While updating some of my inkblobs I listened to Michael's podcast in which he -- several times -- mentioned feeling like a zombie. I had to wait for my ink to dry and I couldn't help myself.

Had to draw Michael the Zombie with his teapot and trusty timer...

I recently had to quit my RA-meds, again. The side-effects (loss of appetite, moodswings, headache, and extra hairloss) got so bad that I couldn’t take it anymore. My doctor and I discussed it and we decided to take a break from medication and see how that goes.

So far, not as fabulous as I hoped. Pains and swellings have returned, minor ones so far. This did however gave me an incentive to train my other hand some more. I’ve done this off and on the past few years and decided to make a bigger effort now. I have cooked (mostly) with the other hand, even chopping veggies, and I did some sketches for my Inkblobs. They don't look very well but they also don't look too bad. I can't seem to draw circles yet, and my 'straight' lines look like bacon strips.

It'll take a while ;)

This afternoon I made some drawings with the Inkling. I sketched some drawings on paper and then transferred them to my computer. I had to figure out how Inkscape works again, but in general, it went smooth and fast.

I think it will help in more easily converting sketches to digital drawings. I like!

November awaits just around the corner of this week, and traditionally, in November I do Nanowrimo. Okay, not every year, most years since 2001 or so. This year I decided to participate again and I have not started anything yet. I'll see where it takes me.

I've also registered for the Sketchbookproject 2012 and hopefully this year I'll get the notebook in time so I can do a little bit often and fill the whole thing up :)

Looking forward to both projects.

I've played around with the Inkling a bit today. It requires a little bit getting used to (I tend to hold my pens low, it appears, and this interferes with the Inkling-signal).

These images show the difference between the drawing on paper (first image) and the vector-image that came from the Inkling device. It looked slightly wobbly, so I simplified the paths, resulting in the third image.

I normally don't draw with ballpoint pens so that required some adaptation on my side. I tried some handwriting and that seemed to go well (image 4). I did notice a slight misalignment every once in a while, usually if I removed the pen from the paper too far. I dotted the flower roughly at the same distance everywhere but it looks off in the Inkling-export. All in all it works pretty well, but I will have to get a hang of the quirks.

I recently went on a trip to the UK and made a few drawings. This first one I made while we waited for the ferry to cross over with. As a kid I got sea-sick a lot so this trip gave me the opportunity to see if I'd still get sea-sick. See how I try to give it a positive twist?

Yeah, it didn't go so well...

We had some afternoon tea and some food at Tiny Tim's Tearoom where I made a drawing of a chair and a birth-bath. Halfway through my drawing things got moved.

Another time we had tea and food at Cafe 22. I loved the little teapot/cup set and we searched around for them at the shops, but couldn't find them. I ended up ordering a set over the internet, ah well.

We also visited Mike and his husband and played around in the pottery. I messed up a few times and still ended up with a cute little bowl. Hurray!

We went to London for a bit too and I tried drawing St. Paul's Cathedral from Tate Modern. Lots of wind, so my pens rolled of the table and my pages flipped over. That, and I misguessed the amount of space I needed. Ah, well :)

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This week I made two drawings for two family-related projects. I don't think any of my family reads my site anyway, so I'll post them here tonight (they'll see them tomorrow)

I've started to get the hang of colouring the background before the foreground. Usually I want to jump right ahead to the fun parts in the foreground, colour those and make them look nice.

Doing the background first brings on a new challenge. Before I based my background-colour on what I used in the foreground. Having to start with the background means I have to think more about the colours I use in the foreground, and I don't always do that.

Ah well, still learning, I guess ;)

I like these drawings.

I want to live here, with the garden on top of the house.

Or maybe on the right there, with a garden and a little fence and maybe a goat.