A Return to Analogue

You work with computers a lot in Media. After you've taken your photos and video, you have to build a website and four pages of a magazine, depending on which brief you choose. I produced the website on Wix in five or six hours, but the magazine requires more hours editing, fixing the random errors that Photoshop seems to do all by itself, tweaking, designing, and all in all more hours staring at a screen than I'd like. In fact, a 2000 word comparative essay for the second part of my literature coursework now looks like an inviting prospect...

This, of course, has left less time for KraftyCats than I'd like, and the spare time I have got has been spent trying to balance out the stress of various projects with photography walks and other relaxing activities that don't require staring at a screen for hours on end. My work has depleted my creative energy of late, and as a result my fountain pens haven't seen as much use as they should have. I'm going to try to use more of my currently inked pens though - my TWSBI Diamond 580 AL R is inked with a good red ink that looks great on Kunisawa paper especially. As I've mentioned in other posts, I don't use my fountain pens at college because not many of my inks work very well with standard printer paper, and it often takes a little while to dry so it gets smudged. I don't like messy work! the only exception is my Pilot Vanishing Point, which I keep in my pencil case for the sole purpose of seeing the look on my classmates' face when they see a retractable fountain pen. Surprisingly, I've had more comments on my Pen Type-C (I use it regularly for annotating books). My English teacher told me that it is the strangest pen he's ever seen, but an extremely good idea - the fine refill is perfect for writing in tiny margins. That's exactly why that stays in my pencil case! Numerous friends and classmates have also been fascinated by the unusual design and tiny refill.

Again, I've been slacking with getting any 'real' writing done, that is, writing that's not in a Microsoft Word document. Between essays, a dissertation and Media drafts that all have to be submitted digitally, I don't get many opportunities for physical writing with a pen. When I do get to use a pen, it's usually when I'm making flashcards or writing out information to revise it. I'd like to get on board with my sketching and article writing again because I do enjoy both of these things and they enhance my creativity rather than drain it.

Now it's only a few days until the Summer holidays, with only end-of-year sign-offs to go, I'm hoping that I can get back into the habit of writing regularly between working on the projects that I have on the go. My apologies for the long hiatus, and I aim to fix it now I have the time to!