This seems to be the time when ebook readers and very small portable computers are starting to really catch on, not to mention all the ways it’s possible to read content on smart phones.

I recently read an article, The End of Book Publishing As We Know It, on Michael Hyatt’s blog.  In  the article there’s a video showing a slim, portable, color-format reading device Time Inc has developed for magazine content.  It allows for audio, video and normal text print content to be accessed very easily all in one place at the touch of a finger.

Time (no pun intended) will tell just how much these new devices and combinations of media will affect the conventional publishing industry, but it is already true that the publishing industry is experiencing tremendous changes.

There are many new opportunities available for the individual in this evolving technical environment.  Software applications at relatively low prices have made it possible for individuals to learn how to accomplish things that used to only be possible for experts with very costly equipment.  One such area is the ability to print a book using, for example, Adobe InDesign or even one of the applications made freely available by online book printers such as Blurb.

The tricky part that comes with having direct access to performing these highly specialised tasks is that in order to create quality products there’s a great deal for an individual to learn.  It’s crucial to assess which facets will be important to forwarding one’s own work.  There are a variety of reasons for limiting just how much you intend trying to learn to do:

1. learning a little of everything results in doing most things in a mediocre manner because there just isn’t enough time to truly develop more than two or three things fully and deeply
2. time spent on one thing means less time spent on another which could be more important in achieving your goal
3. you might end up spending much more time than you intended doing something you really don’t enjoy very much

So it’s really important to pick and choose what to learn, finding the balance that allows you to move forward with your goals, but doesn’t drain too much from your primary ambition and passion.

My primary passion is stories.  I think I could do without many things, but not stories, and stories with pictures, well, I just think that’s the ultimate.  I love movies, but have no interest in being directly involved in the film industry.  So I’ve been concentrating on understanding what it is about the visual elements that go into art that make it successfully communicative, and what elements are important to a story to make it really interesting and exciting.

I’m still experimenting with just how my passion will express itself in my art.  To try to get closer to this, I’ve been delving more deeply into color theory, composition, technique, and all types of art from fine art to illustration, cartoons, animation — everything I can set eyes on.  I’ve experimented with digital painting, and more watercolor and egg tempera painting techniques.

I have also been studying writing, visual storytelling and story-boarding, and am writing a couple of fiction stories to see where they go. For the more practical side of how to communicate the art, and possibly stories, during the last year I have completed courses in all of the Adobe Creative Suite applications.  My year’s subscription with Total Training will end on January 1st and so this spurred me to complete the InDesign and Illustrator courses during these last few weeks.  I have also studied web design, print design, composition, layout, and a little about typography.

So that’s it for the heavy-duty studying for me, thank goodness!  Now I need to develop my artwork so that it expresses my passion – and I’m not quite sure what that is yet in terms of style or subject.  I think it might be bound up in expectation, and if I can let that loose, my style should just be there. When I write I have no expectation and my writing style seems to be there just simple and unsophisticated, for better or worse.  I haven’t yet reached that with the art.

So here’s to the New Year, bringing new discoveries and challenges.  If you have any comments on what you think it’s important to learn in today’s environment, and/or if you have any advice on reaching your own style, I’d love to hear them.

Well! I had plans to write a blog post these last few days, but they were foiled. I was preparing the photos for it when it occurred to me how much more effective it would be to have a slide show of groups of those photos. Hence the hold up: I’m learning how to do that.

Since January I’ve been learning how to use the Adobe software programs using the Total Training Online Courses. I’ve been learning how to use Photoshop, InDesign, Flash, Dreamweaver and in the future I’ll add studying Illustrator and probably Adobe Acrobat. The courses show through video how to use the programs. The instructors are great and make it much easier to learn these very complex programs. Whenever I leaf through instructional books on these programs my eyes glaze over and become completely blurred without focus. I take notes as I watch the videos and then later I have the information in a format I can quickly identify and relate to.

It’s great having access to all the Adobe software courses because it allows access to all the information. And if any new courses are added these are also available for as long as the subscription lasts. It’s much cheaper than buying the DVDs for the specific courses. A couple of years ago I bought a set of DVDs on InDesign and I discovered that after taking notes from them I no longer wanted to spend the time it takes to watch the videos a second time. Having the DVDs was really no extra benefit to me. The online subscription gives me access I otherwise could not hope to gain if I had to buy the DVDs.

This is taking rather a lot of time however. I had a structure in mind about which lessons I’d do first and what I needed in order to progress with the art. All those great ideas have flown to the wind. I started with Photoshop. Then I realized I wanted to add another gallery for Digital Art to my website. But I would need to redo my website in a format that is easy to edit and add to…I started the Dreamweaver lessons, which are really great. This weekend I had the idea to post an article about how I paint with egg tempera… and so… I started watching the Flash course videos with a view to preparing that blog post.

I’m having loads of fun with it, and as a result I’ve ended up making good progress in most of the programs I want to learn. My days of systematic, ordered approach appear to be over!

These courses are giving me more confidence to move forward with my plans for the art. I hope, in time, to produce digital art as well as the egg tempera paintings. I’d like to create short image-dominated books; for example, I want to paint many of the photos I took of Annecy, France, and include text next to the paintings and print this as a booklet. I’ll start by using the DweezelJazz blog posts about Annecy as a basis for that project. And as I hone my skills in writing and telling stories, I’d like to illustrate those. So there are many things I’m hoping to do, but it takes time to learn the tools required in order to create these things.

I think I’ve learned enough about Flash to create the slide show/movie to demonstrate how I approach painting with egg tempera. Stay tuned for the next DweezelJazz blog post to see how it turns out with the making of a Flash movie.