Tears of Joy
Most of you guys know I was a freelance graphic designer in the days BC (before children). I am incredibly blessed to be able to stay at home with my kids and I wouldn't trade that opportunity for the whole world. But designing is a true passion of mine, and sometimes I really miss it.
A while back, my Mac died and took all of my design programs with it. (Have I mentioned that before? Surely not.) I have realllllly been missing just messing around in Illustrator and Photoshop whenever I wanted something just for fun. Most everybody's familiar with what Photoshop can do by now (which is really weird, because when I left the design field 6 years ago, you needed a college degree to know what to do with PS.) Illustrator, on the other hand, is a vector graphics program - basically line art. It's always been my favourite to work in. Vector formats are so malleable and, well, perfectable. While working on the Project of Doom, I really wanted to try my hand at designing paperpieced patterns. I had just started a BIG paperpiecing project in Illustrator when I lost the files. Only 2 of 6 lost, but still. There is no sense in replacing my Design Machine, since I'm not designing and raking in any income anymore. :)
So, here I am, relegated to my daughter's school-issued HP. Totally cool with that, I'm makin' it work. I tried Quilt Assistant for designing, but it is programmed differently than my brain.
Then along comes ofenjen. Jennifer, yesterday you posted about the good things happening in ofenjenland right now, including learning to use Inkscape for drafting patterns. With ofenjen's thoughtfully linked post, I went to check out Inkscape and found out it's a free, open-source vector graphics program. Been around since 2003, it seems. I been playin' around in it today. I know what I'm doing all weekend. :D
Here I am, ready to translate my scribblings into binary neatness! Joy! Yes, that is Wite-Out!
Maybe because it's open-source, but it's even more intuitive than Illustrator. Opening it and creating a new file was like slipping into an old pair of shoes. But a pair that still looks really good and makes you feel awesome to wear.
Thank you Jennifer!
Thank you flist for putting up with my ramblings about program-frustration!
:)
A while back, my Mac died and took all of my design programs with it. (Have I mentioned that before? Surely not.) I have realllllly been missing just messing around in Illustrator and Photoshop whenever I wanted something just for fun. Most everybody's familiar with what Photoshop can do by now (which is really weird, because when I left the design field 6 years ago, you needed a college degree to know what to do with PS.) Illustrator, on the other hand, is a vector graphics program - basically line art. It's always been my favourite to work in. Vector formats are so malleable and, well, perfectable. While working on the Project of Doom, I really wanted to try my hand at designing paperpieced patterns. I had just started a BIG paperpiecing project in Illustrator when I lost the files. Only 2 of 6 lost, but still. There is no sense in replacing my Design Machine, since I'm not designing and raking in any income anymore. :)
So, here I am, relegated to my daughter's school-issued HP. Totally cool with that, I'm makin' it work. I tried Quilt Assistant for designing, but it is programmed differently than my brain.
Then along comes ofenjen. Jennifer, yesterday you posted about the good things happening in ofenjenland right now, including learning to use Inkscape for drafting patterns. With ofenjen's thoughtfully linked post, I went to check out Inkscape and found out it's a free, open-source vector graphics program. Been around since 2003, it seems. I been playin' around in it today. I know what I'm doing all weekend. :D
Here I am, ready to translate my scribblings into binary neatness! Joy! Yes, that is Wite-Out!
Maybe because it's open-source, but it's even more intuitive than Illustrator. Opening it and creating a new file was like slipping into an old pair of shoes. But a pair that still looks really good and makes you feel awesome to wear.
Thank you Jennifer!
Thank you flist for putting up with my ramblings about program-frustration!
:)