Howdy, y'all! I'm James. Here's a bit of where I'm coming from.
My grandfather was an artist, and he taught me most everything I know.
He did a lot of painting, I did mostly graphite, but our biggest shared love was always pen and ink.
We spent so many hours cross-hatching and stippling my grandmother thought we had both lost our minds.
After high school, I became a draftsman. Still doing that today.
It's all digital now, but I still have a nice table at home (1979 Hamilton electric) that I use a few times a week.
So now, years later, I'm trying to step away from the digital world in tiny increments.
First order of business was to only write all my work lists and notes by hand.
Second order of business was to be able to actually read what I had just written.
Watched a lot of youtube videos on improving my handwriting, which led to calligraphy videos, which led to the rabbit hole of all things related to hand lettering. And now I'm hooked. Or re-hooked, maybe. I've always loved old-school hand-lettered ads and posters.
Got a bunch of different types of pens, nibs and inks. I'm loving dip pens the most so far, with tech pens a close second.
Now I'm literally getting back to the old drawing board, just with new and different tools.
Thank you for letting me join the group here, and I look forward to participating as much as I can.
