in[SPIRE]. The cream of the crop of a creative class: an irresistable ocean of delight… in theory.  In looking for a particular project to review from the cacauphanous collection, I opened several in tabs to examine.  Indeed intruiging – I relished the opportunity to read about the making of a coffee-related gif, an episode of Animal Hospital  (especially given my passion for Bat World Sanctuary) and an assignment entitled Draw It!.  Here’s why everyone should love bats:

My hopes were dashed at every turn.  The former links led only to domain-fail messages which showed, in the form of miserable blue dead ends, that DS106 is not #4life 4everyone.  Even more heartbreaking was the link that worked.  Draw It! details how to photoshop an image and give it a drawing-like aesthetic.  Also known as ‘no actual drawing happened in the creation of this image’.  To persons untrained in drawing, it no doubt looks nice.  It looked like a nice photorealistic, albiet boringly composed, graphite drawing in the thumbnail.  In the full-size it’s pretty shifty, though.

The background is way too crisp for the style of drawing that has a central subject – an artist with the skill to reproduce a subject with that level of detail would frame and structure the composition differently – with more focus on the face of the subject.  Referring to this method of image-modification as ‘Draw[ing] It! is entirely inaccurate, as it lacks the most fundamental change that happens when drawing- the transformation of interpretation.  Often this is an unconcious occurance, but at times ommission of irrelevant detail is a concious choice, as would have happened in the background.  A more accurate and informative title would be ‘Drawrize It’.  If that had been the case, I wouldn’t have a reason to rant.  Furthermore, the directions were difficult to follow, especially after step 5.  No mention of the level of Photoshop used, no screenshots of the process.  I hope you can soothe your disappointment as I did by watching the adorable movie above.