rapid development of the online social experience in general.

I'm 25 years old. I've been on Facebook since 2005, one year after it was launched. For me, the idea of a timeline presentation of the past 6 years of my life on Facebook is pretty cool. People have reacted positively to the "Your Status 1 Year Ago Today" feature that popped up recently, and I think the idea of having one's digital life chronicled will be met with a positive reception. After all, a person's identity online is a projection of what we want people to know or believe about us, so what we'll end up having is everyone's autobiography of their most flattering stories and memories. I have more to say about online identities/projections, but that will be for a later post, because instead, a further thought has captivated me.

If we're really interested in people knowing about our entire lives (when we were born, where we've lived, what we looked like when we were 6, etc.) my generation and the ones before me will be faced with the arduous task of converting physical assets into digital ones, and posting all of that information. The nice thing is that to skip time, we can selectively choose only the most important life events from our past that we want to share. And then the thought hit me: this entire paragraph will not be true at all for my children.

When my first son, James, was born in 2007, his baby picture was on Facebook within 24 hours of his delivery. When my second son, Jesse, was born in 2008, photos were up the same night he was born. And with my daughter, Ember, who was born this past June, the photo of her on the delivery room scale was uploaded via my mobile phone within seconds.

My point is this: by the time my daughter is a teenager and FINALLY able to have a Facebook account (or whatever it will be by then), her entire life since birth will largely already be chronicled digitally. Not only that, but none of the information shared in that digital chronicle will be what she chose to share. It will all be information her parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. have shared about her.

The idea that the past 6 years of my Facebook life will be chronicled is already staggering to me, but what are the implications for the next generation who will have a decade or more of content about them online before they are able to manage their own digital identity? We're already talking about over-sharing with our generation. How will our kids feel about it when they come of age?

My wife and I often talk about these kinds of things, and no, I don't expect a dystopian-styled uprising that results in the complete destruction of the internet. However, I won't at all be surprised if the conversation changes its focus. I anticipate that when the next generation reaches their 20s or 30s, they'll shift the focus from counting the number of people who are sharing their lives online to counting the number of people who have chosen to radically simplify their lives by sharing the least amount of information possible. Why do I think that?

How many of today's children take second place to their mommies and daddies playing Farmville? How many of them will miss out on the proud look in their dad's eyes when they get a base-hit because he was too busy tweeting it to all of his followers? Will our relationships with our children be fostered through experiences we share together "in the moment," or strained by the distraction of chronicling our lives in real-time? Will our children's lives be filled with moments where they felt our genuine love and pride in them for who they are, or memories of us sharing their achievements because of what it says about us and our great parenting skills?

As we continue to push the envelope and make incredible progress in terms of a customizable online experience, how often do we sit back and consider the long-term effects it will have after we're gone? Do we care?

One Hand Free: Blueberry Banana Smoothie

This may become an ongoing feature...

As a father of three (including a newborn), it's not unlikely that if I'm home, I have one hand helping or holding a child, and one hand free. Because of this, I've become very good at doing standard domestic chores with one hand. Many chores only require one hand anyway, like vacuuming and... well, I guess I can only think of vacuuming. Everything else requires two hands. Folding clothes, doing dishes, straightening up, cooking.

If you ever find yourself limited to just one hand free, however, you'll be surprised to find that like the Dare Devil with his blindness, the limitation only opens up a series of heightened strengths to compensate. I'd like to share a particular strength of mine I recently discovered: the culinary arts. As an example of my five-fingered prowess, I'd like to share my very simple "One-handed Blueberry Banana Smoothie" (complete with pictures)

Step 1. Get a bowl and fill it with milk, a banana cut in half, 3 handfuls of blueberries, and protein powder.

Step 2. Mix and serve in a tall glass.

See how easy that is? It was also quite delicious...