Saturday, February 28, 2009

DIGITAL DISASTER

No pictures with this post. It's more of an editorial comment. Sometimes I wish that we could return to the good ol' days of traditional art, where paint was wet. Now is one of those times. It takes so long to create a Trowbridge episode, because of the different steps, writing it, scribing it, penciling in the illustration, and painting it, which can really take a long time.

So because of all that time, I can't usually get an episode posted every week. In this case it is into the third week.

And now it's gone, just like that, all those hours.

Jacquie prepares the episodes for posting on the blog. About five minutes ago she was selecting the thumbnail from my completed painting. She hit "save" by accident, and, POOF... my art disappeared. Now all I have is a thumbnail. I had painted a "family quilt" on a bed that Mrs. T had made for her youngest son, Nils. It took a long time to render the designs on the quilt.

I've learned that if you don't strictly follow the rules you'll pay for your lack of due diligence. With our maps we always have a copy, just in case something like this happens, but I haven't done that with my Trowbride paintings. I guess I'll have to do that from now on, even with Trowbridge.

I was already into the third week between episodes, and now I have to start over, so it's going to be a long time between episodes this time. I guess I'll probaby take the quilt episode and repaint it, so I don't have to start from scratch. I thought I would share my frustration and grief with my fellow PBs.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh Bron I am so very sorry!!! My heart aches for you.

I have been there. I have also had my machine crash and lost files. Luckily I am married to a man who does computer forensics and he has saved me more than once. Wish you lived closer I would have Dale try to help you.

If Jacquie realized what she had done before she closed the file, she could still go back and get what she lost. If she went into the history panel she could go back a few steps and she might have the image before it was resized. Or she could actually hit the top button on the history panel and it would take her to the first state she opened it.

If she had already closed the document that wouldn't help though. . .

Each medium has their downfalls. . .if you were painting traditionally you could spill you coffee/tea on the illustration while painting it.

So sorry Bron!

Ginger*:) said...

Bron.... I feel your pain. As Sherry pointed out, it could have been saved in the history.
Up here in the northwoods, we have a problem with power failures. They come and go for no reason, but when the come in the middle of a digital painting.... the painting disappears.

I have learned that I need to do constant SAVES as I work, but even knowing that I sometimes forget and lose a whole days work.

There is one OTHER lesson I have learned over the course of time...never empty the trash until you CHECK what is in there. Sometimes an unconsious key stroke, or movement of a file from one area to another can drop it right into the trash. I have had that happen and was saved only by a back up.


In Painter there is something called Iterative Save. That means as you go along in the process of a painting, you can constantly save the latest version without losing any previous versions. I use that for large pieces in case I lose something or want to go back a step or two and make a global change.

I am truly sorry about your misfortune with the Quilt but I know the new painting will be wonderful.