The technology of Wacom has been instrumental to my artistic development
What I now do would be impossible without a company like Wacom. Because of living with the neurodegenerative disease of Friedreich’s Ataxia (FA), by the age of 25, my coordination, balance, and strength were increasingly waning. On a good day, painting on a canvas was immensely stressful. I couldn’t make the correct stroke; if I tried stabilizing my hand on the surface, smudges would go everywhere; and when I finished for the day, I would smudge the walls as a byproduct of trying to stabilize myself for the walk down the hallway to clean my dirty hands. On a bad day, painting was just impossible.
As a result, it seemed best to leave art behind, so I went back to school to pursue a Master Arts in Biblical Studies. Getting a good understanding of the foundation for life was invaluable, but it was also the time I purchased my first Wacom Cintiq with the original Art Pen. And the reason for the purchase, I don’t really know.
Finally graduating from The Master’s College in 2014, I needed to take my next step. After recovering from a proximal-row carpectomy due to a damaged wrist and having ample time to think and pray, I immersed myself with the technology our modern society has made for the artist. Photoshop made digital painting even easier. Furthermore, the Wacom Art Pen with barrel rotation gave the ability for digital painting to feel almost natural.
For being able to coordinate hands, eyes, and mind in real time, the pen display was special. But accompanied by the Wacom Art Pen, it was priceless. My oil painting teacher in college was born and raised in Germany, and he taught us the skill the way a German would: technical, scientific, and yet aesthetic. And so I turned my stylus into a flat bristle-brush and set out to bring the technique I learned from oils to digital painting.
Along the way, the technology has improved. The displays have higher resolution, better color, and features that make the process feel even more natural. The computers have gotten better in the last ten years, and “lag time” isn’t even a word that crosses my mind.
It has been nearly twelve years since first using a digital tablet, and every step of the way is marked with improvement. Being 41 is half of a normal lifetime, and being that age and still making progress in my artistic skills and producing new quality work is a blessing.
With these things in mind, I consider Wacom discontinuing the Art Pen in 2020. I still anticipate the reassuring words that Wacom is renewing a commitment to continuing its product. But when my final unboxed Art Pen gets worn out, the road to producing the same quality of artwork becomes more riddled with bumps and turns. Realizing all the years I’ve spent perfecting my craft, the prospect of ‘out with the old, and in with the new’ is disappointing.
How my artistic development would have progressed without Wacom, I do not know. But the future is bright, and I will continue to trek down which ever way the road turns.
