sophiap | December meme for amy37

amy37 asked me "What is one thing you would love to learn to do?"

I have to think of just one thing? Eek.

Seriously, one thing I adore is learning, whether it's learning about something or learning how to do something. I'm an inveterate dabbler, and sometimes something that catches my fancy "sticks" and becomes a lifelong interest.

That said, one thing in particular that has been nagging at me for the past several weeks is the desire to learn calligraphy. I'm pretty sure that this came from starting to use dip pens with various nibs in some of my drawing (if all goes well, you'll see results in my spn_j2_xmas entry) and enjoying the way they feel and the quality of the line I get from them. My everyday handwriting kind of sucks, so there's an appeal to the idea of producing letters and having them come out pretty. I could also see it being a fairly meditative process, allowing me to concentrate on one. simple. action. at a time and having it all flow together (currently I get some of that from weightlifting, but calligraphy would be less sweaty).

I'm also seeing there as being a fair amount of application to my artwork, both in terms of lettering things (not-so-secret dream: create a webcomic) and in terms of getting better control of my linework for doing things that I don't want to look "sketchy."

Just for grins, here are the next four runners-up on "things I want to learn how to do."

1. Home brewing - not to actually do at home, but just to learn the process for grins. I may see if there's some sort of class at one of the local microbreweries.
2. Draftsmanship. Dear heavens, do I need this for some of the art projects I've got noodling around in my head
3. Coding - I'd kind of like to be able to build a web site to my specs without having to hire someone to do it
4. How to actually use some graphics software effectively. I doubt I'll ever shift my focus away from traditional art, but having a few more basic skillz would be good for when/if I start promoting my stuff.
5. How to grill meat and have it be something I would like to eat.