Bug's Nap — Illustratoring update

In the University of Georgia Department of Drama and Theatre’s costume shop some fifty years ago, we had a saying whenever someone bitched about a mistake their sewing machine had made: A poor worker blames his tools.

So last Friday I reached a point in A Bug’s Nap that meant I had to start drawing the actual illustrations in the computer file. My experience in illustrating A Bug’s Lunch made me reticent, because my trusty old Wacom tablet wasn’t quite up to the task. [vid. sup.]

Yes, yes, poor worker, etc etc yadda yadda yadda, but here’s the thing: I pulled out an old sketchbook to work on those illustrations, one that I hadn’t touched in decades. It was mostly costume and set designs from Newnan Community Theatre Company in the 80s and 90s, but there was one page that jumped out at me.

My point is that I have been at certain points in my life a pretty good draughtsman — not that Bug requires that level of verisimilitude -— and I thought a new tablet might better match my skills. I could at least order one and test it out, so after scanning several articles on which tablet was “best,” I ordered a Kamvas 13 from Huion. It’s pretty nifty.

It has a lot more settings than my old Wacom tablet, though I’m not seeing a use for some of them yet, and the one programmable thing I’d like to do with one of the buttons doesn’t seem to be a thing I can do.

But look what it can do:

That’s right, boys and girls, the tablet’s surface is actually a screen! I’m trying to determine whether it’s possible for it to mirror the display on the external monitor and on the tablet; the website was noncommittal, and tech support will get back to me.

Anyway, I began lurching towards completing the illustrations for the second of our BugVerse books.

Tree trunk, branches, leaves, baby birds, skeptical owl, turn turn KICK turn, YES, IT WILL WORK!!!

Obviously, more to come. A lot more to come.