About 30 years ago I found myself in a near empty classroom one day a week, learning how to draw ellipses for an airbrush project I’d been tasked with by a local graphic artist. The reason there were only a few people on the course was because computer graphics had already taken over, but there was some value in doing things the old way just to save a few quid and get things done.
The guy who did the teaching was a lovely old fella, he had a twinkle in his eye, he was in his 70s and clearly loved this old knowledge, old students of his were forever dropping in to pay homage to the master.
After a few weeks messing about I decided to redraw my work from scratch, improving on the original artwork to make a full 3d cut away projection, when you have 10 or 15 ellipses drawn close together, they need to look right as the angles get progressively acute – 3d drawing is like reconstructing visual reality – and yet it’s what the human eye does a billion times a second without you even knowing!
After about 6 weeks I completed my work, the tutor asked if I was going to stay on, more time was paid up so I could if I wanted to, it was very tempting! Looking back I remember the quiet tone of that room, you could hear a pin drop when we worked, polite chat took place during frequent tea breaks.
Nowadays, these projections are done by computers, a new version can be displayed at the click of a mouse, unimaginable back then! It could take months to complete one view, there was a middle aged woman on the course creating a sophisticated view of a traction engine, she’d been working on it for over a year, I’m sure she was on that course because she secretly (or not so secret) loved these lessons with this charismatic teacher. 10 years earlier, I was working towards a similar goal to hers, every graphic artist would have samples like that to display, I never got mine done as I simply ran out of schooldays!
exacticablog 
Different times! I wonder now if we, as a society, aren’t becoming a little lazy expecting everything to be there for us at the click of a button. And perhaps such skills as you mention might be lost forever.
Hope you’re doing ok.
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Thanks for the regards as to the current situation, it’s not better, but could be worse, I haven’t reached the kind of Peter Gabriel / Kate Bush level yet! 🙂😇
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My best to you.
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It’s a fucking disgusting process, I can see my meds in my puke – 3.17 am !
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I don’t want no sodding platitudes
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👍
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Sorry Chris, my brain is exploding cos of all the stuff that goes on lately, it’s one thing after another, slight improvement today on yesterday!
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Good to hear, but I get where you’re coming from. And no apologies needed.
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Halcyon days! I never would have thought so at the time, but I was aware that those sessions had something magical about them!
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oh, my dear Simon…. ! I missed saying goodbye, to you!! God, keep you warm when it’s cold and cool when it’s hot. I loved our email chats, and will so miss your sweet, witty encouragements. Fly over, please? ❤ R.A.
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oh, my dear Simon…. ! I missed saying goodbye, to you!! God, keep you warm when it’s cold and cool when it’s hot. I loved our email chats, and will so miss your sweet, witty encouragements. Fly over, please? ❤ R.A.
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