[Tegaki E]

Tegaki E is a blog website where all the entries and comments are hand-written. The original website is Tegaki, and it's in Japanese. Thus, the E in Tegaki E stands for English, since it is mostly English speakers.

What's great about this website is that the canvas, or applet, has only pre-selected colours and opacities. It used to be that there were no opacities, and some people still draw that way, however, the restrictions that 100% opacity provides seem to be beneficial to users. I think this is because it forces them to gauge the value of the colour without being able to alter it. The user has to think about which colors, not shades, will work together to create the illusion of lighting, or shadows, of a certain colour. So what is more effort definitley helps the user develop their art.

It's true with everything, though. More effort, more time and more thought will always, always make a better product.

You can use programmes like photoshop, which has an abundance of tools and effects and brushes and even transforming ability, or you could use Tegaki, which has virtually no special features, as well as only one layer. It seems like a done deal, obviously you'd use photoshop. But quite a few users, primarily young ones like myself, do use Tegaki instead of or as well as expensive drawing and effects programmes like photoshop.

I asked the question why, but as soon as I'd asked myself the answer became apparant. It's because every artist is given the same slate, and each making what they will of it is something to behold. You can see what someone's drawn and see how they drew it, which tools they used, because there are so few tools. And people are able to make magnificent pictures using just patience and practice. Skill comes with these things. If you can draw with Tegaki, then using other programmes is infinitley easier. It's almost like a skillbuilding tool, for me.

I don't want to go into a career involving visual arts and such, but to draw on Tegaki and improve my drawing skills is a very fun hobby and it brings me great joy. I wanted to blog about it to exemplify my thoughts on a website full of artists I admire and tools I both struggle with and appreciate.

http://www.unowen.net/tegaki/

Here's the front page. The drawings you see there have been voted on by other users and then approved by mods, so it's probably the best of what people draw on Tegaki.

[statement of purpose]

I hope to write about several things in my blog. I want to write about what people want to read while putting my thoughts and opinions into it. I hope to get feedback, from anyone kind enough to have something to say.

The thoughts I have may be immeasurable and for this reason I think it's a good idea to seperate them into categories of things that I care about or am exposed to often. Languages are one of these, the others are primarily media as well as culture. I suppose culture is language and food and such, but the category of culture is so wide that I think it's best to split them up.

The ideas I have for blogging fall into these topics: Food, France, drawing/art, and perhaps Video Games.

Why would I want to blog about food? I think the food situation in the USA is horrifying. Americans never were quite good at coming up with healthy solutions- you may know of marshmallow fluff and jello being added to otherwise heart-stopping or intestine-churning dishes, neither of which are healthy or belong in a balanced meal. Anyway, it's not like eating terrible food is a new thing for people in the USA. Our mothers and fathers, if they were native to this culture, probably grew up on such terrible food. But, I digress. I like cooking with basics but varying the way I add them. This isn't to say I create weird, new foods-I just think I know what's good for me, not the government or the dairy and meat industries.

I want to blog about France because it is familiar yet unfamiliar-people know French artists and such, yet I've met far too many people, who, due to propaganda or media or something, believe that the French hate Americans. It's totally incomprehensible that the French would hate Americans, and I have no idea where anyone would learn to believe that to be true. It kind of makes me want to laugh or rage. I'd just like to tell people about French culture because it may be new and interesting for people to read about.

Lastly but not finally, I want to blog about drawing and art because it is something that I do so often. Perhaps too often, as it seeps into my assignments and class time. I literally draw whenever I can get my hands on a pencil or pen. I even have a tablet now so I can draw on the computer as well. In these drawing related blogs I hope to post art I've done and analyze it. Over time, I could even point out my progress between different works.

This marks the end of my blog, thank you for reading :)
I hope to post some interesting articles based on this statement of purpose soon.